US streaming service Pandora has secured a victory on one of the fronts of its ongoing royalty war with the American music industry last week, when a rate court judge considering the streaming service's licence from song rights collecting society ASCAP set a royalty rate of 1.85% of annual revenue, which basically keeps things as they are. That said - no one seems happy - Pandora are unhappy as the rate hasn't changed and they wanted a reduction - and songwriters and publishers are peeved - they argue that a significant uplift was called for to re-balance songwriters interests compared to the far larger share of the pie gathered in by record labels and recording artists. Pandora has subsequently announced that it would be increasing the price of its ad-free premium service; From May, new Pandora One customers will pay $4.99 per month, though existing subscribers will continue to pay $3.99 (for the time being).
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Irish internet service provider Eircom, which voluntarily instigated a three-strikes anti-piracy system (as part of a legal settlement with Ireland's record industry), has admitted that it is yet to disconnect a customer for illegal file-sharing.
Back in March 2007 Viacom commenced copyright infringement proceedings against YouTube in a New York federal court after Viacom and its affiliates, including Paramount Pictures, discovered that its copyright-protected content (episodes, movies and substantial segments thereof) were uploaded onto YouTube without Viacom’s permission by YouTube users. Viacom was not holding any punches either, claiming approximately $1 billion in damages for the infringement ..... now seven years later the IP Kat takes up the story - but frst the background in case you have forgotten! In the District Court Judge Stanton’s gave summary judgment and held that YouTube had insufficient notice of particular, specific infringements for them to have "actual knowledge" or "aware[ness] of factors or circumstances" which would disqualify them for the safe harbour protection. Without item-specific knowledge of infringing activity, a service provider could not be found to have "the right and ability to control" infringing activity under section 512(c)(1)(B). Further, the District Court held that the replication, transmittal and display of videos on YouTube was done "by reason of the storage at the direction of a user" under section 512(c)(1). The net effect was that YouTube benefited from the USA's safe harbor provisions. On appeal, the Court agreed with Judge Stanton’s interpretation of the knowledge requirement stating that under Section 512(c)(1)(A) knowledge alone will not disqualify a service provider from the safe harbour protection. What will disqualify a service provider is if they have the knowledge or awareness but does not act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material. Removing access to the material, of course, requires specific knowledge of the infringing material. That said, the appellate court vacated the order granting summary judgment because it held that a reasonable jury could find that YouTube did have acknowledge knowledge or awareness of specific infringing activity on the website. The case reverted to the lower court, and then a further appeal was lodged ....... and now the parties have settled saying In their joint statement; "This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together". More on the IP Kat here http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-seven-year-itch-viacom-v-youtube.html and on the WSJ here.
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Left - the Cariou original: right - Prince's transformation |
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And finally, don’t expect US copyright law to change this year — but it might change next year, according to Representative Jerrold Nadler, speaking at the Association of American Publishers meeting in New York said “I expect a number of hearings and not much else,” said Nadler, a Democrat from New York. “I don’t think we’re going to do major legislation this year — maybe next year.” Nadler is a member of the Congressional Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet.
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