Did Beijing Olympics Rip Off Disney?

Sure sounds like it. Via the New York Times:

China lacks enough snow for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, environmentalists said. China is too repressive to hold the Games, detaining hundreds of lawyers just in the past month, rights campaigners said. On Friday, despite those complaints, the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Beijing. Now some people are drawing attention to what may be a third early problem, one that could entangle China in a dispute with the Walt Disney Company or at least attract ridicule. An official song of the Games, “The Snow and Ice Dance,” they asserted, is suspiciously similar to “Let It Go,” the wildly popular ballad sung by Idina Menzel in the Disney animated film “Frozen.”

YouTube Copyright System Yanks Rand Paul's Presidential Announcement Clip

Rand Paul entered and exited the stage today to the tune of an anti-Wall Street country song owned by Warner Brothers. So of course YouTube's magic genie recognized the track as copyrighted material and blocked the clip from further viewing. Snicker.

Jury Orders Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams To Pay $7.4M To Gaye Family

Via the Los Angeles Times:

A federal jury found Tuesday that the 2013 hit song "Blurred Lines" infringed on the Marvin Gaye chart-topper "Got to Give It Up," awarding nearly $7.4 million to Gaye's children. Jurors found against singer-songwriters Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, but held harmless the record company and rapper T.I. The verdict capped a trial that lasted more than a week and focused on the similarities between the song and the legendary soul singer's 1977 hit. The jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon. An attorney for the Gaye children, Richard Busch, said there were copied elements -- including the bass and keyboard line, the hook and a repeated theme -- in all but two bars of "Blurred Lines." Busch also repeatedly pointed to statements made by the credited writers of the song -- Thicke and Williams -- referencing the late Motown legend in interviews about their writing process. Thicke said in several interviews that he suggested to Williams that they write something like "Got to Give It Up," and Williams has said he was "trying to pretend" he was Gaye when he wrote it. Thicke, Williams and their attorneys brushed off the statements as casual remarks designed to sell a song -- and in Thicke's case, made under the influence while he was drunk and high.

Jurors were told that Blurred Lines earned more than $5M for both Thicke and Williams, $6M for the record company, and $8M for its publishers. Such details are rarely disclosed to the public. The single and its album reportedly cost $7M to record and market. Some industry observers believe that today's verdict will stifle the creative process of other musicians.

Trial Concludes In Gaye Estate Vs Thicke

The children of the late Marvin Gaye are suing Robin Thicke for the profits of Blurred Lines, which has sold 15 million copies, earning $5M each for Thicke and its songwriter Pharrell Williams, who testified yesterday as the trial ended.

Williams said after the song was released, he saw similarities between "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's work but said that wasn't a conscious part of his creative process. Richard S. Busch, who represents the Gaye family, asked Williams whether he felt "Blurred Lines" captured the feel of the era in which Gaye recorded. "Feel," Williams responded. "Not infringed." The case opened last week and featured testimony from Thicke, who told jurors that he took a songwriting credit on "Blurred Lines" despite Pharrell doing most of the work. Thicke brought a bit of showmanship to a trial that has focused on minute details of chords and sheet music. He performed elements of "Blurred Lines" and hits by U2 and The Beatles to show how different songs can include similar-sounding musical elements. Williams did not perform any music during his more than hour of testimony, and complained that audio comparisons of "Blurred Lines" and "Got to Give It Up" had been created in a way that made them sound similar.

Criticized by some as an endorsement of sexual assault, Blurred Lines topped the charts in dozens of countries and spent twelve weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, making it the biggest hit of 2013. Gaye's single topped the pop, R&B, and disco charts in 1977.

Proposed Copyright Law Change Could End Streaming & Downloads Of Cover Versions

Via Billboard Magazine:

On Thursday morning, the U.S. Copyright Office released a 245-page review of the music licensing regime with some bold proposals. It's not beach reading season, though, so it's understandable why the tome hasn't triggered a mass frenzy just yet. But wait! The government has just suggested a change that would make it possible for Taylor Swift not only to forbid her own works from appearing on Spotify, but stop those covering her there too. Specifically, the Copyright Office recommends that songwriters or their publishers still won't be able to stop cover songs in certain formats — presumably physical compact discs, broadcast radio and live concerts — but could stop covers from being posted on interactive (otherwise known as on-demand) sites or download sites. (The proposal might also give a non-interactive site like Pandora one advantage over Spotify.)

In 2011 famous control freak Prince declared that any covering of his songs without permission should be illegal. Prince: "That doesn't exist in any other art form, be it books, movies. There's only one version of Law & Order. There's several versions of Kiss and Purple Rain." Millions of YouTube's music clips are cover versions and its unclear if the original artist would have to take action to have them removed.

Sam Smith Agrees To Pay Royalites To Tom Petty On Grammy-Nominated Hit

Via Stereogum:

Tom Petty has been awarded a songwriting credit on Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” which bears a close resemblance to Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” According to The Sun, the deal was settled out of court back in October, but is just coming to light now. Both Petty and singer/composer Jeff Lynne were given a 12.5% writing credit. The song’s full writing credit now lists Smith, Petty, Lynne, and Jimmy Napes as the songwriters. “When Sam’s track was originally released, it was clear to a lot of musicians that there were notable similarities between the tracks,” a source told NME. “After it was pointed out to Sam’s camp, they didn’t try to fight it and amicably dished out royalties. It wasn’t a deliberate thing, musicians are just inspired by other artists and Sam and his team were quick to hold up their hand when it was officially flagged.”

For his part, Petty has said that he considers lawsuits in such situations, well, petty, once declaring that he'd only consider suing if someone "maliciously" stole one his songs note-for-note. In cases of "inspirational" copying, as seems be the situation with Sam Smith, Petty's attitude is "OK, good for you."

RELATED: Billboard reports that Petty isn't eligible to share Smith's possible Grammy.

"Since Lynne and Petty didn't do any new writing for this work, we are considering their original work to have been interpolated by Napier, Phillips and Smith for 'Stay With Me,'" says Bill Freimuth, the Recording Academy's senior vice president, awards. "Lynne and Petty will not be considered nominees nor will they be considered Grammy recipients, should the song win. Rather, they would be given certificates to honor their participation in the work, just as any other writers of sampled or interpolated work."

Church Threatens To Sue "I'm Not Gay No More" Man Over iTunes Release

Via TMZ:

The church where the "I'm Not Gay No More" guy went straight is not only intolerant toward gays, they have an intense dislike for people who steal their tunes. The Church of God in Christ insists Andrew Caldwell call in the lawyers because their now-famous parishioner jazzed up his hilarious moment with background singers and released it on iTunes. A church honcho says they're ordering him to stop hawking the song partly because they own the audio, but also because they feel Andrew is making a mockery of the service ... and that's hilarious. But Andrew's calling BS, telling TMZ he's copyrighted the song. And he says it's his voice and he -- not even God -- can claim ownership of it.

Here's a snippet of the single.

Eugene Delgaudio Claims Partial Victory In SPLC Lawsuit Over Gay Marriage Photo

Back in 2012, Virginia-based anti-gay crackpot Eugene Delgaudio lifted the above wedding photo from the blog of a New Jersey gay couple, replaced the New York City skyline backdrop with snow-covered trees, and used the image for a flyer that attacked a pro-gay marriage candidate for the Colorado state Senate. After first sending an cease-and-desist order, in September of that year the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Delgaudio.

This morning Delgaudio issued a triumphant press release which opens by declaring that he has won his motion to dismiss on one of the suit's two claims.

Yesterday, Monday, March 31, in Denver, Colorado, senior federal district judge Wiley Y. Daniel dismissed with prejudice one of two claims brought against Public Advocate by two homosexuals represented by lawyers from the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). SPLC lawyers had demanded a large money judgment for Public Advocate's use of a photograph of those two homosexuals in a mailing against pro-homosexual candidates for state office. The judge ruled for Public Advocate, finding that it had no commercial purpose in using the photograph, as it was involved in an important exercise of its First Amendment rights with respect to a controversial issue in the context of an election. The candidates opposed by Public Advocate were defeated in that election. The court ruled that "Public Advocate['s] actions are evidence that same-sex marriage can at the very least be considered as relating to political concerns of the community. Therefore, I find that the mailers reasonably relate to a matter of public concern."

While the judge did dismiss one portion of the suit, he ruled that the portion of the suit which claims copyright infringement may continue.

After careful consideration of the matters before this Court, it is ORDERED that Public Advocate’s Motion To Dismiss Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint [ECF No. 101] and NAGR, Rocky Mountain, O’Dell, Andrew Brown, and Dudley Brown’s Motion To Dismiss The First Amended Complaint [ECF No. 106] are GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The motions are GRANTED to the extent that the First Amendment bars the Plaintiffs’ Colorado state law appropriation of name or likeness tort claim, and that claim is DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. The motions are DENIED to the extent that Public Advocate and the Defendants seek dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ copyright infringement claim based on the fair use doctrine.

The 18-page ruling is here. These things tend to make my eyes cross, so perhaps some legal eagles here on JMG can dig in and tell us what may happen next. Delguadio, of course, has issued a money beg to continue his defense.

Prince Sues 22 Fans For $1M Each Over Postings Of Self-Made Concert Clips

Prince has filed million-dollar lawsuits against 22 fans who posted self-made concert videos to their Facebook pages or personal blogs. According to the suits, these fans provided links to download their clips.

The "Purple Rain" singer filed a copyright lawsuit on 16 January in the Northern District of California, targeting 22 individuals he believes have committed "massive infringement and bootlegging" of his copyright. Prince, real name Prince Rogers Nelson, has named just two of the defendants by their real names - Dan Chodera and Karina Jindrova. The remaining 20 are referenced only as 'Doe', bar eight who are indicated by their website titles. Monikers such as PurpleKissTwo and FunkyExperienceFour suggest the content, some of which dates back to 1983, is aimed at Prince’s most dedicated fans. "Defendants rely on either Google's Blogger platform or Facebook, or both, to accomplish their unlawful activity," court papers read. "Rather than publishing lawful content to their blogs, they typically publish posts that list all the songs performed at a certain Prince live show and then provide a link to a file sharing service where unauthorized copies of the performance can be downloaded."

Prince is well-known for employing a team that scours YouTube to file take-down notices against any user that posts self-made clips from his tours. The Electronic Freedom Foundation, which advocates for the open use of the internet, recently named Prince to their "Hall Of Shame" for filing take-down notices against six-second clips on Vine.

Homeland Security Descends On AMC Theatres Patron Wearing Google Glass

AMC Theatres has banned patrons from wearing Google Glass after Homeland Security yanked a patron wearing the device out of one of their Ohio multiplexes. Via the Guardian:

Writing anonymously on The Gadgeteer blog, the man explained that halfway into the screening at an AMC in Columbus, Ohio, he was hauled out by police and officers from homeland security's ICE unit, which monitors piracy. "A guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says 'Follow me outside immediately'," said the man, who was taken into a room for interrogation. His Glass had been switched off during the movie, and he was wearing it for its prescription lenses. "After a long time somebody came with a laptop and an USB cable at which point he told me it was my last chance to come clean. I repeated for the hundredth time there is nothing to come clean about and this is a big misunderstanding so the [ICE officer] finally connected my Glass to the computer, downloaded all my personal photos and started going though them one by one … Then they went through my phone, and five minutes later they concluded I had done nothing wrong." He wasn't apologised to, but was offered four free movie passes, which "infuriated" him.

AMC says they are "very concerned" about the potential for stealing movies via Google Glass. The Motion Picture Association of America disagrees: "Google Glass is an incredible innovation in the mobile sphere, and we have seen no proof that it is currently a significant threat that could result in content theft." (Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

RELATED: As I mentioned here recently, I ran Miami-area theaters for AMC back in the stone age of VHS when movie pirates would occasionally bribe employees to smuggle new releases out of the projection booth for overnight duplication. It was quite the operation back in those days as the films arrived on six to ten small reels in two 50-lb canisters. Pirates, with the aid of an employee, had to break the film back down onto the small reels, take it elsewhere, splice it back together, then film it off their own screen. A couple of days later the tapes would appear at shops across South America. More often, however, they would just slip into one of our early matinees and make a shitty handheld recording off our own screen, a la Seinfeld. We threw them out all the time, but the local cops weren't very interested in making arrests.

CROATIA: British Pop Band To Sue After Music Used In Anti-Gay Marriage Ad

British pop group The XX says it will sue after its music was used without permission in an ad promoting Crotia's coming national referendum on same-sex marriage. Gay Star News reports:

In The Name Of The Family, a Christian anti-gay group, decided to release the commercial calling for a ban on gay marriage. A referendum on banning marriage equality will take place on 1 December. The Christian group chose to use The XX’s ‘Intro’, a track that has been the score of many TV shows and films, for their anti-gay campaign. But what In The Name Of The Family did not realise was two out of the three members of the indie pop band are gay. And The XX are not pleased the group used their song without permission. The British indie group is quite big in Croatia, having performed at Terraneo festival last year. It is believed In The Name of The Family spent 48 million Croatian Kuna ($8.5 million, €6.2 million) on their campaign to get equal marriage banned. Over 700,000 people, nearly a quarter of all people in Croatia, have signed their name to a petition calling for the ban.

I'm not finding the clip on the group's official YouTube channel, but below is an example of their other clips. And here's their Facebook page.

RELATED: Croatia was admitted to the European Union in July.

Petition Of The Day

Anti-gay crackpots are ganging up to flag the YouTube videos posted by Right Wing Watch, which always eventually wins back the clips in question, as they did when Pat Robertson's stormtroopers tried to squash his "AIDS ring" video. The freak shows know this, but they continue their campaign. Sign the petition posted today by People For The American Way.

Headline Of The Day

Kudos, as always, to Right Wing Watch.

Spotify Sued Over User Playlists

Britain's Ministry Of Sound label has sued the music streaming service Spotify, claiming that user playlists that mirror the track listings on their compilations constitute a copyright violation.

Chief executive Lohan Presencer claims that his company has been asking Spotify to remove the playlists – some of which include "Ministry of Sound" in their titles – since 2012.  "It's been incredibly frustrating: we think it's been very clear what we're arguing, but there has been a brick wall from Spotify," said Presencer. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that it had received the lawsuit, but declined to comment further. While Presencer is known to be no fan of Spotify according to industry sources, the lawsuit came as a surprise to the company. The Guardian understands that Spotify has held talks in the past with Ministry of Sound about licensing tracks from its label division, albeit without a deal being struck. The case will hinge on whether compilation albums qualify for copyright protection due to the selection and arrangement involved in putting them together. Spotify has the rights to stream all the tracks on the playlists in question, but the issue here is whether the compilation structure - the order of the songs - can be copyrighted.

Spotify currently has over 24 million users who have created over a billion playlists. (I've made a few dozen myself.)

CBN Forces Takedown Of Pat Robertson's "Gays Use AIDS Rings To Infect" Clip

Right Wing Watch has posted excerpts from the 700 Club many, many times over the years. But very curiously, today's now infamous clip of Pat Robertson's douchetastic lie about gay men has been yanked from YouTube due to a copyright claim by the Christian Broadcasting Network. We're confident that RWW will soon be able to re-post the clip as it totally falls under the fair use rules. Since the clip made it onto dozens of major sites today and the damage is already done, we must wonder what CBN is worried about.

Blurred Lines: Gaye's Estate Rejected Six-Figure Offer From Robin Thicke

Last week Robin Thicke filed a preemptive lawsuit against the estate of Marvin Gaye, just in case they decided to sue over the alleged similarities between Gaye's 1977 smash Got To Give It Up and Thicke's Blurred Lines, which remains at #1 today for the 11th consecutive week. Today Billboard reports that Gaye's family had rejected a six-figure offer from Thicke's camp.

According to sources knowledgeable with the lawsuit, the settlement offer came after Frankie Christian Gaye, Marvin Gaye III and Nona Marvisa Gaye accused Thicke's "Blurred Lines" hit single of plagiarizing "Got To Give it Up," written and composed by Marvin Gaye, who died in 1984. Subsequently, Thicke, along with "Blurred Lines" co-writers Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris, Jr., filed a lawsuit on Aug. 15 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles requesting a ruling that "Blurred Lines" does not infringe on "Got To Give It Up." Thicke's lawsuit said the "intent in producing 'Blurred Lines' was to evoke an era. In reality, the Gaye defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre. The reality is that the songs themselves are starkly different."

RELATED: Thicke's hit is the biggest selling single of the year and is now tied as the 5th longest-running #1 single of all time. (There are numerous ties above him as well.) With the exception of Elvis Presley's Hound Dog/Don't Be Cruel (1956), all of the singles in Thicke's company have come after 1991, which is when Billboard began using SoundScan to track sales.

SPLC Adds Pro-Gun Groups To Lawsuit Against Eugene Delgaudio

Via press release from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Two pro-gun groups conspired with an anti-gay hate group to create political mailers that used a gay couple’s copyrighted engagement photo to attack candidates in the 2012 Colorado Republican primaries, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which filed a motion with the court today seeking to add the pro-gun groups and other individuals as defendants to the ongoing federal lawsuit brought on behalf of the couple and photographer. The motion filed today reveals a scheme in which two Colorado-based pro-gun groups, the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) and the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), worked with Public Advocate of the United States to produce mailings that used the photo of Brian Edwards and Thomas Privitere, created and owned by Kristina Hill, without the photographer or couple’s permission.

Good.

NOM Loses Again

Thanks to Good As You blogger Jeremy Hooper, singer/songwriter Katie Herzig has forced YouTube to yank the promotional video for NOM's hate march on the Supreme Court.  Herzig told Hooper that she "definitely supports marriage equality" and did not give NOM permission to use her music.  Hit the second link and check out her tunes!

Eugene Delgaudio Linked To Gun Group

The Southern Poverty Law Center has subpoenaed a notorious Colorado gun rights group in their copyright lawsuit against Virginia hate group leader Eugene Delgaudio, who is accused of illegally using the wedding photograph of a gay couple in an anti-gay flyer campaign.

Court records connect Dudley Brown, a Windsor Republican, to the "preparation" of the mailers, which targeted state Senate candidate Jean White and state House candidate Jeff Hare. Both lost their GOP primaries. The mailers included the same copyrighted photograph of the gay couple, but with altered backgrounds. The New Jersey couple and their photographer have sued the Virginia firm that sent the mailers.

Brown, his gun ally Luke O'Dell, and their two gun organizations, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and National Association for Gun Rights, are fighting the subpoena. It seeks a variety of documents — including but not limited to contracts, letters, handwritten notes, expense reports, computer documents and telephone logs — from Brown and O'Dell, and volunteers, directors, attorneys and employees of the gun groups. The documents concern not just the mailers but the 2012 state GOP primary.

Delgaudio has named Brown as a potential defense witness in the suit.

Eugene Delgaudio's Investigator Was Listed As Potential Donor To His Campaign

Over the weekend I noted that a special prosecutor from another Virginia county had been appointed to investigate anti-gay hate group leader and Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio. Now we know why.

The name of the former FBI agent hired by Loudoun County to lead the investigation of Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio was included on one of Delgaudio’s list of potential political donors, Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott York (R-At Large) said Nov. 12. This fact, paired with the disclosure of new documents pertaining to the allegations that Delgaudio used county resources to conduct political fundraising, led to the transfer of the case to the Arlington commonwealth’s attorney for further examination Nov. 8, York said. In addition, the county’s own administrative review – for which the former FBI agent, Dan Wright, was hired – was suspended.

Wright declined to comment on the case when reached by phone Nov. 12.  York plans to convene a special Board of Supervisors meeting Nov. 20 for the sole purpose of discussing the Delgaudio inquiry.  York’s comments added another element of wonderment to the case against the controversial Delgaudio, the Republican supervisor for Sterling. Delgaudio was the target of a Washington Post report in September that featured one of Delgaudio’s former aides, Donna Mateer, saying she was directed by Delgaudio to initiate meetings for potential political donations while being compensated by the county.

In addition to the charges that he used public employees to raise money for his hate group, Delgaudio is being sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center for stealing the wedding photo of a gay couple for usage in anti-gay mailers.