3 Count: Bigger Than Disney

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1: Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story?

First, today, Katy Waldman at The New Yorker reports that author Tracy Wolff is facing a lawsuit accusing her of copying one of her recent books, Crave, from an earlier author’s work.

Fellow author Lynne Freeman filed the lawsuit. She alleges that, through the 2010s, she sent pitches for her book, Blue Moon Rising, to various publishers. According to the lawsuit, in 2021 she learned of Crave and found it remarkably similar to her work, with only a few minor changes.

The case has sparked controversy in the “romantasy” genre, which combines romance with fantasy. However, experts feel that Freeman will have difficulty winning her case, especially given that many of the alleged similarities are tropes common to the genre.

2: 3Blue1Brown Copyright Takedown Blunder by AI Biz Blamed on Human Error

Next up today, Thomas Claburn at The Register reports that YouTuber Grant Sanderson, better known as 3Blue1Brown, was the target of an errant copyright notice, resulting in one of his most popular videos being removed from the site.

The video “But How Does Bitcoin Work?” was uploaded in 2017 and has received more than 600 million views since then. However, it was briefly taken online by an errant copyright notice filed by ChainPatrol.io, a company that protects the branding of various Web3 companies.

According to ChainPatrol, the notice was the result of human error. They have already worked with YouTube to restore the video and remove the copyright strike. ChainPatrol says it takes such false positives very seriously but notes that they are unavoidable when dealing with millions of scam sites, domains and videos.

3: HiAnime Outranks DisneyPlus in the U.S. With a Record 364m Monthly Visits

Finally today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that, according to various traffic sources, the anime piracy site Hianime.to has receives well over 300 million visitors per month. This not only puts it in the top 100 of all websites but well ahead of DisneyPlus in the United States.

To be clear, the data only looks at website traffic and doesn’t factor in usage through various apps. However, that doesn’t take away from Hianime’s meteoric rise, as it has grown steadily as competing sites have been shuttered.

This likely paints a target on Hianime’s back as various organizations have stepped up copyright enforcement of anime.

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