Industry Primers NOT Ready to Go :(

Want to know what happened to the Industry Primer’s Research List?

Long Answer:::::::

The Research Reports links list may have been deemed as contributory copyright infringement. Contributory copyright infringement occurs by “intentionally inducing or encouraging direct infringement” of a copyrighted work. See, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd, 545 U.S. 913, (2005).

The subject of linking to copyrighted materials is being litigated right now by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against a kid that was extradited from the UK to the USA that operated TVShack a website hosted links to pirated films and TV programs. The legal question at the heart of the case is: Is linking to copyrighted materials contributory copyright infringement? If so, under what circumstances? Note in the U.S. linking has been a settled question (until the DOJ lawsuit), but thus far the courts have held that linking does not amount to copying, unless you obviously should have known that the material in question is infringing. In the Ticketmaster case the court held that linking to another website could indeed constitute copyright infringement where the defendant has “extensive involvement” in the content of the linked-to site. See, Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.com, Inc., 2003.

Note: In the U.K. linking to copyrighted material is 100% legal.

Learn more about the UK Case:

http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/tag/tvshack/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/30/tvshack-appeal-delayed

Considering the above it was perfectly smart for Patrick to pull the list down. Even if the list is 100% legal theoretically, just the amount of money needed to litigate against banks, publishers, maybe even the gov't, and PR problems make it not worth it.

Main Takeaways:::::::

--Fair use provisions excluded, anyone linking, uploading or downloading copyrighted/ trademarked files without permission from the copyright holder is subject to legal action with fines in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

--Do to extradition and intellectual property treaties do not download or upload from Drop Boxes/ Google Drives and other digital storage websites and file servers that have copyrighted materials of U.S. Copyright holders that are not owned by the Dropbox owner. You might be subject to a judgment or extradition that can be enforced in your local jurisdiction. Remember past legal tactics of the MPAA and RIAA against file sharing sites and individual service users also the US Governments recent case against MegaUpload.

--The sharing of good research sources was a classic market bubble. People benefited tremendously, and EVERYONE was active, but now the game over. I am not mad at anyone for how this all played out. Gotta know when to hold em' and when to fold em'. Time to sell gents and head for the door.

--Unlink from the so called, WSO Collection Dropbox lest you want a lawsuit, DMCA or ISP notice. Stop uploading or downloading. Do that now. In order to unlink from the folder go to 1) Shared Folders Option, 2) Click 'Members' 3) Click 'Leave Folder' 4) Uncheck the box that that says 'I still want to keep my copy of these files.' Whoever is managing the WSO Collection Dropbox take it down just as soon as you can.

Finally, Shouts out to everyone that made the list happen. There was supposed to be an update, version 2 that was to be literally double the size of the first list. Well it was cool to be top ranked on WSO. I gained 34 silver bananas and I was second only to the WSO post of 200 investment banks that had 45 bananas for most popular posts. I am pretty sure that the updated list would have beaten that count by a long shot, lol. Legend status for sure.

Thank you to all that were apart of the movement, all that gave silver bananas and all that were excited that sent good vibes :)