3 Count: Weak Velcro

Jonathan BaileyAugust 11, 2010

2 minutes read

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

1: Claims Withdrawn in Two Bittorrent Piracy Cases

First off today, the U.S. Copyright Group, best known for filing its massive copyright lawsuits against suspected pirates of independent films has dropped two of its mass lawsuits. However, despite speculation that this could be a change in direction for the group, it turns out that the suits were dropped simply because the time limit to serve defendants has expired and the group is now proceeding to file individual suits against suspected file sharers. It is unclear when the next round of suits will be filed, but attorneys all over the U.S. have been contracted for this phase.

2: Private BitTorrent Tracker Hit Again By Movie Studio

Next up today, in a separate massive copyright action against alleged bittorrent pirates, porn company Lucas Entertainment has filed suit against some 53 more alleged file sharers. However, the suit is unique as it, as with their first such lawsuit, the private tracker Gay-Torrents. Most such lawsuits involve the use of public trackers, not private ones, raising still more questions about the relative “safety” of such trackers. Gay-Torrents, for their part, is wondering why Lucas did not file takedowns for the content as they have a policy for complying with such notices.

3: He Was Wearing Velcro, But the Lawsuit Didn’t Stick

Finally today, Sacha Baron Cohen, most famous for his movie “Borat”, has survived another legal battle. Writer John Musero had sued Cohen and others involved in the making of his movie “Bruno” saying that the movie bore a strong resemblance to a script that he wrote, “Himbos”, which included a scene where the lead character was in a velcro suit, similar to a scene in “Bruno”. However, a judge dismissed the lawsuit saying that the idea of a velcro suit is not protected by copyright.

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.