3 Count: Triller Fight

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1: Triller Confirms Owing Sony $2Million, Vows to Pay Less for Music

First off today, Bruce Houghton at Hypebot reports that the video sharing and social networking service Triller has hit back in a lawsuit filed by Sony Music Entertainment, saying that it did nothing wrong even as it acknowledges a $2 million debt to the company.

Recently, the company removed all music from Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. and Merlin, eliminating nearly all popular music from the service. However, the lawsuit stems from alleged unpaid royalties from before the recent removal.

For their part, Triller says that the removal has nothing to do with the alleged unpaid royalties and, instead, about the expiration of various deals ahead of them going public. According to their response, they are being ordered to pay too much and are hoping to transition to a Spotify-style revenue sharing agreement.

2: EU Adds Mega, FMovies and DDoS-Guard to “Piracy Watchlist”

Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the European Commission has released its latest Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List, and it adds the names of Mega, FMovies and DDos-Guard to its list of “notorious markets.”

The report is patterned after a similar annual report released by the United States Trade Representative and lists sites and services that, they allege, fail to do enough to stop piracy on their platforms.

The inclusion of Mega is especially noteworthy, as the site claims to follow all regulations and common procedures related to copyright, including removing more than 1.7 million files. They further claim that they were not given a chance to respond to the allegations and that much of the case against them is built upon links that were immediately removed. Still, the lack of upload filters and a decision that resulted in the site being blocked in Russia warranted its inclusion, according to the European Commission.

3: Shelby Trust Prevails in Mustang Eleanor Copyright Lawsuit

Finally today, Brett Foote at Ford Authority reports that a U.S. court has ruled in favor of Carroll Shelby, ruling that a type of car featured in the Gone in 60 Seconds films were not protectable characters under copyright law.

The lawsuit was filed by Eleanor Licensing LLC, a company founded by the estate of Denise Shakarian Halicki. Halicki was the creator of the original 1974 film Gone in Sixty Seconds, which featured a series of four Mustangs that Halicki had designed. They sued Shelby, alleging that versions of the car they created for the reboot films were an infringement of their earlier work.

According to the plaintiffs, the cars that Halicki had designed were unique enough to enjoy protection as a character. However, the court ultimately disagreed, saying that such protection is not warranted.

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