Spotify, facing a lawsuit claiming “staggering” copyright infringement, is putting an issue front and center that will likely command notice throughout the entertainment and tech sectors. In court papers filed Wednesday, Spotify argues that “streaming” implicates neither reproduction nor distribution rights under copyright law.
Source: Spotify: Don’t Compare Us to Napster | Hollywood Reporter
As well as UMG, Vivendi owns France’s biggest commercial broadcaster, Canal Plus. And right now, Canal Plus is flat out refusing to pay French collection/licensing society SACEM any royalties for authors’ rights.
Source: The question all songwriters should be asking Vivendi this week… – Music Business Worldwide
Part of the debate centers around how countries regulate so-called digital lock provisions or technological protection measures which companies place on devices or software in what they say is a tool to fight piracy.
Source: Digital property rights debate heats up in NAFTA renegotiation
In 2009 Jim McKelvey was a practitioner and teacher of the art of glassblowing and author of a leading textbook on the subject, The Art of Fire. Frustrated by his inability to complete a $2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings because he could not accept credit cards he approached his friend, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter.
From that collaboration, Square, Inc., was born, which revolutionized the world of payment processing by turning any smartphone and tablet into a credit card reader and cash register.
That nexus, between artistry and innovation, is the core of the RightsTech Revolution, and will be the focus of McKelvey’s keynote fireside chat at the RightsTech Summit in New York on September 27th.
In addition to Square, McKelvey is the co-founder of the Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis, and a partner in Cultivation Capital, an early-stage investment fund.
He also sits on the board of directors of Calpian Inc., which offers mobile money solutions through its Indian subsidiary MoneyOnMobile, and is an independent director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
His latest venture, LaunchCode, is a non-profit organization that aims to grow new talent and create pathways to on-the-job training and employment.
Jim will discuss his evolution from artist to entrepreneur, his strategies for building and growing companies, and the ongoing evolution of the Square Payments Platform.
For information on how to register for the summit click here.
For the second year in a row, college students spent less on textbooks and other course materials. The findings, from two new reports, link the spending drop to a rise in the use of rented materials and digital textbooks.
Music industry coalition musicFIRST, the trade body that includes the RIAA, A2IM, SoundExchange and the American Federation of Musicians among its founding members, launched a national digital ad campaign today that takes aim at radio, streaming and the U.S. Copyright Act with the goal of advancing its fair play, fair pay initiative.
Source: musicFirst Targets YouTube, iHeart, Sirius Over Fair Pay In New Ad Campaign | Billboard
The RIAA has responded to criticism over its stance on ‘moral rights’ for songwriters, saying that it is “puzzled” by the claim that it is against better credits. “We wholeheartedly believe that all creators of music deserve attribution for their work,” wrote RIAA execs Cary Sherman and Mitch Glazier.
Source: RIAA says it *does* support attribution rights for songwriters
Even if the AI-produced work met the conditions necessary for a company to register a work made for hire the broader issue of the work’s copyrightability dates back to the early days of photography, which was the first time the courts had to answer the question as to how much human influence is involved in producing a machine-made work.
The global music business is about to explode thanks to streaming – and its biggest rights-holders are going to be worth a fortune. That’s the overriding message in a new report from Goldman Sachs, which predicts that global revenues from music streaming will hit $28bn by 2030.
With blockchain transactions, no third party is needed to regulate the relationship between readers and journalists. This means that reader interest can dictate news coverage (instead of publisher interest, which can be dictated by the desires of advertisers and corporate backers).