3 Count: Avatar Copied?

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

1: Case against Avatar dismissed

First off today, Zhou Shaomou, an amateur science fiction author from China, had a lawsuit of his against James Cameron dismissed. The author accused Cameron of plagiarizing his hit movie Avatar from his 1997 work “The Legend of the Blue Crow”. Shaomou is undaunted and is gathering more evidence to file a second lawsuit sometime in the near future.

2: CD Pirate Fined Thousands For Serbian Discs

Next up today, a Serbian man who was pulled over for speeding in New South Wales, Australia walked away with a $12,000 fine, but not for speeding. He was carrying burned CDs of a famous Serbian composer and was arrested on suspicion of copyright infringement. Sasha Dimititijevic initially pled not guilty to the offense, claiming Serbian copyright did not apply to Australia but was proved wrong in court.

3: No Misconduct by Professor Who Used Student’s Work in Paper

Finally today, in the UK, the Health Professions Council (HPC) has ruled that a professor who used portions of a student’s paper in his own research, including signing a copyright agreement with a journal seeking to publish it, did not commit any misconduct, despite the fact the student had not granted permission. The reason was because, the HPC found, the student was not the copyright holder in the work in question.

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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