3 Count: Tattoo Removal

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

1: ZeniMax is Suing Samsung After Winning its Case Against Oculus

First off today, Adi Robertson at The Verge reports that VR gaming company ZeniMax has filed a lawsuit against Samsung accusing the cell phone giant of copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition and unjust enrichment over their alleged use of ZeniMax code in making the Gear VR.

The move comes on the heels of a win in a similar case against Facebook-owned Oculus. In that case, ZeniMax alleged that John Carmack, the former head of id Software, sold his company to Oculus but then shared his technology with Oculus. Oculus then shared it with Samsung, who created the “Oculus Powered” Gear VR.

The original lawsuit is still being appealed. In this case, ZeniMax will have to prove that Samsung was an accessory to Oculus’ misconduct as there is no evidence they stole any code directly. However, the original case is still unfolding with appeals.

2: Judge to Decide Vexing Question in Entertainment: License Needed to Show Body Tattoos?

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a judge is allowing Take-Two to file counterclaims in a lawsuit over the appearance of tattoos in video games.

The lawsuit was filed by Solid Oak Sketches, a company that owns the copyright to several tattoos that appear on NBA stars including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. They had filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement of their art in Take-Twos NBA games but Take-Two responded saying that they wanted a judicial declaration that the use of the tattoos is both fair use and de minimis use (meaning too small for the court to be concerned with).

The issue of tattoos in other media has come up before. Once in the film the Hangover 2, which was settled, and video game pubilsher THQ, which was not settled before the company went bankrupt. Neither case successfully answered the questions being asked in this one.

3: Texas Court Orders Temporary ‘Pre-Piracy’ Shutdown of Sports Streaming Sites

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Times Content Limited (TCL), the company with the U.S. broadcasting rights to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, has gotten a Texas court to order an injunction against several third party sites before they started streaming the matches.

The order compelled domain registries, hosting companies, CDN services and others to cease cooperation with a series of sites that, according to TCL, had planned on streaming the matches illegally. The injunction is unique in that it aims to stop infringement before it takes place, rather than cease ongoing infringement.

The injunction ends on May 22, after the tournament is over. Until then the service providers are prohibited from working with the sites. On the 22nd, the injunction may be lifted if the court or TCL chooses.

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.