3 Count: The Game of Life

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1: Fees Denied in Copyright Dispute Over ‘Game of Life’

First off today, Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly reports that the First Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against Hasbro in their request to seek attorney fees following a major legal victory.

The case was filed by the widow of game designer Bill Markham. According to the lawsuit, Markham originally developed the popular board game, The Game of Life, but has not received royalties related to the use of his work.

However, Hasbro claims that the developer was actually Reuben Klamer, who they say developed the game based, in part, on a very early prototype created by Markham. Hasbro further argued that Markham’s contribution was a work-made-for-hire, meaning that they own the game in full. The court sided with Hasbro, but declined to award attorneys fees and costs to them, saying that the lawsuit was not unreasonable. Now the Appeals Court has upheld that decision, saying that the ruling was not an abuse of power.

2: Movizland Piracy Site Operator Arrested

Next up today, Colin Mann at Advanced Television reports that, in Egypt, authorities have arrested the alleged operator of the pirate site Movizland, one of the most popular such sites in the Middle East and North Africa regions.

The site received an estimated 12 million monthly visits, mostly from countries nearby. Though the individual arrested has not been named, the operation was carried out in Cairo, Egypt and saw help from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.

In addition to the arrest, the operation also saw the government seize various domains connected with the site. However, the site appears to be online at this time. Nonetheless, the arrest was cheered by rightsholder organizations, who congratulated the Egyptian authorities for making the arrest.

3: Z-Library Releases Tor-Enabled Desktop Launcher to Improve ‘Accessibility’

Finally today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the book pirate website Z-Library has launched a new desktop app that it hopes will improve the survivability of the site.

Z-Library claims to be an online library; however, it provides access to unlicensed e-books, which has made it a target of both law enforcement and rightsholders. One of those key challenges has been domain seizures, which have repeatedly forced the site to move and made it possible for knockoff websites to proliferate.

The new launcher aims to address that by always directing the user to the correct site, even if the current domain was seized. The launcher is currently available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

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