3 Count: Just One More Thing…

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

1: ‘Columbo’ Architects Sue Universal Over Unpaid Profits From Detective Drama

First off today, Erik Pedersen at Deadline Hollywood reports that the creators of the popular TV crime drama Columbo have filed a lawsuit against Universal City Studios alleging that they studio has been withholding profits from the series.

According to the lawsuit, William Link and the estate of Richard Levinson (through their loanout companies) say that Universal City Studios owes them 10-20% of the profits from the series but last received accounting a year ago, along with a check for $2.3 million. According to them, this is the first time they’ve received such accounting in 40 years.

As such the pair are suing for fraud, breach of contract and unfair business practices among other charges. Universal City Studios had no comment on the lawsuit.

2: Tecmo Koei Defeats Major Chinese Piracy Group

Next up today, Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku reports that video game holding company Tecmo Koei has won their lawsuit against the popular Chinese game cracking group 3DM.

The battle began earlier this year when Tecmo Koei’s lawsyer sent 3DM a takedown notice that demanded the group delete cracked game downloads from its forums. 3DM complied but did not issue an apology and, instead, wondered how a Japanese company could hold the copyright to a game based on the work of Chen Shou, a Chinese author who died in 297 AD.

Tecmo Koei filed the lawsuit against 3DM in May accusing the group of distributing pirated versions of many of their games. The Chinese courts have now ruled in favor of the company and awarded it the equivalent of $245,000 in damages.

3: YouTube Pacts With Ticketmaster to Let Artists Sell U.S. Concert Tickets

Finally today, Todd Spangler at Variety reports that YouTube has reached a deal with Ticketmaster and will let musicians sell tickets to U.S. concerts directly on the YouTube site.

According to YouTube, the move rolled out yesterday and features hujndreds of artists upcoming tour dates on their official videos. Some of the artists include Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, The Chainsmokers and The Killers.

The feature is only currently available to a limited set of artists with shows in the United States. However, YouTube is planning on rolling out the feature to all artists with Ticketmaster events and expand it worldwide.

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.