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1: Judge Cuts $7.4 Million ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Award to Gaye Family
First off today, Andrew Chung at Reuters reports that the judge in the Blurred Lines case has reduced the total award by $2 million, but has also added liability to the rapper T.I. and at least some of the labels involved. The judge also rejected a bid for a new trial and granted the Gaye estate 50% royalties for future earnings from the song.
The lawsuit began after the Marvin Gaye estate began to make public statements that they felt he Robin Thicke/Pharrell Wiliams song Blurred Lines was an infringement of Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. That prompted Thicke and Williams to proactively sue but, once the case reached a jury trial, the jury sided with the Gaye estate, awarding it $7.4 million in damages.
The judge, however, has ruled that award was excessive and pared it down to $5.3 million. However, T.I., who was featured on the track but escaped liability during the jury trial, was added by the judge. The judge also declined to issue an injunction against further use of Blurred Lines but, instead, granted a 50% royalty to the Gaye estate. Thicke and Williams had also sought a new trial but the judge ruled that they failed to provide any valid reason for granting one.
2: Photog Says Kendrick Lamar Stole His Pic To Promote “To Pimp A Butterfly”
Next up today, Bossip reports that musician Kendrick Lamar is being sued by photographer Giordano Cipriani, who claims that Lamar used his photograph as the promo image for his single for The Blacker the Berry.
According to the lawsuit, Cipriani took the photo, which features a mother breast feeding two children, in Ethiopia in 2011. The work went on to be featured in multiple publications and licensed by various agencies. However, he alleges that Lamar used the photo without such a license including on his social media pages.
Lamar’s YouTube channel was recently suspended due to repeated claims of copyright infringement. It’s unclear if that’s related to this story but the lawsuit mentions that the image was featured on Lamar’s YouTube page.
3: Major UK Copyright Education Campaign Launched
Finally today, Colin Mann at Advanced Television reports that Creative Content UK, a collaborative effort between UK rightsholders and ISPs, is launching a new educational campaign aimed to raise awareness of copyright and encourage legal use of content.
The educational program is aimed at 16-24 year olds, their parents and those responsible for household Internet connections. It’s aimed at teaching users how to find and access legitimate content as well as subscriber alerts program, which will alert Internet users if their account is used to share copyright infringing content.
The campaign will also feature advertisements, a PR campaign and a social media campaign to attempt to reach all of the a target audience.
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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