3 Count: Meow Wolf

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1: New Mexico Judge Grants and Dismisses Claims Made By Meow Wolf in Ongoing Copyright Fight

First off today, Karen Ho at ARTnews reports that a New Mexico federal judge has partially granted and partially denied a motion to dismiss in the ongoing lawsuit between the artist collective Meow Wolf and artist Lauren Oliver.

The story begins with Oliver creating a 13-foot sculpture entitled Space Owl for Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return (HoER), an art exhibit put on by Meow Wolf starting in 2016. However, between then and 2020 things turned sour between Oliver and Meow Wolf, with Oliver filing a complaint saying that the collective was using her to promote itself on social media, in the news and in their gift shop.

Much of the dispute hinges on early agreements between Oliver and Meow Wolf. With an early contract saying that Oliver would retain all intellectual property rights, but Meow Wolf would own the physical object. The judge ruled that Oliver, through her actions, gave approval for the use of the sculpture in social media, but ruled that there were “genuine factual disputes” regarding other uses of the sculpture, setting the sage for a potential trial.

2: Charly Boy Threatens to Sue Premier Records Over Copyright, Royalties Issues

Next up today, Rotimi Ijikanmi at PM News reports that, in Nigeria, musician Charly Boy has sent a letter to his former label, Premier Records Limited, alleging that the label is violating the terms of his agreement by contusing to exploit his music after the contract has expired.

According to the letter, he signed the original agreement in 1988 and that the contract has since elapsed. However, he claims that the label has not turned over his master recording nor have they paid outstanding royalties.

As such, Charly Boy is seeking the return of all master tapes as well as unpaid royalties. The letter threatens additional legal action if the requests are not met.

3: Pirate Movie Supplier Quits After Russian Pirates Cammed its Pirate Releases

Finally today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that Kazakhstan-based company WesternRus has ceased providing keys to Russian cinema chains following “high levels of piracy” in the country.

Russia has long been a difficult environment for filmmakers, but that became much worse following the widespread sanctions against the country following their invasion of Ukraine. However, despite those sanctions, Russia cinemas were able to play high-quality and localized versions of Hollywood films.

The reason, at least in large part, was WesternRus, which made pirated versions of western films for viewing in Russia. However, that effort is now ceasing. The first is because they were publicly identified as the ones providing the keys, the second, according to their announcement, is because of widespread piracy in Russia which makes it difficult for even their pirate operation to turn a profit.

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