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Briefs: Disney, Crown Media

Walt Disney Co. has settled a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement involving the trailer for Disney’s animated hit, “Frozen.” U.S. District Judge Vincent Chhabria in San Francisco issued an order on Wednesday dismissing the lawsuit. The court had been notified on June 10 that the Burbank entertainment and media giant had reached a settlement with independent filmmaker Kelly Wilson. Terms of the settlement were confidential. In April, Chhabria found that the case involved a factual dispute best left to a jury: whether Disney employees who created the “Frozen” trailer also had seen “The Snowman,” a short animated film made by Wilson that screened at eight film festivals. That was the second time that Chhabria ruled in Wilson’s favor. In July, he rejected Disney’s motion to dismiss after finding that sequences from the trailer and the short film contained significant similarities. “The Snowman” tells of the tale of the title character, who fears he has lost his carrot nose to a rabbit. The “Frozen” trailer featured snowman Olaf going up against a reindeer who wanted his carrot nose, which is not the film’s main plot line. “Frozen,” released in November 2013, became the No. 1 original animated feature film ever with a domestic box office gross of $400 million and worldwide gross of $1.2 billion. Crown Media Holdings Inc. announced Thursday receiving a new $425 million secured credit facility. The Studio City owner of the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mystery gets $325 million in a loan and $100 million in revolving credit. Wells Fargo Bank was the administrative agent in the deal. The loan will be used to pay off an existing credit agreement and to redeem senior notes due in 2019. The revolving credit will go toward general corporate purposes. Shares closed up 4 cents, or nearly 1 percent, to $4.65 on the Nasdaq.

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