The CopyKat - Tenenbaum, Teutonic Trolls and Tipis top our treats

The First Circuit Court Of Appeals has rejected the appeal by file sharer Joel Tenenbaum and has upheld the original damages awarded to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against the post graduate student of $675,000, rejecting the argument that being ordered to pay $22,500 in damages for each of the 31 songs that were illegally uploaded was excessive. The US Supreme Court had refused to consider the case. The court said: "Tenenbaum carried on his activities for years in spite of numerous warnings, he made thousands of songs available illegally, and he denied responsibility during discovery. Much of this behaviour was exactly what Congress was trying to deter when it amended the Copyright Act".

Germany has introduced new legislation that limits damages that copyright holders  can receive from individuals using illegal file-sharing sites to download music, films or TV series. The legislation limits individual claims to €1,000 ($1,300), meaning the warning fine for a first-time offender, to cover legal expenses, would be capped at around  €155 ($200). A poll by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations estimated that some 4.3 million Germans had  received warnings for infringement, some  demanding an average of $1,000 (€800) per offence: Germany’s Justice Minister  Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the move would stop company’s building ’business  models’ out of warnings.

And more from Germany and In what appears to be a trolling case, a German court has rejected a US film company's request to provide details of alleged illegal downloaders after deciding that there was no copyright in two pornographic films. The Munich regional court decided  that the "primitive" depiction of sex meant that Flexible Beauty” and “Young Passion” could not be protected by Intellectual property laws in Germany saying that the “primitive depiction of sexual processes” mean Malibu Media's films are classified as “pure pornography” and not a copyrighted work. But what about performers rights anyone?

The UK's Intellectual Property Office has announced  that it will provide £2.5 million to the City Of London Police to fund a specific policing unit focused on intellectual property crime, including online piracy. Announcing the new IP crime unit, which is expected to be up and running by September, IP Minister James Younger said "Intellectual property crime has long been a problem in the world of physical goods, but with the growing use of the internet, online intellectual property crime is now an increasing threat to our creative industries. These industries are worth more than £36 billion a year and employ more than 1.5 million people".  The City of London Police have worked with the international recorded music trade body the IFPI to persuade credit card companies and other online payment processors not to accept monies for websites involved in providing access to pirated goods.

Universal Music Publishing has mandated the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and its mechanical rights sister body AMCOS to licence its songs catalogue to digital services throughout almost all of the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan. The landmark arrangement means APRA/AMCOS will be the first collecting society to represent a major  publisher's catalogue in multiple territories in the Asia Pacific market.

Keef Rocks Glastonbury

Five songs into the Rolling Stone's Glastonbury set, and Mick Jagger introduced a "new" song, written for a girl "in cut-off jeans" he claimed to have met at the Festival on Friday night. It was, according to the BBC, a swampy country-rock number called Glastonbury Girl, and featured the refrain "Waiting for my Glastonbury Girl". In was in fact a re-working of Factory Girl which appears on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet and is it seems published by ABKCO Music Inc (originally Mirage Music) and administered by Alfred Music Inc. But with Sir Mick and Keith Richards having recently re-signed their music publishing rights to BMG, its interesting to see who will be collecting royalties for the lyrics of this "new" song which features references to  wet wipes, inhaling nitrous oxide, camping and ecstasy:  Original lyrics which said a young Mick was "Waiting for a girl who's got curlers in her hair; Waiting for a girl, she has no money anywhere; We get buses everywhere; Waiting for a factory girl" were replaced with a 69 year old Mick who was "Waiting for a girl, helped put up her tipi, waiting for a girl she took all my ecstasy, now she's off with Primal Scream, waiting for a Glastonbury girl". The Rolling Stones official website has the lyrics set out in full, but gives no clues as to who owns what either.

Image: Nick Cordes 2013