copyright

With the Bitcoin and NFT bubbles continuing to grow, a new crypto-based company has hit the market looking to capitalize on the investment wave. Instead of investing in a business or product, BitClout offers users a new investment option that is described by its owner as a “new type of social network that lets [users] speculate on people and posts with real money.” Backed by some of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors, like Sequoia Capital and Winklevoss Capital, BitClout’s creators hope that it is poised to have a bright future.

Copyright trolls have become a serious problem in recent years, with more and more people using outdated copyright laws to take advantage of an internet and social media landscape that is constantly changing. Using a decades-old law that pre-dated YouTube (let alone hundreds of thousands of fan sites on Instagram), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows anyone to send automated notices to social media sites claiming that they own copyrights on content used by certain accounts on the sites.

If anyone is wondering why Paper Magazine’s Instagram account disappeared, a lawsuit filed against copyright trolls in California federal court might explain why. The suit alleges that the defendants got the publication's Instagram account disabled and effectively banned as part of an "extortionate strategy" connected to related copyright infringement claims. 

Yahoo! recently published an article about a lawsuit that helps to explain exactly why the Paper Magazine Instagram account suddenly disappeared from the internet. The answer is that the account was taken down in response to a different lawsuit alleging copyright infringement.

The popularity of social media has exploded in recent years, with just about everyone having at least one type of social media account. Whether it's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or some other platform, the reality is that social media accounts and interactions are pretty much unavoidable these days. Unfortunately, as more and more people use social media, there is also a greater chance of legal liability because intellectual property rights may be affected.

When a plaintiff brings a copyright claim or any other type of lawsuit, there has to be some basis for the legal action. Unfortunately, some lawyers choose to use the threat of a civil suit as leverage to force a cash settlement, even when the case has little or no merit.