Supreme court declines to hear Vimeo copyright infringement case News
Supreme court declines to hear Vimeo copyright infringement case

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday declined to hear an appeal [order list, PDF] from record companies that want to pursue a copyright infringement case against music site Vimeo [corporate website] for hosting music by classic artists. Capitol Records and other record companies had sued Vimeo for hosting 199 unauthorized video recordings from artists such as The Beatles and Elvis Presley. The Supreme court decision lets stand the federal appeals court ruling [text, PDF] that websites are protected from liability for music recorded before 1972. According to the federal judge, a federal safe harbor law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, did not create liability for video-sharing websites as long as they remove the infringing material once they receive notice of it.

File-sharing sites and the sharing of copyrighted materials continues to be a global issue. In February the Swedish Court of Patent Appeals and the Market Court [official website, in Swedish], an appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction over intellectual property cases, ordered [judgment, PDF, in Swedish] an Internet service provider (ISP) to block access to the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay and the streaming site Swefilmer. In December the Federal Court of Australia ordered [JURIST report] an ISP to block five named companies and all their related websites. The same issue was decided by Irish and Dutch courts in 2013 and 2014, where the courts came to different results.

THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.