3 Count: Girls-less

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

1: GoldieBlox Pulls Beastie Boys Song From Viral Ad

First off today, Todd Wasserman at Mashable reports that GoldieBlox, the toy company that created the “Girls” viral video, has set the controversial video to private and reuploaded a new version, one that doesn’t make use of music from the group The Beastie Boys.

The video created controversy by using an altered version of The Beastie Boys’ song “Girls”, one with positive lyrics. They sued the band shortly after posting the video alleging that the group threatened them but The Beastie Boys, in an open letter, said that the lawsuit was without provocation and that they had only written to enquire about what had happened.

The video in question was marked as private and a new video uploaded in its place, one with completely different and lyric-free background music. In a post to the GoldieBlox blog, the company’s founder, Debra Sterling, said that they were “completely unaware” Adam Yauch, a recently-deceased member of the group, had requested the band’s music never be used in advertising and removed the video to respect this wishes, despite believing the use to be a fair one. They also said that they will agree to stop the lawsuit so long as there’s no further threats from the band.

2: Marvin Gaye’s Oldest Son Claims Robin Thicke Copied Four Songs

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Marvin Gaye’s eldest sone, Marvin Gaye III, has filed a second countersuit against Robin Thicke, joining another countersuit filed by Frankie Chistian Gay and Nona Gay, who filed their joint countersuit in October.

At issue is Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines”, which the Gaye family believe is an infringement of Marvin Gaye’s song “Got to Give it Up”. After various legal threats, Thicke preemptively sued the Gaye family, prompting the first countersuit. Gaye III is now filing a separate countersuit and, in addition to “Blurred Lines”, is claiming that three other Thicke songs are also rip offs of Gaye’s previous work.

But despite allegations of copying on four songs, Gaye III is only bringing copyright claims on two, “Blurred Lines” and “Love After War”, the latter of which he claims is an infringement of Gaye’s “After The Dance”. Those are the exact same claims the other siblings have raised, but the separate lawsuits indicates a division in the Gaye family, one that could complicate settlement negotiations.

3: The License That Rules the Web Just Got a Major Update

Finally today, Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic reports that the Creative Commons Organization has announced a new version of its copyright licenses, version 4.0.

Creative Commons Licenses are used by sites, including this one, to grant readers a broad license to reuse the content in certain, limited ways. The new version of the license aims to address several issues that were present in the previous, including database rights in the EU and clarification of the attribution requirement, expressly allowing the use of a “credits” page.

The new license also addresses an issue where a licensee could permanently lose his or or her right to use a work forever by violating the terms of the license, even if the violation was accidental and also improves internationalization, using just one license for all countries.

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 5 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.