3 Count: Cosplay Confusion

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1: Disney Tells Court to Shush ‘Muppet Babies’ Reboot Suit

First off today, Ashley Cullins at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Disney has filed a motion to dismiss in the Muppet Babies lawsuit as they are hoping to get the case tossed without going to a trial.

The case was filed by writer Jeffrey Scott, who claims to have written to the original series production bible for the 1980s version of the show. When it was announced Disney was working on a reboot of the series, he sued alleging that it infringed his original concept and work.

However, Disney has hit back asking the court to dismiss the claim. According to Disney, Scott only began work on the concept after it was started by Henson Associates and that he has no such copyright in the work. Furthermore, Disney claims that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case, for all those reasons, it should be tossed.

2: Chinese Copyright Body Raps Kuaishou for IP Infringements Ahead of Stock Market Listing

Next up today, Reuters reports that the China Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) has released a statement targeting the Chinese TikTok clone Kuaishou saying that more than 155 million videos on the service infringe copyright.

As part of that statement, the organization, which is a non-profit backed by the Chinese government, listed its first batch of 10,000 videos and asked the company to delete them.

The move comes just after Kuaishou began trading shares in its company on the Hong Kong stock exchange. CAVCA, for their part, has said they will continue to monitor violations on short video platforms and will send out more lists of suspected infringements.

3: Japan to Clarify Copyright Rules for Cosplay

Finally today, The Japan Times reports that the Japanese government is planning to review and clarify copyright rules in the country as they pertain to cosplay.

Cosplay is the craft of creating costumes that mimic ones seen on popular characters. Though, generally not seen as a copyright infringement, concerns are raised when cosplayers are paid appearance fees or otherwise earn revenue from their work.

The Japanese government hopes to have a report out clarifying the rules by the end of the fiscal year in March. However, the government will not be revising any laws as part of this analysis, only clarifying existing rules.

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