3 Count: CuBert?

By Jonathan Bailey • Feb 10th, 2009 • Category: 3 Count

This is the first in a new daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form above or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1: Artist files suit against AP over Obama poster

Shepard Fairey, the creator of the famous Obama “Hope” poster, has decided to strike first in his war with the Associated Press, filing suit in New York seeking a “declaratory judgment holding Fairey’s works do not infringe any copyrights held by Defendant AP and are protected by the Fair Use Doctrine.”

Earlier reports that the AP had sued Fairey were misleading in that the AP has only demanded money from Fairey, not actually filed suit. However, now such a move seems almost inevitable. The AP is upset with the filing saying that, “At Mr. Fairey’s attorney’s request, we agreed AP would not pursue legal action while in these discussions. Instead, he chose to file on Monday morning, without any notice to AP.”

If this is any indication of where the suit is going, we’re looking for one ugly battle.

2: BBC uses copyright image from Flickr for News 24

Eagle eyes watching the BBC noticed that the background during a news broadcast, a picture the Birmingham skyline, was actually that of an “All Rights Reserved” image on Flickr. BBC has admitted the mistake, saying that it was testing new equipment and did not intend for the new image to go live and has offer a £75 usage fee for the mistake.

The artist has written back and is seeking a larger fee but no reply to the request has been received.

3: Really… CuBert?

Finally today, a new iPhone game called CuBert, bears what can only be described as a strong resemblance to the well-known arcade staple Q*Bert. The developers of the game, not even changing the color of the title character or any other elements of the game, beyond adapting it for the iPhone.

It seems likely that this app, much like Duck Hunt, will eventually be removed from the iPhone App store before too much longer.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment below or send me an email using the contact form above. I hope to hear from you.

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Jonathan Bailey is The Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today, which he founded in 2005 as a way to help Webmasters going through content theft problems get accurate information and stay up to date on the rapidly-changing field. He is also a consultant to Webmasters and companies to help them devise practical content protection strategies and develop good copyright policies.
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  • "Instead, he chose to file on Monday morning, without any notice to AP.”

    Isn't the filing itself notice to the AP?
  • Excellent question. I actually asked my attorney friend about that after I read it. Yes, the AP will be served with the suit but that can take some time. It might have already happened but sometimes serving can take a while depending on where you are and where the suit was filed.

    Also, there is kind of an honor code here. Before filing suit, most attorneys, if they are working with one another, will drop a copy of the lawsuit to the opposing attorney before filing. It's a pretty common practice and consider the polite way of handling things. Apparently Fairey's team didn't do that in this case as they did not feel they were warned.

    So, even though the courtesy copy and warning is not required in the law, it is considered polite.
  • It just reminds me of a scene in Clueless, where Cher's father calls her into his office and shows her a "second notice" for a ticket she got. She counters with "Second notice? I never got a first notice!"

    Her father says, "The ticket was the first notice."

    I think AP probably knew what was going on here, and looking for sympathy because someone wasn't being "polite" when they've been so hardnose about even being quoted is rather amusing. Fairey is probably wise to pursue a definitive judgment at this point.
  • It's hard to say who knew what and odds are we never really know. It's not a major point either way. Typically, when you're negotiation or engaging in dialog, you do provide some warning before filing a lawsuit, but you are right that it was as wise move on Fairey's part to strike first. It not only lets him set the tone, select venue and generally control the lawsuit (unless the AP files a separate one), but if he can get the judgment, it heads off anything the AP might try, greatly keeping down litigation costs.

    Smart move all around. It might have been a bit hard-nosed but didn't I just say last week that Falzone was a fighter of an attorney? If the AP had really checked this guy's record they would have seen it coming. Softball isn't his game.
  • Maybe if the CuBert developers has replaced Q*Bert with a 3D Pacman, replaced the color-changing squares with edible pellets, replaced the snake and other jumping enemies with jumping ghosts, replaced the bouncing balls with Donkey Kong barrels, and replaced the escalator circles with Galaga ships, there wouldn't have been such a problem.
  • Somewhere, you just made a stoner very happy...
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