3 Count: Mission Unpossible

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1: Tom Cruise Lawyer Dismisses ‘Bizarre’ $1bn Mission: Impossible Plagiarism Claim

First off today, the BBC is reporting that actor Tom Cruise and producer JJ Abrams are facing a $1 billion lawsuit over his latest “Mission: Impossible” film, “Ghost Protocol”.

The lawsuit was filed by screenwriter Timothy Patrick McLanahan, who claims that the film was based on his 1998 script “Head On”. McLanahan claims that his script was shopped around without his permission and, at some point, landed in the hands of Cruise and his producers.

McLanahan reached the $1 billion figure based on an estimate of how much the film has grossed. However, Cruise’s lawyers say that the case will be “quickly dismissed”.

2: Liberal Ad Pulled from YouTube Over Copyright Breach

Next up today, Richard Willingham at The Age reports that, in Australia, an advertisement by the nation’s Liberal Party was pulled from YouTube within hours of publication due to a copyright complaint.

The ad attacked their rivals, the Labor Party, over recent corruption allegations. To make its point, it used clips from TV news reports by the ABC in an ad that was themed “Same old Labor”.

However, the clip was removed due to complaints from ABC, which said that the ad violated their copyright. They went on to say that they would never have approved their footage to be used for that purpose.

3: Film Academy Sues Over ‘Counterfeit Replica’ Oscar Statuettes

Finally today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization responsible for the Academy Awards, has filed a suit against Jaime De La Rosa, a Texas man that they say was making and selling replicas of their iconic “Oscar” statutes.

According to the Academy, they contacted De La Rosa and explained that the replicas were infringing. They demanded he surrender all replicas in his possession. He then sent them a single statuette along with a declaration that he had only made seven, six of which he sold. However, the Academy says that the declaration was false, noting that he has four other statuettes on sale in his eBay store and sold another on his Etsy account.

De La Rosa sold his replicas on eBay for $850 and the one on his Etsy account reportedly sold for $5,000. The Academy is suing for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and false representation among other claims.

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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