3 Count: Slumlord Dismissal

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

1: Roanoke Author of ‘Slumlord Millionaire’ Loses Copyright Fight with Netflix

First off today, Laurence Hammack at The Roanoke Times reports that low-rent landlord Spanky Macher has had his case against Netflix tossed after a judge found that his arguments had no merit.

Spanker wrote and self-published a book entitled Slumlord Millionaire in 2016 and intended it to be an “insider” guide to the real estate industry. In 2020, Netflix, as part of their series entitled Dirty Money, did an episode entitled Slumlord Millionaire but was covering Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump.

Despite the different subject, Spanker filed the lawsuit alleging both copyright and trademark infringement of his book. He claimed that the show used both his book’s name and its concept in the episode. However, the judge in the case has disagreed, saying that there is no evidence of any infringement and that his claims fall “well short” on all fronts. Machner said he was disappointed by the decision, but was grateful for the opportunity to present his case in court.

2: Parliament Passes Historic Bill to Criminalize Piracy of Films

Next up today, The Tribune reports that, in India, the nation has passed a new bill that will criminalize film piracy, including both prison sentences and fines for those caught pirating content.

The bill makes the unauthorized recording or transmission of films a criminal offense that is punished by a prison term of at least three months, with a maximum of three years. The law also comes with a fine and an additional penalty of 5% of the film’s production cost.

In addition to the criminal penalties, the new law empowers both the central and state governments to block websites involved in digital piracy, providing a new tool for rightsholders to reduce unlawful distribution of their work.

3: Sky Obtains Novel Injunction to Prevent Piracy of Live Sports & ‘House of the Dragon’

Finally today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that, in the UK, Sky TV has seemingly gained an injunction that will enable it to more quickly block streaming piracy of live sporting events.

Sky is both the owner of one of the nation’s largest broadcasters and one of the nation’s largest internet service providers. Sky is also the broadcast home of the Premiere League, the nation’s most popular sports league.

Though details of the injunction are deliberately vague, historically, the Premiere League has provided links to the various ISPs of the nation for blocking. However, the new injunction indicated that Sky may be working to make this process more internal, with them providing the information to other ISPs and to more quickly handle blocking on their own system.

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