3 Count: Good Grief

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1: Peanuts Music Owner Settles Copyright Suits With US Government, Buckle-Down

First off today, Camila Curcio at Law Commentary reports that Lee Mendelssohn Film Productions (LMFP), the company that controls the publishing rights to the music featured in the Peanuts Franchise, has settled two separate copyright infringement lawsuits, one with the US government and the other with Buckle-Down Inc.

LMFP represents the music of Vince Guaraldi, the composer who created the music for the Peanuts animated specials. Back in May, LMFP filed two copyright infringement lawsuits, one targeting Buckle-Down and the other targeting the Department of the Interior. Both had used Peanuts music on social media posts without a license.

Buckle-Down has agreed to pay $27,500 for using one of the Peanuts songs in an add for Peanuts-branded merchandise. Meanwhile the Department of the Interior has agreed to pay $20,000 for using a different song as part of a holiday greeting. The two settlements follow four other copyright infringement lawsuits filed by LMFP, half of which have already been settled.

2: Pirate Streaming Giant Cineby Announces Surprise Shutdown

Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at TorrentFreak writes that Cineby, a pirate streaming site, has announced that it will shut down on August 26.

The site racked up an estimated 160 million visits last month. It had previously been the target of various site blocking efforts and had been flagged by movie studios as a notorious pirate site. However, despite the pressure, Cineby managed to stay online. Now the site’s owners have decided that “the time has come to stop”and announced that it will shut down in a week’s time.

In addition to Cineby, its sister sites Cineplay and Fmovies+ posted the same shutdown notice. It’s widely anticipated that imitation sites will rise after the closure of these sites.

3: Court Freezes R6.2 Million in Massive MultiChoice Piracy Bust

Finally today, Mthobisi Nozulela at IOL reports that, in South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit has secured a court order to seize more than R6.2 million ($384,000) in assets allegedly linked to a pirate live-streaming platform.

The funds are tied to Damian Grundlingh, a Despatch man who is currently under investigation for operating the site in question. According to the investigators, customers pay roughly R160 ($10) per month to access pirated MultiChoice channels. He reportedly completed over 100,000 transactions in just over one year.

The court has found that the seizure is warranted to both preserve evidence in the ongoing case and to preserve assets for potential disgorgement later.

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