In March, 83 countries will vote to elect the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a U.N.-created body founded in 1967 “to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.” The Chinese candidate, Wang Binying, currently serves as one of its four deputy director-generals and is widely seen as the front-runner.
Source: Opinion | Putting China in charge of the world’s intellectual property is a bad idea
The coronavirus outbreak has forced almost all of China’s movie theaters to go dark — and could strike a multibillion-dollar blow to global box offices, a new report says. The outbreak that has claimed more than 100 lives reportedly led film exhibitors to shut down about 70,000 screens in China, which helped power last year’s record-breaking global movie grosses.
Source: Global box office could take multibillion-dollar hit from coronavirus
Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Thursday slapped a 14.3 million euro ($15.8 million) penalty on NBCUniversal and other companies owned by parent Comcast Corp. for “anti-competitive licensing and distribution practices” that are illegal under the bloc’s rules.
Source: EU fines NBCUniversal for restricting film merchandise sales
YouTube allows copyright holders to remove videos they deem to be copyright-infringing. However, it turns out that these takedown powers go even further. As it turns out, rightsholders can also remove content before it even exists. That’s what happened to a reporter who had his perfectly legal livestream taken down by Warner Bros. before it even started.
Source: YouTube Copyright Strike Took Down Livestream Before it Even Started – TorrentFreak
US-based performance rights organization BMI has reached an agreement in principle to settle its ongoing rate dispute over radio royalties with the RMLC (Radio Music License Committee), which represents more than 10,000 commercial radio stations in the US. BMI and the RMLC are entering into a new multi-year deal covering the 2017-2021 period.
Tim Renner knows very well what it takes to run a major record company – he was Chairman and CEO of Universal Music in Germany from 2001 to 2004. On Monday (January 27), Berlin-based Motor Music posted a reaction to the artist streaming ‘revolt’ via a blog on its own website. It said that it stood in “solidarity” with the protesting artists – and didn’t hold much back from that point on.
Whip Media Group closed a new tranche of $50 million in funding that the company claims will let it build unprecedented tools for determining the value of TV show and movies in the global entertainment market. The funding was led by prior investor asset-management firm Eminence Capital, with participation from Raine Ventures.
Source: Analytics Firm Whip Media Banks $50 Million, Promises New Tools for Valuing Content-Licensing Deals
Source: News Corp Launches News Aggregator to Compete With Google
Raised In Space aims to fill the gap between the music industry and new technology ventures by helping the former understand and participate in the growth of the latter. The goal is to elevate both sides – and drive Raised In Space’s mission to raise the value of music.
Luxury exercise bike maker Peloton’s antitrust counterclaim against the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) was dismissed by a judge in New York yesterday (January 29). Peloton was hit with a $150 million copyright lawsuit last March from music publishers for the alleged infringement of over 1,000 musical works.
Source: Judge dismisses Peloton’s antitrust counterclaim against music publishers