3 Count: Mortal Kopyright

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1: Marjorie Taylor Greene Promo Video Removed From Twitter After Dr. Dre’s Copyright Complaint

First off today, Ted Johnson at Deadilne reports that U.S. House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was locked out of her Twitter account following a copyright complaint filed by Dr. Dre over a video Greene posted.

The video featured the song Still D.R.E. by the musician and, according to a copyright notice and a published cease and desist letter, it was used without permission. A spokesperson for Greene confirmed that, for a time, she was locked out of her account but later regained access and was able to tweet about in the incident.

Greene responded to the incident saying that, while she appreciated his music, she would “never play your words of violence against women and police officers, and your glorification of the thug life and drugs.”

2: Russia Ally Belarus Legalizes Pirating Media From ‘Unfriendly’ Nations

Next up today, Jordan Pearson at Motherboard reports that the government of Belarus has temporarily legalized the piracy of intellectual property from “unfriendly” nations.

The move follows a similar one that was passed in Russia last year. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it was hit with a series of strict sanctions that prompted Russia to pass the law as a way of obtaining western media. Belarus, a strong Russian ally, has now duplicated that step.

The law, which took effect on January 3rd, allows for the piracy of such materials, though the government says it will still collect royalties. However, companies will only have three years to collect those royalties and, given that sanctions bar companies from doing business with Belarus, it’s unlikely that they will be able to do so.

3: Warner Bros. Fights ‘Mortal Kombat II’ Source Code Leak

Finally today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a DMCA notice with the development platform GitHub over a leaked copy of the Mortal Kombat II source code.

The game was released in 1993 by the company Midway. Since then, through a series of purchases, the rights to the franchise are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. However, when one user published the game’s source code on GitHub as a “Historical Source” that prompted the company to act.

The owner of the account has not republished the code but, instead, published a “not-mk2” repository that contained a Wikipedia discussion about alleged toxic behaviors at NetherRealms, the company currently developing the modern Mortal Kombat games.

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