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1: ‘Scare Tactics’ Co-Creator Files Copyright Infringement Suit Over Netflix Show ‘Prank Encounters’
First off today, Daniel Goldblatt at The Wrap reports that Scott Hallock, the co-creator of the TV show Scare Tactics, has filed a lawsuit against his former partner and the Netflix Show Prank Encounters saying that they had no write to create a show so similar to their original.
The lawsuit was filed against Kevin Healy and Propagate Content, the producers of Prank Encounters. According to Hallock, when the duo separated in 2016 Healy signed over all rights to Scare Tactics to him. Hallock then claims that Healy paired up with Propagate Content to produce Prank Encounters, a show that is remarkably similar to their formerly joint creation.
Hallock is suing for both copyright infringement and breach of contract. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages but is asking for a full accounting of all the profits that have been obtained from Prank Encounters.
2: French Montana Fails to Get Copyright Dispute Dismissed on Jurisdiction Ground
Next up today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that a judge has declined to dismiss a lawsuit against the rapper French Montana but is seeking more evidence on the issue of jurisdiction before putting the issue to rest.
The lawsuit was filed by Eddie Lee Richardson, who claimed that French Montana downloaded a track he created and then used it to make the 2013 song Aint Worried About Nothin’. The lawsuit was filed in Illinois and French Montana had argued that he is based in California. However, Richardson argued that he uploaded his track from Illinois and that French Montana had performed in the state as well as sold music there.
The judge denied the jurisdictional challenge without prejudice, meaning that it can be refiled later. Until then, the judge is allowing the case to move forward for the purpose of jurisdictional discovery, where the plaintiffs will seek additional evidence that supports their claims of jurisdiction. If they fail, the case still could get tossed on these grounds down the road.
3: AMD Uses DMCA to Mitigate Massive GPU Source Code Leak
Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that computer hardware maker AMD has filed at least two Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices against Github targeting what they said was source code “stolen” from their latest lines of graphics cards.
In July 2019, as part of its 50th anniversary, AMD released a new series of graphics cards powered by its Navi GPU. However, rumors began to circulate that someone had managed to obtain the source code for at least some of those chips, which includes the GPU for the soon-to-be-released Xbox Series X.
Though there hasn’t been any direct confirmation of those rumors, a pair of DMCA notices target the user xxXsoullessXxx and a project he launched entitled “AMD-navi-GPU-HARDWARE-SOURCE”. Github quickly removed the repositories involved. The alleged leaker said in a statement that the code was not properly secured and that, since AMD is not likely going to sue him rather than learn from the mistake, they decided to simply publish the code to the world.
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