3 Count: The Blacksmith Shop

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1: Miley Cyrus Settles Paparazzo Copyright Dispute

First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that Miley Cyrus has settled a lawsuit filed by photographer Robert Barbera over a photograph that Barbera took of Cyrus.

Barbera filed the lawsuit, alleging that Cyrus posted a photo he took on her various social media presences. Though Cyrus was the subject of the photo, Barbera, as the photographer, held the copyright to it and that prompted the lawsuit.

Despite being filed just last month, the two sides have now reached a settlement, averting any significant analysis of the case by the court. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

2: Manga Piracy Sites Targeted in US Court Have Reappeared in Russia

Next up today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that several manga piracy websites, targeted by Japanese publishers in a US Court, have moved and are now operating openly in Russia.

In August, Japanese publishers filed a motion in a California court to have US-based technology companies turn over information related to a series of manga piracy sites. They had done so with the intent o0f filing lawsuits against the operators either in Vietnam or Japan.

However, several of those domains have now moved their hosting to Russia, ditching US-based providers. This comes at a time when the Russian government has given its approval for the infringement of various foreign copyrights, likely making it more difficult to target the sites.

3: Bournemouth Researcher Identifies First U.S. Copyrighted Film

Finally today, a press release by Bournemouth University writes that a researcher from the university has answered a question of what was the first film registered with the US Copyright Office.

Officially, motion pictures wouldn’t be eligible for copyright protection until 1912. However, prior to that, filmmakers would often register still photographs from the films as a way of registering the work. To that end, it had long been known that some films were registered in 1893, but it was unclear what those films were as the titles were not helpful.

However, researcher Dr. Op den Kamp claims to have finally learned the name of the first film that was registered with the US Copyright Office. Entitled The Blacksmith Shop, the film was made by W.K.L. Dickson and Thomas Edison at Edison’s plant. This movie now supplants the oldest known surviving registered film, Fred Ott’s Sneeze, which was also made by Edison and registered in 1894.

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