3 Count: Blurred Appeal

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

1: Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams Appeal ‘Blurred Lines’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

First off today, Tim Kenneally at Pamela Chelin at TheWrap reports that Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. have filed an appeal in the Blurred Lines case, hoping to overturn a jury verdict that the song was an infringement.

The trio were sued by the estate of Marvin Gaye, which believed the song to be an infringement of Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. When the case made it to trial, the jury found that Thicke and Williams had infringed Gaye’s work and awarded $7.4 million to the estate. That amount was later reduced to $5.3 million by the judge but the verdict was not overturned nor was a new trial granted.

In addition to the millions owed, the judgment also called of half of all Blurred Lines royalties to be paid to the Gaye estate. As a result, Thicke and Williams are appealing the ruling though attorneys for the Gaye estate are confident the original ruling will be upheld.

2: Museum Sues Wikimedia for Hosting Copyrighted Photos of Its Public-Domain Artworks

Next up today, Benjamin Sutton at Hyperallergic repots that the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Germany has filed a lawsuit against the Wikimedia Foundation for making available high-resolution images of public domains paintings taken by their staff photographer.

At issue is a group of 17 photos of paintings uploaded by Wikimedia contributor Andreas Praefcke that the museum claims were taken by its staff photographer, Jean Christen. According to the museum, while it agrees the paintings themselves are public domain, it believes the photographs are owned by them and that hosting them is an infringement.

In addition to the lawsuit filed against the Wikimedia Foundation, the museum has also sued Wikimedia Deutschland. The organization is the first to sue Wikimedia over such images though others have threatened, including a museum in the UK that eventually struck a licensing deal with the foundation.

3: EU Outlines Copyright Laws that Could Hit Tech Firms

Finally today, Arjun Kharpal at CNBC reports that the European Union executive branch has proposed legislation that would require rightsholders to grant subscribers access to legally-obtained content wherever they travel in the EU.

Currently, if you are a Netflix subscriber in the UK but travel to Germany, while you’re there you will be limited to the content Netflix has in Germany. With the new proposal, which will be outlined in greater detail next year, you would be able to view your native country’s content, even as you travel.

While the proposition isn’t a true single-market proposal as it doesn’t mean the same content is available for sale in all countries, it does mean that it can be ported from nation to nation with in the bloc legally, creating challenges for streaming services that depend heavily on geolocation to block unauthorized viewers.

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.