The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM), which has 70,000 members, said Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group “received significant compensation” from the AI companies for past copyright violations and licensed “substantial” portions of their music catalogs to them, but haven’t shared that with the musicians.
Source: Musicians shortchanged by AI deals with labels, lawsuit alleges
A coalition of 227 rights organizations worldwide has called on France‘s National Assembly to pass a bill that would establish a legal presumption that AI companies have used copyrighted works to train their systems. The Darcos bill would insert a presumption into the French Intellectual Property Code that AI providers have used copyrighted works, unless they can prove otherwise.
Source: 220+ rights orgs worldwide urge France’s National Assembly to adopt AI training bill
Musicians, including Katy Perry and Billy Joel, sent a petition earlier this year to the U.S. Copyright Office to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now there’s an open letter to Congress signed by stars like Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and U2 expressing a similar sentiment. Music labels like Sony Music and Universal Music Group have also endorsed the letter, which will be featured in ads on political websites like Politico and The Hill.
The Government of Canada has directed the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review its decision requiring large audiovisual streaming services to devote 15% of their domestic revenue to Canadian content. It will invest CAD $600 million (USD $432m) per year in the country’s audio and audiovisual sectors instead.
Source: Canada walks back plan to make US streamers pay a bigger Canadian-content levy
At present, the Register of Copyrights is appointed by the Librarian of Congress and answers to that office. H.R. 6028 would break that link. The bill would remove the US Copyright Office from the Library of Congress‘s supervisory authority. The Register would instead be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, serving a term of 10 years with the option of reappointment.
Source: A bill moving through Congress could change who controls the US Copyright Office
The CMA hopes this will give publishers greater leverage in content deals with Google, by forcing the company to seek permission to use their intellectual property. The CMA will wait to see how its first wave of interventions pan out before it decides whether to act further. This announcement at least signals a direction of travel.
Source: What do UK watchdog’s new rules on Google AI results mean for publishers?
The US Register of Copyrights has continued the designation of The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) as the statutory collective responsible for administering the blanket compulsory mechanical license for eligible streaming and download services in the United States. The decision follows the Register‘s first periodic review of The MLC‘s designation, as required by the Music Modernization Act (MMA).
Source: Copyright Office reups The MLC’s designation as the statutory Mechanical Licensing Collective
Google has processed billions of DMCA takedown requests during the first months of the year. Reporting agency Link-Busters remains the top sender. While its dominance remains, the company appears to have hit a takedown ceiling of roughly 70 million URLs per week. Google won’t confirm whether there’s a limit on the notices it processes and says that trusted parties “can submit the quantity they need.”
Source: Google’s Top DMCA Sender Plateaus at 70 Million Takedowns Per Week
Google must allow news sites to opt out of having their online content scraped to feed AI overviews and other artificial intelligence services and features for British users, regulators said Wednesday. The Competition and Markets Authority said it was ordering Google to give online publishers the option, in what it called a “world first.”
Source: UK Orders Google to Allow Publishers to Opt Out of AI Scraping for Search Summaries
The “Cox effect” continues to ripple across the music industry litigation landscape. In the latest development, Anthropic has shrugged off vicarious liability in the newer copyright infringement suit it’s facing from major music publishers including Concord. Judge Eumi K. Lee just recently signed a related order, thereby approving the publisher plaintiffs’ voluntary dismissal of a vicarious infringement claim without prejudice.
Source: Anthropic Brushes Off Vicarious Infringement Claims In Music Publishers’ Copyright Suit