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Ladouceur vs Macado (court records) |
The long running battle between the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerome (Jerry) Siegal and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and DC Comics Inc. over the rights for the acclaimed superhero is hading back to court. Most recently Siegal's daughter Laura Siegel Larson, sought to overturn a partial summary judgment in 2013 which held that the two companies had owned all of the rights to Superman since 2001. Siegal died in 1996. More here.
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The Judge and the Jury |
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Sleigh Bells |
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And the dispute over whether a hit song by pop star Shakira was an illegal copy of a Dominican songwriter's work has taken another dramatic turn now that the music company behind the original lawsuit says its former attorney has a "deteriorating" medical condition and failed to represent it properly. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein reversed an earlier decision after hearing new evidence about a cassette which had been used to register the song with the US Copyright Office and which also featured as an exhibit in the original trial. Sony/ATC Latin who were defendants in the original case produced new evidence which showed that the type of cassette on which the recording had been made was not available in 1998 when it was claimed the tape had been made. Furthermore the picture on the cover of the cassette depicted an adult singer named Jhoan Gonzalez, who because he was born in 1989, would have been aged nine years old, and so could not have been the singer on the tape, if it had been recorded in 1989. Cue a very annoyed Judge!
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And finally - but importantly, it seems that the European Commission has "pedalled back from making radical changes to Europe’s copyright regulations, according to a leaked version of its draft Copyright Framework seen by The Register who tell us it’s from a draft that isn’t due until 9 December. It seems the Commission will rule out creating a new EU wide copyright title - and the contentious word “geoblocking” doesn’t appear once. Instead the Commission recommends making a few tweaks to encourage the “portability” of content across borders - possibly because the EC's own survey discoverd that consumers were not as fixated on seeing content from other member states as Vice Commissioner Andrus Ansip was. The EC will look to “promote” a new pan-European search engine for finding legal content, promote more efficient funding, for, and use of, subtitling and dubbing supported by public funds and the Commission suggests “supporting rights holders and distributors to reach agreement on licenses” using mediation or dispute resolution, and wants to promote out-of-print works. The EC also now just 'aspiring' to reassess copyright exceptions - so they don’t hamper “online courses and cross border learning”, and easing text and data mining restrictions - but its a watered down version of what was planned. The EC will also be looking at the "making available" and "communication to the public" rights (and don't forget the Music Tank / University of Westminster panel on this very topic on November 10th (Creators’ Rights In The Digital Landscape). More on the IPKat here.
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