Apple Sued for Artistic Copyright Infringement

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Apple's TV set top and its iTunes store are targets for artists

Apple may be in trouble with its Apple TV set top player and the iTunes store. Two lawsuits filed this week claim that Apple knowingly infringed on copyrights, one of which belongs to a Louis Psihoyos, an artistic photographer. The second suit is a civil complaint that claims Apple along with pop star Avril Lavigne of knowingly infringing on a song written in 1979.

One of the Apple TV's well known advertisements uses a visual representation of a "video wall," consisting of many small videos playing at once with an Apple TV box in the middle. According to the lawsuit which was filed in Boulder, Colorado, the similarity between Apple's video wall and Psihoyos’ photo is too close to be merely coincidence. In fact, Apple and Psihoyos had been in negotiations over the use of his photo or concept.

Unfortunately for Psihoyos, Apple never reached an agreement with him. Instead of developing another concept for its advertisements, the complaint noted that Apple went ahead and used Psihoyos' material anyway. Psihoyos' attorney Richard Kaudy wrote in the complaint that Apple knowingly ignored Psihoyos' "rights and feelings" and any profits that Apple generated from the Psihoyos' work were kept for itself.

A separate civil complaint charges that Apple's iTunes music store is an acting catalyst for music infringement. According to the suit, Avril Lavigne's hit single "Girlfriend" is based on another song from the 1970's called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by James Gangwer and Tommy Dunbar. According to plaintiffs Gangwer and Dunbar, any company that sells and publishes Lavigne's song is infringing on their original work.

:source: Source: DailyTech

LOL :lol:

So that's twice in a year that Apple have entered negotiations with copyright owners and just gone ahead before an agreement had been reached.
They really have no regard copyright, do they.

haha thats classic

I'm thinking of copyrighting 'the' word, so that any time someone uses 'the', I can sue...


I laugh at the thought that a concept or idea can actually be copyrighted, rather than something tangible, like a book or a song.

What would have happened if someone had copyrighted the concept of a platform with four wheels on it (car). I suppose that we would all drive the same make, and have it in one color only.

What would have happened if Intel had copyrighted each instruction like Microsoft have done? Microsoft would not have been able to have developed their own microcode.

In fact, we have to thank the concept of sharing (does anyone own that concept) for seeing such advancements in much of what we take for granted. iPod and many of the other common gadgets may not be in existence if some companies back in the 70's and 80's had thought about copyrighting concepts.

Of course, the real issue is money. Copyright isn't the issue, but how much we can each extort out of each other. Even in our own workplaces, our bosses want us to work harder for our money, and we want to work less for our money. It is who can get away with it that wins the game. Even consumables are priced to be at the peak of cost without seeming too expensive.

It has nothing to do with creative content, or who owns what, but how much we can all extort out of each other. Obviously, big business has the money to extort more, so they do.