3 Count: Shape of Dismissal

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1: ‘Shape of Water’ Copyright-Infringement Lawsuit Dismissed

First off today, Nardine Saad at the Los Angeles Time reports that the lawsuit over the film The Shape of Water has been dismissed with prejudice, likely bringing an end to the case.

The lawsuit was filed by David Zindel. David Zindel is the son of the late playwright Paul Zindel, who wrote the play Let Me Hear You Whisper. According to David Zindel, the movie The Shape of Water borrowed many elements from his father’s work including having a creature trapped in a laboratory falling in love with a female janitor. As such, he sued Fox, Guillermo Del Toro and others involved with the film for copyright infringement.

Del Toro denied ever having read the play and it seems that the judge in the case has sided strongly with the defendants. The judge has dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it can not be refiled, and has said that the defendants are eligible to have their legal costs recouped. According to the judge, the film “takes nothing” from the play and that warranted the strong dismissal.

2: Nintendo Sues Operator of ROM Sites Over Video Game Piracy

Next up today, Michael Kan at PC Magazine reports that Nintendo has filed a pair of lawsuits against sites offer game ROMs for download, prompting one of the sites to shut down and the other to remove all Nintendo titles.

The lawsuits target the sites LoveROMs.com and LoveRETRO.co. Both sites offer ROMs, which are pirated versions of console games, for easy download. ROMs are typically run on emulators that simulate the original hardware. Though emulation itself is legal, ROMs are typically not since they are unlicensed and infringing copies of original titles.

After the lawsuit was filed, LoveRETTRO.co went offline and LoveROMs.com removed all Nintendo titles from its library. In recent years Nintendo has made an effort to make classic games available either via its Virtual Console service or its NES Classic console.

3: Tesla Clears the Air With “Farting Unicorn” Artist After Copyright Stink

Finally today, Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica reports that artist Tom Edwards has resolved a dispute with Elon Musk and his company Tesla over the use of his “Farting Unicorn” artwork.

According to Edwards, Elon Musk took the artwork from a mug he makes and sells and used it both in the operating system for Tesla cars and in a Christmas message sent out by the company. When he asked for compensation, Musk responded less-than-ideally by saying that it would be “kinda lame” if he filed a lawsuit.

However, the two sides have resolved the dispute without a lawsuit. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed but both sides describe the outcome as “pleasing” and everyone is happy to move on from it.

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.