Reuters report that France is pushing for the creation of a European-wide regulator of digital platforms including Google and YouTube, to sanction any possible abuse of power. A spokesperson cited the dispute between Google and European publishers saying “A big American company, Google namely, has announced it would not comply with an EU copyright directive,” the official told reporters. “France and Germany share the view that... we have to put an end to this illegal behavior.”
And more on Google: In a U.S. Supreme Court filing, the Justice Department has urged the court to deny Google’s petition for review of a pair of rulings that put the company on the line for billions of dollars in damages for infringing Oracle’s copyrights in the Java computer code. Reuters say that Google’s lawyers at Goldstein & Russell have argued that the case presents important questions about the copyrightability of certain kinds of computer code and fair use of that code. The Justice Department, however, said in Friday’s brief that the copyrightability question has already been resolved definitively - and that the Google case isn’t a good vehicle for the Supreme Court’s consideration of fair use.
The Verge reports that alleged copyright troll Christopher Brady will no longer be able to issue DMCA takedowns to YouTubers. According to a lawsuit settlement, an agreement has been reached and Brady is banned from “submitting any notices of alleged copyright infringement to YouTube that misrepresent that material hosted on the YouTube service is infringing copyrights held or claimed to be held by Brady or anyone Brady claims to represent.” Brady agreed to pay $25,000 in damages as part of the settlement. He is also prohibited from “misrepresenting or masking their identities” when using Google products, including YouTube.
Queen have joined the long list of bands who have taken action against President Trump for using their music without permission. A campaign video featuring 'We Will Rock You' has been removed from his Twitter following a copyright complaint from the band’s publisher. According to Buzzfeed, within hours of the video going live Queen had "already entered into a process to call for non use of Queen song copyrights by the Trump campaign”. After being viewed more than 1.7 million times, the video was disabled by Twitter and the post now reads: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by copyright owner.” They join REM, Prince, Neil Young, Rihanna, Nickleback and Adele (amongst others) who have objected to Trump using their music. More details on Nickleback's recent takedown can be found here. A Twitter spokesperson told CNN that the company responds to copyright complaints sent to them by a copyright owner or their authorised representatives.
Why bring a Trade Mark claim in place of a copyright claim? Well it seems that the super secret street artist Banksy might be doing that to avoid revealing his true identity. Above the Laws's take on this is "Banksy’s Fake Store Is An Attempt To Abuse Trademark Law To Avoid Copyright Law" but it's an interesting story in Banksy's attempt to stop a small greeting from selling “fake Banksy merchandise.” Full Colour Black "run a small business that does photography and sells cards involving public graffiti". Above the Law say this "But… that’s all about copyright. In reading the news coverage of all of this, I was stumped as to why were were discussing trademark at all — until I realized something kind of important. Banksy is using trademark because Banksy can’t use copyright without revealing who Banksy is". And Full Colour Black’s lawyer, Aaron Wood, explained “We are contesting the validity of one of his [Banksy's representing company Pest Control Office Limited] EU trademarks on the basis that he has freely permitted it to be reproduced such that it no longer functions as a trademark (if it ever did), on the basis that he never intended to use it as a trademark and that he is trying to register for collateral purposes (ie, to avoid evidential issues with copyright and to avoid having to file a ‘statement of use’ in the US).”
US comedian Jerry Seinfeld has defeated a lawsuit which alleged he had stolen the idea for a TV series. But the case was decided on basis that the statute of limitations must bar the claim - and not on any infringement or otherwise. Christian Charles, a former colleague claimed he had originally pitched the idea for "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" to Seinfeld in 2002 - a decade before it debuted. Manhattan District judge Alison Nathan said Charles had taken too long to sue, The statute of limitations appies after three years and Charles had waited for six years to file his lawsuit after Seinfeld rejected his copyright claim in 2012, the year the first series of the show aired.
Current chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler, has aired his thoughts on what might be the next challenges for legislating for music copyright in the USA. He
joined National Music Publishers' Association president and CEO David Israelite for NYU Steinhardt's inaugural Ralph S. Peer Lecture, named after the music visionary who founded Peermusic in the 1920s. Prioritising the unity that led to the unanimous passage of the Music Modernization Act, Nadler opined "If you want real legislation, the different segments of the industry have to get their act together and speak with one voice," and admitting that most members of Congress aren't well-versed in music industry particulars. "Once they did that, we were able to pass legislation unanimously." Nadler then went to on talk about the fact that in the US there is no performing right for recorded music terrestrial AM/FM radio play - an almost unique position in the World adding "As terrestrial radio becomes relatively less important and streaming becomes more, the question is the extent to which broadcasters will see their interests as less opposed to performance rights. At some point, I do think we will get some [agreement], because the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and their people will see that their interests are less adversely affected than previously.
Some strong words in a letter from Lord Michael Grade on YouTube's position on Article 13 and EU copyright law reform in the Financial Times, with a touch of Brexit to spice it all up. Noting that creativity is something Britain does particularly well at, "and, with the uncertainties of Brexit ahead, is of greater importance as a growing sector of our economy" Lord Grade comments, adding "After years of scrutiny the European Commission, Council and Parliament have concluded YouTube must take some responsibility for the content it publishes. The platform remains in denial, abetted by those who join in its scaremongering" and "The EU is at a crucial stage of considering measures that will end this injustice. The present, and the future is online. Rules need to apply. Netflix pays for its content, why shouldn’t YouTube? If you want to run a TV channel or a music service, then you need to pay for the content you use — content other people have financed. Reform will end this freeloading and level the playing field, which has to be good news for consumers too."
If you want to know what YouTube and Google think - there is a Google sponsored piece on politco.eu here titled "EU’s copyright directive and its unintended consequences" written by 'YouTube for Creators". Others from the tech world working up are fury (or perhaps 'in denial' or even 'scaremongering' ?) are Gizmodo "Tech Giants Wake Up to EU Copyright Plan That Threatens to Nuke the Web" and BoingBoing which goes with "Poland rejects the EU's copyright censorship plans, calls it #ACTA2" whilst Twitch has sent a letter to the Twitch creators' community
The Australian Government has also rejected loud appeals from the tech community and the tech giants who argue that proposed reforms to copyright law will diminish the internet's primary role as a communications tool and allow corporate interests to 'censor' the internet to the detriment of the common citizen, with TechDirt saying the new system would be 'begging for abuse'. What's all the fus about? Updating its copyright law from one which provides for site-blocking of infringing sites with judicial oversight to one which does website site-blocking of infringing sites, and mirror-blocking without judicial oversight, search results blocking, and expands the definition of the types of sites to be blocked from those with the primary "purpose" of infringement to those with the primary "effect" of infringement: The Australian Parliament passed the new law to beef up web-blocking rules as part of the The Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2018 which was passed by the House Of Representatives last month and now by the Senate. The Federal Senate’s Environment and Communications Legislation Committee commented “The Committee is of the view that the amendments proposed by the bill are likely to improve the operation of the injunctive scheme in section 115A [of the Act], and represent a measured and proportionate response to concerns identified by stakeholders in relation to the operation of that scheme” and “In this respect, the committee also notes that the majority of submissions received by the committee supported the bill and recommended that it be passed unamended.” Welcoming the passing of the amendments, Australia's Minister For Communications, Mitch Fifield said "The government has zero tolerance for online piracy. It is theft and damaging to our creative economy and local creators. We are committed to protecting Australia's creative industries and the world-class content we produce every year. The passage of our legislation today sends a strong message to online pirates that Australia does not tolerate online theft".
Banksy may have pulled off the art world's 'stunt' of the decade at Sotheby's in October when one of his paintings, which had just sold for £1.4 million in October, self shredded as soon as the hammer went down, but now his own YouTube post on the prank have also been 'shredded' - this time it seems by French media giant Canal+ who have successfully argued that the footage of the stunt is theirs, and asked YouTube to remove the original, which it did: "Video unavailable This video contains content from Canal Plus, who has blocked it on copyright grounds,” a message now reads instead.
CMU Daily reports that the estate of late Pantera guitarist ‘Dimebag’ Darrell Abbott has fought off a copyright infringement lawsuit over the sale of replicas of his signature guitar, which features a distinctive lightning bolt design (known as the 'Dean From Hell'). The US judge in the case has told designer Buddy ‘Blaze’ Webster, who created the artwork in the 1980s, that the time period for him to bring his case to court had now (long) passed. Webster had said that the delay was due to stalled negotiations with Dean Guitars and that he had waited to file his case out of respect for the musician’s mourning family, as well as personal issues of his own. Whilst the judge said that some of these reasons were “admirable”, they did not warrant allowing the delayed case to proceed.
The British artist Anish Kapoor released a statement declaring “victory over the NRA,” in reference to his months-long battle with the National Rifle Association over the organisation’s unauthorised use of an image of his bean-shaped reflective sculpture Cloud Gate (2006) in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Kapoor’s said the NRA has complied with his demands to remove the image from what he called its “abhorrent video” The Violence of Lies, which attacks the mainstream media with inflammatory rhetoric as images (including one of Cloud Gate) flash across the screen. “Their bullying and intimidation [have] not succeeded,” Kapoor’s statement reads. “This is a victory not just in defence of the copyright of my work, but it is also a declaration that we stand with those who oppose gun violence in America and elsewhere.” More on Art News here.
Core copyright industries have contributed more than $1.3 trillion to US gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017, and accounted for 6.85% of the US economy. They employed nearly 5.7 million workers in 2017, accounting for 3.85% of the entire US workforce, or 4.54% of total private employment in the United States, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA)’s “Copyright Industries in the U.S. Economy: The 2018 Report - which is available but only for subscribers to IP-Watch. More details here.
And finally, an entertaining article on rabble.ca titled "The Schrödinger's cat of copyright: What's an 'orphan work'?" written from a Canadian perspective, and well worth a read.
And more on Google: In a U.S. Supreme Court filing, the Justice Department has urged the court to deny Google’s petition for review of a pair of rulings that put the company on the line for billions of dollars in damages for infringing Oracle’s copyrights in the Java computer code. Reuters say that Google’s lawyers at Goldstein & Russell have argued that the case presents important questions about the copyrightability of certain kinds of computer code and fair use of that code. The Justice Department, however, said in Friday’s brief that the copyrightability question has already been resolved definitively - and that the Google case isn’t a good vehicle for the Supreme Court’s consideration of fair use.
