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1: Ed Sheeran Beats ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Case at Appeals Court: ‘Basic Musical Building Blocks’

First off today, Bill Donahue at Billboard reports that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with Ed Sheeran in his long-running lawsuit over his song Thinking Out Loud.

The lawsuit was filed by SAS, which owns part of the Ed Townsend estate. Townsend, along with Marvin Gaye, co-wrote the song Let’s Get It On. According to the lawsuit, Thinking Out Loud infringed Let’s Get It On, copying various elements

A lower court judge tossed this lawsuit. According to that ruling, the claim was on music’s “building blocks” that did not qualify for copyright protection, such as a single four-chord progression. SAS appealed, and the Second Circuit upheld that decision. This case is the second lawsuit over Thinking Out Loud, with a jury siding with Sheeran in a similar case.

2: Legal Bid for Ecuador Forest to Be Recognized as Song Co-Creator

Next up today, Patrick Barkham at The Guardian reports that a legal push is being made in Ecuador to recognize a forest as the co-author of a song.

The action is being taken by the More Than Human Life project. They are petitioning to have the Los Cedros cloud forest recognized as co-creator of the composition Song of the Cedars.

If the nation’s copyright agency agrees with the push, it will share authorship with four human authors. However, if it’s denied, the group has said they will take the matter before the nation’s courts.

3: Malware Operators Use Copyright Notices to Lure in Businesses

Finally today, Shaun Nichols at SC Media reports that, in Taiwan, a new report says that hackers are using false copyright notices to install malware on business computers.

The notices arrive via email and claim to represent someone filing a copyright infringement notice. However, when users open the fake PDF attachment, their system is infected with malware.

These emails impersonate a wide range of companies and legal departments. It is unknown if this is the work of one group or of several different ones.

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