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1: Miley Cyrus Receives Mixed Ruling in ‘We Can’t Stop’ Copyright Suit
First off today, Chris Eggertsen at Billboard reports that a federal judge is allowing a lawsuit against Miley Cyrus to move forward but has significantly limited the amount of damages that the plaintiff can hope to win.
The lawsuit was filed by Jamaican singer-songwriter Michael May who claims that Cyrus’ 2013 single We Can’t Stop is an infringement of his 1988 song We Run Things. During her motion to dismiss, Cyrus made three arguments. First was the works were not substantially similar enough, the second that the use of a single phrase was a fair use and the third was that May was not entitled to statutory damages and/or attorney’s fees past three years.
The judge refused to dismiss the case of the first two accounts but ruled in Cyrus’ favor on the third, limiting such damages to after March 13, 2015, which represents three years before the complaint was filed. The case now moves forward to discovery and a possible motion for summary judgment.
2: Manager of Illegal Japanese Manga Website Manga Mura Arrested in the Philippines
Next up today, the AFP reports that Romi Hoshino has been arrested in Manilla under suspicion that he was the manager of the site Manga Mura, a pirate manga site that was read by around 100 million people each month.
The site made an estimated 60,000 manga, which are Japanese graphic novels or comics, available to users illegally. Due to this, publishers claim to have lost a potential 320 billion yen ($2.9 billion USD) in just a six month period alone.
Hoshino was arrested in the Manila airport after the local Japanese embassy sought the country’s help in locaing him. A representative for the Philippines expects him to be deported to Japan due to him being considered “a risk to public safety and security.”
3: WIPO Aims to Cut Revenue to Pirate Sites With Newly Launched Database
Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organization has created a new database that it hopes will help advertisers avoid giving money to suspected pirate websites.
The “Building Respect for Intellectual Property” or BRIP database is open to approved contributors and can be used by advertisers to block pirate websites. The project has been in the works since at least 2017 and was developed into a fully operational tool some time ago. However, it’s now being made public.
Concerns about the list include that has little transparency and there’s no way for the public to know who is or is not on the list. There are fears that this could lead to over-blocking and legitimate sites may find it difficult or impossible to get themselves removed.
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