{"id":588,"date":"2013-05-16T10:23:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2013-05-16T10:23:26","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:23:26","slug":"copyright-watchdog-caught-with-pants-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"Copyright Watchdog Caught With Pants Down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apparently some shabby bookkeeping and sloppy routine filing by the Center for Copyright Information<\/span><\/a><\/span> (CCI) has resulted in its right to do business revoked, according to a story<\/span><\/a><\/span> in TorrentFreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For those playing without a scorecard, CCI was set up as by the copyright content kings the RIAA<\/a> and MPAA<\/a> in collusion with<\/del> cooperation with major ISPs<\/a> to deploy an anti-piracy regime in the U.S. known as the Copyright Alert System<\/span><\/a><\/span>, otherwise affectionately known as “six strikes.”\u00a0 The name comes from the number of times one would to be caught pilfering online intellectual property before drastic measures were taken, up to cutting off Internet access (as if… )<\/p>\n

Well, it seems that the good and decent folk running the CCI were so busy chasing “bad guys” on the Internet they forgot do the things that any shoeshine stand wanting to do business does: file the right license papers and pay the right fees.\u00a0\u00a0 TorrentFreak writes:<\/p>\n

After more than a year of delays the CCI finally launched its Copyright Alert System<\/a> during February. But just when it appeared the group was on the right track, it met another roadblock. According to the Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the company leading the six-strikes program has had its status revoked. This pretty much means that the company is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That “unable to conduct any official business anywhere” statement may be a bit over the top, according to Jonathan Weinberg, Professor of Law at Wayne State University. “CCI is a Delaware corporation<\/a>, and — so far as I know — is in good standing there,” Weinberg says. “The action by the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs means that CCI will need to file back paperwork, and pay fees of a few hundred dollars, in order to continue doing business\u00a0in the District of Columbia\u00a0as a “foreign” (i.e., Delaware) corporation,” he said. “Embarrassing, but not a case of ‘unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States.'”<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether CCI can do business where it chooses, the embarrassing part is right on the money.\u00a0 Moreover, I get more than a bit twitchy knowing that the organization running this dubious Copyright Alert System now can’t seem to find its own ass with both hands. Go figure.<\/p>\n

As CCR would say:\u00a0 “There’s a bad moon on the rise.”<\/p>\n