3 Count: Great Balls of Copyright

Not a photo of Lynyrd Skynyrd... or Jerry Lee Lewis...

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

1: Lynyrd Skynyrd Sued Over Jerry Lee Lewis Photo Displayed During Farewell Tour Performances

First off today, Ashley Cullins at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that photographer Larry Philpot has filed a lawsuit against the band Lynyrd Skynyrd claiming that the band unlawfully used a photo he took and displayed it during the band’s farewell concert tour.

According to Philpot, he took a photo of musician Jerry Lee Lewis that he then uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons website for others to use. However, the license to use the photo, a Creative Commons license, required that he be attributed. But, when Lynyrd Skynyrd used the photo, they not only omitted the attribution but removed his copyright management information (CMI), which prompted the lawsuit.

As such, Philpot is suing for both copyright infringement and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (for the CMI removal). He also accuses the band of contributing to further infringement by enabling concert-goers to take photos and videos that included the image.

2: Chinese Firms Ordered to Stop Selling Peppa Pig-Themed Toys After British Firms Win Landmark Copyright Court Ruling

Next up today, Phoebe Zhang at The South China Morning Post reports that two Chinese firms have been ordered by a court to stop making and selling a toy featuring Peppa the Pig and to pay $22,000 in damages.

The character has become a hit in China since her introduction to the country in 2015, despite actually being banned in China. However, the rights to Peppa are owned by UK-based Entertainment One UK Limited and London-based Astley Baker Davies Limited. The ban nor the IP issues have stopped Peppa from adorning a wide variety of merchandise in the country, including a toy cooking set that is at the center of this case.

The rightsholders filed a lawsuit against Jiale Toys, the producer of the set, and Jufan Limited, which sold it on their Alibaba store. The court sided with the rightsholders and ordered the two companies to pay 150,000 yuan ($22,000) in damages with the lion’s share being paid by the producer.

3: Controversial Piracy Website OceanOfPDF Returns

Finally today, Charlotte Eyre at The Bookseller reports that the website OceanOfPDF has reappeared online, although a new domain and with new ownership.

The site, which features pirated ebooks for visitors to download, went offline last month following a campaign by authors against it. However, it has now re-emerged on a .net of its domain and, judging from the email address connected with it, appears to be operated by another ebook piracy site, SMTE Books.

The email associated with the new site did not reply to a request for an interview through a lawyer recommended that authors reach out to the people responsible and demand removal of infringing books as a means of strengthening any legal case.

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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