3 Count: Banana Problems

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1: Maurizio Cattelan Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over Banana Sculpture

First off today, Daniel Cassady at ARTnews reports that Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has emerged victorious in a lawsuit filed by fellow artist Joe Morford after a judge dismisses the case.

Morford filed the lawsuit alleging that Cattelan’s work, entitled Comedian, was an infringement of his earlier piece, Orange and Banana. Both works featured a banana duct-taped to a wall, prompting Morford to file claim copyright infringement.

However, the judge in the case has dismissed it, saying that there is no evidence that Cattelan had ever seen Morford’s work, making it an independent creation. The judge then went on to say that, even if such access could be shown, the copied elements were not protectable by copyright, with many key differences existing between the works.

2: Tokyo Court Rules Video Subtitles Copyrighted Material, Awards YouTuber $1,700

Next up today, The Mainichi reports that the Tokyo District Court has ruled in favor of a YouTuber after a blogger took subtitles that they had created and published them in a blog post.

According to the ruling, the YouTuber has a channel with some 80,000 subscribers. On that channel, he posted a video telling the story of a lion that was raised by humans and, as part of that video, included subtitles. The blogger then took those subtitles and included it on a page that featured the original video.

The YouTuber argued that this was a copyright infringement and sought 1.9 million yen ($13,600) in damages. Though the court agreed that it was a copyright infringement, it awarded only 240,000 yen ($1,700) in damages. This came after the blogger attempted to argue that the captions were not a work of creative expression, a claim that the court rejected.

3: Court: Comcast Must Identify Accused BitTorrent Pirate

Finally today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that Strike 3 Holdings has won a potentially key decision as a court has ordered the internet service provider Comcast to turn over the identity of a customer who is suspected of BitTorrent piracy.

Strike 3 is a holding company that represents a large volume of pornographic material. They have filed thousands of lawsuits against suspected pirates, usually with the intent of seeking a small settlement from them.

One such “John Doe” defendant sought to quash the subpoena, saying that Strike 3’s interests in them were not legitimate, that the evidence was shaky and that it would violate their privacy. However, the judge disagreed, ruling that there was no valid claim of privilege or privacy. Furthermore, the court disputed the notion that Strike 3 is a “copyright troll” as they were the actual producers of the films at issue.

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