3 Count: Slice of Ice

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1: Fanatics Defends Itself Against Copyright Infringement Suit

First off, today, Michael McCann at Sportico reports that the sports memorabilia company Fanatics has defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the designer of a competing product.

William Grondin filed the lawsuit. Grondin is a sculptor who designed several versions of the “Slice of the Ice” trophy, which features melted ice from National Hockey League rinks. Fanatics began selling a similar piece of memorabilia featuring melted rink ice, prompting the lawsuit.

However, both the district court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Fanatics did not copy any protectable elements. They both noted that copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. As such, despite the similarities, the Fanatics version is not an infringement.

2: CODA Shutters Brazil Anime Piracy Site

Next up today, Colin Mann at Advanced Television reports that the Japanese anti-piracy organization CODA has secured another victory, as it shutters a popular anime piracy site based in Brazil.

The site in question is rine.cloud. Between September and November 2024, the site received approximately 2.74 million monthly visitors. However, CODA didn’t shutter the site through police action. Instead, they negotiated directly with the site’s operators based in São Paulo.

The “knock and approach” method was deemed the most likely to succeed. To that end, it seems to have worked, with the site closing its doors and over a dozen related sites also going dark. Before its closure, the site was the country’s seventh-largest anime piracy site.

3: Popeye and Tintin Will Soon Lose Copyright Protection

Finally, today, Rebecca Falconer at Axios reports that, on January 1, the original appearances of both Popeye and Tintin will lapse into the public domain, and filmmakers are already working on three separate Popeye horror movies.

With the new year, works first published in 1929 will enter the public domain. This includes several more “Mickey Mouse” cartoons and a variety of music, literature and other works. However, the most prominent items to lapse are the first works featuring Popeye and Tintin, which means that the first versions of those characters will also be in the public domain.

However, one of the more common traditions when a popular work lapses into the public domain is a rush to create parody horror movies based on it. That appears to be the case here, with three separate filmmakers working on and preparing to release Popeye-themed horror films.

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