3 Count: S&M 2

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1: Rihanna Facing Another S & M Lawsuit From Second Photographer

First off today, the musician Rihanna and her label are facing a second copyright infringement lawsuit over the her music video for the song “S&M”. Photographer Phillip Paulus sued the singer after settlement negotiations broke down claiming that the video too closely imitates several of his photographs, recreating key elements of them, including the set and staging. Paulus follows in the footsteps of another photographer, David LaChapelle, who sued Rihanna for similar reasons in February. Rihanna and her label had no comment on the suit.

2: Site Admin To Pay $185,000 Damages For Providing Keywords

Next up today, a Frenchman by the name of Sébastien Budin is being ordered to pay some 130,000 euros ($185,000) in damages to the movie studios for a site he used to run, Station-Divx. The fine, which was recently upheld by an appeals court, is unusual because Budin never provided links to infringing material nor did he offer files for download on his site. Instead, his site was a guide for keywords that one could search for on the eMule file sharing network. Budin has been convicted now in two courts of contributory copyright infringement for his actions and, in addition to the damages, faces a 3,000 euro ($4,200) fine and a 1 year suspended sentence. Budin plans to appeal the decision to the EU courts.

3: Righthaven Says It Owns News Articles It’s Suing Over — for Real This Time

Finally today, after suffering setbacks in three of their cases, Righthaven is asking the judge to reopen its case against Democratic Underground claiming that they have amended their contract with Stephens Media and have grounds to sue now. According to the company, which has filed over 200 lawsuits against websites that have reused content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post, the agreement between them and Stephens Media, the mutual parent of them and the Review-Journal, has been amended to give them the needed standing to sue, the grounds on which the judge previously tossed their claim. However, the judge in earlier hearings did not seem to impressed with the changes, calling them “cosmetic” making it debatable if the new agreement is adequate in her eyes.

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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