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Warner Bros Sues 'Harry Potter' Running Club over Copyright InfringementErnesto, 20 Mar 10:22 PM Harry Potter is without doubt one of the biggest en

Warner Bros Sues 'Harry Potter' Running Club over Copyright Infringement Ernesto, 20 Mar 10:22 PM Harry Potter is without doubt one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world. As a result, the various copyright holders, including Warner Bros., are very protective of their 'asset.' For example, When an underground restaurant tried to host a Halloween party with a Harry Potter theme, Warner's lawyers came knocking, urging the owner not to use any Harry Potter properties. More recently, a Kickstarter campaign was hit with a takedown notice for having a Harry Potter-inspired title, while a Danish Harry Potter festival was kindly urged to change its name. This week, we can add another example to the list. In a lawsuit filed at a federal court in California, Warner Bros. accuses Random Tuesday Inc. and its alleged owner Dawn Biggs of copyright infringement and various other offenses. Random Tuesday is the organization behind various virtual running clubs, including the "Potterhead Running Club" and the "Chilton Running Club," with the latter being based on the Gilmore Girls series. "This is a lawsuit to remedy Defendants' deliberate, pervasive, and willful infringement and dilution of Warner Bros.' intellectual property rights with respect to the well-known and highly popular Harry Potter and Gilmore Girls entertainment franchises," Warner Bros. writes. According to Warner Bros, the clubs are using the reputation and goodwill of these brands to grow their customer base. This includes organizing themed events and selling merchandise inspired by Warner's properties. "They organize virtual running races whereby they collect fees in exchange for providing medals and other merchandise displaying the HP [Harry Potter] Marks and GG [Gilmore Girls] Marks," Warner Bros. writes. "In addition, the Clubs' websites have offered for sale and continue to sell a wide variety of unauthorized merchandise bearing the HP Marks and GG Marks, including hats, t-shirts, stickers, hairbands, mugs, lip balm, toys, novelties, and running medals." Initially, the "Potterhead Running Club" was called the "Hogwarts Running Club." This changed in 2018, but Warner believes that the name change is not enough. The branding and products still use Harry Potter inspired names such as "Gryffinroar," "Huffletuff," "Slytherwin," and "Ravenclawesome," it notes. As such, Random Tuesday has and continues to infringe Warner Bros.' copyrights in the Harry Potter films and Gilmore Girls series, Warner argues, while urging the court to put an end to it. The lawsuit shouldn't come as a total surprise. Warner Bros. explains that it tried to resolve the matter through telephone calls and in-person meetings with the organization. However, this didn't result in the desired effect. In addition to copyright infringement, Random Tuesday is also accused of trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false advertising, and unfair competition, among other things. Warner Bros. requests all infringing activity to stop and wishes to be compensated for damages suffered. — A copy of the complaint Warner Bros. filed at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is available here (pdf). Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. Doom Eternal Debacle May Have Dismantled Denuvo DRM on Debut Day Andy, 20 Mar 11:22 AM Originally penciled in for a November 2019 launch, Doom Eternal suffered delays. Id Software and publisher Bethesda said that this was to ensure that the game lived up to the hype. A few hours ago, in regions that had already ticked over to March 20 (Australia, for example), people began downloading the game from official sources. Given that the game was already revealed to be using the infamous anti-tamper technology Denuvo, no one really expected a fast 'pirate' release. However, a user on Reddit quickly dropped a bombshell. The player revealed that after paying for and downloading the official Bethesda.net version's game files, he opened up the main folder and spied the main executable – a 368MB file named DOOMEternalx64vk.exe. However, a secondary folder (located in Doom Eternal\original\) contained a second much smaller .exe file (67MB) with exactly the same name. What followed is barely believable. According to now numerous reports, it is possible to replace the .exe file in the 'original' folder with the main executable and the game still runs. The theory is that the smaller file is the source .exe without Denuvo, while the highly-bloated version is the one 'infected' with Denuvo. This appears to suggest that someone in the supply chain managed to place a DRM-free executable in the purchased game, put it in a folder clearly marked as 'original', then served it up for one of the first-ever purchasers to stumble across, apparently with minimum effort. This has led to jokes that the developers have effectively cracked their own game. As a result, copies of the game are now being shared online and a number of people are reportedly playing the game with no issues. Initially, there was talk that the game crashed after level 3 but that appears to have been driver-related with an update fixing the problem. A Bethesda account is reportedly needed but a solution to that is already being shared on a Russian forum popular with game pirates. There is still some work to be done before the pirate release appears in the mainstream (repacker 'Fitgirl' lists it as 'coming soon') but it seems pretty likely that will be today, the day the game was released. Denuvo didn't even need to be cracked or disabled to make this happen which is unsettling some, who feel it might be some sort of cunning stunt to give pirates a time-limited demo or something similar. Time will tell… Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. ©2020 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company