Copyright & Media Update

June 9, 2016

 “God’s Not Dead” Producers Face $100 Million Copyright Lawsuit

BY ASHLEY CULLINS: Michael Landon Jr. and Kelly Kullberg claim the faith-based film used their story. With more than $140 million in international revenue, God’s Not Dead is a faith-based film success — but that success is based on someone else’s story, according to a lawsuit filed Monday, June 6, in California federal court. Screenwriter Kelly Kullberg claims she developed a story inspired by her 2006 autobiography Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas with the help of family-friendly film multihyphenate Michael Landon Jr., who was tapped to produce and direct. READ MORE…

The 100 Biggest Summer Songs of All Time: A Complete List

BILLBOARD STAFF: Looking back nearly 60 years and ranking the one-hit wonders, pop outliers and funky jams reveals how the season’s most massive singles share two essential elements: sincere emotion and a touch of novelty. Here are the top 5.

  • “I’ll Be Missing You” – Puff Daddy & Faith Evans featuring 112 – 1997
  • “The Boy Is Mine” – Brandy and Monica – 1998
  • “Tossin’ and Turnin’” – Bobby Lewis – 1961
  • “Blurred Lines” –  Robin Thicke – 2013
  • “Every Breath You Take” – The Police – 1983

For all 100 READ MORE…

Google Voice Search Recording Convos Around People’s Phones

BY ANDREW GRIFFIN, THE INDEPENDENT: Google could have a record of everything you have said around it for years, and you can listen to it yourself. The company quietly records many of the conversations that people have around its products. The feature works as a way of letting people search with their voice, and storing those recordings presumably lets Google improve its language recognition tools as well as the results that it gives to people. READ MORE to find out how to delete the files.

Songs on Trial: 10 Landmark Music Copyright Cases

BY JORDAN RUNTAGH: Western music is made up of just 12 notes, which yield a practically infinite number of songs. That’s the theory, at least. It’s only natural that composers mimic what’s been successful in the past, but as Robin Thicke and Pharrell learned the hard way, there’s a blurred line between inspiration and theft. And musical copyright continues to be a hot-button issue, affecting everyone from Madonna, Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran to the mighty Led Zeppelin.

For Led Zeppelin, an Uncertain Legal Future Over ‘Stairway’. The highly publicized battle over “Stairway to Heaven,” which goes to trial on June 14th, has the potential to open the floodgates for copyright litigation. READ MORE…

 

About Christian Copyright Solutions: CCS’s quest is to help churches and Christian ministries “do music right.”  CCS is an expert on church music copyrights and our primary focus is providing licensing and clear educational resources to churches, as well as representation, administration and advocacy for copyright owners. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only, and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel.

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