3 Count: Balloon Ball

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

1: Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog Copyright Claim: A Dog That Wouldn’t Hunt

First off today the Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog” case has come to an end. Koons, an artist best known for his renditions of popular culture items, sued a small San Francisco museum and gift shop for copyright infringement after they began selling Balloon Dog-shaped bookends that, Koons said, were based on his famous sculpture. However, Koons has agreed to drop the case, solely asking that the gift shop make it clear that the sculptures are not officially licensed by Koons, something the shop says they never did. The shop’s only demand was that there be no confidentiality clause, which Koons apparently agreed to. Another upside for the shop is that sales of the bookends have increased from just 3 before the lawsuit to over 150.

2: China: Blacklist System to Monitor Copyright

Next up today, China’s National Copyright Administration (NCA) has said it will begin cracking down on video sharing sites that enable copyright infringement. According to the NCA, they will routinely check the top 18 video sharing sites, name any violators and, if they don’t heed warnings, will face either administrative penalty or criminal punishment. In response, at least one video site, VeryCD, removed all of their music download links.

3: ‘Whatever’: Band Okay with Music Piracy

Finally today, the critically-acclaimed New York Band Yeasayer has said that piracy is an “unavoidable reality” and they are fine with it as they “never expected to be making money off selling millions of albums”. According to the band, they are making their money from touring, touring they support by giving a large part of their music away for free on the site Hype Machine.

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.

Want to Reuse or Republish this Content?

If you want to feature this article in your site, classroom or elsewhere, just let us know! We usually grant permission within 24 hours.

Click Here to Get Permission for Free