3 Count: Not So Elementary

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

1: EA and Zynga Settle The Ville Copycat Case out of Court

First off today, Frank Cifaldi at Gamasutra writes that Electronic Arts (EA) and Zynga have settled their dispute and are leaving the terms undisclosed.

EA sued Zynga claiming that Zynga’s game “The Ville” was too close to their game “The Sims Social”. This prompted Zynga to hit back claiming that EA was engaging in anticompetitive practices, including prohibiting EA employees from working at Zynga.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed however the case was dismissed “with prejudice”, meaning that it can not be brought back up. Also, both sides are paying their own legal bills. Zynga is reported to be “pleased” with the settlement terms.

2: Book Editor vs. Doyle Estate: Is Sherlock Holmes Still in Copyright?

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter writes that a book editor is suing the estate of Sir Author Conan Doyle seeking a declamatory judgment that the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain.

The lawsuit was filed by Leslie Klinger who, with his co-editor, is working on a book entitled “In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, a sequel to his earlier book “Annotated Sherlock Holmes”. However, before the book could be published, the Doyle estate contacted Leslie and her publisher demanding a licensing fee. This prompted the publisher to pull out of the work.

Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories were published between 1887 and 1927, with all works before 1923 being, most likely, in the public domain. However, a few of the stories, which compose “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes”, are likely protected by copyright but Klinger is arguing that the character was established in the earlier public domain works and thus the character himself is no longer protected by copyright.

3: Anti-Piracy Group to The Pirate Bay: We Want You To Sue Us!

Finally today, Enigmax at Torrentfreak writes that the finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC has responded to The Pirate Bay’s legal threats encouraging them to follow through with them.

The Pirate Bay threatened to sue the CIAPC after the organization created a parody site of The Pirate Bay, one showing the site’s logo as a ship sinking and linking to legitimate downloads, using orignal CSS and HTML code from The Pirate Bay.

The CIAPC has said that it welcomes the lawsuit as it would require The Pirate Bay to lift its veil of anonymity, opening up other legal action against its leadership. In the meantime, according to another article, The Pirate Bay has reported the CIAPC to the Finnish police .

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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