3 Count: Geek Wars

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

1: Isohunt Not Dead Yet, Attorney Says

Bittorrent search engine ISOHunt is making a last-ditch effort to avoid an injunction filed and approved against it. According to attorneys working for the site, the injunction, granted by the judge and requested by the MPAA, is overly broad in that it requires the site to block searches for specific movie titles. ISOHunt claims that this is a violation of their free speech rights in that not all uses of the title are going to be infringing. The judge has tried to clarify the injunction saying it only applies to works owned by the plaintiffs in the case.

2: Neil Gaiman fights Todd McFarlane over Spawn Characters

Next up today, in a story that has my geek senses tingling, author Neil Gaiman and comic artist Todd McFarlane are in a copyright spat over two characters that are a part of the Spawn series. McFarlane, who created Spawn, asked Gaiman to guest author a comic where he created two characters, “Medieval Spawn” and “Angela” a woman who hunted Spawn. Normally such creations would be a work for hire but Image comics, the publisher of Spawn, is founded on the principle of creator’s rights and doesn’t use such contracts. As a result, Gaiman owned the creations prompting McFarlane, according to Gaiman, to create knock offs for use in later books. This dispute is ongoing at the same time as a related spat between the two over the graphic novel Miracleman, which has been halted pending this copyright litigation.

3: Coldplay Allows ‘Glee’ To Use Its Songs

Finally today, in something of a follow-up to the previous story on Glee and copyright, the group Radiohead, which had originally resisted the shows requests to allow their music to be used has reversed their previous decision and has opened up their entire back catalog to the series. According to the show’s producers, Radiohead and Bryan Adams were the only rejections they had received.

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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