3 Count: I’m Back Baby

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

Note: Since I was out last week in Philadelphia, I’ve decided to pick up the Three Count today as if it were a normal one, looking back over the past weekend only. However, I will be doing a full recap of copyright news over the past two weeks on the Copyright 2.0 Show with Patrick O’Keefe on Wednesday at 5 PM ET. Come join us then!

1: Revenge Porn Site Founder Loses $250k Defamation Suit

First off today, Nathan Mattise at Ars Technica reports that attorney Marc Randazza has scored a major win against “revenge porn” webmaster Hunter Moore. However, it wasn’t a copyright win this time.

Though copyright disputes involving Moore’s now-defunct site IsAnyoneUp and similar sites are ongoing, Moore was recently hit with a $250,000 judgment for defamation. The plaintiff in the case was James McGibney, the CEO of Bullyville.com, a site that battles people it sees as bullies. McGibney convinced Moore to shut down his site for a nominal fee but Moore later took to Twitter accusing McGibney of being a pedophile and possessing child pornography.

This prompted McGibney to sue Moore and, after proving damages, the court agreed to everything McGibney had requested for, including $250,000. Moore and his site became famous for posting nude images of women without their permission, often including contact and personal information with the posts, causing a strong backlash against him.

2: Ofcom Publishes ‘Wave 2′ UK Copyright Infringement Report

Next up today, Stuart Dredge at Music Ally writes that Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has published its second report tracking online copyright infringement, this one focusing on the third quarter of 2012.

According to the report, 16% of UK Internet users over 12 consumed at least one item illegally online with 5% doing so exclusively. Of those who did infringement half did it because it was free nearly as many favored the convenience of piracy.

When asked what would make them stop, just under a third said that cheaper legal services would help and a quarter said they need more clarification on what is and is not legal. Though 60% of Internet users were aware of iTunes, the numbers dropped for other services, including 40% for Spotify and 30% for Napster.

3: We’re Off to See the Lawyers, the Wonderful Lawyers of Oz.

Finally today, Luke Buckmaster at Crikey writes that, while the new “Oz” movie may have not wowed critics, it has raised some interesting copyright issues that prompted the movie to get legal clearing before its release.

According to reports, before the movie was shipped attorneys for Disney looked through the film in an attempt to find anything that could be seen as an infringement of the 1939 film. Because, while the original books are in the public domain, the famous movie and the elements it introduced are not.

This has included elements such as the ruby slippers, which were silver in the original work, hairstyles on some of the munchkins, and even the shade of green for the Wicked Witch of the West were all tweaked, modified or removed to avoid a legal dispute.

Warner Brothers, the owners of the original film, are notoriously aggressive of their copyright, routinely suing works that make use of content that’s exclusive to their film, including merchandise featuring their characters.

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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