3 Count: Coming to a Radiohead

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1: Family of Trumpton Creator Angry Over New Radiohead Video Which Uses Characters from Children’s TV Classic in Twisted ‘Witchcraft’ Story

First off today, Chris Hastings at The Daily Mail reports that family members of Gordon Murray, the creator of the popular Trumpton kids cartoons in the UK, have lashed out at Radiohead for their parody of the series in their latest music video. The family are calling the video a copyright infringement and saying that they are weighing their next options.

The original Trumpton series aired in the 1960s and was a kids stop motion animation cartoon that featured family-friendly characters in a loving town. Radiohead, for their Burn the Witch music video, created a more diabolical version filled with “Pagan” rituals and human sacrifice.

Murray’s son in law said that he considers the video to be tarnishing to the reputation of the series and claims that Radiohead should have sought permission to make the video. He also said that he will not be showing the video to Murray, who is 95, saying that he would be disgusted.

2: UK Government Targets Google and Facebook in Piracy Crackdown

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced that it is investigating how search engines and social networks can help deter piracy and that, while they are seeking voluntary agreements to increase their efforts, that the IPO may turn to more forceful methods to get them to comply

The announcement follows several meetings between the UK government and tech companies, including Google and Facebook, on the issue of piracy. Though there was a push for a voluntary agreement, one hasn’t been reached but rightsholders, including the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), are pushing for the IPO to take stronger steps, specifically to require search engines not to allow content to reappear once it’s been removed by a notice.

BPI is asking the IPO and the UK government to look at possible amendments to the law that would place more requirements on search engines and social networks. However ,similar threats were made two years ago without any legislation being proposed.

3: PVR License Cancelled Due to Piracy Repercussions

Finally today, The Deccan Chronicle reports that Indian film producer Gnanavel Raja has announced that he is going on a hunger strike in response to the piracy of his most recent film, 24, and what he says is the industry’s lackluster response to copyright infringement.

The announcement follows a statement from Qube, a popular digital cinema provider in the country, that said the film was illegally recorded during a morning showing on May 6th, the day of the film’s release, at a PVR theater. Even worse it’s reported that the film was not recorded by the audience, but by a theater employee who used a separate cable.

Though they were able to identify the theater and showing through the forensic watermarking, that has done little to stop or slow widespread piracy of the film. In addition to the hunger strike, the film’s distributor has cancelled PVR’s license to show the film.

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.