The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in Philadelphia must be hoping not to slip up on the appeal being heard in the case between Kangaroo Manufacturing which is now the subject of an injunction issued by a federal trial judge preventing it making a banana costume that seemingly resembled that of costume-maker Rasta Imposta. Kangaroo are arguing that nothing makes the Rasta Imposta costume protectable by copyright as it lacks any distinctive features and resembles - well, a banana. U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman used terms such as “bananafest” and “bananapalooza” at a hearing, and he then issued what the Times termed “a split decision” in favor of Rasta Imposta on two of the issues and in favor of Kangaroo Manufacturing on one.
Infowars' Alex Jones, who has been sued by Pepe the Frog artist Matt Furie for allegedly infringing Furie’s copyright on the cartoon frog by putting Pepe on a poster that Infowars was selling, has made a number of defences to his actions in a wide-ranging deposition, comparing his use of Pepe the Frog to artist Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell’s soup can and saying “[Pepe the Frog] is a symbol of free speech” adding .“There’s now a movement to try to then control and own symbols that have entered the public domain and public use….and so now I see it as basically a tombstone of free speech and fair use in the Western world. So I see it for what it is, from the perspective of the corporate fascists.” Much more on Motherboard here.
The EU Council has now approved the European Copyright Directive, the last step in the EU legislative process - it is now up to each EU member state to implement the new copyright laws. "It was a long road and we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the discussion" said Helen Smith, head of the pan-European independent record label group IMPALA. "As a result, we now have a balanced text that sets a precedent for the rest of the world to follow, by putting citizens and creators at the heart of the reform and introducing clear rules for online platforms".
A video in support of Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign has been removed from Twitter . The video uses music from the Warner Bros Batman film 'The Dark Knight Rises' and in a statement Warner Bros. confirmed it was taking action over the video: "The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized," a spokesperson said. "We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed.” The video in Trump's tweet had been replaced by a message that it was no longer available "in response to a report by the copyright owner."
And finally, Chinese authorities have suspended country's largest stock images provider's website after it was found to have put its copyright mark on the first ever photo taken of a black hole. China Daily reported that Visual China Group (VCG) had published the black hole photo with a watermark to indicate ownership and that a fee was payable for use. The cyberspace affairs authority in Tianjin (North) to suspend its website. The incident led to the Chinese National Copyright Administration to say that it would launch a campaign to regulate the image copyright market, noting that firms should set up mechanisms to uphold copyright as per legal requirements, here that image from the Event Horizon Telescope was available for use where it was properly attributed, a position commonly taken by the European Southern Observatory and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The black hole measures 40 billion km across - three million times the size of the Earth - and has been described by scientists as "a monster". It is 500 million trillion km away. And we are delighted to say this image is from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of eight linked telescopes.
Nineteen US music industry organisations have come together deliver an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump (pictured left), pointing out that the likes of YouTube, Google and Facebook have thrived on 'free' music and what they term the "value grab", and that "sophisticated technology corporations can do better" at fighting piracy, and and shouldn't be able to hide behind legislation such as safe harbor - which has arguably allowed the technology and telecoms giants to grow and grow at the expense of the music industry.
Amongst those signing are the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and the Songwriters Guild of America, who have asked Mr Trump to work with them on behalf of "American music – one of our nation's most valuable forms of art and intellectual property, and a powerful driver of high-quality U.S. jobs and exports" and group ask Trump to pass laws that would strengthen and enforce intellectual property laws in the industry's fight against "infringers" while seeking fair compensation from "search engines, user upload content platforms, hosting companies, and domain name registrars and registries" noting that "Strong protection for intellectual property rights will assure growth in both creativity and technology, benefiting the American economy as a whole."
The Honorable Donald J. Trump
President-Elect of the United States
Office of the Presidential Transition
1800 F Street, NW
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. President-Elect:
Congratulations on your election to serve as the 45th President of the United States. We look forward to working with you and your Administration on behalf of American music – one of our nation’s most valuable forms of art and intellectual property, and a powerful driver of high-quality U.S. jobs and exports.
We represent the music community of America. From songwriters, musicians and recording artists, to artist managers, music publishers and record companies. From producers and engineers, to performing rights organizations and genre organizations that promote everything from Americana and blues to classical, Christian, gospel and country to hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock, R&B, and everything in between.
So much of what you wrote in your platform this summer about intellectual property and private property rights resonated with many of us, including:
“Intellectual property is a driving force in today’s global economy of constant innovation. It is the wellspring of American economic growth and job creation. With the rise of the digital economy, it has become even more critical that we protect intellectual property rights and preserve freedom of contract rather than create regulatory barriers to creativity, growth, and innovation.”
And calling for strong action to enforce intellectual property laws against infringers.
As you meet tomorrow with some of the world’s major corporate technology executives, we wanted to highlight some points that are assuring the continued dynamism of music as one of America’s national treasures.
Music powers economic growth. Among other research, just this week a new study reported that music and other copyright industries in the U.S. contribute more than $1.2 trillion to our national economy and create jobs for more than 5.5 million Americans. Music is one of our nation’s great exports.
Music drives innovation. Consumers today enjoy more music in more formats than ever, as the music industry has aggressively embraced technology. The industry has worked with more than 360 digital services providing instant access to tens of millions of songs from any location in our country at the touch of a button.
Indeed, many of today’s popular technology platforms owe much of their growth and success to music. Music is responsible for the most-followed accounts on Facebook and Twitter, the most-watched videos on YouTube, and is one of the most popular draws for phones and other personal devices. These platforms thrive and grow by delivering the creative genius of songwriters and artists.
As partners, many in the technology and corporate community should be commended for doing their part to help value creators and their content. Some have developed systems to promote a healthy market for music and deter theft. However, much more needs to be done. Search engines, user upload content platforms, hosting companies, and domain name registrars and registries should follow others’ example to effectively stop theft and assure fair payment.
Further, there is a massive “value grab” as some of these corporations weaken intellectual property rights for America’s creators by exploiting legal loopholes never intended for them – perversely abusing U.S. law to underpay music creators, thus harming one of America’s economic and job engines.
Surely the world’s most sophisticated technology corporations can do better – by helping to prevent illegal access and paying fair market value for music with prices set by or based on the free market.
Strong protection for intellectual property rights will assure growth in both creativity and technology, benefiting the American economy as a whole.
We hope you will lead the effort to assure American creativity is encouraged, invested in, protected and fairly compensated in a manner that carries out the exclusive rights guaranteed in the Constitution to those who, with the genius of their mind, form the cultural identity of our great nation.
Sincerely,
American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
American Federation of Musicians
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Americana Music Association
Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
Church Music Publishers’ Association (CMPA)
Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA)
Gospel Music Association
The Living Legends Foundation, Inc.
Music Managers Forum - U.S.
Nashville Songwriters’ Association International (NSAI)
National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA)
The Recording Academy
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
Rhythm & Blues Foundation
Screen Actors’ Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
SESAC
The Songwriters Guild of America
SoundExchange
http://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Letter-to-POTUSE-from-Music-Community-121316.pdf
Image by Gage Skidmore
The EFF tell us that Senators Grassley and Leahy, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary, have published a letter to the Copyright Office asking it to analyse the impact of copyright law on “software-enabled devices” (such as cars, phones, drones, appliances, and many more products with embedded computer systems). This issue is "crucial because technology and the law have evolved in a way that no one could have intended when Congress wrote the present copyright laws, and that evolution has restricted customers’ freedoms to repair, understand, and improve on the devices they buy". And the Library of Congress has just agreed with the fair use advocates who argued that vehicle owners are entitled to modify their cars, which often involves altering software. Car makers including General Motors and other vehicle manufacturers such as tractor maker Deere & Co had opposed the ruling. They said vehicle owners could visit authorised repair shops for changes they may need to undertake - much to the annoyance of drivers and farmers - and somewhat hypocritically it seems to the CopyKat - given the recent VW diesel emissions scandal. More here and from Wired here.
Talking of hypocrisy (or here perceived hypocrisy), according to Torrent Freak, a man called Josh Hadley who was attempting to sell T-shirts featuring the phrase “1984 is already here” has been contacted by the London based Estate of writer George Orwell, author of the dystopian nightmare "1984", for infringing their copyright and right of publicity. Hadley has taken the T-shirts off the original website, but has said he plans to still sell them in his own online store. Big Brother is indeed watching us all. Calling the Estate's actions 'Orwellian', TorrentFreak says "Ironically, the estate itself has gained a reputation for exerting tight control of copyrights and trademarks, surveilling the Internet for possible offenses.".
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| Beyonce by Denis O'Regan |
Husband Jay Z may have garnered all the publicity in his 'Big Pimpin' win, but wife Beyonce was also victorious the same day in a case brought against her by Ahmad Javon Lane, who claimed that Beyonce's song "XO" infringed on his song "XOXO." TechDirt tells us "Except, it didn't. Not by a long shot. While both songs have "XO" in the title, that appears to be about where the similarities end": The Court, after listening to both songs and reviewing their lyrics "finds that no reasonable jury could find the lyrics of XO and XOXO substantially similar. Indeed, aside from the fact that both songs’ lyrics use the letters “X” and “O,” there is virtually nothing common to the two songs’ lyrics." A representative for Lane issued a statement to ET, saying that the singer "is disappointed with the judge's ruling and is considering fighting his case with an appeal." Interestingly and somewhat confusingly Judge Engelmayer also took the time to ascribe different moods to the tracks, writing, "The two songs also have a different feel -- an appreciative fan would term Lane's track seductive and personal, and Beyonce's track joyous and uplifting." But surely its about the lyrics being copied ..... not the 'feel' being copied? The copyKat felt strange memories of Blurred Lines rising ......
YouTube claims to have paid more than $2bn to music rights-holders in the past few years. The news broke in a comment given by the service as it announced a global licensing agreement with Kobalt-owned collection society AMRA. Music Business Worldwide have done an interesting comparison with two other leading streaming platforms - Spotify and Vevo - saying the figure for YouTube works out very roughly, at $50m being paid by YouTube to music rightsholders a month. But based on recent figures, Spotify’s payouts to rights-holders would have been $142m per month and in a very rough (and now slightly outdated) monthly payment from Vevo to music rightsholders of $12.5m. Which rightsholders were paid is another very interesting question. YouTube has asked video content rightsholders (here we presume record labels) to sign a new licensing deal, covering both YouTube Red and its traditional ad-supported version of the platform. This contract stipulates, amongst other things, that rights-holders will receive 55% of net revenues from video and display advertising.
After sending thousands of settlement demands to alleged pirates since last summer, a law firm in Finland, Hedman Partners, is making good on its threats to sue. After initially being asked to pay between 600 and 3000 euros per offence, those targeted by the lawfirm now face demands of up to 10,000 euros plus court costs. Hedman Partners acts on behalf of a number of film, adult content and TV companies and has, perhaps unsurprisingly but perhaps unfairly, been labelled a 'copyright troll'.
In our last CopyKat we noted that Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler had become the third musician to hit Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with a cease-and-desist letter for his use of music on the campaign trail. joining R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and Neil Young, who both asked Trump to stop using their music. The Republicans have a long history of using songs they fit their political agenda without permission, and Law Street provide a useful analysis of both the annoyed musicians and the legal context here.
Over 50 websites have been blocked by internet service providers in Portugal as a result of a voluntary agreement reached between government, the entertainment industry and the net sector's trade body, the Association Of Telecommunication Operators. In the Ukraine, legislation is being planned to introduce web-blocking laws alongside new financial penalties for companies who do not comply with anti-piracy efforts.
CISAC, the global umbrella for collection societies has announced full year figures for 2014 from collections for songs - music, lyrics and compositions: collections were up 2.8% on 2013 - a 5% increase had exchange rates not changed - to 7.9 billion euros. Songs account for 87% of collected monies, and that income was up 2.4% year-on-year. Mechanical rights income, primarily from the sale of CDs and downloads, was down 9% year-on-year, but performing rights revenues were up 3.8% (streams are usually classified as exploiting both mechanical and performing rights). Societies in Europe accounted for 61.3% of collected revenue, while North America accounted for nearly 17%. The five BRICS emerging markets accounted for 5% of the monies collected.
