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Wednesday, 01 June 2011 23:31

'Massive' Copyright Lawsuit Against CNET Shrivels

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'Massive' Copyright Lawsuit Against CNET ShrivelsThe plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against CNET for facilitating “massive copyright infringement” by distributing peer-to-peer software have finally come up with a list of all the movie and music titles it claims CNET helped pirate. All six of them.

The lawsuit filed last month by rappers and filmmaker Alkiviades David accuses CBS Interactive — CNET’s publisher — of illicitly profiting from piracy by distributing 220 million copies of LimeWire over CNET’s Download.com site since 2008 — accounting for 95 percent off all LimeWire downloads.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer in Los Angeles has been pushing the plaintiffs to specify the content pirated on LimeWire — a prerequisite to pressing the case. On Tuesday, they complied, and it’s probably safe to say that CBS won’t be sued out of existence. The list consists of one movie (.pdf), the critically panned 2007 Splash ripoff Fishtales, and five music tracks that do not yet have U.S. copyright registration granted.

The full list:

  • Fishtales: Alkiviades David
  • She a Star: Detron Bendross, regitration pending
  • Run Da Yard: Jeffrey Thompkins, registration pending
  • Topless: Diamond Smith, Spectatcular Smith, Joseph Smith, Emmanuel DeAnda, registration pending
  • Tipsy In Dis Club: same authors as Topless, registration pending
  • Sex Drive, Dennis Round, registration pending

Based on a maximum $150,000 in damages per work, the suit could still be good for a $900,000 plus legal fees, if the plaintiffs prevail — though theoretically the plaintiffs could win more if they prove multiple infringements per work.

CBS has laughed off the suit, saying it was “confident that we will prevail.”

Lawyers for David, the lead plaintiff, did not return calls.

The now-defunct LimeWire service agreed to settle for $105 million two weeks ago amid accusations from the recording industry that LimeWire users committed a “substantial amount of copyright infringement.” In that lawsuit, the Recording Industry Association of America sought damages on 9,715 copyrighted recordings, and forced LimeWire to shutter.

Lory Lybeck, a Washington state copyright lawyer, said the allegations against CNET are a tougher sell, because CNET didn’t run a filesharing service — it just allowed users to download the peer-to-peer software. “I think this is a difficult case to prove,” he said.

The plaintiffs claim CNET maintains a “business model to profit directly from the demand for infringing P2P clients.”

The “registration pending” titles qualify for the maximum $150,000 in damages if the copyright was filed before CNET allegedly contributed to its infringement, Lybeck said. The authors can only seek “actual” damages if filed after, he said.

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