3 Count: All Dragons, No Dungeons

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1: ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Legal Settlement Paves Way for New Movie

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that all of the parties in the Dungeons & Dragons movie dispute have reached a settlement, paving the way for a new Warner Brothers movie to begin production.

The dispute began when Warner Brothers sought to acquire the rights to the franchise from Hasbro, which ended up taking an offer from Universal Pictures instead. However, Warner discovered that Hasbro previously had sold the film rights to Sweetpea Entertainment, which caused Warner to seek the rights from them.

Hasbro, however, claimed Sweetpea lost the rights to the film. Claiming that the contract required them to regularly produce new Dungeons & Dragons films. Though Sweetpea had only done one theatrical release in 1994, they claimed to have complied with the contract by releasing made-for-TV films in the mean time. This dispute led to a trial in October of last year, but the judge declined to issue a ruling, hoping the sides would reach an agreement. That strategy seems to have worked as the settlement resolves all of the issues and allows the Warner Brothers film to move forward.

2: Foxtel Set to Launch Legal Action ‘in Coming Months’ to Block Websites Like The Pirate Bay in Australia

Next up today, Will Ockernden at ABC News reports that, in Australia, cable TV provider Foxtel is preparing to launch a legal case to put the country’s new site blocking provisions to use and will target sites like The Pirate Bay, seeking to have them blocked within the country.

The law was passed in June with great urgency through Parliament. However, since then no rightsholders have brought forth cases to have websites blocked, prompting many to question the haste with which it was passed.

However, Foxtel claims to be working on such a lawsuit currently and other rightsholders have responded saying that the law has a high evidentiary standard that makes any such litigation expensive and complex. ISPs in the country, however, have said that they are not aware of any imminent cases.

3: To Some, Beijing Olympics Song Is Suspiciously Similar to Ballad From Disney’s ‘Frozen’

Finally today, Didi Kirsten Tatlow at The New York Times reports that The Snow and Ice Dance, one of the 10 official songs for the Beijing Winter Olympics, is facing criticism that it bears too close of a resemblance to the song Let it Go from the Disney film Frozen.

The 2022 Olympic games were awarded to Beijing on July 31, making it the second Olympics the city will host in in 14 years. But while the Beijing bid and award drew a great deal of criticism, the focus on the site song is new, with may commenters on the YouTube video noting the similarity between the Beijing Olympics song and the Disney hit and now many in the press taking interest.

Neither Disney nor a representative from the Beijing Games’ organizing committee responded to the allegations.

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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