Swiss company Singular DTV, which describes itself as a “blockchain studio,” has acquired worldwide rights to SXSW world premiere “Perfect.” “SingularDTV’s approach to distribution is as bold as the film itself — I feel I’m getting a front-row view of the future,” executive producer Steven Soderbergh said in a press release announcing the acquisition.
Source: SXSW Entry ‘Perfect’ Acquired By Blockchain Studio SingularDTV
Blockchain is trying to resurrect photography-as-a-business (PaaB perhaps) by giving due credit to the professionals who create such wondrous images. It’s unlikely to bring back photography as cultural expertise for the trained, but it might just help such photographers make a living again.
Source: Blockchain Finally Means More Exposure For Photography As A Business
Both public broadcaster organisation the EBU and a group representing authors of audiovisual works have expressed dissatisfaction with different aspects of the compromise position agreed by the European Council on copyright reform in the EU.
Source: Industry stakeholders slam European Council copyright reform draft
A small group of researchers from a division of Facebook have created an artificial intelligence system that’s like a cover band with a silicon brain. They call it a “universal music translation network,” and from a given music file, it can spit out music in six different styles.
Source: Artificial intelligence can take your bad whistling and make it sound like Mozart
How much blockchain and GDPR clash depends on what regulators pursue – and that will start to play out beginning today, May 25. “Like many other things associated with GPDR, the immutability of blockchain may be a real issue. Or it may not be,” says Haff.
Now that the Music Modernization Act has been introduced in the Senate, it’s open season: anti-copyright activists are coming out of the woodwork, claiming that the right to be paid for recordings made before 1972 amounts to “a pointless wealth-transfer.
Source: As Music Modernization Act Enters Senate, Anti-Copyright Activists Come Out Of The Woodwork (Column)
On 25 May 2018, the EU states agreed their position on a draft directive aimed at adapting EU copyright rules to the digital environment. The main objective of the directive is to modernise the European copyright framework and adapt it to the requirements of the digital age.
Source: European Council press release
Search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing could be made to pay for showing snippets of news articles under draft copyright rules endorsed by European Union ambassadors on Friday. The measure, which is not yet final, would allow press publishers to ask search engines to pay them for showing their articles for up to one year after publication.
Source: EU states agree rules to make search engines pay for news
American news outlets including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Arizona Daily Star abruptly blocked access to their websites from Europe on Friday, choosing to black out readers rather than comply with a strict new data privacy law in the European Union that limits what information can be collected about people online.
Source: U.S. News Outlets Block European Readers Over New Privacy Rules
51 percent of respondents had bought or traded four or more items on the blockchain with the most interesting insight being that 27 percent of respondents had purchased or traded 10 or more items. And 63 percent of respondents who transact digital game items on the blockchain also spend money on in-app purchases in mobile games.
Source: Crypto-savvy gamers are eager to do blockchain transactions