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  • How Copytrack’s bot wrongly accused US White House photographer of stealing a photo clicked by himself

    Former United States’ White House photographer Pete Souza had been threatened with copyright litigation for publishing a photo he took of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on his personal website. However, it was later revealed that the takedown notice was erroneously sent by the software bot of a copyright tracking firm.
    The photo in question was taken by Mr Souza while onboard Air Force One i

  • Malaysian company Cenergi SEA called out for stealing an idea pitched by design company Dxclusive

    A government-linked Malaysian company is at the center of criticism for the alleged rip-off of a vendor’s design proposal for an exhibition.
    Diana Chew, the founder of design company Dxclusive, proposed a few designs for Cenergi SEA Bhd’s booth for the International Sustainable Energy Summit 2022.
    However, she was unable to take up the assignment due to pricing pressure from the company.

  • Why you should PitchMark your ideas before submitting them for Japan’s “Sake Viva!” campaign

    The National Tax Agency (NTA) of Japan is asking its youth from the age group of 20 to 39 years to come up with business ideas to help revive the liquor industry. Of course, you should participate, but don’t forget to PitchMark your ideas.
    The government believes that certain lifestyle and spending habit changes during the Covid-19 lockdown had drawn the youth away from drinking recreationally,

  • How U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lynn Goldsmith vs Andy Warhol’s case could alter the definition of fair use under copyright

    The announcement that the US Supreme Court will hear the Andy Warhol Foundation's appeal of a lower court decision in Lynn Goldsmith's favor regarding Warhol's 1984 paintings of rock star Prince has alarmed not only the community of American photographers and artists but also their Associations and the US copyright office because the decision could alter the definition of fair use and result in mo

  • Canada to amend copyright laws to include resale royalty for visual artists

    The Canadian government is working towards amending its copyright laws to introduce a provision for the Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) that will allow the original artist to earn a royalty when the work is resold during the copyright period.
    The move is aimed at protecting and improving economic conditions for Canadian visual artists, especially indigenous and senior artists. The estimated median

  • Litigation update in the Jingna Zhang-Jeff Dieschburg case: Defense denies liability for infringement

    In June, Singaporean photographer Jingna Zhang filed a copyright infringement action against Jeff Dieschburg, an art student at the University of Strasbourg, for his award-winning painting ‘Turandot’, which Zhang claimed was in fact an unauthorized reproduction and use of her fashion photograph appearing in Harper’s Bazaar magazine in 2017. PitchMark caught up recently with Zhang’s Luxembourg-base

  • Activision Blizzard accused twice by creators for plagiarizing their skin designs for Call of Duty

    Gaming company Activision Blizzard stands accused once again of stealing the concept of an NFT design that gaming studio Midnight Society was planning to introduce in its own game Deadrop. Although Activision acknowledged its mistake in using the skin design in Call Of Duty without the artist’s permission, it did not accept the plagiarism allegations.
    Last month, Midnight Society’s head and gam

  • Taylor Swift rejects plagiarism allegations over hit song "Shake It Off"

    In response to a lawsuit filed in 2017, pop star Taylor Swift claims to be the sole writer of her 2014 hit “Shake It Off” and denies plagiarizing lyrics from the 2001 song “Playas Gon’ Play” by 3LW, which was written by songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler.
    Hall and Butler had previously filed the lawsuit in 2017, but was dismissed by the judge. However, they appealed in 2021, with judge Mic

  • 7-Eleven Singapore called out for copying images for its Hawker Fiesta campaign

    7-Eleven Singapore is accused of copying images for its recent Hawker Fiesta 2022 campaign from creative studio 8EyedSpud’s artwork for Hawker Culture 2020.
    8EyedSpud contacted the convenience store chain to notify them about the matter, and it was subsequently put in touch with the creative agency LH.M Advertising that 7-Eleven had engaged.
    The advertising agency acknowledged the infringeme

  • Netflix accuses Barlow and Bear, creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, of crossing boundaries of fan fiction "well past its breaking point"

    Netflix has sued the creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, for infringing copyrights of the hit show Bridgerton after they performed a live musical concert of their version without permission.
    The streaming platform, which owns the exclusive rights to authorize derivative works based on Julia Quinn’s book series, released Bridgerton's first season in Dece

  • Novelist John Hughes in hot water over plagiarism accusations

    Sydney-based Australian writer-novelist John Hughes and his work "The Dogs" is under intense scrutiny these past few weeks due to allegations of plagiarism. The Guardian Australia investigated and found multiple similarities and identical instances from another literary work, Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War. The issue has caused Hughes' work to be removed from the longlist for the

  • Spanish beach body campaign used a model’s image without her consent

    British model Nyome Nicholas-Williams has accused Spain’s Ministry of Equality of using her photo from Instagram and featuring it in their advertisement without her permission.
    The ministry launched a summer campaign that features five diverse women chilling out on a beach to persuade women who are worried about their body looks and, therefore, avoid going to the beach.
    The Institute for Wom

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