The CopyKat - no goals please for the Football Premier League

The the major record labels (Sony, Universal Music and Warner Music) have finally begun their case against Russian social media site VKontakte (VK) for "large-scale" music piracy. Dubbed "Russia's Facebook" and the 22nd most popular site in the World, VK allows users to upload music and videos but is accused of refusing to strike licensing deals with rights holders. Now a combined case from the labels has gone before the St Petersburg and Leningrad region arbitration court and a series of substantive hearings will begin on 8 September, and is expected to run into October. The labels are seeking £1m in damages and an order requiring VK to implement fingerprinting technology to delete copyrighted works and prevent them from being re-uploaded. According to labels trade body the IFPI, growth of licensed digital services in Russia is only $0.50 per capita; the European average is $8.40 and licensed services in Russia including local services Yandex, Trava and global services iTunes and Deezer are suffering with IFPI boss Frances Moore saying ""VK hurt competitors because they are not paying anyone for anything - you cannot compete with that". 

It seems the delay in passing the new exemption from copyright for parody into British law (or indeed allowing Scotland to devolve to pass its own parody laws) may well have caused a problem for one of the productions at this year's Edinburgh Fringe festival. The Times tell us that The Edinburgh Book Club - the producers of 50 Shades the Musical  - have received a letter from legal representatives of 50 Shades of Grey writer EL James and her publishers. The musical was created in the USA by producers Baby Wants Candy under the somewhat more generous 'fair use' provisions found stateside. More here.

The mural ' Castillo'

A still from The Zero Theorem

Three street artists, two Argentinian and one Canadian, and known as Jaz, Ever and Other, have accused the Monty Python actor and film director Terry Gilliam of plagiarising one of  their murals in his latest movie The Zero Theorem. Deadline reports that "To make their point, the three try to show with the vast array of images and pictures in their complaint that similar faces and undershirt wearing animal figures from the mural were used in the film" adding "To further their claim, the trio notes that they registered the mural with the Copyright Office in Argentina, under the title Castillo effective on November 15, 2013." Here are the two images - the 2010 mural on Buenos Aires first,  and a still from the film second: 

Angelina Jolie emerged victorious in court last year when a judge ruled she had not copied another author's work for her film In The Land Of Blood And Honey - and you can see Eleonora's article on the background to this case here.  But journalist and writer James Braddock is now appealing against the decision.  In papers filed in March 11 this year, the Croatian author claims the original judge in the case 'used a poor system to determine if Jolie had infringed on his copyright,' for his book The Soul Shattering reports says the Daily Mail.  Claiming his book was not translated accurately, Braddock says in the appeal papers: 'The Court’s decision noted a number of material errors, starting with clear descriptions that are interpreted or translated incorrectly, to the downgrading of a complex of the work. 'The court did not compare the whole scene at all elements, but he pulled the individual parts! In this way, the bit violated all the rights of the Appellant’s, violated the law and the tests that were performed were not executed in the right way.'

Motherboard reports that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiations have resumed, and a "troubling" provision has come to light. The United States government is using an enhanced version of the provision known as "certification," which allows it to change other countries' domestic obligations at will. This has internet freedom activists worried that the US may enforce draconian copyright laws globally. The Times (Saturday 16.08.14) also had a warning from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver that the TPIP could downgrade high food safety standards in the UK - to rules that prohibit food grown and reared using pesticides, hormones, carcinogens and dodgy additives were watered down to help US farmers and food producers - and sate the US need for 'free trade'. Hang on the CopyKat thought - what's THIS TPP - ahhhhh - it's the Trans-ATLANTIC Trade and Investment Partnership - just one letter different - but oceans apart ........... hopefully. 

The Premier League is set to clamp down on 'unofficial' videos of goals in the social media posted on platforms  such as Twitter and Vine - uploaded by fans, stating that they break copyright laws. Premier League’s director of communications Dan Johnson told the BBC that it is developing technologies like gif crawlers and Vine crawlers to stop the behaviour saying "You can understand that fans see something, they can capture it, they can share it, but ultimately it is against the law. And here's a question - is that videos ripped from Sky TV, BT Vision or the BBC - or their own videos - taken (usually) on mobiles? And does it matter? More from Eleonora over on the IP Kat: http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/uploading-goal-videos-online-copyright.html .

More of the same? The plot thickens

Following on from the decision last week about the alleged similarities between two works about the life of ‘Effie Gray’, comes news that a Florida judge has allowed an infringement  claim by a Venezuelan television network against an American television group over the plot of a telenovela to move forwards. Judge Robin Rosenbaum, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, ruled that Venezuela's LaTele Television CA can proceed with its copyright lawsuit against Telemundo Communications Group LLC, accusing the U.S. company of infringing the copyright in "Maria Maria," a LaTele telenovela about the adventures of a young woman with amnesia. The alleged copy, "La Rastro," is also about a young woman with amnesia. Refusing to dismiss the case, Judge Rosenbaum  said that although the distinction between an idea and its particular expression is "a lot easier stated than applied," the case could go forward, listing similarities in the two programs that included both main characters who, after confronting the husband's mistress, are severely injured in a car crash; the fact that both main characters have facial reconstruction surgery causing them to look exactly like the mistress; and that both characters also do not initially remember their original identities. Judge Rosenbaum also noted that "Maria Maria", which first aired in 1989, and "La Rastro" which premiered in October 2008, shared a writer. 

And in the final of three recent decisions on what is and isn't substantially similar, and one the swings back towards the decision in ‘Effie Gray’, US District Judge Dolly Gee has ruled that the 2011 film In the Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, is not substantially similar to a book on the Bosnian civil war, The Soul Shattering (Slamanje Duse) by Bosnian writer James J Braddock (Josip J Knezevic). Braddock claimed that the film, about a love affair during the Bosnian Civil War, violated his copyright in The Soul Shattering and that one of the film's producers, Edin Sarkic had read The Soul Shattering and there had been discussions over the possibility of creating a film adaptation of the book. The Soul Shattering is based on the true story of a Bosnian-Croatian woman rescued from a Serbian concentration camp by the camp's deputy commander - and after analysing the plot and sequence of both works, Judge Gee noted

that the film features a relationship between a female Bosnian Muslim artist and Serbian soldier, who meet again when the woman is a prisoner at a camp the Serbian's ruthless father is  overseeing. Both include escape sequences and brutal rape scenes, but Judge Gee said that Braddock, who now lives and writes in Croatia, can't claim to have "invented the concept of rape as a war crime" and said that whatever similarities there were they didn’t give rise to substantial similarity, "particularly in light of the fact that those overlapping concepts are commonplace in books and films depicting war" adding In The Land of Blood and Honey was primarily a story of betrayal, revenge and tragedy with little or no hope, while The Soul Shattering focuses on family, love and strength. Jolie had said she got the idea for the book after travelling to Bosnia as a UN goodwill ambassador.

With Effie Gray and In The Land of Blood and Honey, both 'plots' were based on real life scenarios, albeit added to  - the historical life of Effie Gray - and the Bosnian civil war. The Maria Maria claim is, in contrast, based on a wholly fictional plot. In between one might put the claim brought by by the Authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail against Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code - where is was alleged that the 'central theme' of the HBHG had been copied by Brown. At the Court of Appeal, refusing the appeal against the judgment of Mr Justice Peter Smith that whilst six chapters of the DVC had been drawn from the HBHG, there had been no copying, Mummery LJ said “Original expression includes not only the language in which the work is composed but also the original selection, arrangement and compilation of the raw research material. It does not, however, extend to clothing information, facts, ideas, theories and themes with exclusive property rights, so as to enable the Claimants to monopolise historical research or knowledge and prevent the legitimate use of historical and biographical material, theories propounded, general arguments deployed, or general hypotheses suggested (whether they are sound or not) or general themes written about. "

LaTele Television CA v. Telemundo Communications Group, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. 12-22539. 

James Braddock v Angelina Jolie, GK Films and Others United States District Court Central District of California CV 12-05883 DMG (VBKx). You can view an annoyingly "branded"  Pdf of the judgment from the Hollywood Reporter here.

More at http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00059067.html  and from the Hollywood Reporter here

Baigent and Leigh v The Random House Group Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 247  the decision can be found here 

In the Land of Blood and ... Copyright

Back in February this year, Croatian journalist James Braddock sued Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie and Others before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He claimed copyright infringement in his 2007 book The Soul Shattering, seeking also an emergency injunction against the film's release.

The book is a factual account of the tragedies suffered by Bosnian and Herzegovinan women and children during the Bosnian War and was originally published in Croatia. In particular, Mr Braddock claims that a film written and directed by Ms Jolie – In the Land of Blood and Honey –, which is due to be released in the U.S. next 23 December and has already attracted some criticism, amounts to an infringement of his copyright.

Mr Braddock asserts that in a few occasions he was approached by the defendant Mr Eden Sarkic, an executive film producer in the Bosnian region with Scout Film, to discuss the possibility of creating a film from his own book. Mr Braddock also came in touch with Ms Jolie’s Make It Right charity, seeking to establish a partnership to build villages or houses across desolated cities, including Sarajevo and New Orleans.

In 2010, the plaintiff learned that Ms Jolie had been involved in the making of a new film to be set in Bosnia, for which Mr Sarkic appeared to be an executive producer. Scout Film was also actively involved in the production.

According to Mr Braddock, In the Land of Blood and Honey has striking similarities with The Soul Shattering. In particular, he claims that these concern:

• Key plot elements - Both the works illustrate a love story which takes place in war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s;
  
• Characters - In both works, the main female character is a Croatian living in Sarajevo, who is captured and imprisoned in a Serbian-held concentration camp located in a village. This, according to the plaintiff, is unusual, since most camps were located in abandoned industrial or agricultural complexes. In addition to this, the main female character is subject to continuous abuse and rape by soldiers and officers in the camp and is forced to become a servant at the camp headquarters, a duty which was apparently assumed by very few of the captives. Also, the book’s and film’s main male character is the deputy camp commander, the son of a high-ranking “Greater Serbian” nationalist and officer of the Yugoslav People Army, who struggles with his own emotions and his military duty. Amidst his struggle, he helps the main female character escape from the camp.
  
• Events, sequences and settings.

This being the background to the case, a couple of days ago, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Angelina Jolie said that she has never read Mr Braddock’s book. The actress played down the lawsuit, stating: “It's par for the course. It happens on almost every film". She added: “There are many books and documentaries that I did pull from. It's a combination of many people's stories …  But that particular book I've never seen."
There is no doubt that the case of plots is a very difficult and fascinating one in the realm of copyright. Furthermore, US case law has not been very consistent so far. We’ll see what happens next and to which of the parties the Court’s decision will actually look a jolie one.