3 Count: Love Me Do

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

1: Paul McCartney Files Suit for Return of Song Copyright

First off today, Deepti Hajela at The Associated Press reports that Paul McCartney has filed suit in New York City seeking the return of his copyrights for many of his older works that were co-written with John Lennon.

The process is known as copyright reversion (sometimes copyright termination) and is a provision of U.S. law that allows creators to reclaim the rights to works they had licensed or even transferred earlier in their careers, often when the works were worth much less.

Lawyers representing McCartney have filed for reversion for dozens of Beatles songs that he wrote with John Lennon. If the reversion takes place, it would begin in October 2018, with the song Love Me Do, and continue until 2026. However, a recent UK ruling has found that copyright reversion goes against UK contract law, making many UK creators ineligible to go through the process.

2: No Worries Copyright Case Dismissed

Next up today, The Daily Express reports that a copyright case in Trinidad and Tobago over the song No Worries has been dismissed, setting local precedent for the parts of a song that can and can not be protected under copyright.

Local group The Harts filed the lawsuit claiming that the song’s chorus, which included the lyrics “wine with no worries” repeated, was the same chorus as a song they had produced. They targeted disc jockeys and producers who were responsible for the song.

However, the court ruled that the simple phrase had no copyright protection, noting that variations of the phrase had been used in many songs. The judge dismissed the case, ordering the plaintiffs to pay the defendant’s legal costs.

3: Piracy Survey: 39% of U.S. Consumers Don’t Care That Studios Lose Money From Illegal Sharing

Finally today, Todd Spangler at Variety reports that a new survey commissioned by Irdeto shows that, while 32% of consumers admitted to viewing pirated content, 39% said that they did not care that piracy harmed creators.

The survey, which included some 1,190 adults 18 and older was conducted by YouGov. It revealed that 74% of consumers recognized that producing and sharing pirated video content was illegal while only 69% agreed that streaming or downloading was illegal.

Irdeto says the survey shows that creators need to continue their efforts to educate consumers about piracy and do more to promote legitimate alternatives.

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.