3 Count: Bright House Begins

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Latest Majors v ISP Copyright Case Heading to Trial Next Week

First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that the case between the major record labels and the now-former internet service provider Bright House is heading to a trial this week as the judge has ruled on some last-minute pre-trial motions.

The major record labels sued Bright House, which is now owned by Charter Communications, alleging the company fails to do enough to prevent piracy on its service, Specifically, they allege that the ISP only paid lip service to its account termination policy and rarely suspended the accounts of repeat infringers.

A similar case, against Cox Communications, saw the jury award the record labels 1 billion dollars. The Bright House case is heading to a similar trial, but the two sides had motions to exclude or include certain arguments during the trial, which the judge has now ruled on. To that end, the judge awarded both sides several key victories, setting the stage for the trial to begin this week.

2: Publishers Sue ex-Mangamura Operator for ¥1.9 Billion in Damages

Next up today, The Japan Times reports that, in Japan, three major manga publishers have filed a lawsuit against Mangamura, a now-closed manga piracy website that was previously found guilty of unlawfully distributing manga content.

The publishers are seeking some ¥1.93 billion ($14.6 million) in damages for the infringement of some 17 popular titles.

The operator of the site had previously been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay fines for the operation. However, according to the anti-piracy organization ABJ, there are still some 1,000 such illegal websites in operation, though they hope that this case will serve as a deterrent.

3: The Dune Bible Crypto Collective Wants to Sell its Dune Bible

Finally today, Ad i Robertson at The Verge reports that Spice DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) has announced that it is abandoning much of its Dune-related plans and, instead, intends to sell its copy of the Dune bible and attempt to pay out holders of its $SPICE cryptocurrency.

The group rocketed to fame in January when, by using their $SPICE cryptocurrency, they raised the money to purchase a copy of the original Dune bible for roughly $3 million. They initially announced that they were planning to both distribute the book digitally to the public and to create new content based on it.

However, those big ideas ran into significant issues, most importantly copyright and the collapse of much of the cryptocurrency market. Though the organization still plans to release a series of NFTs based upon the book, they are now looking to sell it in late 2023,. The hope is to time out with the release of Dune: Part Two, and allow holders of $SPICE tokens to withdraw from the organization’s treasury, which is estimated at $1 million.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.