3 Count: Porn and Hippos

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1: ‘Deep Throat’ Production Company Loses ‘Lovelace’ Copyright Case

First off today, Nate Raymond at Reuters reports that a judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Arrow Productions Ltd. against The Weinstein Company, the group that produced the movie “Lovelace”, a biographical film about the life of “Deep Throat” star Linda Lovelace.

Arrow Productions owns the rights to the original pornographic film “Deep Throat” and alleged that “Lovelace” reproduced several key scenes from the original film without permission. However, The Weinstein Company argued that the reproductions were a fair use, necessary to tell the story of the film’s star.

The judge agreed with The Weinstein Company, saying that the use was transformative and that it constituted a fair use. The judge also tossed other claims made by Arrow, including trademark claim against the use of of “Linda Lovelace” and “Deep Throat”, trademarks owned by Arrow. The judge had already declined to prevent “Lovelace” from being released, which it did in 2013.

2: Universal Music Sues Over VH1 DJ Competition Series

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Universal Music has filed a lawsuit against Je T’Aime Media Group, the producer of a VH1 series Masters of the Mix alleging that the show failed to clear rights for Universal Music recordings and compositions when producing the third season of the reality TV show.

The show, which is in its third season, features DJs battling for a $250,000 prize and the title of DJ of the year. According to Universal, the show correctly licensed its music for the first two seasons but, for whatever reason, failed to do so for the third. As a result, Universal is seeking up to $150,000 in damages for at least 115 recordings and 93 compositions that have been featured in the show this year, totally over $31 million in damages.

In addition to the copyright claims, Universal is making common law misappropriation claims for pre-1972 sound recordings. VH1 and its parent company Viacom are not listed as defendants in this case.

3: A Big Stink over a CBS hippo

Finally today, Richard Morgan at the New York Post reports that Folkmanis, a California-based puppet company, has filed a lawsuit against CBS and others over the sale of a “farting hippo” that has been prominently featured on the popular TV show NCIS.

According to Folkmanis, over the past season NCIS has been featuring Hippo 1, a puppet they produce, on the show as an ongoing joke that is presented with a farting sound effect. CBS began selling their own version of the puppet in their store with the sound effect included. However, Folkmanis refers to these replacement puppets as “slavish copies” and claim that they have lost nearly three-quarters of a million in profits.

CBS has not responded to the lawsuit but the page where the CBS version was for sale has been removed, the product listed as unavailable.

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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