Set-top box maker HTV International wants the piracy litigation HTVI faces moved from U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, to U.S. District Court in Los Angeles "for the convenience of witnesses, parties, as well as the interest of justice," it said Monday in a request (in Pacer) for a pre-motion hearing on its planned motion to change venue. HTVI said it has no employees or operations in the U.S. and none of the parties have any relationship to the Eastern District of New York. It said the same plaintiffs suing it for pirating CCTV and TVB TV programming (see 1604180064) -- Dish Network and broadcasters China Central TV (CCTV) and TVB Holdings -- have a similar lawsuit against Create New Technology HK filed in the Los Angeles court on alleged piracy via that company's TVpad set-top.

U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson of Los Angeles granted Lions Gate Entertainment's motion for reconsideration and now is denying the Ameritrade/Havas Worldwide motion to dismiss Lions Gate's trademark dilution litigation, reversing his March dismissal order. In the new order (in Pacer) entered Tuesday, Pregerson said his previous order partially granting the Ameritrade/Havas motion to dismiss did rely -- as Lions Gate argued in its motion for reconsideration (see 1607120017) -- on an outdated statement of law, and the 1006 Trademark Dilution Revision Act now says it isn't necessary to show a junior mark is identical or nearly so to a senior mark. While the Ameritrade/Havas advertising in question used a slogan that was similar to but not identical to the Dirty Dancing line "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," to which Lions Gate holds the trademark rights, that threshold of being identical is no longer applicable as long as they're similar, Pregerson said. Ameritrade didn't comment Wednesday.

The Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) performing rights organization said its new tool for linking digital music files to specific copyrighted compositions is the first part of a new performing rights intelligence platform aimed at accelerating royalty revenue distribution. The new secure online tool will integrate with the existing online rights database used by SESAC and its Rumblefish and Harry Fox Agency (HFA) subsidiaries, SESAC said. The tool is currently available only to publishers that license streaming services via HFA but will become available to other SESAC, HFA and Rumblefish clients in the coming months, SESAC said. “By powering our licensing and administration business units with the industry leading combined SESAC Holdings database, we're able to make rights administration more efficient, simpler, and more lucrative,” SESAC CEO John Josephson said in a Friday news release.

The Copyright Alliance is seeking members' support for an open letter to all candidates campaigning in the November general election that backs a “strong copyright system that rewards creativity and promotes a healthy economy.” Copyright law “should protect creators from those who would use the internet to undermine creativity,” the CA-led letter said. “The internet can be a great tool for creators just as it can be a tool” for other disciplines. “However, when misused, it can harm creativity and stifle freedom of expression,” the letter said. The CA also said content creators should be “part of the conversation” on a potential congressional revamp of copyright law. “Some organizations and advocates, who in many cases are funded by online platforms, repeatedly claim to be pro-creators and pro-audience to mask their own self-serving agenda,” the CA said in the letter. “The creative community is rightfully wary of any company or organization that claims to be 'against piracy' when their actions do not match their words.”

The Copyright Royalty Board released the National Music Publishers Association-brokered partial settlement on 2018-2022 statutory mechanical royalty rates, saying in a notice in the Federal Register it's seeking comment on the settlement through Aug. 24. The settlement, agreed to by Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, would maintain the existing mechanical rate for downloaded songs at 9.1 cents per downloaded copy for songs less than five minutes long and 1.75 cents-per-minute for songs more than five minutes long. The settlement also would maintain existing mechanical rate for ring tones at 24 cents per copy. Apple separately proposed maintaining the existing mechanical rates for downloaded songs but proposed changing the rate for interactive streams to 9.1 cents per 100 plays (see 1607180067). The CRB judges are seeking comment on whether to adopt the proposed mechanical rates and whether to apply them to all copyright owners and licensees.

MPAA and RIAA lauded DOJ for shutting down No. 1 BitTorrent site Kickass Torrents (KAT). The website is believed to have distributed more than $1 billion worth of pirated media and drew in more than 50 million unique visitors per month before its shuttering, DOJ said. The department acted Wednesday to seize seven domain names and one bank account associated with KAT, while simultaneously filing a criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Chicago against Artem Vaulin on allegations he owned and operated the website. Vaulin was arrested in Poland and faces four charges in the U.S. -- two counts of criminal copyright infringement and one count each of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering. “In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in a news release. “His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice.” Websites like KAT “brazenly facilitate all kinds of illegal commerce,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Richard Weber in the news release. “In a music industry that depends upon legal digital distribution platforms for the majority of its revenues, targeted criminal actions play an important role in protecting the ability of creators to earn a living,” said RIAA CEO Cary Sherman in a statement. “This case shows that individuals who use the veil of anonymity of the Internet to make a business of preying upon the creative industries are not beyond the reach of the law.” MPAA believes “this criminal case is a major step to reduce illegal theft of creative content by large-scale piracy sites,” said CEO Chris Dodd in a statement.

EFF led the filing of a lawsuit Thursday against the federal government seeking to end enforcement of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Section 1201, claiming the DMCA's ban on circumvention of technological protection measures and its anti-trafficking provisions overly restrict First Amendment rights. EFF is representing Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute assistant professor Matthew Green, media tech firm Alphamax and company owner Andrew Huang, who jointly filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The EFF-backed suit is directed at DOJ, the Library of Congress, Copyright Office and their leaders. EFF said Section 1201's provisions “broadly restrict the public’s ability to access, speak about, and use copyrighted materials, without the traditional safeguards -- such as the fair use doctrine -- that are necessary to protect free speech and allow copyright law to coexist with the First Amendment.” The threat of enforcement actions in the section “chills protected and noninfringing speech that relies on copyrighted works,” particularly speech about computer security research and the ability to shift the format of copyrighted works, EFF said. The CO triennial review process for considering exemptions to Section 1201's anti-circumvention rules doesn't “alleviate these problems” and is itself an “unconstitutional speech-licensing regime,” EFF said. Then-acting Librarian of Congress David Mao granted 10 exemptions in October after the CO's most recent triennial review, including a delayed exemption for security research. The office recommended against granting a proposed exemption allowing space-shifting and format-shifting of videos and other media for personal use (see 1510270056). EFF, which actively participated in the CO's most-recent Section 1201 triennial review and backed multiple exemptions, said it believes the LOC's failure to grant the format-shifting exemption and a broader security research exemption violate both the First Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act. “The government cannot broadly ban protected speech and then grant a government official excessive discretion to pick what speech will be permitted, particularly when the rulemaking process is so onerous,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kit Walsh in a news release. “If future generations are going to be able to understand and control their own machines, and to participate fully in making rather than simply consuming culture, Section 1201 has to go.” Public Knowledge Policy Fellow Kerry Sheehan lauded the EFF lawsuit, saying in a news release it “highlights fundamental failures by the Copyright Office in the DMCA exemption process. The Office has erected a litany of administrative barriers, not required by the law itself, to scholars, technologists, consumers, and many others ensnared by unintended consequences and indefensible applications of Section 1201. Even when the Copyright Office does recommend exemptions, they are often so narrow as to be practically useless. In light of the Copyright Office’s mismanagement, this constitutional challenge is hardly surprising.”

Music Creators North America and two international groups of music creators jointly protested the DOJ Antitrust Division's preliminary decision on its review of the department's American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and Broadcast Music Inc. consent decrees via a filing with DOJ obtained Tuesday. The other signatories on the filing were the European Composers and Songwriters Alliance and the International Council of Music Creators. MCNA member groups include the Songwriters Guild of America and the Society of Composers & Lyricists. The music creator groups' protest against the DOJ decision tracked with other music creators' comments in opposition to the plan not to alter the existing ASCAP/BMI consent decrees and to clarify that 100 percent licensing, in which any partial owner of a song would be allowed to fully license that song, is required under music licensing rules. Some music creators elected to boycott DOJ's request for comment (see 1607190063). MCNA and the other music creator groups criticized Justice for fast-tracking the comment period on its preliminary decision, saying they don't believe DOJ's argument that it needs to get its final decision “on the record as soon as possible” isn't a valid reason not to allow an extension of the deadline. Comments were due Friday. The music creator groups said they regard the preliminary decision “as serious injustices that will further damage the ability of songwriters and composers to earn a living through our chosen profession.” The preliminary decision “appears poised to add” to music creators' income devaluation resulting from marketplace changes in the digital age, the groups said. The preliminary decision is also “likely to cause serious damage to the future of American and global music culture” by “erecting hurdles that may substantially hinder collaboration among music creators in the future and by adopting positions that drastically reduce” financial incentives to creation, the groups said. DOJ hasn't given “adequate consideration” to the international implications of its decision or the objections of the Copyright Office to the reinterpretation of music licensing rules to mandate 100 percent licensing, the groups said. DOJ's decision not to approve music publishers' request to allow “partial withdrawal” from the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees is a positive step but “we do not regard this narrow point as negating in any way the damage” caused by the rest of the preliminary decision, the groups said.

Overseas content theft or pirate websites, which expose consumers to malware and other serious risks potentially leading to identity theft, financial loss and ransomware, rely on legitimate North American companies to operate, said a Digital Citizens Alliance study released Wednesday. In collaboration with cybersecurity firm RiskIQ, the study further examined research done in December that found consumers are 28 times more likely to be exposed to malware on content theft sites, which lure users seeking free movies, TV shows and music. The study said hosting and content delivery network companies aren't doing anything illegal and compared them to a landlord renting to a drug dealer who does business from an apartment. "But just like that landlord, more often than not these companies either look the other way or just don't want to know," the study said. It added such companies are contributing to the threat of computer infections and other consumer risks. “Given that our research shows that 12 million Americans are exposed to malware through content theft websites, we are approaching a cyber epidemic that poses serious concerns about the long-term security of Americans’ computers,” said Digital Citizens Executive Director Tom Galvin in a news release. The study said government authorities can ask hosting and content delivery companies whether they "knowingly" help such pirate sites. Agencies like the FTC or state attorneys general can help raise consumer awareness about visiting pirate sites, it said. The group's advisory board includes employees of a national union, Association for Competitive Technology, i-Safe and National Consumers League, its website said.

Congress.gov, the Copyright Office’s website and other Library of Congress-hosted websites continued to experience intermittent outages at our deadline Tuesday after a distributed denial-of-service attack against LOC’s IT infrastructure. An LOC spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the DDOS attack began Sunday morning and is affecting LOC’s websites, online services and employees’ access to email. LOC announced the DDOS attack in a tweet Monday. LOC is “working to maintain access to its online services while ensuring security,” emailed a spokeswoman. GAO and Congress have highlighted deficiencies in the LOC IT program in recent years (see 1503310046 and 1509080058), and new Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said IT modernization will be one of her top priorities (see 1604200053).