THE COPYKAT reaches out to a new public

Howzat! (C) 2018 Ben Challis

There has been plenty of recent comment on the decision by the CJEU in C‑161/17 Land Nordrhein-Westfalen v Dirk Renckhoff where the court found that users who publish content which is already available on the internet would  still need the further consent from the rights owner in question saying “The posting on a website of a photograph that was freely accessible on another website with the consent of the author requires a new authorization by that author”. We have already posted Eleonora's analysis of of CJEU's thought provoking decision and this blogger, a very keen sports photographer, is rather pleased with the CJEU's reasoning which he feels has some resonance - but the decision has stirred up widespread criticism. To me the fact remains when I post a photo on my sports photography Facebook page - for example the one to the left on this very blog - it's targeted to a specific audience for a specific reason - and I would not want to see my photo re-used on a third party website without my consent - being pointed at a 'new' audience whether that's free or perhaps supported by advertising. I certainly would want the right of further consent  should that image used for a different purpose such as in advertising.  And the case is being seen as a pro-copyright with Reuter's headlining with "EU's top court backs copyright holder in landmark ruling" - not least as the Court went against the Opinion of Advocate General Campos Sanchéz-Bordona. More here and others may have different opinions to this CopyKat's thoughts above. 

Techdirt have posted a fascinating insight into the somewhat complex set of cases involving a woman named Shirley Johnson, who posted videos to YouTube that were critical of the New Destiny Christian Centers and Paula White Ministries. This in turn resulted in a lawsuit from Ms Paula White et al for copyright infringement. So far so good. But things did not go smoothly for Ms White. Her case seemed to ignore the fairly obvious defence of fair use - and indeed as time progressed the case was dismissed, and then Johnson counter sued for "malicious prosecution" and she also filed DMCA s512(f) abuse claim. That claim is ongoing by techdirt now reports that  the court awarding Johnson $12,500 against White for the "emotional harm" from the 'bogus' copyright claim. Remembering it was Paula White Ministries (et al) who started this battle, the court was fairly scathing of how White treated the litigation as time went on, saying that Paula White Ministries "have exhibited a patent disregard for the Court’s discovery orders and processes" and "maintained that they did not have to comply with discovery, demonstrating a preordained belief that they were above this process" and  "The Court now finds that the interests of justice require default judgment as the only effective remedy" awarding very limited costs to Johnson (who represented herself) and awarding  $12,500 for emotional harms, although this was limited because Johnson seemingly did not seek medical treatment for the harm.

Another expensive (with hindsight) mistake seems to have been Ludlow Music's efforts to protect the 'copyright' in the iconic US song ‘We Shall Overcome’. Ludlow have now been handed a legal costs bill of $352,000 after conceding earlier this year that the work was public domain in America. The case was settled in January and Ludlow declared that both the melody and lyrics of ‘We Shall Overcome’ are “hereafter dedicated to the public domain”. Now Judge Denise Cote has said that Ludlow should cover the other side’s legal fees - despite the fact that Ludlow’s defence wasn’t “objectively unreasonable” CMU says that the Judge awarded legal costs to reward the Plaintiffs for enabling public access to “an American treasure”. The judge stated: “The degree to which plaintiffs succeeded in this litigation, and the inestimable benefit they have conferred on the public through doing so, renders this the type of lawsuit that should be encouraged in order to promote the purposes of the Copyright Act”.

More from the USA: The Music Modernization Act, which quickly passed the House unanimously in April, and the through the Senate Judiciary Committee, looked in some trouble after an objection by collection society SESAC (formerly known as Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) and the Harry Fox Agency which administers licenses that would be affected by the operations of a new blanket licensing collective in the legislation. Owners Blackstone persuaded Senator Rafael E. “Ted” Cruz (R-Texas) to halt the bill’s progress in the full Senate and things looked tricky until a compromise clarified that the new organization only will administer a particular kind of license, and will have exclusive purview only over blanket licenses - and according to industry sources the Harry Fox and other organisations will still be able to control individually negotiated licenses. before the compromise both the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International and the Songwriters of North America had encouraged their members to speak out against SESAC’s effort to get changes made to the bill, but now the NSAI have said “Reaching consensus within the music industry, on what may be the most important songwriter legislation in history, is a win for American songwriters and the broader music community. We are pleased to have put our differences behind us and support this bill in unanimous harmony. The Nashville Songwriters Association International has been a friend and fan of SESAC’s for decades and that is how our relationship will immediately resume”.

He may have passed but he is still in the news: A takedown notice of the iconic 2016 fan singalong video of 'Purple Rain' that was shot just hours after the singer’s death, has now been withdrawn and the video has been reinstated. After Prince’s death in thousands of fans congregated in the streets of Minneapolis to mourn and one of the most iconic moments from that night involved a video of those fans singing “Purple Rain” together. The video, shot by the Star Tribune’s Aaron Lavinsky, quickly went viral with his video tweet receiving over 14,000 retweets and 17,000 likes. Universal Music then filed a DCMA takedown of the video but after a social media storm at the end of July with Lavinsky saying  on Twitter "This is very disturbing: Universal Music filed a DCMA takedown on a video I shot of thousands of Prince fans singing Purple Rain the night of his death. This was clearly fair use and UMPG and Twitter are in the wrong"  UM have relented and the video is back online prompting a tweet from Lavisky saying "Update: Prince faithful can rejoice -- UMPG has retracted their DCMA takedown of my video and it has reappeared in the original tweet. PURPLE RAIN, PURPLE RAIN!".

THE BBC has halted its action against a pro-independence blogger following a row over alleged YouTube copyright infringements. The UK's public broadcaster had denied political bias after Stuart Campbell, who runs Wings Over Scotland, claimed his channel was closed without warning after the BBC complained about 13 videos that had been uploaded to it and that his use was 'fair dealing'.  Now the channel has been reinstated by YouTube and the BBC has said it will review its actions.

Techdirt is celebrating after it discovered the Finnish Bar Association is reprimanding Finnish law firm Hedman Partners for seemingly violating copyright law by sending out 'settlement letters' to supposed copyright infringers in what Techdirt opine is a classic trolling exercise. Hedman lawyer Joni Hatanmaa seems less concerned saying the firm's actions on behalf of its clients against suspected infringers will continue: "cases against infringers will continue. Plenty are still underway and the project continues to expand."

And finally The BBC reports that a US court has ruled that the plot of Oscar-winning fantasy film The Shape of Water was not copied from a 1969 play. Judge Percy Anderson has now dismissed the legal action that claimed Guillermo del Toro's film copied the story of Let Me Hear You Whisper by Paul Zindel. The late playwright's son sued del Toro, the Fox Searchlight studio and others in February and Zindel v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. et al, case number 2:18-cv-01435, filed in the United States District Court Central District of California, claimed the two works were "in many ways identical". In his ruling  the judge said they only shared "a basic premise". Del Toro's film, which won four Academy Awards in March including best picture, told of a mute cleaner who falls in love with an amphibious creature. David Zindel's suit claimed the film bore a number of similarities to his father's play, in which a cleaning lady goes to work in a laboratory where experiments are carried out on dolphins. Judge Anderson accepted that the plots were similar but ruled that the central concept was "too general to be protected".

THE COPYKAT

Our first CopyKat from our new intern, Kelsey Farish

Anthem of the Civil Rights Movement “We Shall Overcome” is freed into public domain

On the third Monday of January each year, Americans observe the birthday of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, two weeks following the national holiday, the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” entered the public domain.

The song was an unofficial theme of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement in the American south. It was made famous during the Montgomery bus boycotts led by Martin Luther King Jr., when, in front of television cameras, a group of protestors sang it into a hostile mob. The Library of Congress, which is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, describes the song as America’s “most powerful song.”

The lawsuit was filed by the We Shall Overcome Foundation, an organisation that wanted to make a documentary about the song, and the producers of the 2013 film "The Butler." The registered copyright owner, Ludlow Music, initially refused both requests before demanding “as much as $100,000” to use the song.

Several months ago a federal judge in New York ruled that the key verse in the song was not protected under copyright for lack of originality. With an additional trial date set for February 5 to contest the other aspects of the song, Ludlow Music instead opted to enter into a settlement, whereby it released its copyright in both the melody and lyrics. More here.

Randall Newman, an attorney at Wolf Haldenstein (the same law firm that freed "Happy Birthday to You" from copyright protection), stated: “We are pleased that this settlement resolves the litigation and puts the melody and all verses of the iconic song 'We Shall Overcome' into the public domain where it belongs.” (You can read the press release here). However, with the release of the song into the public domain, the song may be used in future for commercial purposes or in other contexts which could threaten or diminish its powerful history and message. More here.

Documentary filmmakers to receive free legal advice from California law students on intellectual property and other matters

The Ziffren Center for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law at the University of California Los Angeles has launched a new pro-bono Documentary Film Legal Clinic.

Without the support of a large film studio’s in-house lawyers, independent documentary filmmakers may not be aware of the legal issues that may arise their work, including copyright problems.

Bolstered by the University’s proximity to the Hollywood film industry, law students will be helping independent documentary filmmakers with legal issues they face. Such issues will often include making public records requests for newsgathering and seeking location approvals, as well as intellectual property matters. In particular, law students will provide copyright counsel and training, advice regarding fair use, clearance of music, visuals and archival materials, and rights of publicity.

Dale Cohen, the clinic’s founder and director, is special counsel to the PBS channel’s documentary series “Frontline” and co-author of “Media and the Law.” He noted that the clinic will provide filmmakers with “top-notch legal guidance, and students will work side-by-side with these journalists and artists, learning about the filmmaking process and helping to tell stories that are increasingly important to our democracy.”

Facebook’s inks new global, multi-year agreements with Universal and Sony Music

Facebook first inked a deal with Universal Music in late December 2017. The deal with Sony,  the largest music publisher in the world, was announced on 9 January. These deals allow Facebook and Instagram users to upload homemade video clips containing songs owned by Universal or Sony, without generating a takedown notice.

As more and more Facebook users share music or videos in their posts, some of the content may include copyright-protected material: for example, songs by a famous pop singer playing in the background of a makeup tutorial video.

Facebook offers monitoring tools that alert copyright owners about suspected copies of their videos and songs on Facebook, or other unauthorised uses of their brand. Rightsholders can send takedown requests to a team of Facebook content analysts. In the first six months of 2017, nearly 3 million posts - including videos, ads and other forms of content - were removed from Facebook platform following complaints of intellectual property rights infringement.

Accordingly, Facebook has been attempting to enter agreements with major record labels and music publishers to allow its users to include songs in the videos they upload. Universal Music Group and Sony Music are now the first two major music companies to license their recorded music and video catalogues for use across Facebook and Instagram.

If Facebook or Instagram users upload a homemade video clip that has a part of a song owned by Universal or Sony playing in the background, the clip will now stay up without generating a takedown notice. That has obvious benefits for Facebook, as the social media giant encourages people to make and share content on its services.

For the record labels, the deals will provide significant new revenue source. While no comments have been made on the financial arrangements of the deal, Facebook likely wrote the music labels a large cheque upfront, with more money to follow over the coming years. Perhaps most importantly for Universal and Sony is that these labels now have increased bargaining power in respect of negotiating with Google’s YouTube, which remains the most popular online destination for listening to music.

European Commission to produce a Counterfeit and Piracy “Naughty” List

While Brexit negotiations rumble on, the European Union is charging ahead with plans for a modernised intellectual property enforcement system. Reports from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the OECD estimate that the annual trade in counterfeit and pirated products is worth 338 billion Euros (£298B). Within the European Union, an estimated 5% of all goods imported into the EU (worth €85 billion) are counterfeited or pirated.

In its attempts to tackle the counterfeiting problem, the EU will adopt a “follow the money” approach which focuses on commercial-scale IP infringers, rather than individuals. One of the Commission’s key goals is to reduce the volume of counterfeited products reaching the EU market by engaging in cooperation programmes with third countries, and in particular China, South-East Asia, and Latin America. As part of this initiative, he EU aims to create a regularly updated watch-list of markets that are reported to engage in, or facilitate, substantial IPR infringement.

The proposed watch-list will identify both online and physical marketplaces where counterfeiting, piracy and other forms of intellectual property abuse are common. This list is likely inspired by the US Trade Representative (USTR) annual Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets report, which provides an overview of copyright holder complaints, which may be used to encourage site operators and foreign governments to take action.

Interestingly, the American list only includes foreign counterfeiting and piracy markets, and thereby excludes any American infringers. This has been a contentious point with other governments and companies, including China’s Alibaba, who criticise the USTR’s failure to obtain data from US entities. It is therefore worth noting that the European watch list will reveal some new information in respect of America’s own “notorious markets.”

The public is welcome to submit comments before 31 March 2018 as part of the consultation process. The final list is expected to be released later in the year.

High Court grants football match blocking injunction to UEFA under copyright rules

Union Des Associations Européennes De Football (UEFA), the football organisation which consists of 55 national football associations, has obtained an injunction against the six main retail internet service providers in the UK.

In its application before the High Court, UEFA established ownership of the copyright in television broadcasts of all UEFA matches. This extends to all films (particularly replays), artistic works and musical works incorporated within those broadcasts.

As a substitute for paid subscriptions to sport packages through Sky, BT and others, some football fans are instead using devices such as "kodi boxes" to connect directly to streaming servers via their IP addresses. Infringement in this way is on the rise, especially as an increasing proportion of UK consumers mistakenly believe using devices to access unauthorised streams is lawful,

Get in!  Image by Ben Challis

UEFA therefore sought an injunction against BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media on the grounds of section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which implements Article 8(3) of the Information Society Directive (2001/29/EC). The Act requires ISPs to take measures to block, or at least impede, viewers from accessing pirated live streams of UEFA matches in the UK.

UEFA’s application was supported by the Football Association's Premier League, which won an identical court order against BT and other ISPs in March 2017 (see Football Association Premier League Ltd v British Telecommunications plc [2017] EWHC 1877 (Ch)). Although ISPs often receive requests from rights holders to restrict illegal download sites, the arrangement with the Premier League is unique in that it requires illegal streams to be blocked as matches are played, in real-time.

UEFA’s application to the High Court for a similar injunction was therefore simply a formality, not least because the application itself was supported by each of the Defendant ISPs except for TalkTalk (which neither supported nor opposed the application). The injunction will cover the entirety of the Europe-wide UEFA Champions League tournament, from 13 February through 26 May.

As an aside, it is unsurprising that some aspects of the application and court order have been kept confidential, as the particular technology used to find such live streams is considered “commercially sensitive.”

The case is Union Des Associations Européennes De Football v British Telecommunications Plc [2017] EWHC 3414 (Ch) (21 December 2017), available to read here.

THE COPYKAT

It's been a busy few days!

Another US lawsuit has been added to the mounting litigation against Spotify and the streaming platform's alleged failure to pay mechanical royalties in the USA for the right to 'copy' a song (rather than the 'perfoming' right).  In fact there have been three developments: an objection to Spotify's proposed settlement of the original class action on this issue, a rebuttal of its most recent legal arguments, and a brand new lawsuit. Hypebot's take is this: "The recorded music industry is in the midst of a renaissance thanks to revenue from a single source - streaming. But a growing string of lawsuits filed by songwriters and publishers, and an aggressive new legal tactic by Spotify, threatens the company's pending IPO and could derail the industry's delicate recovery"

Chance The Rapper at Hovefestivalen by Rashid Akrim / NRK

Three-time Grammy-winning Chance the Rapper (Chancellor Bennett) is being sued for copyright infringement. The suit was filed by Abdul Wali Muhammad on in the Illinois District Court. Muhammad is a musician-turned lawyer, who copyrighted the composition of ‘Bridge Through Time’ in 1979.  Muhammad’s claim rests on Bennett’s sampling of his composition in the track ‘Windows’ from his debut mixtape as Chance, 10 Day.  Whilst the use of copyrighted material is fairly obvious, Bennett’s particular approach to the music industry makes the case interesting. Bennett wrote 10 Day after being suspended from school in 2011. ‘Waves’ was released in December 2011 and soon after Complex listed him as one of ‘10 New Chicago Rappers To Watch Out For’ in February 2012. The mixtape itself was only self-released on DatPiff.com in April 2012. Since then it has been downloaded for free 538,617 times. It will be interesting to see how this develops. 

"There's a tattoo as a design, and then there's that same tattoo after it's inked on the human body. Tattoo artists often copyright their tattoos. But does that copyright stick once the image is inked on the human body?" A useful update on Ars technica looks at the interesting world of copyrght and tattoos and Solid Oak Sketches action against Take-Two Interactive Software, makers of  the highly popular NBA 2K game series based on the claim that Take-Two is infringing its copyrighted works because the game shows players incuding LeBron James abd Kobe Bryant with their real-world inked tattoos that Solid Oak Sketches created - and copyrighted in the US.  Even if the tattoos are copyrightable, Take-Two argued that it has a fair-use right to show the players with their tattoos, which are not a prominent feature of the video game. "Solid Oak's profit-making litigation should be halted in its tracks by dismissing Solid Oak’s copyright claim as a matter of law under the de minimis use and fair use doctrines," Take-Two claims.More on Ars Technica here and on this Blog here and here and the IPkat here.  

China's National Copyright Administration (NCAC) has told music companies operating in China that they must stick to market rules, and that all market players must adopt international practices to widen licensing and spread online music. The NCAC told an assembly of over twenty companies that they must work together to avoid giving exclusive music copyright to online music providers. The administration also underlined the laws and international conventions on copyright, warning companies against infringement. The NCAC said that music companies must not allow online music providers to bid up licensing prices, and must support the work of copyright organizations to protect the rights of copyright holders, especially lyricists and songwriters. They should also set up a more effective framework for licensing, cooperation and operation of online music copyright to improve order and for the industry to prosper, the NCAC said.

China's top legislature has passed a  law to protect the nation's national anthem and to ensure appropriate use of the song. The law was adopted after a second reading at the bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. China's national anthem is "March of the Volunteers," has lyrics by poet Tian Han and music by Nie Er. The song will only be allowed at formal political gatherings, including the opening and closing of NPC sessions, constitutional oath ceremonies, flag raising ceremonies, major celebrations, award ceremonies, commemorations, national memorial day events, important diplomatic occasions, major sport events and other suitable occasions. It will be illegal to use the national anthem during funerals, "inappropriate" private occasions, commercials or as background music in public places. The law says that violators, including those who maliciously modify the lyrics or play/sing the national anthem in a distorted or disrespectful way, can be detained for up to 15 days or held criminally liable.

US TV star Dr. Phil is involved in a novel copyright decision Involving a woman who has alleged he falsely imprisonmed her: Leah Rothman, a former director on his show, used her iPhone to record nine seconds of outtakes to possibly aid herself in a legal battle. Rothman alleges suffering emotional distress and false imprisonment when, during a meeting, Dr. Phil locked the door, yelled profanities and threatened employees for supposedly leaking internal information to the press. Before she brought her action, Rothman says she attempted to get evidence by accessing a database of videos from the Dr. Phil Show archives and using her iPhone to record a nine-second clip of magterial she thought would be valuable to her litgation. But now a court has concluded that his wasn't 'fair use' with U.S. District Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap saying “Rothman did not copy to then educate the masses or to further the greater good. She copied to aid her pending lawsuit seeking money damages where she is the only plaintiff and sole potential beneficiary.” Therefore, Rothman could not hide behind fair use. This isn't the typical copyright story! 

The creator of Pepe the Frog has stepped up his fight against far-right activists who appropriated the cartoon character as a meme. Matt Furie has vowed to "aggressively enforce his intellectual property" after the character he created for a comic strip was plastered across social media and even merchandise, particularly by fans of US President Donald Trump as he fought his election campaign. Eleonora has posted an update on the IPKat here.

Taylor Swift may is facing a new copyright challenge over her 2014 hit “Shake It Off". Songwriters Sean “Sep” Hall and Nate Butler are suing Swift, arguing that the lyrics for “Shake It Off” borrow too heavily from “Playas Gon’ Play,” a 2001 song they wrote for the R&B trio 3LW.  Musician Jessie Braham having previously accused Swift and her co-writers of lifting lyrics from his song 'Haters Gonna Hate'. The claim failed. And two Canadian songwriters have filed a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against country superstar Carrie Underwood and others. The lawsuit alleges Ronald McNeill and Georgia Lyons-Savage composed the chorus, melody and lyrics to a song called, “Something in the Water” in August 2012. The pair say they completed a vocal mix of the demo in September 2012 and pitched it to Underwood’s team, who declined to use it on her album. But according to the lawsuit, a song by the same name ended up on Underwood’s 2014 “Greatest Hits” album.

And finally and just in case you missed these two big stories ......

"We Shall Overcome" was labelled by the US Library of Congress as “the most powerful song of the 20th century”. It was a unifying anthem for the 1940s labour protests and the 1960s Civil Rights Movement led by Dr Martin Luther King, and came to symbolise the spirit of protest.  Now a federal judge has struck down the copyright for part of the civil rights anthem saying that the song’s adaptation from an older work, including changing “will” to “shall”,  was not original enough to qualify for protection.  Judge Cote said “This single word substitution is quintessentially trivial and does not raise a question of fact requiring a trial to assess whether it is more than trivial … The words ‘will’ and ‘shall’ are both common words. Neither is unusual” adding "The fact that a trivial change to the lyrics became a part of a popular version of a song does not render that change nontrivial and automatically qualify the popular version for copyright protection". More from George Chin here.

Is it the end of the 'monkey selfie' case? It seems so!  The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has settled its federal lawsuit that sought to establish the right for animals to own property - in this case the black macaque Naruto's right to own the copyright in a selfie taken with photographer David Slater's equipment in Indonesia. In a joint statement PETA and Slater say: "PETA and David Slater agree that this case raises important, cutting-edge issues about expanding legal rights for non-human animals, a goal that they both support, and they will continue their respective work to achieve this goal. As we learn more about Naruto, his community of macaques, and all other animals, we must recognize appropriate fundamental legal rights for them as our fellow global occupants and members of their own nations who want only to live their lives and be with their families. To further these goals, David Slater will donate 25% of future gross revenue from the Monkey Selfie photographs to charitable organizations dedicated to protecting and improving the welfare and habitat of Naruto and crested black macaques in Indonesia." This may be the end of this case, but is ot the end of the story? If the monkey cannot be the author, but does that mean that Mr Slater owns the copyright in the picture taken by the monkey? And if he doesn't - who does?

More on the settlement here.

The CopyKat

It been eight years since the publisher John Wiley & Sons sued Supap Kirtsaeng for re-selling Asian market textbooks in the USA - and now despite his ultimate win in the Supreme Court under the 'first sale' doctrine, his textbook business is shuttered and he has moved into academia - BUT in his first print interview he makes clear his conviction that he wasn’t doing anything wrong by reselling those textbooks, and that the lawyers who helped him prove it are entitled to be paid for their work because he found counsel willing to represent a student and small business owner against a global company with billions of dollars in annual revenue. So he now wants almost $2 million from John Wiley - but so far he has been knocked back by the trial court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now the Supreme Court will hear Kirtsaeng’s second petition for certiorari, this time to resolve uncertainty among the federal appellate courts on the appropriate standard for fee-shifting in Copyright Act litigation. 

The song that inspired one of America’s greatest freedom fights is now the subject of a battle over its own. A California non for profit organisation has filed a class-action lawsuit against Richmond Organization and Ludlow Music over the copyright to “We Shall Overcome,” a song the Library of Congress calls “the most powerful song of the 20th century.” “It’s an important part of our political and social history and we certainly see the irony in the fact that this song, which has represented the civil rights movement, needs to be emancipated itself,” says Mark Rifkin, an attorney and partner with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, who is representing the We Shall Overcome Foundation in the suit who will argue that “The basic story is the song was written well before anybody copyrighted anything” - that " the song belongs in the public domain", and seeks a return of "unlawful licensing fees" from the publishers. Could be fun!

Justin Bieber’s 2010 hit song ‘Somebody To Love’ faced a claim back in 2013 when he and his producer Usher, were accused of copyright infringement.  The lawsuit was brought forward by singer De Rico and songwriter Mareio Overton.  De Rico and Overton’s track was also titled ‘Somebody To Love,’ from their similarly-titled album, My Story II. In 2014 the court dismissed the case finding significant differences in the songs. However, in June of 2015, the US Court of Appeals in Virginia re-opened the lawsuit and since then, the case has been ongoing. But Bieber keeps failing to show up to depositions and having cancelled twice said he was ‘unable to sit for deposition’. As a result, the singer has now been ordered to pay over a whopping $10 million and the court has scheduled discovery to be completed by April 18th. Errrrrr, that's TODAY JUSTIN!

With a retrial scheduled for May, Oracle and Google have failed to settle the copyright lawsuit over Android operating system. Reports said that the CEO of global software major Oracle, Safra Catz and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai met for six hours on April 15 in a court-ordered settlement conference before a U.S. magistrate in San Jose, California, in an attempt to stave off retrial in May. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal, who mediated the talks issued a statement saying the talks were unsuccessful.

And finally: Universal Music Australia, Warner Music Australia, Sony Music Entertainment Australia and Albert Music have combined in an effort to combat offshore site Kickass Torrents, filing an application in the Federal Court of Australia to have Kickass blocked from local access. The action is under Section 115A of the Australian Copyright Act 1968 and the companies are seeking to have Kickass Torrents and its affiliated proxy sites blocked by Australian ISPs in an effort to tackle local and global music piracy.