3 Count: Thinking Out Louder

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Appeal Planned After Ed Sheeran Win Over Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Involving ‘Thinking Out Loud’

First off today, Aaron Katersky at ABC News reports that the estate of songwriter Ed Townsend has filed a notice of appeal in the Thinking Out Loud case, setting the stage for another showdown over the hit Ed Sheeran song.

The case started when the Townsend estate filed the lawsuit, accusing Sheeran of basing parts of his hit song Thinking Out Loud on elements from the Marvin Gaye song Let’s Get it On. Last month, the case went before a jury, which found in favor of Sheeran.

However, the Townsend estate has filed a notice of appeal, indicating that they will petition the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to overturn the lower court decision. Since the appeal hasn’t been filed, there’s no way to know what arguments the Townsend estate will be making.

2: Japan’s Largest Manga Piracy Site Shuts Down Following Cloudflare Probe

Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the Japanese manga piracy site 13DL is closed following a DMCA subpoena filed with their content delivery network (CDN) provider.

Manga publishers, working with the anti-piracy group CODA, filed the subpoena with Cloudflare, demanding that the service turn over all information they have on the site and its owners. Such subpoenas have become very common as they are easy to obtain and can be a first step in litigation.

However, three days after the subpoena was filed, the site stopped accepting new uploads and then, shortly after that, went offline altogether. However, shortly after the site went offline, they shared a “final present” with users, which included download links to some 180,000 pirated manga works. CODA has said that their efforts to identify the site operators are ongoing.

3: Florence Museum Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over Image of “David”

Finally today, Elaine Velie at Hyperallergic reports that, in Italy, the country’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism has won a lawsuit against Edizioni Condé Nast over a magazine cover that featured a model posing as the iconic David statue by Michelangelo.

The cover was published in GQ Italia in August 2020 and featured a model posing on top of David. However, the magazine did not pay a licensing fee to the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the statue is exhibited.

The statue itself is in the public domain. However, the publisher was accused of violating a related Italian law that specifically protects images of “cultural heritage”. To that end, the court found that the magazine had “insidiously and maliciously” used the image and ordered the publisher to pay a licensing fee of €20,000 (~$21,445) and a fine of €30,000 (~$32,170).

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