3 Count: Sorry, AFK

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

1: Warner Bros. Wins Lawsuit Against Maker of Batmobile

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter writers that Warner Brothers has won a lawsuit against Gotham Garage, a small business that specialized in replicas of automobiles featured in the Batman movies and TV shows.

Warner had sued the garage saying that such replicas was copyright infringement but the automakers argued that the cards were useful articles and did not qualify for copyright protection. However, the judge ruled that the cars wen’t beyond a useful article and were a “character” in the story, one that existed in two and three dimensional forms.

The judge noted that a useful article can still infringe an underlying copyright, granting summary judgment to Warner Brothers in the case as there were, in his view, no triable facts in the case.

2: FBI Employees Download Pirated Movies and TV-Shows

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that they, along with the Bittorrent monitoring company ScanEye found several BitTorrent pirates linked to IP addresses that are linked to the FBI.

According to Torrentfreak, IP addresses associated with the FBI were very active in downloading content including “Homeland”, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and other intelligence community-oriented works as well other movies and TV series.

Though it’s possible the IP addresses were associated with an investigation, Torrentfreak says that is unlikely as the downloads were often spaced over several months.

3: Pirate Bay Documentary Online: Film Puts Copyright Infringement and Internet Freedom in the Spotlight

Finally today, Ryan Suto at Policy Mic writes that, last Friday, the long-awaited documentary “The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard”, commonly referred to as TPB AFK, was released online for free.

The documentary follows the founders of The Pirate Bay through their legal challenges and and aims to put into perspective the site’s role in the larger debate about copyright online.

The film is available for free online via Bittorrent, via direct download for $10 or you can pre-order a DVD for $23.

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.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 5 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.