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1: “Dark Horse” Jury Will Consider Myspace Views During Katy Perry Copyright Trial
First off today, Ashley Cullins at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that jurors will be asked to determine if Myspace views and YouTube plays are proof that Katy Perry and others on her team heard a song that its creators claim the musician infringed.
The case looks at the Christian Rapper Marcus Gray, who claims that his song Joyful Noise was infringed by Perry’s song Dark Horse. However, Gray has a tall order as he must convince a jury not just that the songs are similar, but that Perry or those that worked on her song had access to it.
To that end, Perry and her lawyers tried to prevent the jury from hearing information about Myspace and YouTube views but the judge has decided to allow it. However, the judge is barring an expert from playing fan-created mashups of the two songs that highlight the similarities. The trial to determine liability is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
2: DISH Sues Hosting Company & ‘Pirate’ IPTV Customer
Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that DISH Networks has filed a lawsuit against an IPTV provider as well as a hosting company that it claims has been providing assistance to it and ignoring takedown notices.
DISH is suing East IPTV claiming that the service is illegally streaming DISH-licensed channels as part of service’s offerings. However, DISH takes things a step farther by suing Serverlogy Corporation, a hosting company and content delivery network that DISH claims has ignored repeated notices about East IPTV and has refused to take any action against it.
According to the lawsuit, DISH sent Serverlogy eight separate notices since September 2018 and the company has declined to take any action against East IPTV. Because of this, DISH is suing East IPTV for direct infringement and Serverlogy for contributory and vicarious infringement. DISH is requesting a permanent injunction barring East IPTV from distributing its content and is seeking statutory damages of up to $150,000 per registered work infringed as well as legal fees.
3: Manhattan Federal Judges are Getting Fed Up with Notorious Copyright ‘Troll’
Finally today, Allison Frankel at Reuters reports that courts may be getting somewhat tired of the Liebowitz Law Firm, a law firm that has filed some 1,210 copyright-related lawsuits in New York’s Southern District Federal Court on behalf of photographers that have had their images used without permission.
The Liebowitz Law Firm has made a name for itself representing photographers that have their work used without their permission by news organizations. However, in at least two cases, the firm has been sanctioned by judges. In one case it was hit with an $8,745 sanction for a bad-faith motion to disqualify a defense witness and, in another, faces a $98,532 sanction for failing to show up at court-ordered mediation and missing a pre-trial conference.
These are not the first sanctions against the firm and, given the high volume of cases is only sanctioned in a small percentage of matters. That said, it’s clear that the firm is attracting greater scrutiny in the district. Though the firm denies being a troll, saying that it’s forced to file cases in this manner by the system it has to work with, it’s clear that the courts are paying closer attention to it.
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