Over the course of a 90-minute hearing on Wednesday, federal judge Valerie Caproni appeared thoroughly unmoved by Audible’s defense of its Captions program, and highly skeptical that Audible’s plan to scroll snippets of computer generated text alongside audiobooks in its app should be called anything other than what it is: reading.
Source: At ‘Captions’ Hearing, Judge Hammers Audible’s Fair Use Argument
Romania-based Soundfeed, a music sourcing platform that enables labels to license their repertoire to labels in other territories, has launched in open beta. Soundfeed says that it ‘simplifies the task of finding licensable repertoire from non-domestic territories and agreeing new deals’, through software which manages the whole process.
Source: Licensing start-up Soundfeed, used by 150 labels, moves to open beta
Richard Gingras, Google’s vice president for news, told journalists in Paris that a Europe-based news publisher would have to decide if it would allow Google to show “snippets” of content or thumbnail images alongside search results in France. If they accept, publishers will not receive any compensation from Google, he said. But if they don’t, only a headline and a bare link to their content will appear in the results, resulting in a loss of visibility for the publisher.
Source: Google deals blow to EU copyright law, says won’t pay media outlets
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n an interview with EURACTIV’S media partner EuroEFE, German MEP Axel Voss, rapporteur for the controversial European “copyright” directive, defends the need to combat monopolies on the Internet, including that of the US giant Google.
Source: Google is like a ‘digital dictatorship’, says EU copyright rapporteur
Yesterday, Australian blockchain firm Immutable announced its $15 million Series A funding round led by tech investor Naspers Ventures and merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Immutable creates video games with blockchain-based digital assets. It also offers its decentralized platform to game developers.
Source: Blockchain gaming firm Immutable raises $15m from Naspers, Galaxy – Ledger Insights
Alphabet Inc’s Google will stop showing news snippets from European publishers on search results for its French users, complying with a new European copyright law, the company said on Wednesday. The change means French users will only see the headlines and not the first few lines or a thumbnail image for news content unless European publishers specifically request to show previews, the company said.
Source: Google to stop showing news snippets for French users
South Korean conglomerate CJ revealed it has integrated with Amazon Web Services (AWS)’ Amazon Managed Blockchain Service to develop a blockchain-based music copyright management system. CJ OliveNetworks, the company’s subsidiary that oversees the beauty retail and technology arm, will lead the initiative, according to Yonhap.
“I would say if you’re a drama queen, knock yourselves out! It’s going to be a great show,” said Spotify’s CFO Barry McCarthy in September 2018, about the streaming service’s upcoming round of licence-renewal negotiations with major labels. Well, if this is a drama, the latest public comments from a Spotify executive suggest it’s less of an action-packed thriller, and more of a gentle Sunday-evening serial.
Source: Spotify says ‘marketplace services’ are focus for licensing renewals
In the brief, the authors and agent groups accuse Audible of making “an end run around the Copyright Act” and urge the court to grant the proposed preliminary injunction, which would keep the plaintiff publishers’ works out of the Captions program while the court considers whether the program is infringing.
Source: Authors Guild, AAR File Brief Supporting Publishers in Audible ‘Captions’ Case