3 Count: Bright and Brighter
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1: Supreme Court Rules Against Andy Warhol in Copyright Case with Implications for Artists
First off today, John Fritze at USA Today reports that the Supreme Court of the United States has issued its decision in the Andy Warhol lawsuit, finding that the artist did infringe the rights of photographer Lynn Goldsmith when he created most of his silkscreen paintings of the musician Prince.
Goldsmith filed the lawsuit against the Warhol’s estate (Note: This sentence originally had it backwards. The estate sued Goldsmith, not the other way around.) The Warhol estate sued Goldsmith after she threatened action when she learned that Warhol had made multiple pieces of art based upon her photograph. Though Warhol had the license to make a painting based on it, it was limited to just one item and, when the others came to light after the death of Prince in 2016, she filed the lawsuit.
The estate, however, had argued that the images were a fair use as they were transformative works with a different meaning. However, The Second Court of Appeals sided with Goldsmith, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court. Now the court has ruled and found 7-2 in favor of Goldsmith, ruling that the transformative nature of the use not the sole, nor the primary, factor to consider.
2: Judge in Luchasaurus Mask Lawsuit Denies Motion to Dismiss Case
Next up today, Danny Wolstanholme at Wrestling Inc reports that a judge has denied a motion to dismiss in the battle between wrestler Luchasaurus and the mask making company Composite Effects LLC (CFX).
CFX sued Luchasaurus along with his promotion, All Elite Wrestling (AEW), saying that the two were using a mask designed by them for a commercial purpose, despite not having the correct license to do so.
However, AEW and Luchasaurus argued that, even though the mask Luchasaurus is based on a CFX mask, the alterations they made to it meant that the two works were no longer substantially similar. The judge did not rule on whether that is true or not, but said that it’s not clear enough to dismiss the case at this early stage. As such, the case moves forward to discovery and a possible trial.
3: Dark and Darker might soon be back on Steam
Finally today, Ed Smith at PCGamesN reports that the video game Dark and Darker may be returning to Steam soon as updates to the steam backend indicate that the game may be making a return soon.
The game, which is still in development, was removed from Steam as part of a larger copyright dispute between Dark and Darker‘s developer, Ironmace, and a competitor, Nexom. According to Nexom, Dark and Darker was made using intellectual property that they own after several Nexom employees left to go found Ironmace.
The legal battle is ongoing between the two. Though, the game’s disappearance from Steam in Marc forced the developers to hold play tests and deliver updates off the service. However, yesterday, Steam’s backend was updated to provide new tags and information for upcoming events related to Dark and Darker, hinting at a possible return.
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