“Hollywood studios, which for years have waged a war against online piracy, are now going after so-called “rogue” mobile apps that use images from movies and television shows without their permission,” Sue Zeidler reports for Reuters.
“Time Warner Inc Warner Bros Studio sent Google Inc a ‘take down’ notice late last week demanding that the Internet company remove from its app store ‘Hobbit 3D Wallpaper HD,’ a mobile app that uses images of the Oscar-nominated film, according to a spokesman for the studio,” Zeidler reports. “Google responded to Warner’s notice and removed the app within days, in the latest example of how Hollywood is stepping up its efforts to protect its intellectual property in the quickly expanding app market, which is pegged at $20 billion in 2013.”
Zeidler reports, “Walt Disney Co’s Marvel unit, Sony Corp, Viacom Inc’s Paramount, and News Corp’s Twentieth Century Fox and Warner have all submitted infringement notifications to Google, according to information made available by Google and posted on ChillingEffects.org… Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment on the specifics of any infringing apps, but said the company vets all apps before making them available.”
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