3 Count: Pac-Mom

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1: National Association Of Realtors Is Fighting A Copyright Ruling On Floor Plans

First off today, Brenda Richardson at Forbes reports that the National Association of Realtors has joined forces with some 18 other real estate-related groups to petition the Supreme Court to overturn an Appeals Court ruling that they feel puts homeowners at risk of burdensome lawsuits.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a company named Designworks and its owner, Charles James, against two real estate companies that he claims violated his copyright by posting floor plans for houses that that James had designed. The lower court dismissed the case, saying that there was a statutory defense shielding the creators of images of architectural representations.

However, the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision and reinstated the lawsuit. This has prompted the NAR as well as others to petition the Supreme Court to take the case, saying that letting the Eight Circuit ruling stand could make it difficult, if not impossible, for homeowners and realtors to share information about their homes with prospective buyers.

2: Bungie vs Fake DMCA Notices: Google Refuses to Hand Over User Data

Next up today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that Google, the owners of YouTube, have declined to hand over the information about individuals accused of filing false takedown notices against the video game developer Bungie and other channels hosting content related to the game Destiny 2.

The saga began last month when several takedown notices were filed against users uploading videos related to the game. At first, Bungie itself was blamed, but it soon became apparent that some of Bungie’s own videos were caught up in the takedowns. This prompted Bungie to file a lawsuit in an attempt to unmask the person or persons responsible.

However, an early attempt at unmasking the alleged filers has gone awry, as Google has refused to comply with a DMCA subpoena that Bungie filed seeking their identity. The reason, according to Google, is that such a subpoena is only for unmasking alleged infringers, not alleged filers of false notices. Google also claims that the individuals are not in the United States, raising questions over jurisdiction.

3: Ms Pac-Man Has Been Removed from the New Pac-Land Re-Release Due to a Dispute

Finally today, Sean Murray at TheGamer reports that a re-release of the game Pac-Land will have at least one noticeable change for gamers that remember the original, Ms. Pac-Man has been removed.

The reason stems from a long-running copyright dispute between Bandai Namco and General Computer Corporation (GCC). Back in the early 1980s, Bandai worked with Midway to release the original Pac-Man game. However, when Midway wanted a sequel, Bandai did not provide one. This prompted them to buy the rights of a different game from GCC and then work with the company to create Ms Pac-Man without the authorization of Bandai.

This has led to a four decades long dispute over ownership of the character Ms. Pac-Man. So, when Bandai opted to release Pac-Land, the character of Ms. Pac-Man has been replaced with Pac-Mom, a slightly different version of the character that wears a hat instead of a bow and has different colored clothing. Ms Pac-Man the game will also be absent from an upcoming release of Pac-Man games that Bandai is assembling.

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

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