3 Count: Too Screwed

Jonathan BaileyJune 24, 2011

2 minutes read

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

1: Government of Ireland Invites Feedback on Draft Copyright Regulations

First off today, Ireland is seeking feedback on new copyright legislation that it hopes will bring its country’s copyright code into compliance with EU directives. The legislation aims to codify both the safe harbor protection for ISPs but also provide injunctive relief against them, meaning that they can be ordered to block access to sites that are alleged to be infringing. The new legislation follows a lawsuit in which EMI sued to get The Pirate Bay blocked in the country but the court ruled they couldn’t force action because, while safe harbors had been codified into Irish law, the injunctive relief had not, meaning there were no grounds for the injunction.

2: Removal of Printed Photo Credit Qualifies as DMCA Violation, Court Says

Next up today, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a photograph attribution printed on the same page as an image constitutes copyright management information and its removal is a copyright infringement. The case stems from photographer Peter Murphy, who was hired in 2006 by New Jersey Monthly magazine to photograph local shock jocks Craig Carton and Ray Rossi for a “best of” edition of the magazine. The radio station Carton and Rossi work for took the image from the site and reused it on their page, inviting others to alter the photo. The lower court ruled that the use of the image was a fair use and the removal of the attribution line was not a removal of copyright management information but the Appeals Court reversed both of those decisions, setting the stage for this dispute to go to trial.

3: Kind of Screwed

Finally today entrepreneur Andy Baio had a vision for an album, a remake of Miles Davis’ album “Kind of Blue” made music from 80s video game consoles, commonly called “chiptune” songs. For the cover of the album, Baio had a friend create a pixel version of the original iconic cover, only to have the photographer of that image file a lawsuit against him claiming that it was an infringement of his work. Baio has settled the case for $32,500 saying he does not feel he did anything wrong but that this was merely the cheapest way to resolve the case and put it behind him. This case follows in the wake of other “appropriation art” cases such as the Shepard Fairey lawsuit over the Obama “Hope” poster.

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.