3 Count: Booked and Scanned

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Appeals Court Backs Google in Copyright Lawsuit Over Book Scanning

First off today, Jacob Freshman at the Wall Street Journal reports that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Google in the Google Book Search case, backing a lower court in ruling that the service is a fair use and is not a copyright infringement of the authors its scans.

Google Book Search is a project by Google to scan and index millions of print books. It does so to put them in a search engine, similar to what it does to web pages, and displays snippets of books in results. However, access to non-puboilc domain books is limited. Still, both the Authors Guild and the Publishers Guild filed suit against Google over the project. The sides reached multiple potential settlements that were rejected by the courts, prompting the Publishers Guild to seek a smaller settlement and the Authors Guild to fight on.

In the decision, the Appeals Court highlighted the “public benefit” that Google Book Search has, saying that creates a virtual card catalog of all the world’s books. The ruling also said that Google book Search is highly transformative and is not a substitute for the original works.

2: Network Executives Want Empire Lawsuit Dismissed

Next up today, Contact Music reports that Fox has asked a judge to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against them and “Empire” creator Lee Daniels Ron Newt by musician Ron Newt, who claims that “Empire” is based on him and his life.

Newt had written a 2006 film entitled “Bigger Than Big: The Documentary of Ron Newt and & the MCA Music Scandal” based on his life. He now says that “Empire” is based on his work but Fox is saying that the two works are not substantially similar, meaning that there is no possibility of copyright infringement.

Fox also points to other issues with the lawsuit including what it considers to be a defective copyright registration and the lack of any alleged agreement between the parties.

3: Tokyo 2020 Organizers Launch Fresh Search for Olympic Logo

Finally today, Andrew McKirdy at The Japan Times reports that organizers for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo have begun their search anew for a logo for the games. The first winning logo was scrapped last month following accusations of plagiarism.

In July, a Belgian designer alleged that the logo chosen for the games was a rip off work he had done for a theater. That first logo was designed by Kenjiro Sano and was chosen after a lengthy contest that was limited to only high-profile designers.

However, the new contest will be much more open with all residents of Japan, including foreign nationals, being able to submit entries. The logos will be judged by a panel that will include both IT and trademark experts to help avoid a repeat of the first contest.

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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.