AfterDawn: News

Apple is sued over artistic copyright infringement

According to two new lawsuits filed against Apple this week, the company "knowingly infringed on copyrights", including the copyright of an artistic photographer and a song written in 1979.

Apple TV's most popular advertisement is a so-called "video wall", which consists of alot of small videos playing simultaneously while an Apple TV unit is in the middle. Louis Psihoyos, the artistic photographer, believes the video wall is too similar to one of his photographs to be coincidence and therefore the lawsuit was filed.



Apparently, Apple and Psihoyos had been in negotiations to use the concept but the agreement was never made. The lawsuit goes on to say that Apple then stole the concept instead of developing a new one. Psihoyos also argues that he never made one cent from any of Apple's profits from the Apple TV.

The second suit, a civil complaint, accuses iTunes as being "an acting catalyst for music infringement." According to the suit, Avril Lavigne's 2007 hit "Girlfriend" is based almost completely on the 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar. The artists believe that any company that publishes or sells the new song is infringing on the original song.

Source:
DailyTech

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 8 Jul 2007 18:44

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• 3 comments

• Jondrew

  ok the firsrt one seems credible at least, the second one is just ludacrous, how is itunes liable for copyright infringement, it would be the song in general, and the record company and artist that sang it, not itunes. dont get me wrong i hate apple, itunes, and iphones, anid ipods. but that is just retarded for a lawsuit, not gonna fly...

  9.7.2007 07:55 #1

• emugamer

  Quote:The second suit, a civil complaint, accuses iTunes as being "an acting catalyst for music infringement."Yeah, just like DVD players encourage movie piracy....riiiiiiiight. They may as well include Best Buy, Circuit City and any other media store in that lawsuit, just for selling her album.

  9.7.2007 08:29 #2

• borhan9

  Quote:The second suit, a civil complaint, accuses iTunes as being "an acting catalyst for music infringement." According to the suit, Avril Lavigne's 2007 hit "Girlfriend" is based almost completely on the 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar. The artists believe that any company that publishes or sells the new song is infringing on the original song.If this is the case why sue Itunes and Apple. Why not go after the record company and the artist. Thats just crap.

  16.7.2007 03:39 #3