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1: Photographer Files Copyright Infringement Case Against Facebook
First off today, Kirsten Errick at Law Street reports that photographer Christopher Boffoli has filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that the social network did not do enough to remove infringing copies of his work.
Boffoli created a series of photographs dubbed Big Appetites that featured tiny figures pictured next to real food. Though the photographs have gotten a great deal of critical acclaim, Boffoli argues that Facebook customers have repeatedly uploaded the photos without their permission and Facebook did not take any action to prevent their uploading nor take adequate action to remove them after being notified.
According to Boffoli, he submitted Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests to Facebook to get the images removed but, after more than 100 days of receiving the notice, Facebook had not taken any action. Instead, he claims they only took action after being contacted by his attorney and claimed that it was due to a “technical error”. Because of this Boffoli has filed a lawsuit against Facebook of copyright infringement as well as contributory copyright infringement. He is seeking an injunction as well as damages.
2: Court Orders Cloudflare to Prevent Access to Pirated Music or Face Fines or Prison
Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that the content delivery network (CDN) provider Cloudflare has ceased service to German piracy site DDL-Music and queries to the site return an “Error 451” indicating that the site can not be loaded due to legal reasons.
The reason for the blocking is because of a ruling in January from a German district court. They issued an injunction against Cloudflare, which could have seen the company being fined up to 250,000 euros ($270,000) if they continued to provide services to the site. The injunction also could have had the company’s managing direct serving up to six months in prison.
Cloudflare has complied with the order, using Error 451 to indicate that the site was removed for legal reasons. The number was chosen as a reference to the Ray Bradbury book Farenheight 451 and was codified as a standard recently. The site is available again but has moved to a different CDN provider.
3: Newport Gallery Owner Sued for Alleged Copyright Infringement
Finally today, Laura Damon at Newport Life reports that artist Mia Tarducci has filed a lawsuit against another artist, Kristen Coates, alleging that Coates created paintings that are substantially similar to Tarducci’s work.
The dispute goes back to May 2019 when Tarducci sent an email to Coates, who also operates a gallery, inquiring about the possibility of getting her work on the market. Coates indicated that she had an interest in one of the paintings and a possible client lined up for it. Tarducci then says she brought two of the paintings to Coates in the summer of 2019 but that is when things began to fall apart.
In August 2019, Coates emailed Tarducci saying that the collaboration was not going to work out. However, after she went to retrieve her paintings Tarducci learned that Coates posted two very similar paintings that Coates had created. Coates, when confronted, then offered to remove the allegedly infringing paintings and keep them in her private collection, however, they continued to appear on her website for months. This prompted Tarducci to file a lawsuit for copyright infringement and is seeking damages for the harm she incurred.
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