3 Count: Disney Plaintiffs

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1: Disney’s Profits From ‘Deadpool,’ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ at Risk in Upcoming Trial

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a judge has denied a summary judgment motion made by Disney, setting the stage for a potential trial over whether the company violated copyright with the special effects in several of its movies.

The lawsuit was filed by Rearden, a company that creates a visual effects system known as MOVA that captures a performance by a human actor wearing special makeup and translates that to realistic-looking computer-generated characters. They accuse Disney of unlawfully using that software to create several films including Deadpool, Guardians of the Galaxy and Beauty and the Beast.

The judge has allowed a copyright claim to move forward. It alleges that Disney stole the software from the VFX vendor’s computers. The judge in the case has also allowed Rearden to target Disney’s profits from those three movies, but has disallowed it from doing so on three others. The case now is likely heading toward a trial.

2: Tencent Video Sues Bytedance for Copyright Violation, Unfair Competition

Next up today, Zhanhang Ye at Technode reports that Tencent has filed yet another lawsuit against Bytedance’s short-video app Douyin, this time alleging copyright infringement of the TV show Crime Crackdown.

Douyin, which is TikTok’s name in China, has been repeatedly sued by the video-streaming service Tencent over its inability to prevent the sharing of clips from Tencent-owned media. The most recent case just concluded and dealt with the show Honor of Kings. There, Tencent won some RMB 600,000 ($92,400) in damages.

However, in this lawsuit, Douyin is saying that it has reached a deal with the production company for the drama and that the producers aim to launch an official presence on the site while Douyin will take steps to curate promotional activities.

3: Telegram Copyright Lawsuits Pressure Messenger To Install Anti-Piracy System

Finally today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that, in Russia, the nation’s largest publisher has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the messaging service Telegram. The aim, according to the lawsuit, is to either have the service blocked in Russia or to compel it to introduce anti-piracy technology.

Telegram is a messaging service that allows users to access both private and public rooms. As part of that, they can share files and some use that feature to access pirated content. According to Eksmo-AST, the plaintiff in the case, Telegram is not doing enough to block this abuse of its network and, under Russian law, either needs to improve its practices or be blocked.

It would not be the first time that the Russian government attempted to block Telegram. In 2018, the government targeted it over a dispute dealing with encryption keys and the service was able to remain online. However, the government claims that “much has changed” since then.

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