Disney is being sued over the ownership rights to a visual effects technology it used in this year’s “Beauty and the Beast,” 2015’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Rearden, a company founded by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Perlman, filed a lawsuit against Disney Monday in a U.S. district court in San Francisco, alleging copyright, patent, and trademark infringement stemming from the use of a facial-capture technology called MOVA Contour.

MOVA, which was used in “Beauty and the Beast” to convert actor Dan Stevens’ facial movements into those of the Beast character, was developed by Perlman and his associates in the late 1990s. To use MOVA, actors’ faces are airbrushed with glow-in-the-dark paint that is only visible under a black light. A light strobes rapidly–unseen to the human eye–allowing a camera to capture those movements for animators to then use as the foundation for the animated character.

According to the lawsuit, “Disney used the stolen MOVA Contour systems and methods, made derivative works, and reproduced, distributed, performed, and displayed at least ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ in knowing or willfully blind violation of Rearden Mova LLC’s intellectual property rights.”

The lawsuit arose from another ongoing dispute between Rearden and Chinese-based company Shenzhenshi Haitiecheng Science and Technology (SHST). According to court documents from a lawsuit between SHST and Rearden, Greg LaSalle, a former associate of Perlman, helped develop MOVA while employed by Perlman’s companies, Rearden and OnLive.

OnLive went out of business in 2012 and the MOVA Assets were transferred to a company called OL2. When LaSalle transferred from OnLive to Rearden he signed an employee contract containing a Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement (PIIA), in which he agreed to assign all proprietary information that he acquired during his employment to Rearden.

Following Rearden unsuccessful attempts to launch MOVA commercially, Perlman transferred the MOVA Assets to LaSalle. Perlman later claimed that LaSalle’s PIIA gave Rearden sole ownership rights to the MOVA Assets. Despite those claims, LaSalle sold the technology to SHST in May 2013, according to court documents from the SHST lawsuit.

However, Rearden claims that SHST should not have even been able to buy MOVA, because MOVA Assets–along with their ownership rights–were transferred to a Rearden subsidiary in April 2013. The complaint also notes that LaSalle was not a Rearden employee at the time of the sale, and therefore did not have the authority to sell the technology.

As part of the complaint, Rearden requested an injunction to prohibit Disney from “reproducing, distributing, performing, or displaying” the three movies that used MOVA.

The lawsuits that Rearden and Disney are entangled in are complicated to say the least. But these cases demonstrate the complex nature of intellectual property law, a field that has only become more complex in our increasingly globalized world.

Marcus Dieterle

Marcus is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a rising senior at Towson University where he is double majoring in mass communication (with a concentration in journalism and new media) and political science. When he isn’t in the newsroom, you can probably find him reading on the train, practicing his Portuguese, or eating too much pasta. Contact Marcus at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Muslim Woman Running for Senate Faces Verbal Attacks

Democrat Deedra Abboud is running for senate in Arizona. She is hoping to run against Republican Senator Jeff Flake. But recently, she has been verbally attacked because she is Muslim. Abboud is an attorney in Phoenix and has reportedly endured harassment ever since she announced her campaign this spring. Recently, she posted a Facebook status talking about religious tolerance, and people responded by attacking her religion. “Nice try but your first love is Satan (AKA Allah) and your second love is to a litter box your ‘people’ come from,” one user wrote. “BAN ISLAM IN THE USA…WE HATE YOUR FILTHY DEATH CULT,” another one said. Abboud is originally from Arkansas but moved to Arizona and converted to Islam 19 years ago. After the comments became publicly known, even Senator Flake came to Abboud’s defense. “Hang in there,” he wrote. “Sorry you have to put up with this. Lots of wonderful people across AZ. You’ll find them.”

To clarify,he’s not “a flake” but Senator Flake,a Republican.
Hats off 4 standing against bigotry where others would have exploited the opp. https://t.co/HCITu7XPBQ

— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) July 19, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: July 19, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Want to see the new “Beauty and the Beast” movie in Malaysia? Be our guest.

Disney’s live-action remake of the classic animated film won a small victory in the country recently, despite efforts from its censorship board to ban the film over the decision to depict one of the characters, LeFou, as a gay man. 

Malaysian censorship officials pushed to cut scenes suggesting that LeFou is gay, but Disney refused to edit it and the film’s postponed release date is now set for March 30 with a PG-13 rating.

Movies that feature gay characters can only be shown in Malaysia if the characters are portrayed negatively or renounce their sexuality. Malaysia is among a handful of countries, where homosexuality is either outlawed or condemned, that have tried to hinder the movie’s release.

In Russia, the film, which is rated PG in the U.S., has been restricted to viewers aged 16 and older. “Beauty and the Beast” was also pulled from cinemas in Kuwait, where an edited version might return to screens soon. Meanwhile, a group of churches in Singapore has issued a warning about the movie to parents.

The controversy can likely be traced back to the U.S., where, before the movie even came out, a drive-in owner in Alabama said he would refuse to show it because he opposed the inclusion of a gay character on religious grounds.

So what exactly happened in the film to spark such a global scandal? It turns out, the representation of a gay character may actually be overhyped. LeFou is a sidekick to the villain Gaston, and it is implied throughout the story that he has an unrequited crush on Gaston. One scene shows LeFou dancing with another male character for about three seconds, but he never explicitly reveals his sexuality.

If anything, the scene–which director Bill Condon described as an “exclusively gay moment”–deserves criticism for being too subtle, according to some LGBT advocates. Bustle’s Martha Sorren writes:

I can acknowledge that Condon has taken a (small) step forward with this scene, but I’m certainly not going to praise the director and cast for representing the gay community when they did so little to represent us.

Sorren adds that LeFou’s effeminate gestures reinforce stereotypes about gay men, and that his unreciprocated feelings for Gaston could cause “straight people–especially the young viewers who will undoubtedly see ‘Beauty and the Beast’–to think that their gay friends are going to develop creepy, obsessive crushes on them.”

Sorren’s concerns echo those about another beloved children’s tale that stars Emma Watson. In 2007, J.K. Rowling revealed that the character Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series is gay, but critics were disappointed that she never made this clear in the books or movies, and questioned whether she was just tossing in a token gay character as an afterthought.

Though Disney has taken steps to expand racial diversity in its movies in recent years, members of the LGBT community hope to see the studio create more characters like them. Last spring, some fans of the movie “Frozen” started a campaign to give the main character, Elsa, a girlfriend in the sequel.

And then, of course, there’s this perspective:

imagine boycotting beauty & the beast because of a gay character while being totally cool with a teenage girl falling in love with a buffalo

— Tyler Oakley (@tyleroakley) March 5, 2017

It’s certainly not a Disney production without a happy ending. Disgruntled fans could not stop “Beauty and the Beast” from becoming a box office hit. In fact, boycotters who complain about too many women or people of color in Disney’s movies have never had much success before–just look at the attempts to bring down the company’s first “Star Wars” film, “The Force Awakens,” two years ago.

Victoria Sheridan

Victoria is an editorial intern at Law Street. She is a senior journalism major and French minor at George Washington University. She’s also an editor at GW’s student newspaper, The Hatchet. In her free time, she is either traveling or planning her next trip abroad. Contact Victoria at VSheridan@LawStreetMedia.com.

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FBI to Investigate Breitbart, Other Media Outlets, Over Russian Ties

The FBI is getting ready to investigate Breitbart News and some other right wing media outlets to see whether they cooperated with Russia to boost President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. The agency is reportedly looking into online bots that pushed out fake and real news stories that were supportive of Trump. The automated bots would create millions of posts on social media that linked to far-right sites like Breitbart, and Russian-backed outlets like RT and Sputnik News. Observers noticed that whenever damaging information about Trump was revealed or his campaign was thought to be struggling, anti-Clinton posts would surge.

Investigators will try to determine whether the media outlets knew what the bots were doing when they were pushing fake news. This announcement resulted in mixed reactions on social media. While many thought this investigation was a long time coming, some expressed concerns about freedom of the press.

Am I the only one who thinks an FBI counter-intel investigation of Breitbart is a dangerous move for press freedom? https://t.co/jn0eZHM3zI

— David Mastio (@DavidMastio) March 21, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: March 22, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Public Policy Polling released a National Survey on GOP voters today. Many of the questions were expected, delving into the favorability or lack thereof of the many GOP presidential candidates. But PPP (the same firm that brought us results on Deez Nuts’ candidacy) also threw in a bit of a trick question “Would you support bombing Agrabah?” Thirty percent of the respondents said yes–and now the internet is having a bit of fun at their expense.

Agrabah, some of you may know, is the fictional land in “Aladdin.”

This poll should definitely be taken with quite a few grains of salt. It was certainly a “gotcha” question, sandwiched between many other, very legitimate, questions. PPP is well known for cheeky questions, and is often viewed as left-leaning. Additionally, Slate pointed out that Agrabah “sounds pretty similar to ‘Aleppo’ and ‘Raqqa,’ which are two Syrian cities that have been occupied by ISIS.” Moreover, a total 57 percent of the GOP respondents replied that they were not sure, indicating that they may have realized that it was a BS question.

This isn’t limited to the GOP though–19 percent of Democratic primary voters also answered that they would agree to bomb Agrabah, which is almost equally as embarrassing. On the full spread, 50 percent of respondents who identified as “somewhat liberal” said they were more likely to want to bomb Agrabah. So really, there’s just a lot of people across the political spectrum who either don’t know what Agrabah is, or really hate Aladdin, Jasmine, the Genie, and Jafar.

But, regardless of the actual validity of the poll, it incited a lot of fantastic internet reactions.

Everyone wants to go to Agrabah. Real men want to go to Mordor. https://t.co/1o9Z3mmYzF

— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) December 18, 2015

In fairness, Agrabah’s leadership is clearly pretty sketchy — easily manipulated, reliant on magic… https://t.co/qrZHKdbOkp

— Bill Connelly (@SBN_BillC) December 18, 2015

I’ve literally had someone believe me when I said I’m from Agrabah. https://t.co/3DJJkvyu02

— Lily Bolourian (@LilyBolourian) December 18, 2015

A discussion over a poll on how many voters would support bombing a fictional country in Aladdin seems befitting of the 2016 campaign.

— Matt Viser (@mviser) December 18, 2015

Thanks, PPP for proving once again that stupidity is bipartisan.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post PPP Says Scary Number of Voters Want to Bomb Aladdin’s Home, Internet Explodes appeared first on Law Street.

It’s really, really cold out. I’m a New Englander who grew up with lots of snow and ice every winter, and I pride myself on my ability to stand up to even the most frigid temperatures. That being said, here in D.C. it was in the single digits when I walked to work this morning, and I’m really not okay with that. Luckily, a Kentucky town by the name of Harlan City thinks it has tracked down the culprit. It’s not climate change though, or a polar vortex. It’s Queen Elsa from the recent Disney blockbuster “Frozen.” In fact, Harlan City Police are so sure that she’s the one to blame that they’ve issued a “warrant” for her arrest. They’re taking the concept of a “cold spell” quite literally.

Anna is worried.

For those of you who somehow escaped 2013 without seeing the movie, it’s a story about two sisters from a fictional kingdom called Arendelle, most likely located somewhere in Northern Europe. The older sister, Elsa, has a variety of cold-related powers, including being able to inflict a deep freeze on her entire kingdom when she gets a little overwhelmed. Although everything ends up alright in the movie, the people of Arendelle certainly have an chilly few days while Elsa’s sister Anna works to reverse the cold snap.

The newest “Frozen” news came from Harlan City Police’s Facebook page, where they posted an “arrest warrant” for Queen Elsa of Arendelle. They described the “suspect” as follows:

Suspect is a blonde female last seen wearing a long blue dress and is known to burst into song ‘Let it Go!’ As you can see by the weather she is very dangerous. Do not attempt to apprehend her alone.

Harlan is a tiny city, with less than 2000 people. Apparently the police are right, too, it’s been getting very cold there; it was in the single digits yesterday.

The police are taking all the attention over their post in good stride. After the original post announcing the arrest warrant pretty much went viral, the department posted a follow up on its Facebook page, saying:

Wow. We were just having a little fun and didn’t expect this! It has been fun and we had to have a little fun after this week’s weather. But as a reminder, do take the precautions you need to keep you, your friends, family, neighbors and pets safe during the snow queen’s mad spell.

Frozen” was a huge phenomenon, and the hubbub still hasn’t died down. Actually, I’m sure some parents would totally support Elsa getting arrested just so they wouldn’t have to hear the song “Let it Go” ever again. Like this guy, for example, who is clearly pretty tired of the film:

Either way, this was definitely all in good fun, and a cute way for Harlan City Police Department to remind everyone to bundle up this winter. In the meantime:

Stay warm, everyone!

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Kentucky Town Issues Arrest Warrant for Elsa from “Frozen” appeared first on Law Street.

Last month fellow Law Street writer Joe Perry published a great article about Isabella Tanikumi, a writer who is suing Walt Disney Company for $250 million. For what you ask? Well, Tanikumi claims that Disney’s smash hit “Frozen” — the animated insta-classic that’s spawned a countless musical renditions (I suggest you check out this one and this one if you need a pick me up) — is based on her life as documented in her autobiography, “Living My Truth.”

This month the hilarious duo of YouTube personality Kevin and his grandma got into the Frozen game. Watch the video below to see Kevin convince his grandmother that Frozen is actually his life. Jump to the 0:25 mark to see Kevin’s grandma “recall” seeing Frozen character Ana the “ginger” at the house.

Can we not all relate to this type of conversation without grandparents? Too funny. Happy weekend!

Click here to read Joe Palmisano’s original article, “Author Sues Disney for $250 Million Claiming ‘Frozen’ is Based on Her Life.”

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Chelsey Goff (@cddg) is Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University in DC. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at cgoff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Joe Penniston via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Another Guy Claims Life is “Frozen,” But This One’s Hilarious appeared first on Law Street.

If you’ve believed that motion pictures like “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” and “The Little Mermaid” were fictitious, which seems plausible since they’re, well, animated and also contain imaginary characters, then you may be sadly mistaken. According to a federal court complaint, Isabella Tanikumi, whose pseudonym is L. Amy Gonzales, has sued the Walt Disney Company for a whopping $250 million because Tanikumi believes that Disney plagiarized her life story in order to make its most successful animated film of all time, “Frozen.”

Tanikumi alleges that Disney took her life story from her autobiography, “Living My Truth.” Tanikumi claims that “Frozen” plagiarizes “Living My Truth” in 18 ways, including its plot, characters, and story. According to Fox News, the most interesting claims are that “Frozen” and “Living My Truth” both take place in the snow-covered mountains; the sisters’ Elsa and Anna in the movie have different colored hair, own horses, and love each other just like Isabella, the main character in the autobiography, and her sister; Isabella’s two love interests in the book are Hans and Christof, just like Anna’s romantic interests are Hans and Kristoff in “Frozen;” and Elsa’s sister, Anna, dies in an accident just like Isabella’s sister.

Moreover, Fox News reports that Tanikumi alleges that the movie’s now-famous soundtrack is plagiarized too because songwriters and the movie writers took portions of her life story to develop it.

When I think of Tanikumi’s lawsuit, the case that comes to mind is Nichols v. Universal Pictures. In that case, an author who wrote a play entitled “Abie’s Irish Rose” — which was about a young Jewish man who marries an Irish Catholic girl against the wishes of both of their fathers — alleged that the producers of “The Cohens and Kellys” — which was about a young Catholic man who marries a Jewish girl against their fathers’ wishes — infringed the play’s copyright. The doctrine that came out of Nichols is called “scenes a faire,” which is a French term meaning “a scene that must be made,” and refers to scenes and elements in a book or film that are obligatory for a genre. For example, westerns have protagonists who have guns, holsters, and ride horses, as well as an obligatory scene where the protagonist has a showdown with the antagonist, which are uncopyrightable because authors need those elements and scenes to create other western films and stories. The Nichols court said that as long as “The Cohens and Kellys” took “scenes a faire,” then they didn’t infringe the copyright of “Abie’s Irish Rose.”

In Tanikumi’s case, Disney may point to the “scenes a faire” doctrine of its coming-of-age tale to refute the writer’s claims. However, it is more likely that Disney will argue that Tanikumi has a “failure to state a claim,” which means that Tanikumi has no case because her life story is not “substantially similar” to “Frozen,” which is an element needed to prove copyright infringement.

I will be surprised to see if this case moves very far, but nevertheless, I will be eagerly watching to see the next development.

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Joseph Perry (@jperry325) is a 3L at St. John’s University whose goal is to become a publishing and media law attorney. He has interned at William Morris Endeavor, Rodale, Inc., Columbia University Press, and is currently interning at Hachette Book Group and volunteering at the Media Law Resource Center, which has given him insight into the legal aspects of the publishing and media industries.

Featured Image Courtesy of [Dawn Ashley via Flickr]

Joseph Perry

Joseph Perry is a graduate of St. John’s University School of Law whose goal is to become a publishing and media law attorney. He has interned at William Morris Endeavor, Rodale, Inc., Columbia University Press, and is currently interning at Hachette Book Group and volunteering at the Media Law Resource Center, which has given him insight into the legal aspects of the publishing and media industries. Contact Joe at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Author Sues Disney for $250 Million Claiming “Frozen” is Based on Her Life appeared first on Law Street.

Various companies with recent intellectual property disputes are taking us back for a nostalgic look at our 90s childhoods. Chances are that at least once in your life you witnessed a jungle gym proposal involving the iconic Ring Pop.

Topps Co., the distributor of the Ring Pop, filed suit on August 21 in New York against the Ohio-based Primary Colors Design Corp. claiming trademark infringement. Topps asserts that three months ago Primary Colors revealed a product too similar to the Ring Pop at the National Confectioners Association’s Candy and Snack Show. According to Topps, Primary Colors showcased the Valentine Ring Lollipop — a sugary candy gem mounted on a plastic base in the design of a ring.

Topps requests a court order that would ban Primary Colors from producing and selling the candy item, in addition to financial damages.

It looks like there may only be room for one candy jeweler on the playground. But in case you weren’t the romantic type but more of a young businessman, you may have found yourself trading Pokémon cards in the sand box.

Courtesy of Kate Haskell via Flickr

Last week, Pokémon Co. International sent a cease and desist notice to Shapeways Inc. demanding it halt sales of its 3-D printed planter, which resembles the Pokémon character Bulbasaur. Although Shapeways did not officially label the planter as a Pokémon character, calling it a “succulent monster” instead, more than one reference to the Pokémon franchise was included in the listing.

After receiving the notice, Shapeways removed the listing from its website, but Pokémon International  is “asking for all the money associated with this model.”

So as children, after summers of Ring Pop proposals and Pokémon transactions, when winter rolled around, Disney movies were the go-to form of entertainment.

Last month, Disney found itself in its own winter nightmare when it was unsuccessful in convincing a court in San Francisco to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit. Kelly Wilson, a California filmmaker, sued The Walt Disney Co. over a trailer for the popular new Disney movie Frozen. Wilson claimed that in the trailer, the snowman character Olaf too closely resembles a character in his film The Snowman.

Courtesy of HarshLight via Flickr

A federal judge denied Disney’s motion to dismiss this case, writing, “the sequence of events in both works, from start to finish, is too parallel to conclude that no reasonable juror could find the works substantially similar.”

Although Disney’s Frozen features the famous song “Let it Go” with the lyric, “No right, no wrong, no rules for me I’m free!” the lawsuit is likely to go to trial.

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Alexandra Badalamenti (@AlexBadalamenti) is a Jersey girl and soon-to-be graduate of Fordham University in Lincoln Center. She plans to enroll in law school next year to study Entertainment Law. On any given day, you’ll find her with big blonde hair, high heels, tall Nashville dreams, and holding a newspaper or venti latte.

Featured Image Courtesy of [Elizabeth Albert via Flickr] 

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