3 Count: Game Over

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1: Led Zeppelin Loses Fight for Legal Fees in ‘Stairway’ Case

First off today, Brian Melley at the Associated Press reports that Led Zeppelin, despite emerging victorious in the Stairway to Heaven lawsuit, will not receive attorneys fees as the judge has found that the lawsuit was not frivolous and, thus, the plaintiffs do not owe legal expenses.

The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Randy Wolfe, the lead guitarist of the band Spirit, who wrote the song Taurus. According to the lawsuit, the intro to Stairway to Heaven was based on Taurus and was a copyright infringement. However, the jury disagreed, ruling in favor of the band.

Lawyers for Led Zeppelin had sought some $793,000 in legal fees for pursuing the case after their insurance declined covering the claim. However, the judge denied that motion saying that there was no evidence the plaintiffs “harbored nefarious motives” and that the lawsuit had enough merit to move forward. The jury verdict has already been appealed.

2: ‘League of Legends’ Game Publisher Targets Hackers and Cheaters in Lawsuit

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Riot Games, the publisher of the popular video game League of Legends (LoL) has filed a lawsuit against the operators of a service entitled LeagueSharp (L#) that enables users to cheat in LoL through various means.

According to the lawsuits, L# allows users to access hidden information, automate game elements and otherwise advance farther in the game than what is possible for a human. They also say that the defendants have disseminated personal information about a Riot employee, threatened that employee and posted offensive comments.

The lawsuit claims that, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, L# is a violation of the law’s anti-circumvention provisions that prohibit the removal of copyright protection tools. Riot is also claiming that L# violates their terms of service and and is committing tortious interference.

3: Metroid 2 Fan Remake Finally Released, Quickly Hit With Copyright Claims

Finally today, Allegra Frank at Polygon reports that Nintendo has shuttered a fan remake of Metroid 2 entitled Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R), that was previously released on PC.

AM2R was a fan remake that had been in development since 2012. It was intended to remake the game Metroid II: The Return of Samus, the official sequel to the popular Metroid game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. AM2R was released on August 6th, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original Metroid, but now Nintendo is seeking removal of the game citing copyright violations.

Nintendo has said that the game uses assets from other Nintendo games including characters, trademarks and other content. While they did not explain why they waited until after the game was released to take action, they said that they preparing their own new Metroid release, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, which will be released for the Nintendo 3DS later this month.

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.