3 Count: He-Man Down

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1: Aereo’s Internet TV Service in Denver and Salt Lake City Shuts Down Today

First off today, Stephanie Milot at PC Magazine reports that the TV streaming service Aereo has shut down its operations in Denver and Salt Lake City and Denver after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied 2-1 Aereos request for an emergency stay of an injunction against them in the district.

Aereo is a TV streaming service that uses a series of tiny antennas, one per customer, to capture over-the-air broadcast television and stream it to users over the Internet and provide DVR services. Broadcasters have sued claiming it to be an illegal retransmission of their work but, in New York, the courts sided with Aereo, sending the case to the Supreme Court.

With the denial of the stay, Aereo shut down its Denver and Salt Lake City operations over the weekend. However, Aereo could return to the region, and be ruled legal in the entire country, if the Supreme Court rules in its favor. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in April and rule sometime this summer.

2: Gawker Demands Dismissal of Quentin Tarantino Lawsuit

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Gawker is asking a judge to dimiss Quentin Tarantino’s “Hateful Eight” lawsuit, saying that the act of reading a screenplay is not an infringement and that the allegations of contributory infringement don’t hold up as there is no direct infringement.

Tarantino sued Gawker and others involved after the company’s Defamer blog posted a link to a leaked copy of his script “The Hateful Eight”, a project he was in the early stages of working on and has since shelved. Tarantino says that the linking to the full script crossed journalism lines and contributed to distribution of the unlawful copies of the script.

Gawker has also stated that, even if there was infringement, their reporting of the matter is protected under fair use and that they should not be held liable. The lawsuit also targets Anonfiles, the host of the script file and others involved in its posting and distribution.

3: Mattel Wins Battle Over Rights to ‘Masters of the Universe’

Finally today, Ted Johnson at Variety reports that Mattel has won its case against an author and artist over the rights the “Masters of the Universe” franchise, which includes the popular character He-Man.

The case began when Donald Glut sought to terminate an agreement with Mattel over “The Fighting Foe-Men”, a work upon which “Masters of the Universe” was based. Under copyright termination, creators can terminate any licenses or agreements after a set amount of time. However, Mattel argued that the work was “for hire”, which meant that copyright termination did not apply.

As proof of this, Mattel pointed to a 2001 interview with Glut where he described the work as being “for hire” and also said that Glut waited too long to make his ownership claims. The judge found those arguments compelling and granted Mattel a summary judgment last week. There is no word if Glut intends to appeal.

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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