3 Count: The Search People

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1: Microsoft Sues “Black Market” Software Distributor for TM and Copyright Infringement

First off today, Christina Tabacco at Law Street reports that Microsoft has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against The Search People Enterprises over allegations that the company distributed pirated copies of Microsoft products.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants had their customers purchase and activate Microsoft software, but the activation process was fake, and the software was not actually registered with Microsoft. Instead, the “activation” servers were their own servers, completely separate from Microsoft’s.

Microsoft claims that they made some two dozen test purchases to prove this case. As such, they are seeking an injunction halting further sales and damages for the “substantial harm” the company has caused.

2: Taiwan Amends Copyright Act in Set-Up-Box Crackdown

Next up today, Han-Wei Lin at IAM reports that the Taiwanese government has passed an amendment to their copyright act that aims to stiffen penalties for set-top box makers and service providers that enable access to pirated content.

The new amendment makes a variety of activities a copyright infringement, including offering infringing software to the public, producing or selling tools for the purpose of connecting with infringing works and more.

One casualty of this new amendment appears to be the UBOX, a popular pirate set-top box in the country. The box lost several government certifications pertaining to its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions and was forced to release a “pure version” of their box without any infringing software to get the certifications again.

3: HitPiece, a Music NFT Site Once Decried as ‘a Scam,’ is Relaunching

Finally today, Chris Stokel-Wakler at Input reports that, six months after it disappeared, the music NFT service HitPiece is returning, this time in collaboration with some 50 artists.

HitPiece attempted to launch in December 2021. The idea was to allow users to mint NFTs based up on any song in the Spotify library. However, by February the company faced a huge backlash, from both artists and the public, over accusations that the company was profiting from artists’ music without permission or royalties.

Now the company is attempting to relaunch, this time after partnering with some 50 artists, who are minting official NFTs based upon their songs. In addition to those artists, HitPiece has said it will be announcing another list of “Grammy-nominated, diamond-level” artists shortly.

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