3 Count: Dem Bones

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1: Hair Band War! Did Poison Steal ’80s Hits From Another Band?

First off today, Bret Michaels and the other members of the rock band Poison have been sued by members of a now-defunct Chicago Band, Kid Rocker. The lawsuit, filed by former Kid Rocker members Billy McCarthy and James Stonich, alleges that Poison Guitarist C.C. DeVille auditioned for their band and received copies of several of their demo tapes. The suit also says that those tapes were plagiarized in several of Poison’s songs, including Talk Dirty To Me and I Won’t Forget You. The lawsuit is seeking profits from the tracks, an injunction against Poison performing the songs and statutory damages.

2: Court Upholds Photographers’ Breach of Copyright Claim

Next up today, in Malta, three photographers, Roland Camilleri, Malcolm Bezzina and Peter Tonna, have won their case against a local newspaper, The Malta Independent, which they accused of using their photos without permission. The three photographers primarily focus on aviation photos had their images used by the paper in a series of news articles about CIA landings in the country. The newspaper’s editor, Noel Grima, had claimed that since the photos were pulled from the Web they were in the public domain and not protected by copyright. The court rejected that argument and ordered him to pay €400 ($550) to each photographer.

3: Judge Orders Talks in Montana Dinosaur Dispute

Finally today, a first-of-its-kind copyright dispute over dinosaur bones is heading to settlement talks. The judge in the case, which pits Black Hills Institute of Geological Research against Fort Peck Paleontology, Inc. over Fort Peck’s alleged creation of castings based on a pair of Tyrannosaurus Rexes owned by Black Hills, named “Stan” and “Sue”. in order to finish an incomplete replica known as “Peck’s Rex”. Black Hills is seeking $7.4 million in damages and is claiming copyright infringement since they created the replica that was, in turn, replicated. Fort Peck is alleging that, since Black Hills sold the original Sue, they have no standing to claim infringement and the profits were negligible compared to the damages asked.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will 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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