More than 36 organizations from around the world have spoken out against a library book scanning program known as controlled digital lending, dubbing the practice systematic infringement. Edward Hasbrouck, co-chair of the NWU’s Book Division appealed for “a dialogue among writers, authors, publishers, and librarians on how to enable and create the digital libraries we all want, in ways that fully respect authors’ rights.”

Source: Publisher, Author Groups Protest Library Book Scanning Program

The EU’s big institutions have agreed a final version of the new Copyright Directive, leaving many appalled at its implications. “We fear the law could harm online innovation, scaleups, and restrict online freedoms in Europe,” said Christian Borggreen, a vice president at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, Facebook and Amazon. “We urge governments and members of the European Parliament to thoroughly assess the consequences of this text before officially adopting it.”

Source: Tech Industry and Activists Still Hope to Sink New EU Copyright Rules

Article 13, once viewed as a tough protective measure for intellectual property owners, had been overly watered down and neutered according to critics.  But that was before the Article was reshaped by a Franco-German working group, and approved earlier this week.  Now, organizations that once opposed the laws are approving the updated Directive.

Source: ‘New’ Article 13 Drawing Music Industry Approval

With the ink barely dry on Wednesday’s agreement for the final draft of Article 13, the EU Commission published an eyebrow-raising piece Thursday. While much of it is implied, the Commission suggests that the millions of people who opposed Article 13 have been misled and are therefore poorly informed.

Source: EU Commission Portrays “Article 13” Opponents as a Misled and Misinformed Mob – TorrentFreak

Royalty advances are typically an unpredictable shot in the dark about what an artist is worth, with publishers seeking to keep it as low as possible, while artists work to squeeze as much money out as possible. In hopes to remove some of the polarizing ambiguity from this process, Swedish AI platform Amuse with soon begin calculating these payments using machine learning.

Source: Amuse To Utilize Machine Learning To Calculate Royalty Advances

In its pitch to some news organizations, the Cupertino, Calif., company has said it would keep about half of the subscription revenue from the service, the people said. The service, described by industry executives as a “Netflix for news,” would allow users to read an unlimited amount of content from participating publishers for a monthly fee. The rest of the revenue would go into a pool that would be divided among publishers according to the amount of time users spend engaged with their articles.

Source: Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service

The European Parliament voted through a draft version of the new Directive on September 12, 2018. On that day, European Parliament Members (MEPs) voted 438 to 226 (with 39 abstentions) to proceed with the proposed copyright reform. Since then, a war of words has been waged between the likes of MEPs, YouTube, Universal Music Group Owner Vivendi, the global recorded music industry and publishers – with songwriters and artist groups now weighing in.

Source: Article 13 rift grows in music biz as Copyright Directive talks resume

Carla Hayden has selected Judge Jesse Feder as the new Chief Copyright Royalty Judge.  He’ll also serve as Head of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). Feder will replace outgoing Chief Judge Suzanne Barnett, who will retire from federal service on February 16^th.  She had served in the position since 2012.

Source: Librarian of Congress Appoints a New Chief Copyright Royalty Judge and Interim Copyright Royalty Judge

SiriusXM’s $3.5 billion purchase of Pandora, finalized Feb. 1, will create a digital-radio behemoth with customized radio playlists, a contract with Howard Stern and an estimated 100 million listeners. SiriusXM has a reputation as a tough negotiator, and it has consistently opposed labels’ attempts to raise its royalty rates for recordings, arguing that AM-FM pays nothing to use them.

Source: Will Record Labels Soon Have a Sirius Problem?

“Love Song” was written with the help of Amadeus Code, the AI songwriting assistant that takes data from centuries of music to inspire songwriters with melodic ideas. While Amadeus Code can assist in the creative process, like any AI, it cannot feel love. This is why collaboration with the Amadeus Code team was necessary to fully bring the track to life.

Source: AI helped write this T Swift-inspired love song for Valentine’s Day