3 Count: What Nintendon’t

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1: Grooveshark’s Future in Doubt After Settlements With Big Music

First off today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that several former (and one current) Grooveshark employee has agreed to “consent judgments” to end litigation against them, raising questions about the future of Grooveshark as a company.

In late 2011, Universal Music Group sued the music streaming service Grooveshark claiming that it was infringing Universal-owned songs. Grooveshark claimed it was protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as the files were user uploaded, making it what Grooveshark considered a YouTube for audio, but Universal claimed that Grooveshark employees personally uploaded tracks to the service.

Universal, now joined by the other major record labels, has now reached a voluntary agreement with five individuals who were also a part of the lawsuit, including one current employee. However, at least two key individuals, Grooveshark’s co-founders Sam tarantino and Josh Greenberg have not signed an agreement. No settlement has been reached with the parent company either.

2: Nintendo Wants to Take YouTube Profits Back From its Players

Next up today, Yannick Lejacq at NBC News reports that Nintendo has announced that it has registered its content with YouTube’s ContentID system and, though it’s chosen not to block people using its intellectual property, it will begin to monetize it, displaying ads before and beside clips that contain Nintendo content.

The move has angered members of the “Let’s Play” community, a group of gamers who record playthroughs of video games with commentary. The community and popularity of such games have grown dramatically over the years and many are worried that Nintendo’s demands may start eating into their revenues, especially if other companies follow suit.

This move has resulted in many YouTube users boycotting posting videos of Nintendo games and have taken to social media to protest Nintendo’s actions, which has included placing their ads on existing videos. Nintendo has said that the move will only apply to videos that use their content “of a certain length” but failed to clarify what that length is.

3: WWE Can’t Escape Copyright Lawsuit Over Wrestler Entrance Music

Finally today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Papa Berg, a man who has written some of the most popular wrestler theme songs used by Vice McMahon’s Word Wrestling Entertainment, will be allowed to move his case forward despite efforts by the WWE to shut it down.

Berg sued the WWE claiming that he was denied royalties and rights to many of his through what he called “a systematic pattern of errors and omissions by WWE personnel”. The WWE sought to dismiss the suit claiming that Berg waited too long to file and that the lawsuit was not specific enough. However, though the judge removed some elements from the suit, allowed the bulk of it to continue.

Berg, who claims to have written such popular themes as “Badstreet USA”, “Man Called Sting” and “Simply Ravishing” among others, alleges that the WWE has unlawfully directed royalties away from him by claiming ownership of the songs and has interfered with at least one deal between him and a video game company seeking to use his music.

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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