3 Count: 3D Dispute

When 3D printing and eBay collide...

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

1: ‘Star Trek’ Fans Want Paramount, CBS to Do Better Job Explaining Franchise to Court

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the defendants in the Axanar lawsuit have filed a response asking that Paramount clarify what copyrights related to Star Trek it claims have been infringed and how the fan film infringes them.

Axanar is a Star Trek fan film that was launched on Kickstarter. Aiming to create a professional-quality movie. The film raised more than $600,000. However, Paramount, the owners of the rights to Star Trek, filed a lawsuit shortly after the Kickstarter ended claiming that the film infringes upon their copyrights in the series.

Despite the legal action, the creators of Axanar are not backing down. They have responded to the lawsuit and are asking for clarity as to what specific copyrights they are violating and questioning Paramount’s ownership of the series, saying that the ownership trail of the series is lengthy and confusing.

2: Japan Police Arrest 44 in Nationwide Internet Piracy Crackdown

Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that police in Japan have arrested some 44 people suspected of downloading and distributed copyrighted material without permission from rightsholders.

The arrests were the result of raids at over 90 different locations through out the country between February 16 and 18. Virtually all types of content creators were involved, including software, film and music.

Those arrested are accused of sharing content via “shared folder” style P2P applications and face fines between 200,000 and 10 million yen ($1,785 and $89,200). The move comes after a 2012 law that upgraded the downloading of infringing work to a potential criminal offense, though those involved in this raid, due to the nature of their file sharing system, were most likely both distributing and downloading pirated content.

3: ​MakerBot Responds to Shady eBay Store Selling Thingiverse Users’ 3D Models

Finally today, Scott J Grunewald at 3DPrint.com reports that an eBay store operated by the company Just3dprint has drawn the attention of Makerbot, the 3D printer manufacturer, which is preparing to take legal action against the company.

Earlier in the week it was discovered that Just3dprint had scraped Makerbot’s user-generated library of 3D designs, entitled Thingverse, and was selling 3D prints of the designs contained within. However, all of the objects being sold were licensed under a Creative Commons license that barred commercial use, making the sale a likely infringement.

Designers have been decrying the sale of their work but now, in a blog post responding to the story, Makerbot has said that it is preparing legal communication with the parties involved. However, Makerbot warned that, since it’s not the rightsholder to the objects being infringed, they will need the assistance of the actual creators to help stop the continued sale of their designs.

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.

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