3 Count: Love Lost

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1: Judge: ‘Deep Throat’ Owners Can’t Stop ‘Lovelace’ Release

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the upcoming film Lovelace has survived an initial legal challenge as the owners of the pornographic film Deep Throat have been denied an injunction that attempted to to block its impending release.

Lovelace is a film about the star of Deep Throat, Linda Lovelace. The biopic uses some five minutes of footage from the original Deep Throat but did so without a license or permission. This prompted the rightsholders of Deep Throat to file suit on Tuesday seeking both $10 million in damages and an injunction.

With the injunction denied, the film will be released on time. However, it doesn’t put an end to the lawsuit itself, that will continue to progress after the film’s release.

2: Green Day Win Court Case Over Scream Icon Artwork Rights

Next up today, Sean Michaels at The Guardian reports that a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Court has ruled against street artist Dereck Seltzer, who had a black and white portrait of his used as a backdrop to a song in a Green Day concert production back in 2009 tour.

Green Day used Seltzer’s painting, “Scream Icon”, on a video backdrop for their song “East Jesus Nowhere”. The appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that the use was a fair use, saying it was highly transformative and not excessively commercial.

However, the appeals court did overturn the lower court on the issue of attorneys fees, saying that Seltzer should not have to cover Green Day’s $201,000 in fees because the lawsuit was a “close and difficult case” and that Seltzer’s lawsuit was not unreasonable.

3: Illegal Streaming Could Soon Become a Felony Offense

Finally today, Helienne Lindvall at Digital Music News writes that the U.S. Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force has released a report saying, among other things, that criminal streaming should be treated the same as criminal reproduction and distribution, and classified as a felony in the U.S.

Though other elements of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), including the site blocking provisions, are not included in the report, the felony status for streaming was in SOPA and that has led to many tech bloggers referring to the report as the potential return of SOPA.

The report also makes other suggestions, such as streamlining music licensing and extending the public performance right for sound recordings to terrestrial broadcasting.

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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