3 Count: To Boldly Sue…
Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.
1: Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS
First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Paramount and CBS have filed a lawsuit against the would-be producers of the Star Trek-based Axanar, a crowd-funded fan film that aimed to be a “professional” Star Trek production.
The film was one of the most popular movie projects on Kickstarter, raising over $1 million. According to the film’s producers, the aim was to tell the story of Garth of Izar, a legendary Starfleet captain who was idolized by Captain Kirk, making it a prequel of the original series (assumedly of the new films).
Though Paramount has a history of tolerating most fan creations when it comes to Star Trek, it has decided in this case to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against the film as well as damages. The producers of the film, however, have said that they plan on defending the lawsuit.
2: Quentin Tarantino Slapped With $100 Million-Plus Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Django Unchained’
Next up today, Tim Kenneally at TheWrap reports that director Quentin Tarantino has been sued by two authors who claim that Tarantino infringed upon a screenplay that they wrote when he created the 2012 film Django Unchained.
According to the lawsuit, the two authors, Oscar Colvin Jr. and Torrrance J. Colvin, wrote a screenplay entitled Freedom that contained story elements similar to that of Django Unchained. They specifically cited story lines involving a slave trying to buy back freedom for his family and a white man who is helping him.
They claim that they submitted the scrip to the William Morris Agency and that Tarantino was discussed as an appropriate director for it. The lawsuit requests unspecified damages but Tarantino nor others named in the suit have responded.
3: Google confirms next Android version will use Oracle’s open-source OpenJDK for Java APIs
Finally today Emil Protalinski at VentureBeat reports that Google has begun replacing its implementation of the Java application programming interfaces (APIs) in Android with OpenJDK, an open source version of Oracle’s Java Development Kit.
Google and Oracle are currently embroiled in a legal battle over Google’s implementation of Java in Android. According to Oracle, Google violated Oracle’s copyright by copying APIs from Oracle to make it easier for programmers to write applications for Android. Google claimed APIs could not be copyrighted and, though the district court agreed, an appeals court overturned that portion of the decision.
However, the case is ongoing with Google also arguing that the use of APIs is a fair use and otherwise non-infringing. Google has not said whether the move is related to the lawsuit and also clarified that, in order to make OpenJDK work in Android, elements of Google’s original implementation will remain for the foreseeable future.
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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