3 Count: iFail

Got any suggestions for the 3 Count. Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: And Warner Makes Three

First off today, emboldened by its recent victory, which allowed its antitrust case to progress against Universal, Redbox has filed a nearly identical lawsuit against Time Warner, making them the third, along with Universal and Fox, to be sued by the company.

Redbox makes DVD rental kiosks that are common at grocery stores and malls, but movie studios, frustrated at what they see is an attack on their DVD sales business, have been pushing wholesalers to withhold new releases from Redbox for 28 days. This has lead Redbox to file a lawsuit against all three now claiming both copyright misuse and antitrust violations. The judge in the case with Universal dismissed the copyright misuse claims, mostly due to the fact copyright misuse is a defense against copyright infringement, not a cause for a lawsuit, but allowed the antitrust claims to move forward.

However, oddly enough, Redbox has added the copyright misuse claims back into its suit against Time Warner, making the lawsuit an almost perfect copy of the one it filed against Universal and Fox. I guess we’ll see if they get a different result.

2: Pirate Party swashbuckles into Finnish politics

Next up, The Pirate Party has yet another new chapter, this one in Finland where it has registered as an official political party. Having collected the necessary 5,000 signatures, the party is officially recognized in the country, following on the heels of similar groups in the UK, Czech Republic and Australia.

The Pirate Party has been the most successful in Sweden, where the party earned over 7% of the popular vote in the recent EU elections and earned a seat in the EU Parliament as a result. According to a representative the Finnish Pirate Party will support “a reform of copyright laws, protecting privacy and freedom of speech as well as transparency in politics.”

3: Apple sued for infringing “1000 TVs” copyright

Finally today, gear up for a dose of copyright FAIL. Photographer Louis Psihoyos is suing Apple claiming that his “iconic” photograph, entitled “1000 TVs” was used without permission in the i.TV app, which is a TV guide app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. He is seeking actual and other damages that he feels is in excess of $2 million.

There’s only one small problem with the lawsuit, Apple doesn’t actually make the I.TV app, I.TV does. You can find this out youself by visiting the I.TV site or just looking in the app store. Since the app isn’t for sale it seems likely Apple will be protected by the DMCA and this lawsuit will go nowhere. That is, until the correct defendant is added.

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 or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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