A Bad Week for the Entertainment Industry in the Copyright Wars

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Suing the recording industry for abusing the legal process seems to be quite popular these days.

In its latest issue, Business Week publishes a 3,000-word account of a single mother fighting back against the RIAA, winning legal fees and now suing the music industry for conspiracy. Its sympathetic portrayal of a Portland, Oregon woman who seems to have been erroneously fingered for infringement has got many in the blogosphere buzzing that more of the 40,000 people the RIAA says it has targeted for legal action will do something other than take the quick settlement.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania mother of a 13-month-old tot keeps pushing a court to rule that Universal Music abused the the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Universal sent takedown notices to YouTube after a clip appeared of the child dancing to a Prince song. Now, with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a case against the music company was refiled after the first one was dismissed.

Not a great press weekend for the entertainment industry's copyright protectors. In other news, BayTSP, which polices YouTube  and other video sharing sites for copyrighted content from the major studios, says piracy hasn't decreased since Google introduced a filtering system last October.