It’s turning into a big week for copyright litigation settlements. They’ve all come without warning, but two that we reported on Tuesday seem to make a lot of sense. Viacom Inc.’s landmark fight with YouTube was a holdover from an earlier era, and Viacom was facing diminishing returns on its second appeal. And why would the Beastie Boys and upstart toymaker GoldieBlox Inc. want to waste more legal bills on a dustup over a viral video?
A third settlement—a truce between famed “appropriation” artist Richard Prince and photographer Patrick Cariou— is a bit harder to explain. The duo still had plenty to fight about, and the plaintiff, Cariou, was back before a seemingly sympathetic judge with respected media industry amici on his side.
