3 Count: Speedy Turtle

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1: The Turtles Extend Their Copyright Fight to Pandora

First off today, Ben Sisario at The New York Times reports that Flo & Eddie of the 1960s band The Turtles have followed up on their success against SirusXM and have filed a similar lawsuit against Pandora, alleging that the Internet radio service has failed to pay royalties to them and other acts that recorded songs before 1972.

Pre-1972 sound recordings are not under federal copyright protection but, instead, are protected under a myriad of state laws. Flo & Eddie had sued SiriusXM alleging that the service had failed the give them, and others, royalties for their recordings. Last week a judge ruled that California law does protect public performances of music and, as such, SiriusXM should have paid royalties for the music.

SiriusXM has said that they will appeal the ruling but Flo & Eddie are not waiting and have filed a similar lawsuit against online radio service Pandora. Pandora, in a comment, said that they are still very confident in their legal position and note that they have been paying songwriters, whose work is covered under federal law, for plays.

2: In Plot Twist, Jenni Rivera’s Family Now Suing Late Singer’s Manager Over Book

Next up today, Eriq Garnder at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the family of Jenni Rivera, a pop star who died in a 2012 plane crash, has filed a lawsuit against the star’s former manager, Laura Lucio for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit stems from a biography of Rivera that was unfinished at the time of her death. Lucio had previously sued the family alleging that it took content she had written and published it in a book entitled “Unbreakable”. However, following some wrangling over jurisdiction and what was actually being sued over, the case went to the California state court, rather than a federal court, which has jurisdiction to hear a copyright claim.

However, the family has now filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Lucio. The lawsuit claims that the material in the book was subject to a 2007 agreement between Rivera and Lucio, which assigned all rights to Rivera. Therefore, according to the lawsuit, when Lucio registered her work with the Writer’s Guild of America’s registry, she violated the rights of the family.

3: Google Responds to Lawsuit Threat Over Celebrity Nude Photo Hack

Finally today, Rex Santus at Mashable reports that Google has responded to an attorney’s letter threatening the search giant with a lawsuit for failure to remove photos from the recent nude celebrity photo leak scandal.

According to Google, they have removed tens of thousands of the photos from their various properties, including their search engine, and often within a few hours. Google went on to say that it responds to all legitimate notices of copyright infringement, including over the nude celebrity photos, but said that many requests for removal were not valid.

The original letter came from Marty Singer, a prominent attorney who claims to be representing several of those who had their photos leaked in the incident, though it is unclear which of those involved she wrote the letter for.

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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