The 'Catch Up' COPYKAT

After a week in Groningen in Holland at the EuroSonic music conference and festival. it's time for a quick catch up before our two new interns, Mateusz Rachubka and Kelsey Farish take over. And since you were asking - the buzzwords at ESNS 2018 were 'bots' and 'blockchain' ! As for the word of copyright, and still mostly in the world of music - here goes!

There has been a LOT of chat about the fact that even with the 1998 twenty year extension to the copyright term in the USA, copyrights will (again) begin to enter the public domain with works from 1923 in the public domain next year, and Mickey Mouse cartoons entering the public domain starting in 2024, with Steamboat Willie. Will Disney lead another charge to extend the the term - AGAIN? Ars Technica's Timothy B Lee has polled lobbyists for the record and movie industries and so far there seems to be no will to push for any legislative pushes this year, and EFF's Daniel Nazer suggests that the studios know that there would be a big pushback now - "the days of copyright being a wonky, obscure issue that fronts the families of dead artists as human shields for policies that let big companies lock up more and more of our shared culture are over."

Still in the US, the music industry has (mostly) come together to support a raft of new legislation. First of all there is the CLASSICS Act, which is aimed at rectifying the much discussed pre-1972 quirk in American copyright law that excludes the earlier sound recordings from the performance right and therefor royalties from airplay (litigation by the Turtles, pictured left, has kept us busy on this blog).  US music trade bodies, lobbying groups and collecting societies representing record labels, music publishers, artists, songwriters, record producers and artist managers have also  backed the AMP Act, which would introduce a new right for record producers and sound engineers, and reform to the way satellite radio royalties are calculated, and provide a general performing right  for sound recording copyright to rectify another odd position in US copyrights law where AM/FM radio stations do not royalties (at all) to artists and labels for the airplay of sound recordings (they do play for the use of the 'song'). And the music industry is (mostly) behind the recently unveiled Music Modernization Act, which would cover the anomalies in America’s mechanical rights that (as CMU says) "has resulted in songwriters going unpaid and streaming services getting sued, including that mega-bucks $1.6 billion lawsuit filed by Wixen last month."  More here. 

Facebook has signed another multi-year licensing deal with a major music company -Sony/ATV Music Publishing.The news comes just two weeks after Universal Music Group announced that it had signed an agreement with the social media giant, which draws more than 2 billion users every month to its platform. Sony ATV’s multi-territory, multi-year deal covers a catalogue of more than 3 million songs, including those by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Drake, The Chainsmokers, Sam Smith, Sia and Kanye West. On top of this, Facebook them announced it had signed three more significant music licensing agreements,  this time with SESAC’s HFA/Rumblefish platform, Kobalt Music Publishing and Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights. SESAC says that its new Facebook agreement, a standardised deal in which indie publishers can choose to opt in, will provide ‘streamline music licensing and administration for the independent publishing market’.

Lana Del Rey by Bea Gibson

Are Radiohead suing Lana Del Rey over an alleged copy of their iconic song 'Creep'? Lana Del Rey recently tweeted: “it’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by ‘Creep’, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing. I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court”.” Whilst many took this to mean a lawsuit had been filed by Radiohead’s lawyers, that isn’t quite the full picture. The spokes person for Warner/ Chappell states that: “As Radiohead’s music publisher, it’s true that we’ve been in discussions since August of last year with Lana Del Rey’s representatives. It’s clear that the verses of ‘Get Free’ use musical elements found in the verses of ‘Creep’ and we’ve requested that this be acknowledged in favour of all writers of ‘Creep’. To set the record straight, no lawsuit has been issued and Radiohead have not said they ‘will only accept 100%’ of the publishing of ‘Get Free'”.

Four of Britain’s biggest karaoke firms "face ruin" after being sued for infringing copyright in the US. It seems that "they must cough up hundreds of millions in damages after failing to pay royalties on versions of hits by acts including The Beatles and Oasis." £527 million in damages to be precise. UK firms SBI Global, Mr Entertainer, Zoom Entertainments and Music Factory re-create hits without the vocals and sell them on. But while they paid royalties on sales in the UK and Europe they did not have permission to sell in the US, a US court has ruled. More here. 

Fox and the Premier League have joined telcos Singtel and StarHub in a private case against two Android set-top box sellers in Singapore for allegedly ‘wilfully infringing’ copyright. The actions against Singapore distributor Synnex Trading and retailer An-Nahl, along with their respective directors Jia Xiaofeng and Abdul Nagib Abdul Aziz, have been brought under Section 136 (3A) of the Copyright Act. In a joint statement, Starhub, SingTel, Fox Networks Group and the FAPL said the broadcasting industry would continue to take "concerted and decisive action" against content piracy through public education as well as via legal channels to uphold intellectual property rights saying “The alarming proliferation of piracy and illicit streaming devices that are used to view copyright-protected content hurts both consumers and producers. Piracy makes it untenable for producers to keep on creating content for the public's enjoyment and Singapore cannot effectively encourage innovation when intellectual property rights are constantly trampled on”.

Singapore signs up for Marrakesh

Just released this morning, a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) media release, "Marrakesh Notification No. 7 Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled", tells us that the Republic of Singapore has now deposited its instrument of accession to the Marrakesh Treaty -- which is still some way short of coming into force (that will happen three months after 20 countries have committed to it, under Article 18 of the Treaty).

The current list of nations committed to Marrakesh stands at a mere seven so far (you can check the list, which is updated whenever necessary, here).

The Copykat: Artists cry foul, the 'Sherlock Holmes' case has a legal bite in its tail - and is Disney skating on thin Ice?

Ahol Sniffs Glue’s original mural in Miami.

Artnet tells us that Miami street artist Ahol Sniffs Glue (real name David Anasagasti) has filed a law suit against popular teen clothier American Eagle Outfitters  for copyright infringement. The company appropriated Ahol’s signature “lazy eyeball” motif for international advertising campaigns, store displays, social media pages, and a billboard in New York City, all without consulting or compensating the artist. In the adverts  a  male model is pictured standing against a wall painted by Ahol in Miami’s Winwood Arts District with a spray can in hand, surely implying that he is the creator of the mural (the artist himself is described as a “bearded, heavily-tattooed Cuban-American").  According to the Huffington Post, the store even went as far as to hire artists to produce a rendition of the well-known motif for display at a store opening in California, plastering a large American Eagle eagle in the middle of it. Photo: Flickr/Dogslobber. 

More on art:The Age reports that Melbourne artist Jarrad Kennedy claimed he is "shocked" by the similarities between his 2005 work Court and the newly unveiled $2.5 million Pavilion by Sydney artist Hany Armanious: Cate Nagy, a partner in the intellectual property team at King&Wood Malleson told the Age that no one owns the concept of a giant milk crate saying "It is clear there's no copyright in ideas or in artistic concepts per se. The independent creation of a huge milk crate wouldn’t infringe copyright" adding "For a copyright in Mr Kennedy's case there has to be some act of copying, there has to be a causal link," Ms Nagy said. "Kennedy would have to prove that he [Armanious] had seen his milk crate." The City of Sydney said on Wednesday that Armanious had never seen Kennedy's work, which was a finalist in the 2005 McClelland art prize. Kennedy said He told Facebook commenters that he would be approaching Armanious directly saying "I was shocked to say the least. Art may be open to interpretation, but precedents dictate that the artwork is in breach of copyright. The artist will receive notice tomorrow," he said on the social media post. More about Pavillion here. 

Yahoo has filed a complaint with Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court challenging Germany's recently introduced copyright that gives publishers exclusive commercial rights over their content online except in the case of single words or "small text passages". “We believe that the Ancillary Copyright Law fundamentally violates our constitutional rights as a search engine operating in Germany and we hope the Court will find in our favor, and ensure that German users can benefit from the same breadth of information online as others around the world,” a Yahoo spokeswoman said in a statement. Spain is now one step closer to passing a law that may force Google News and other content aggregators to pay for links. Under the new Copyright Act passed by Congress, websites linking to articles by the industry’s biggest news organizations will have to pay a fee to the original source, or face fines of up to $400,000. whilst dubbed a 'google tax',  social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are explicitly exempt, although the status of properties like Reddit, Digg and others is less clear, since the law targets “electronic news aggregation systems.”

Disney could be heading to trial over copyright infringement claims involving it's blockbuster animated hit and $1.22 billion grossing Frozen.  Kelly Wilson, who created a short 2D computer-animated film called The Snowman, has survived the first round in a copyright lawsuit against the company, after a judge noted some key differences between the two films - such as Frozen being lighthearted and The Snowman not, but also found some similarities.

Leslie Klinger has prevailed in his clam for legal costs against the Conan Doyle Estate. in a ruling issued on Monday, the same three-judge appellate panel who heard the case that decided that Mr Klinger did not have to pay a license fee to the Estate for his modern anthology of Sherlock Holmes stories because these stories featured characters that were first published before 1923, and their copyrights had expired, unanimously ruled that Mr. Klinger was entitled to $30,680 in legal fees: “The estate opposes Klinger's request on the same hopeless grounds that it had urged in its appeal, but does not question the amount of fees as distinct from Klinger's entitlement to an award of any amount of fees in this case” says the ruling in Leslie S. Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. The court said adding “Unless Klinger is awarded his attorney's fees, he will have lost money … in winning an appeal in which the defendant's only defense bordered on the frivolous: A Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one,” adding “It's time the estate, in its own self-interest, changed its business model”.  Giving the decision Judge Richard Posner went further, criticising the Estate's 'disreputable business practices' and noting that the Estate had threatened Mr Klinger and his publisher Pegasus Books saying "if you proceed to bring out [Klinger's second book'] unlicensed, do not expect to see it offered for sale by Barnes & Noble, Amazon and similar retailers' explaining 'We work with those companies routinely to weed out unlicensed Sherlock Holmes from their offerings and we will not hesitate to do so with your book'. The Judge rebuked the Estate for 'extortion' and adding that Mr Klinger had performed a 'public service'. Lawyers for the Estate said the judge was 'out of touch' and that an appeal was being considered. The Times August 6th 2014 page 21 and moer at http://gigaom.com/2014/08/05/judge-posner-orders-estate-to-pay-up-over-sherlock-holmes-copyright-extortion/. 

The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has written a letter to five of  Austria’s largest internet service providers, demanding that they block some of the largest torrent sites within two weeks including The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, 1337x.to, and H33t.to, The letter cites movie companies Constantin Film and Wega legal action against Austrian net firm UPC Telekabel Wien to block movie website called Kino.to in Austria - which was upheld in the court of Justice of the European Union. The IFPI has also weighed in on a website blocking bill passed by Singapore’s Parliament which will provide that content owners can seek injunctions from the Singapore High Court that would require ISPs to block specific copyright infringing websites. Copyright owners would not be required to send any takedown notices. Frances Moore, CEO of IFPI, said  “The recording industry welcomes the fact that Singapore has joined the list of nations that consider website blocking to be a proportionate and effective tool to tackle digital piracy. Website blocking is an important way of reducing infringement and stimulating the development of a licensed digital music market. We urge policymakers in other countries to look at introducing measures similar to those set to be implemented in Singapore.” In the UK, the movie industry's Federation Against Copyright Theft has successfully forced another torrent sharing site offline, this time TorrentShack, with the operator of the file-sharing platform admitting that he has complied with orders from the anti-piracy group to close down his service in a bid to avoid costly legal action telling TorrentFreak  "They have said that I need to hand them over the domain to this site and to cease my involvement with running such a site. If I comply then any and all charges against me will be dropped".