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1: Eleventh Circuit Joins Split Court Decisions on Registration Precondition for Copyright Suits
First off today, Edwin Komen at The National Law Review reports that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has joined a growing split on the issue of whether registration or application is required before filing a copyright infringement lawsuit.
The case in question pits Public Benefit Corporation against Wall-Street.com LLC. According to the lawsuit, Public Benefit Corporation gave the defendant a license to republish their articles but, when the license expired, they didn’t stop distribution. That prompted the plaintiff to sue even though they did not have a copyright registration in hand but had applied for their certificate.
Copyright registration is a requirement for filing a copyright infringement lawsuit in the U.S. However, there is a split among the circuits as to whether that is literal, meaning registration certificate in hand, or whether just an application is required. The Eleventh Circuit, with it’s ruling, joins the former camp, upholding the lower court’s dismissal of Public Benefit Corporation’s case.
2: Dish Network Sues ‘ZemTV’ and ‘TV Addons’ For Copyright Infringement
Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that U.S. satellite TV provider Dish Network has filed a lawsuit against Kodi add-on ZemTV and the add-on distribution site TVAddons.ag. The former is sued for direct copyright infringement of various Dish Network channels whlie the latter is being sued for distributing the ZemTV add on.
According to the lawsuit, ZemTV allows users to access a variety of Dish Network channels without payment or permission. It accuses ZemTV of retransmitting the channels via its add-on for the open source Kodi player.
The lawsuit is seeking $150,000 per infringement in damages but, according to TVAddons, the company has not contacted them directly about takedowns or the litigation. They said they had already removed ZemTV due to a technical issue prior to the lawsuit and it will not return to the site as the developer has said he has deleted it entirely.
3: Designer Destiney Bleu Accuses Khloé Kardashian’s Good American Jeans of Copying Her Designs
Finally today, Emily Kirkpatrick at People Style reports that designer Destiny Bleu has accused Khloé Kardashian of copying her designs but the dispute, for now, is just a war of words, not of litigation.
The battle began on the second when Bleu tweeted “When someone buys 1 of everything on your site, has you make them custom @dbleudazzled work, never posts it or wears it, then copies it,” She included tweet by Karashian featuring her wearing denim fashions.
Kardashian responded on her social media by including images of other similar outfits with a caption that read “Important to know your fashion history #nofrauds.” Kardashian’s followers also took up the cause. Kardashian’s company released an official statement denying any copying but Bleu maintains she has receipts of Kardashian’s purchases. However, even if copying can be proved, a lawsuit might be difficult as fashion designs are not copyrightable under current U.S. law.
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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