3 Count: Polar Thawing

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1: Sinclair, Photographer Resolve Copyright Dispute Over Polar Bear Video

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that Sinclair Broadcast Group has settled its dispute with Canadian photographer Paul Nicklen over Sinclair’s embedding of a video of polar bears that Nicklen took.

Nicklen took the video and uploaded it to both his Facebook and Instagram accounts. After that, several affiliate sites owned by Sinclair embedded the video into news articles, prompting Nicklen to sue.

Sinclair argued that the server test meant that, since they weren’t hosting the video, that it was not infringing. The judge, however, refused to dismiss the case on those grounds setting the stage for a potential trial. However, both sides have now reached a settlement, bringing the case to a close before that happens.

2: Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman Sue Over “Deceptacon” Copyright Infringement Accusation

Next up today, Allison Hussey at Pitchfork reports that members of the band Le Tigre have filed a lawsuit against singer-songwriter Barry Mann in a bid to preemptively end legal threats over the 1999 Le Tigre song Decaptacon.

According to Mann, Deceptacon infringes on his 1961 single Who Put the Bomp (Bomp, Bomp, Bomp). He has sent several cease and desist letters regarding the issue but Le Tegre have opted to file the lawsuit proactively, beating Mann to the legal punch.

According to Le Tigre, Mann does not own the vocal elements or the titles that he is claiming. Instead, they argue that he copied them from black artists performing in the 1950s and 1960s. There is no comment from Mann about the lawsuit.

3: Back 4 Blood Streamers Will Have to Turn Off Licensed Music to Avoid Copyright Strikes

Finally today, Andy Chalk at PC Gamer reports that streamers wanting to play the newly released Back 4 Blood will have to silence the in game music or risk receiving copyright strikes or having their streams shuttered.

The cooperative first-person shooter features, in addition to hordes zombies, a jukebox mechanic where players can listen to music licensed for the game. However, the game’s developers note that they do not have streaming rights for those songs and, as such, they could result in copyright notices if players fail to mute their music when streaming.

The developers said that they are working on a way to toggle licensed music in the game to prevent problems in the future.

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

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