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1: Real-Life ‘Terminator’: Major Studios Face Sweeping Loss of Iconic ’80s Film Franchise Rights
First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that copyright termination notices have been filed for a variety of 80s film franchises including The Terminator, Bettlejuice and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Copyright termination allows creators that either granted an exclusive license to their work or transferred their rights to reclaim them after a period of 35 years. The reason for this was to prevent original creators from signing their rights away for very little when a work is relatively unknown and watch as those using it make a fortune.
However, this “second bite at the apple” is coming back to bite many Hollywood studios as original creators are seeking to reclaim their rights to 80s-era works. Though, in some cases, there may be some attempt to fight the notices of termination, likely claiming that the original work was a work-for-hire and doesn’t qualify for termination, most expect new deals to be reached with the original creators.
2: Trump’s Video Taken Off Twitter After Band Nickelback Complains
Next up today, Alex Hern at The Guardian reports that President Donald Trump has had a video removed from Twitter following a copyright complaint by the band Nickelback.
The 20 second video featured a short clip of Biden denying talking with his son about his overseas dealings and 14 seconds of the song Photograph by Nickelback with an image of Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, playing golf with a man identified as a “Ukraine gas exec.” The video is uploaded as President Trump is facing backlash over his own dealings with Ukraine, including allegations that he attempted to pressure the country’s President into investigating Hunter Biden.
This is the second time President Trump has had a tweet removed for copyright infringement. The first happened in April when Warner Bros. objected to his use of clips from The Dark Night Rises in an advertisement. The most recent video has since been uploaded to the official White House YouTube channel.
3: RIAA Reports Telegram to US Govt. Over Piracy Concerns
Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the RIAA has submitted its comments to the US Trade Representative (USTR) and has identified markets that it feels are piracy havens. While most of the included sites and services are not surprises, there is one addition catching people’s eyes: Telegram.
Telegram is an encrypted messaging app that allows users to also share files of up to 1.5 GB. According to the RIAA, that process can be automated with scripts and is widely used to share copyright infringing content. According to the RIAA, they have sent some 18,000 takedown notices to Telegram but the requests are often ignored by their channels and repeat infringers do not appear to be punished. Telegram is also accused of not following up on takedown notices.
The RIAA also called out “bulletproof hosting” providers that ignore takedown notices as well as CDN services such as Cloudflare. They also renewed their call for WHOIS data, information about who owns a domain, to be both public and verified. The USTR will use this report, along with others to help draft their own report on notorious markets that is due out later.
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