3 Count: Timeless Again

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1: Judge Refuses to Dismiss ‘Timeless’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

First off today, Ted Johnson at Variety reports that a judge has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Sony and other defendants over the NBC TV series Timeless.

Filed by Onza Partners, the lawsuit alleges that Timeless is an infringement of their Spanish TV show El Ministerio del Tiempo. In making their case, Onza argues that the shows share numerous similarities and that the two sides had been negotiating a deal for a U.S. version of their show.

The judge, however, felt that the issue of whether the two works are substantially similar is best left for the summary judgment phase, at which time the judge will be able to more thoroughly compare the plots of the two works. As such, the lawsuit moves on to the next phase.

2: Content Industry Organizations Unite Against Proposed Copyright Changes

Next up today, Jackie Keast at Inside Film reports that, in Australia, over a dozen different content creator organizations have drafted a joint letter to push the government not to adopt the Productivity Commission’s proposed copyright reforms.

The Productivity Commission recently completed a 12-month into the country’s intellectual property laws and proposed several changes, including broadening copyright exemptions in the country to make them more akin to fair use in the United States and broadening safe harbor protections for tech companies.

Creators, however, feel that the current exemptions under Australian law are adequate and changing the safe harbor provisions would enable tech companies to unfairly exploit their work without a license or payment.

3: BMG Awarded $8M More From Cox In $25M Music Piracy Battle

Finally today, Bruce Houghton at HypeBot reports that the judge in the lawsuit between BMG and Cox has added $8 million in attorneys fees on top of the $25 million judgment already filed against them.

BMG, a music rights company, sued Cox alleging that they, as an ISP, did not do enough to prevent piracy on their service. Specifically, BMG felt that Cox’s policy to terminate repeat infringers was inadequate and did not comply with the law. A jury sided with BMG and awarded it $25 million in damages.

Now the court has added another $8 million to that to cover BMG’s attorney fees and court costs.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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