Sunday Links

Correcting a misconception: a plaintiff is not required to prove that copies are unauthorized.  When you think about it, how would one prove a negative proposition? If there is a contract, either party can prove that there is a contract by producing it. But, if a copyright infringer uploads an illegal copy of an ebook, it would be unreasonable to force the author to provide every contract ever executed to show that there wasn't one with this particular infringer.

This article by McDermott Will and Emery is about the plight of an artist when someone else started selling prints of the artist's works.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=595934b7-df7b-4959-9dbd-ddd2dc106099&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2016-09-30&utm_term=

Baker and Hostetler LLP commence a series comparing how the most popular social media sites respond to complaints from copyright owners about "user generated" copyright infringement on their platforms.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a8400cb9-cf87-4cb4-95dd-2e35df328c0d&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2016-09-30&utm_term=

It may be a tad depressing reading! The BakerHostelter sidebar had some excellent links, one that particularly upset this author is an account from July 2016 of further difficulties for copyright owners (raising of the legal bar) to prove that a website was wilfully blind to copyright infringement.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=59d917d8-b851-4d1c-9e40-e36f345e7a6f

"Red flag knowledge" has long been an issue with the DMCA. Now, it gives even greater protection to websites that apparently knowingly host copyright infringing stuff.

Perhaps it is my bias, or perhaps something is in the air.

McDermott Will and Emery also take a look at willful copyright infringement.
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=22f36369-0155-45e2-93d4-4d5d5ac0e3ef&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2016-09-30&utm_term=

If you enjoy The Register, I recommend this:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/13/google_piracy_we_really_care/

And also this two-page article (also on The Register) on the unexpected consequences to the set-top box "wars". Who would think that there could be a downside to getting rid of those rented proprietary boxes?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/29/fcc_death_vote_golden_age_tv/

Ending on a more positive note, European courts are ruling that hyperlinks to illegally uploaded copyrighted works stored or hosted elsewhere is copyright infringement.

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c4ee9be1-8731-44dd-ac35-b5a1c14a2b54&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-+General+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed+2016-09-29&utm_term=

Thanks to Squire Patton Boggs for that!

That's a lot of links, but, as always, this author has brought you only the most interesting out of hundreds of copyright-related topics.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry