3 Count: Judicial J

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

1: Jessie J beats copyright appeal over smash hit ‘Domino’

First off today, Jonathan Stempel at Reuters reports that British singer Jessie J has emerged victorious at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as the court upholds a lower court ruling that found she did not commit copyright infringement in her hit song Domino.

The lawsuit was filed by composer Will Loomis, who claimed that he provided a copy of his 2008 song Bright Red Chords to people in Jessie J’s management team. He claimed they then went on to use portions of the song when creating Domino. However, the district court said that Loomis had failed to prove that anyone connected with Jessie J had access to his work and, as such, dismissed the case.

The Appeals Court upheld that dismissal, finding that it was appropriate and that Loomis had not presented enough evidence of access to move the case forward.

2: Viewing Pirated Films Online Not an Offense: Bombay HC

Next up today, Swati Deshpandel at The Times of India reports that the Bombay High Court has ruled that merely viewing or accessing an infringing work online is not a copyright infringement. Instead, the infringement is in making the work available that is an infringement.

The ruling comes after the court ordered local ISPs to clarify why sites were being blocked when they are denying access to a site following a court order. In India, courts can order providers to block sites that engage in copyright infringement but, until recently, blocked sites had no indication as to why.

However, at least some of the nation’s ISPs posted warnings saying that attempting to access blocked websites was a copyright infringement. The court is now providing specific languages that the ISPs should use when blocking a site under the copyright act and is requiring them to take additional steps to deal with complaints that the blocks may generate.

3: No Mario’s Sky Has Relaunched Due to Copyright Claim

Finally today, Matt Porter at IGN reports that the fan-made game No Mario’s Sky was taken down just hours after it was put online but has since re-emerged sans the alleged infringing elements.

The game was meant to be a parody of the recent game No Man’s Sky by combining the mechanics of that game with characters and platforming from classic Mario games. Unfortunately for the developers, shortly after No Mario’s Sky was released, Nintendo took action to get the game removed.

However, the game was re-released under the name DMCA’s Sky. The new game, instead of having Mario searching for his princess, has “Spaceman Finn” searching for “Princess Mango” as well as other renamed and re-skinned characters.

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.

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