3 Count: Extinguished Spark

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1: Member of Scene Piracy Group SPARKS Gets 22-Month Prison Sentence

First off today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that George Bridi, a Cyprus man convicted of criminal copyright infringement for his role in the SPARKS scene group, has been sentenced to 22 months for his role.

Bridi was part of the SPARKS group, which focused on obtaining films pre-release and leaking them to the internet. He was arrested and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty. The U.S. Attorney had requested between 27 and 33 months, but his defense attorneys said that he should be released with time served, about 17 months in custody.

However, the judge has decided to split the difference, giving Bridi 22 months in custody for his crimes. This means he will remain in prison for approximately five more months before his release.

2: Danish Court Ups Fine for Little Mermaid Copyright Violation

Next up today, the Associated Press reports that a Danish appeals court has increased the damages imposed on a newspaper for violating the copyright of Copenhagen’s The Little Mermaid statue.

The Berlingske newspaper published a cartoon in 2019 that featured the bronze statue as zombie as well as a photo of it with a facemask on. This prompted a lawsuit from the estate of Edvard Eriksen, the sculptor who created the statue, and the court ruled that it was an infringement and ordered the paper to pay 285,000 kroner ($44,000) in damages.

The paper appealed that decision and now the appeals court has both upheld the lower court decision and increased the damages to 300,000 kroner ($46,000). The estate has been very aggressive at protecting the statue’s copyright, which lasts until 2029.

3: Capcom and Artist ‘Resolve’ Lawsuit Regarding Alleged Stolen Photos in Devil May Cry, Resident Evil

Finally today, Nicole Carpenter at Polygon reports that the lawsuit between a photographer and video game developer Capcom has been “amicably settled”, bringing an end to the case.

Photographer Judy A. Juracek filed the lawsuit in June 2021 after it was revealed that Capcom had used hundreds of her photographs as textures and elements in video games. Juracek made her images available for such use as part of a book and CD-ROM collection, but only with a license for commercial use. According to Juracek, Capcom never contacted her about obtaining a license.

All in all, hundreds of images were involved, and much of the evidence came from data that was leaked from Capcom that year. This included evidence that many of the file names were unchanged from the CD-ROM version of the images. The terms of the settlement are unknown, though the parties are moving to dismiss the case.

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