US Copyright Office – further update
As previously covered on The 1709 Blog here,
there was an unprecedented removal of Maria Pallante from her position at the US
Copyright Office last October with some speculation that her policy position
had been the cause of this. Further information recently revealed indicates
however that the US Copyright Office may have been grossly mismanaged during
Pallante’s time, with one such example being a failed electronic licencing
program which exceeded its budget of $1.1 million by over $10 million. In addition, there are also allegations a fake
budget item to the tune of $25m appeared in the initial FY18 appropriations
request, which would account for roughly a third of the Copyright Office’s
budget. This information has been brought to light specifically in relation to
a bill introduced in Congress March this year (which would, amongst other
things, allow the President appoint the next Register of Copyright as opposed
to the Librarian of Congress) and more generally a call for modernisation of
the Copyright Office and reallocation of power between the government
branches. More details here.
Big Bang Producers can sleep soundly to Soft Kitty
Fans of the hit show “The Big Bang Theory” will be familiar
with the catchy song “Soft Kitty” (video clip here for those
unfamiliar or wanting a refresher). What may be less well-known is that in
December 2015 a lawsuit was filed in relation to this song by Ellen Newlin
Chase and Margaret Chase Perry, the daughters of Edith Newlin who wrote the
original lyrics to the song in the 1930s as a poem.
As background, this poem had been published in the Songs for
the Nursery School book by one of the defendants The Willis Music Group (“Willis
Music”) in 1937 with Newlin’s permission, and also registered then as a musical
composition with the US Copyright Office. Willis Music subsequently renewed
this copyright registration in 1964 and the plaintiffs alleged this would have
renewed Newlin’s rights to the lyrics. If so, the licence provided by Willis
Music to the other defendant’s (including Warner Bros. Entertainment) would
have required Newlin’s permission and therefore use of this song in the show
infringed her copyright.
Despite noting that section 24 of the 1909 Copyright Act is
“hardly a model of clarity”, the Southern District Court of New York recently
dismissed the claim, holding that Newlin and assigned the copyright to Willis
Music (meaning the licence was valid) and that the distinction made by the
plaintiff’s between common law copyright and other copyrights was a distinction
without a difference. For more details, see here
for the memorandum and order.
Collection societies and blockchain
The three largest member-owned collection societies (the
American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Society of
Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM), and
PRS for Music) are working with IBM and Hyperledger Fabric to create a new
system to confirm copyright ownership information and conflicts using
blockchain technology. The goal of the project is to “prototype how the music
industry could create and adopt a shared, decentralised database of musical
work metadata with real-time update and tracking capabilities” and, if
successful, will hopefully address long-standing issues in the music industry
and provide benefits to music creators worldwide. See here
for more details.
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