3 Count: Kinky Settlement

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1: Cyndi Lauper Settles Copyright Lawsuit Over ‘Kinky Boots’ Finale

First off today, Jonathan Stempel at Reuters reports that musician and songwriter Cyndi Lauper has settled a lawsuit over the song Into the Night, which was the finale of her 2013 musical Kinky Boots.

The lawsuit was filed by songwriters Benny Mardones and Robert Tepper. They alleged that one of the themes from Into the Night and much of the lyrics in the song were similar to an earlier work they had created and released. Lauper had denied the allegations but the two sides have since reached an undisclosed settlement.

As for Kinky Boots, it won six Tony awards and ended its Broadway run in April after 2,507 regular performances.

2: Lady Gaga Sued For ‘Shallow’; Copyright Lawsuit Trend Continues

(Note: Forbes, the source of the original article, has retracted this post. Despite their reporting, and reporting elsewhere, no lawsuit has been filed at this time.)

Next up today, Forbes reports that songwriter and musician Lady Gaga has been songwriter Steve Ronsen over Lady Gaga’s 2018 song Shallow, which was featured in the film A Star is Born.

According to Ronsen, Lady Gaga used a three-note progression from his 2012 song Almost and is suing for “millions and millions” in damages. Lady Gaga has called this lawsuit a “brazen shakedown” and has vowed to fight it “vigorously”.

The lawsuit comes as part of a string of cases against musicians such as Robin Thicke, Katy Perry and Led Zeppelin that have produced surprising results, finding greater success than many anticipated.

3: Elon Musk Uses Image Without Permission or Credit, Begins Blocking Anyone Who Challenges Him

Finally today, Jack Alexander at Fstoppers reports that entrepreneur Elon Musk is accused of using a photographer’s work without credit or permission on Twitter and, when others wrote to object, blocking them on Twitter.

The story began when Musk posted a photo of a SpaceX rocket that was taken by Richard Angle. When Angle responded noting that his watermark was on the image, other photographers rallied around him asking Musk to credit the source (beyond just leaving the watermark intact). Many of those who did make such comments were blocked by Musk.

Musk did eventually provide a thank you reply to the original image. However, Angle said that, in spite of over 900,000 impressions of the photo, he sold no prints and received no new business.

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