3 Count: To Kill a Play

A spat over scripts...

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

1: Harper Lee Estate Sues Broadway’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Play

First off today, Reuters reports that the estate of author Harper Lee has filed a lawsuit against the producers of a Broadway adaptation of her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

The producers obtained a license to create the play but the dispute is over who has final say in what is in the script. The estate claims that the producers are taking too many liberties with the source material, including changing many of the characters, while the producers say that they have the final word in the script.

The script is being written by author Aaron Sorkin, who previously said that the book was a poor fit for a play and would need significant altering to work. The play itself is expected to open in preview on November 1st and to the public in December.

2: Kerala: Police Arrests Members of Piracy Website

Next up today, the Deccan Chronicle reports that, in India, the state police have arrested five people on charges that they were operating and uploading to the popular Indian piracy website Tamilrockers as well as other websites connected to it.

According to the police, the lead came from a Haryana-based advertising firm that canvased ads for popular websites. After sending an email with an offer to one of the arrested men, they were able to track down the rest of the group.

In addition to the arrests, laptops, hard disks and other devices used in the site were seized. All totaled, each man is estimated to have made between 100,000 and 200,000 rupees ($1,500 – $3,000) per month from the operation.

3: Cloudflare’s Cache Can ‘Substantially Assist’ Copyright Infringers, Court Rules

Finally today,  Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Cloudflare has suffered a setback in its ongoing litigation against the adult content publisher ALS Scan with a court ruling that it can “substantially assist” copyright infringers on its service.

Cloudflare is a content delivery network that also provides security services to customers. The service has become very popular with pirate websites that use Cloudflare to mask their true location and help keep their server loads down. This prompted ALS Scan to file a lawsuit against Cloudflare and, though many of the charges in the lawsuit have been dismissed, the allegation of contributory copyright infringement remains.

Cloudflare had sought to have that dismissed on summary judgment saying that they don’t substantially assist pirate sites because the sites would remain online without their service. However, the judge denied that motion saying that Cloudflare has direct control over its own cache and, even if the site remains online, it doesn’t mean Cloudflare’s service is not substantial. The issue is now heading to a potential trial.

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.

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