3 Count: Nine Across

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1: Take Two Won a Legal Ruling About LeBron James’ Tattoo That Could Have Cost it Billions

First off today, Reuters is reporting that Take Two Games, the makers of the NBA 2K video game series, successfully won dismissal of statutory damages in a lawsuit filed by tattoo parlor Solid Oak Sketches over tattoos on many of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) biggest names.

According to the lawsuit, the parlor produced tattoos for several NBA stars including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Those tattoos were then depicted in the NBA 2K games without permission, prompting the copyright infringement lawsuit.

However, Take Two successfully won the dismissal of statutory damages claims. According to the judge, Solid Oak didn’t register the works involved until 2015, two years after Take Two began using the tattoos in games. As such, the judge ruled Solid Oak did not qualify for statutory damages but could still pursue actual damages, which are likely to be much smaller.

2: Delhi High Court Orders Blocking of 73 Websites Over Piracy Suit

Next up today, the Press Trust of India is reporting that The Delhi High Court has ordered some 73 websites to be blocked in the country, accusing the sites of engaging in “rank piracy” that could not be adequately remedied by blocking individual URLs.

The company seeking the block, Star India, put the case in 2014 and the court then ordered the blocking of all the sites. However, following an appeal by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, a government agency in India, the appeals court decided that only the specific URLs involved needed to be blocked.

This resulted in Star India appealing it yet again, with The Delhi High Court now ruling that the blocking of the whole sites is reasonable and appropriate. The court cited the thousands of URLs that needed blocking and the widespread piracy on the sites involved.

3: Pensioner Fills in Crossword Puzzle Art Exhibit, Claims Copyright of “New” Work

Finally today, Glyn Moody at Ars Technica reports that, in Germany, a 90-year-old woman mistakenly filled in parts of a crossword-themed art exhibit by artist Arthur Köpcke and, in the process, claims to hold a copyright in the new work.

The incident happened when the woman, only named as Hannelore K, visited Nuremberg’s Neues Museum. The piece was on loan to the museum from a private collector. K, reading the instructions on the crossword, which were in English, took it as an invitation to start filling it out and did so before being stopped.

She is currently under investigation by police for accusations of damaging property but, through her lawyer, is making the argument that her additions added value to the work and, furthermore, that she holds copyright to the combined artwork. Essentially, K is arguing that the new work is a collaboration with Köpcke and further claims that, if the museum restores it to its original state, the may sue.

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.