3 Count: T-Shirt War

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1: Nicki Minaj Stole Indie Artist’s Design for Merch, Per Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, The Fashion Law reports that Nicki Minaj’s and Unviersal Music Group are being sued by California artist Eugene Simon over merchandise sold at Minaj’s concerts.

According to Simon, Minaj and Universal “brazenly stole” the heart design of her “I (heart) Venice Beach” t-shirt to create Minaj’s “I (heart) Nicki” shirts. In both cases the red heart is “comprised of a woman’s chest and bikini” with similar shading and art style.

Simon claims she received a copyright registration for the work in 2015 and is asking the court to issue an injunction barring the further sale of any of Minaj’s shirts as well as damages.

2: Epic Settles With Copyright Infringing Fortnight Cheater, PUBG Cheaters Arrested

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Epic Games has reached another settlement with Joseph Sperry, a gamer that they accused of making and selling cheats for the game Fortnite

Epic Games filed the lawsuit alleging copyright infringement because the created cheats created an unlicensed derivative work of the game. The two sides have now reached a settlement and it’s one where no money changes hands unless Sperry breaks the agreement, when he’ll be required to pay $5,000.

The lawsuit came at the same Epic sued other alleged cheat makers. However, in reaching settlements, Epic has not sought damages but instead a cessation of the cheating behavior, much as the case with this one.

3: MPAA Chief Charles Rivkin Hopeful for Growth Amid Piracy Concerns

Finally today, Ted Johnson at Variety reports that The Motion Picture Association of America’s new chairman and CEO, Charles Rivkin, said that fighting piracy will be a part of their mission for a long time, that the MPAA is “starting to win that battle.”

According to the British firm Digital TV Research, lost revenues from piracy are projected to hit $52 billion by 2022. But, despite this rapid growth of piracy, Rivkin was optimistic about the future of the movie industry saying that overseas growth was providing new opportunities for expansion.

Rivkin also said that the growth of legal streaming options has done great work in fighting piracy and notes that both Amazon and Netflix have joined with the MPAA to create a global anti-piracy coalition that has been targeting websites and services all over the world.

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.