Saturday 4 July 2009

ASCAP faces US Court Challenge on Ringtone Licensing

Watch this Space: ASCAP is in court with AT&T and Verizon, arguing over whether a ringtone of a copyright musical work is a public performance and thus should attract a royalty. Apparently some phone providers have been paying ASCAP (up to 2% of revenue) and now want to stop. Advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief as has CTIA, the Wireless Association.

Emboldened by many governments' supine approach to tackling the ISPs' liability for content perhaps? Man, these copyright pachyderms are breeding!

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