3 Count: This is a Lawsuit

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1: Childish Gambino Sued for Alleged This Is America Copyright Infringement

First off today, the AFP reports that Childish Gambino has been sued by rapper Kidd Wes claiming that Gambino’s hit song This is America was an infringement of his earlier song Made in America.

According to the lawsuit, Kidd released his track on Soundcloud in 2018 where Gambino released his in 2019. However, despite the songs being what Kidd claims is “unmistakably substantially similar”, Kidd says that he was denied any credit or royalties for the use of his work.

Gambino has not responded directly to this lawsuit but, in a previous plagiarism dispute, Gambino’s manager claimed that computer files dated back to 2015 proved that his song was original. In addition to Gambino, the lawsuit has targeted his record label, RCA, as well as others that performed and wrote on This is America.

2: Pirate Release Group NTG Shut Down By Alliance For Creativity & Entertainment

Next up today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a trade group that represents various content creators and streaming service providers, has secured the closure of the NTG piracy group.

NTG was well known for releasing popular films and TV series that were otherwise only available on legal streaming services platforms, in particular Amazon’s. However, both ACE and NTG have announced a permanent end to the group’s activities as ACE has announced the group’s closure and NTG, for their part, has shut down their operation and apologized for the harm caused.

Interestingly, ACE makes no mention of working with law enforcement as part of this shutdown nor is there any mention of litigation or other legal action. It appears that ACE successfully unmakes the group and secured their closure without involving the legal system.

3: Marvel Studios Being Sued Over Allegedly Stealing Designs

Finally today, Vince Hoover at ScreenGeek reports that Horizon Comics has filed a lawsuit against Marvel Studios alleging that character costumes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe are based on earlier works that they published.

Specifically, Horizon is claiming that the nanotech Iron Man suit is an infringement of their character Caliban and that the MCU version of the Ant-Man suit lifts from various military uniforms they feature in their comics.

Though Marvel hasn’t responded to the lawsuit, this isn’t the first time that Horizon sued the company. Back in 2013, the company sued over allegations that a poster for Iron Man 3 replicated a panel from one of their comics. That case was dismissed.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.