3 Count: Not Death Proof

Jonathan BaileyJanuary 31, 2014

2 minutes read

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

1: Tarantino Sues Websites Over Screenplay

First off today, Ben Fritz at the Wall Street journal reports that director Quentin Tarantino has filed a lawsuit against both AnonFiles.com and Gawker Media LLC over the publication of a screenplay that he was working on but had not started production.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks more than $1 million in damages for the publication of the script “The Hateful Eight”, which was posted on the AnonFiles site and Gawker pointed to it on its site Defamer.

According to Tarantino, he has had to stop work on the film because of the leak and he accused Gawker of knowingly promoting the infringement by linking to it and not removing those links after being notified. However, Gawker’s editor has said that they plan on fighting the lawsuit.

2: Prince Drops His $22 Million Lawsuit Against Online Bootleggers

Next up today, Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica reports that the musician Prince has dropped a $22 million lawsuit against some 22 people he accused of copyright infringement for linking to unauthorized copies of his music.

The original lawsuit was filed in the District of Columbia and targeted 22 defendants, 20 of which were unnamed, for linking to unauthorized recordings of his work on Facebook, Blogger and other sites. However, the suit drew an immediate backlash from his fans, which seems to have prompted the dismissal.

However, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that Price can refile it at any time. Prince is known for his hard line on copyright matters, including famous “Lenz v. Universal” case where his label, Universal, filed a DMCA takedown notice for a short clip of a baby dancing to one of his songs.

3: Android App Piracy Spurs Novel U.S. Charges Against Four

Finally today, Chris Dolmetsch at Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against four men they claim were working to distribute pirated copies of Android Apps.

The arrests involve two separate groups, the SnappzMarket Group and the Appbucket Group, both of which established websites and servers to store and distribute pirated copies of paid apps. The move also resulted in the seizing of domains used by the groups to distribute infringing material.

All four men have either been arraigned or have waived indictment and have been charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

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.