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1: Appeals Court Reverses ‘Scathing’ Verdict Against Copyright Troll
First off today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has overturned a lower court judgment against Strike 3 Holdings. The lower court ruling might have prevented the company from filing additional copyright litigation.
Strike 3 is a pornography company that is often referred to as a “copyright troll” and is known for filing large volumes of copyright lawsuits against suspected file-sharers. To do this, they file for a subpoena to compel ISPs to turn over the identities behind the identified IP addresses. However, recently a DC judge denied such a subpoena, commenting on the tactics of Strike 3 and the content that they were suing over.
However, now the appeals court has overturned that decision, noting that the lower court did not list a valid legal reason for denying the subpoena. Instead, the Appeals Court claimed the judge relied on the litigation history of Strike 3 as well as the nature of their content, not the validity of the subpoena itself, and overturned the decision. As such, the subpoena request is revived and likely to move forward.
2: Twitter Disables Video in Trump Retweet After Linkin Park Files Copyright Complaint
Next up today, Kim Lyons at The Verge reports that Twitter confirmed that it received a copyright complaint from the band Linkin Park over their song In the End, which was featured in the background of a video retweeted by President Trump.
The video was originally tweeted by White House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino. The video featured the song playing over being played over excerpts of President Trump’s 2016 inauguration speech and other images of him.
Twitter removed the video following the notice, as per their copyright policy, and also sent the notice to the Lumen Database, where it is publicly visible. President Trump’s retweet is completely down and Scavino’s original tweet is still available minus the video.
3: Netflix, ‘Stranger Things’ Creators Sued for Copyright Infringement
Finally today, Daniel Goldblatt at The Wrap reports that Netflix and the creators of Stranger Things have been sued by Irish Rover Entertainment over allegations that the hit Netflix series is a copyright infringement of Totem, a screenplay by author Jeffrey Kennedy.
According to the lawsuit, the two works share a great number of similarities both in characters, plots and antagonists. However, Netflix claims that Kennedy has been “peddling these far-fetched conspiracy theories for years” and that there is no evidence that Stranger Things is based on his work in any way.
The lawsuit is similar to a 2018 lawsuit that was filed by Charles Kessler, who claimed that the idea came from him. That lawsuit was dropped the day before it was set to go to trial.
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