3 Count: Zimmered Up

Zimmer vs. Courtroom

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

1: Hans Zimmer Scores Win in ’12 Years a Slave’ Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that composer Hans Zimmer has emerged victorious in his lawsuit against fellow composer Richard Friedman, with Friedman both apologizing for filing the lawsuit and paying damages.

Friedman sued Zimmer claiming that Zimmer’s score from the film 12 Years a Slave was taken from his 2004 work entitled To Our Fallen. However, Zimmer denied the claims and hit back in court.

In a statement from Zimmer, he claims his defense team showed Friedman evidence that he was mistaken and that prompted Friedman to drop the lawsuit, apologize for filing it and pay damages.

2: Twitter Bans User Over Olympic GIF

Next up today, Don Reisinger at PC Magazine reports that Jim Weber, a journalist and contributor to Athlon Sports, has had his Twitter account banned and then unbanned by Twitter for his posting of GIFs from the Olympics.

Reisinger admits to routinely posting GIFs of various sporting events and that some have been removed in the past. However, after posting the Olympics GIF, Twitter received a copyright complaint from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which prompted it to suspend his account on the grounds he was a repeat infringer.

After the story began to gain publicity, Twitter reinstated his account but emphasized that, as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they have to have a policy to terminate repeat infringers. Twitter claims that IOC’s complaint against Reisinger pushed him over the boundary of their policy.

3: Mozilla Starts Petition to Reform Copyright Laws

Finally today, Jan Wilem Aldershoff at Myce reports that the Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit that’s behind the Firefox web browser, has started a petition for European citizens to try and force updates to copyright law in the EU that they say is needed to modernize it.

The petition focuses on three specific elements. First the organization wants an EU-wide fair use provision, which currently does not exist, a right to panorama, so that all EU landmarks can be photographed freely and a vow to not allow future legislation to harm the Internet, which includes not restricting hyperlinks or requiring licensing fees to upload content.

Interested EU citizens can sign the petition at Mozilla’s advocacy site.

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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