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1: Legislator Calls for Clarifying Copyright Law

First off today, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) has called for clarification of termination rights to make it certain who is eligible for copyright termination. Copyright termination allows artists, after 35 years in the case of works created after 1978, to terminate exclusive licenses and copyright transfers they granted others, reclaiming the work. Many musicians are queuing up to file such terminations and the record labels are poised to battle those requests. Conyers, wishing to avoid years of expensive litigation, wants to preemptively clarify the law in favor of artists. Conyers is also the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, a critical committee for passing such legislation.

2: NM Courtroom Sketch Artist Sues AP, Getty Over Copyright

Net up today, prominent courtroom artist Patricia Lopez has filed a suit against both the Associated Press and Getty Images claiming that they have violated her copyright by reselling and reproducing her work. Though she was paid for the images, according to Lopez, she retained copyright in her works and disapproved of their continued sale, prompting the lawsuit. Neither the AP nor Getty had any comment.

3: Is Copyright Only For the Big Guys?

Finally today, Torrentfreak has an article featuring two recent cases in Britain, one with the BBC and one with the Daily Mail, where the news companies infringed copyrights of smaller creators, namely photographers whose images they wanted to use in stories, and largely escaped any punishment for it. According to Torrentfreak, this may be an indication that copyright is only for big corporations, the ones who can afford to protect it and has asked others to weigh in on the conversation.

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.

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

1: Copyright Owners Win Broader Rights for Works Made Abroad

First off today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that copyright holders have the right to restrict import of copyrighted works produced and legally purchased in other countries. The court, ruling in the case of John Wiley & Sons Inc v. Supap Kirtsaeng d/b/a Bluechristine99 centers around Kirtsaeng importing cheap foreign copies of John Wiley & Sons textbooks for resale in the U.S. The court ruled that copyright holders have the right to restrict such imports, despite the right of first sale which grants purchasers the right to do largely anything they resell a legally purchased copy of a work.

2: BBC Caught in Twitter Copyright Row

Next up today, the BBC has found itself in a copyright spat over images posted on Twitter. After a blogger called out the British news organization over its use of copyrighted images of the London riots, BBC responding saying, in part, “Twitter is a social network platform which is available to most people who have a computer and therefore any content on it is not subject to the same copyright laws as it is already in the public domain.” BBC later recanted that statement saying it is factually inaccurate and not a reflection of their policies. However, they did admit to sometimes reprinting images before clearance when there isn’t time and to attributing them to “Twitter” or any other source when the photographer can’t be identified. The case mirrors others in the country, including one with the Daily Mail, that have involved news media taking photos from Twitter for reuse.

3: Judge rejects copyright suit against Stephen King

Finally today, author Rod Marquardt has lost his case against Stephen King and his publisher. Marquardt had accused King of plagiarizing his 2002 book “Keller’s Den” when creating the bestselling “Duma Key”. The judge tossed the case saying that Marquardt had failed to prove substantial similarity between the two works. Marquardt claims to have sent a copy of his book to King’s publisher in hopes of getting a blurb but the publisher says the book was returned.

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.

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

1: Eagles Musician Don Henley Settles Copyright Wrangle

First off today, Eagles musician Don Henley has reached a settlement with Republican Senate candidate Chuck DeVore over Devore’s use of two of the Eagles’ songs, “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” and “The Boys of Summer” in parodies for his campaign. But while the songs were satiric, meaning they were making fun of Democratic candidates, they were not parodying the song itself, removing the fair use argument. Devore has settled for an undisclosed sum and an apology.

2: Why Is An Oscar Winner Suing Over This $100,000 Photograph?

Next up today Louie Psihoyos, who recently won the Oscar for best documentary with his movie “The Cove” is suing both the BBC and CBS for their use of an image he took in 1994 for National Geographic. The photo, which shows a man sitting in front of hundreds of TVs, reportedly costs Psihoyos $100,000 to take and, according to the complaint, was used by the BBC on its website for an article entitled “Future is TV-shaped, says Intel” and by CBS as part of a commercial display for a forum. There has been no response from either BBC or CBS as of this time.

3: Katy Perry Plays Down Beach Boys Row

Finally, it seems that an alleged row between the Beach Boys, which famously sang “California Girls” and Katy Perry, who had a recent hit with “California Gurls” was blown far out of proportion. The BBC is reporting that, despite earlier claims, there is no lawsuit in the works and the label has only established a diminutive claim on the writing credits. The dispute is over a line at the end of Perry’s song which mirrors a famous line from the original Beach Boys tune. The rest of the songs, despite the homage, are different.

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 6 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.

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

1: Google Gets Till Friday for Digital Library Settlement

First off today, Google as well as the publishers and authors who sued it, are getting extra time to reform their settlement. Publishers and the Author’s Guild sued Google over their Google Book Search project and initially hashed out a settlement that would have allowed the giant to scan, display and sell copies of out-of-print but in-copyright works provided a portion of the revenue was paid to the authors and publishers.

That settlement, however, was stopped short after the Department of Justice raised antitrust issues with it and the two sides had until yesterday to come up with a new settlement proposal. However, that deadline has been pushed back to this Friday.

Once again, I’ll report on the details of the new settlement proposal once they become available.

2: Murdoch threatens to sue BBC

Next up today, even though the Web is still talking about Rupert Murdoch’s plan to remove his sites from Google and begin charging for his content, which includes the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and many papers in both the UK and Australia, another quip from the same interview is also drawing some fire.

In the interview, which he had famously said fair use could be overturned with the right court case and that Google was stealing their content, he also threatened to sue the BBC.

That quote came after the interviewer, who was doing a report for Australia’s Sky News, asked how Murdoch planned to compete with the BBC and other free news outlets if he was charging. He then said that he felt most of their content was just taken from the newspapers and said he had plans to sue them.

This is rapidly becoming one of the most talked about and most memorable interviews by Murdoch in quite some time, this from a man known for big words and grand statements.

3: Appeals Court Backs Clinton over Lyrics

Finally today, if you ever wondered who owns the exclusive copyright to the words “bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea”, well, now you do.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling saying that George Clinton, who famously used the line in his 1982 “Atomic Dog” sued, through a proxy, the band Public Announcement, who used the line in its 1998 song “D.O.G. in Me”.

The Appeals Court ruling upholds a lower court ruling. There is no word if Public Announcement or their label, Universial, will appeal the $98,000 judgment to the Supreme Court.

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 Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.

1: Artist files suit against AP over Obama poster

Shepard Fairey, the creator of the famous Obama “Hope” poster, has decided to strike first in his war with the Associated Press, filing suit in New York seeking a “declaratory judgment holding Fairey’s works do not infringe any copyrights held by Defendant AP and are protected by the Fair Use Doctrine.”

Earlier reports that the AP had sued Fairey were misleading in that the AP has only demanded money from Fairey, not actually filed suit. However, now such a move seems almost inevitable. The AP is upset with the filing saying that, “At Mr. Fairey’s attorney’s request, we agreed AP would not pursue legal action while in these discussions. Instead, he chose to file on Monday morning, without any notice to AP.”

If this is any indication of where the suit is going, we’re looking for one ugly battle.

2: BBC uses copyright image from Flickr for News 24

Eagle eyes watching the BBC noticed that the background during a news broadcast, a picture the Birmingham skyline, was actually that of an “All Rights Reserved” image on Flickr. BBC has admitted the mistake, saying that it was testing new equipment and did not intend for the new image to go live and has offer a £75 usage fee for the mistake.

The artist has written back and is seeking a larger fee but no reply to the request has been received.

3: Really… CuBert?

Finally today, a new iPhone game called CuBert, bears what can only be described as a strong resemblance to the well-known arcade staple Q*Bert. The developers of the game, not even changing the color of the title character or any other elements of the game, beyond adapting it for the iPhone.

It seems likely that this app, much like Duck Hunt, will eventually be removed from the iPhone App store before too much longer.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll 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 below or send me an email using the contact form above. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.