3 Count: BBC Saw

Jonathan BaileyNovember 10, 2009

2 minutes read

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.