The CopyKat

An artist has won almost $1.35 million damages in a lawsuit over a sculpture commemorating workers who were paid $5 per day to risk their lives during the construction of the Hoover Dam. A jury in Las Vegas federal court ruled in favor of artist Steven Liguori, creator of the bronze statue known as the “High Scaler” at Hoover Dam. In 2011, Liguori sued Bert Hansen, the owner and operator of the Hoover Dam Snacketeria and the High Scaler Cafe at the dam, after the artist said he was cheated out of royalty payments and his work was used without permission for merchandise and marketing. Hansen had commissioned Liguori to create “High Scaler” for a $166,000 fee and had agreed to pay the artist a share of the proceeds from merchandise based on the sculpture as well as the artist’s other dam-related creations. U.S. District Judge George Foley ordered Hansen to pay Liguori $1.2 million for breaching their agreement and $150,000 in other damages.

Music publisher Kobalt has launched what it calls the world’s first ‘global, direct, digital mechanical and performing rights society’. The new venture is based on the existing operation of AMRA (American Music Rights Agency), which Kobalt acquired last year. What other music publishers make of a publisher owned collection society remains to be seen - but the new service promises two services to clients: (i) licensing of AMRA publisher members’ Anglo-American repertoire to DSPs operating in multiple territories and (ii) collection of writer’s share of public performance monies on behalf of AMRA writer members. AMRA plans to collect from th likes of YouTube and Spotify globally rather than in individual territories and promises to be "the most efficient way to handle the ‘high volume/low transactional value’ of music repertoire in a streaming world." More on Music Business Worldwide here.

Its somewhat ironic that as Facebook now seems to be a leading destination for illegally uploaded videos, one of the main complaints about this comes from the more creative users of YouTube, with YouTube creators alleging that their popular videos are being pilfered from the platform and uploaded to Facebook. A new term has even been coined for this practice: ‘freebooting’ - pointing out that Facebook doesn’t give creators the ability to monetize their videos just yet - with freebooting is detracting from valuable YouTube views which now has a workable and well publicised takedown system for content ownerrs, and its ContentID programme. More here. 


Fadi Chehadé, the President of the International Corporation for Assigned Named and Numbers (ICANN), has said that his organisation will not play international internet copyright police. His comments came as the US House Communications and Technology Subcommittee prepared to vote later this week on H.R. 805, the "Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act," which would make ICANN an independent entity not under the auspices of the United States government, making the agency "more accountable to the Internet community" but Chehadé is clear that if and when independent, the organisation will not let trade groups or even governments compel it to enforce copyright laws.

Andrus Ansip, the European Commission's Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, has admitted that EU copyright law is "pushing people to steal," because they seek out illegal copies of works that are not available to them legally because of the widespread use of geoblocking in Europe. Ansip was interviewed as part of the music industry's annual Midem event (available as a video, found via TorrentFreak). He pointed to Spotify as an example of how people could be encouraged to pay for copyright material: "if somebody is able to provide services with better quality, with higher speed, people prefer to act as honest people; they are ready to pay, they don't want to steal." Emphasising that legal services need to be offered first before strengthening copyright enforcemen, Ansip also made comment on the controversial topic of geo-blocking in Europe, saying that whilst  "I'm not against territoriality" he was "against absolute territorial exclusivity"


Adam Suckling has resigned as News Corp Australia’s head of corporate affairs to become chief executive of the Copyright Agency, lauded for his "mix of commercial, content and copyright policy experience”. The appointment comes after the Copyright Agency extended its digital activities, launching digital textbooks for secondary school students and teachers, and teaching material to promote Australian literature. More here.

In Jamaica the House of Representatives has voted to increase the period of copyright protection for creative works used in Jamaica to 95 years after they become available. Under the amendment, copyright protection for local works was increased from life of the author plus 50 years, to 95 years from the end of the calendar year in which it was made available. The amended protection will affect Jamaican copyrighted creative works, including sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes, as well as performer’s rights.

The notice that Akkad received from YouTube

And finally, that bastion of liberal values, the UK's Guardian newspaper, is facing a barrage of criticism after it was accused of sending a “false” copyright notice in an attempt to “bully” a popular online ‘vlogger’ - after he parodied their politically-correct content by taking excepts from a video on the subject of African identity and stereotypes. Satirist, polemicist, and video-blogger Sargon of Akkad *what a title!) hit back at the Guardian after receiving a notice via YouTube that the newspaper was disputing his right to use their video in his parody of their identity politics. Breitbart London asked the Guardian how the copyright claim fits with its own claims of supporting “open journalism” and a statement, made by the newspaper’s editorial team, that “voices of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard”. In response the newspaper issued a statement reportedly saying "“The Guardian has not issued a DMCA against YouTube user Sargon of Akkad,” a spokesman said. “There are, however, ongoing copyright discussions with the YouTube user regarding the amount of a Guardian video he has used – an issue highlighted by YouTube’s own Content ID system. We hope to come to an agreement with Sargon of Akkad and have offered advice on how to engage with Guardian content without breaching copyright. Open journalism is at the heart of the Guardian and we believe in the free flow of engagement, challenge and debate.”

The CopyKat - Friday's feline feast

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have both sent letters to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) urging the organization to take strong action against the use of domain names for illegal and abusive activities including those related to copyright infringement. The RIAA had said it was disappointed with ICANN’s treatment of copyright abuse complaints and urged ICANN to make domain name registries and registrars investigate copyright abuse complaints and take swift action, not least because when ICANN recently opened up top-level domains, it included a provision in its contract with the registries of the new top-level domains which was called the Public Interest Commitment - agreeing that they would only do business with domain name registrars that prohibited its customers from distributing piracy, trademark and copyright infringement (amongst other things). More on Techspot here.

Here's an interesting take on copyright reform in the EU: "The reform of copyright also concerns linguistic precision - a distinction should be made between Anglo-American copyright and continental European authors' rights. With copyright exploitation rights are not necessary reserved for the creator." Its from Dietmar Köster, the European Parliament's EPP group shadow rapporteur looking towards a renewed consensus on the enforcement of intellectual property rights in the EU: That debate is being led by the rapporteur for parliament's legal affairs committee, Julia Reda, of the Greens/EFA group.

City University are organising a copyright-related seminar to be held at City Law School on Wednesday 1st April 2015, College Building, Room AG 02. The speaker is Professor Stavroula Karapapa (University of Reading), who will talk about "The Concept of 'Public' in Copyright Law" and will look at "what amounts to an actionable communication of copyright works to the public. Recent rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union uphold that infringement takes place not only where an unauthorised communication reaches the public but also where a communication is addressed to a «new public», i.e. a public that copyright holders had not taken into account when authorising the initial communication of the work. This newly developed doctrine does not refer to a public or a private circle in a copyright sense, but develops a sui generis legal fiction that fundamentally changes the communication right; it both restricts and expands its scope in ways that were not foreseen when the right was first introduced in international law, European copyright and the national laws of Member States. In its unnecessary complexity and complicated logic that challenges the credibility of copyright, the concept of the “new public” indicates that the extremely broad scope of the communication right is unworkable and counter productive, and invites a principle-based approach in examinations of infringement." More here.

CMU Daily reports that the City Of London Police's IP Crime Unit (PIPCU) has shut down a copyright infringing karaoke website following a complaint by PRS For Music. CMU tells us that KaraokeWorld was a BitTorrent site with a specific focus on accessing unlicensed karaoke tune. The service had a commercial element, with VIP memberships on offer from £5 to £90, which will have heightened the case for taking criminal rather than civil action against the operation. A 46 year old man believed to be the operator of the website was arrested as part of the shutdown. PIPCU Detective Chief Inspector Danny Medlycott told reporters: "The public needs to be aware that by accessing sites like this, they are putting money directly in the hands of criminals, which often then funds other serious organised crime, as well as putting their own financial and personal details at risk of being compromised and used for other fraudulent scams. These websites are stealing from the creative industries that employ thousands of people and PIPCU will continue to work closely with our partners to tackle the criminals behind these sites and bring them to justice".

AND FINALLY - AND coincidently set against the backdrop of the news that Sarah Brightman is working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on new material to perform in space -  this from a anonymous contributor who The CopyKat shall name only as 'Major Tom'.....

'Stimulated by Sarah Brightman's intention to be propelled into space in September, the EU has launched a Public Consultation into the collective administration of rights in extraterrestrial broadcasting. "We have asked her to delay her flight for an indefinite period - possibly several aeons - while we consult and decide on the cross-planet implications of the licensing of her performance', said an EU spokesperson. Elsewhere (George) Lucas Grange, supremo of Universal Music, said 'We are called Universal for a good reason. We have an exclusive arrangement with Ms Brightman and her ex-husband, with his Soyuzful Music Corporation, to handle all the publishing and artistic rights. People laughed at us when we signed everything for the Universe, but they are now laughing on the other side of their galaxies.' This claim was dismissed by Sergey Brin. 'Ms Brinman's voyage will take place in Google Rocket, propelled by Google Zoom. Her Google Watch will stream her singing via Google Play and Universal can go and sing for their royalties. Her destination was Google Moon, but if she fails in her mission then she and the royalties will fall into a Google Black Hole.' Speaking from a black hole in Brussels, an EU spokesperson stated that all modalities would be taken into consideration. The CEO of a central European collecting society, who wished to remain anonyme, said 'all public performance royalties from Ms Brightman's performances that cannot be distributed (and that means all of them) will be sucked into our black box, as is customary'.

To infinity ...... and beyond!