The European Union’s highest court will have another opportunity to consider the issue of the liability of online platforms for copyright infringing content uploaded and shared by users. The two referrals by the Austrian and German national courts raise a further set of questions concerning the power of the courts to issue injunctions against intermediaries.
Source: EU Court Reconsiders YouTube’s Liability for Copyright Infringement
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has asked the courts to allow it to double its claims against exercise bike and treadmill startup Peloton, after discovering more unlicensed music — including songs by Taylor Swift and Kesha — being used in workout videos that play on the bikes’ built-in screens. It’s now seeking $300 million in damages.
Source: Music publishers say Peloton stole even more music, ask for $300 million
In a much-anticipated court filing, lawyers for Audible Inc. this week urged a federal court to reject a bid by seven large publishers and the Association of American Publishers to enjoin the company from including their works in the company’s planned Captions program, and also moved to dismiss the publisher’s copyright case, arguing that the matter is fundamentally a contract dispute rather than a copyright matter.
Source: In Filings, Audible Says ‘Captions’ Copyright Case Should Be Dismissed
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) came out swinging in its comments to the Department of Justice’s ASCAP and BMI consent decrees reviews, arguing it should allow publishers to selectively withdraw digital rights from blanket licenses.
Among the most valuable functions of a blockchain ledger with respect to copyright is that it is an immutable record of transactions which is extremely difficult to alter. As Staelens explained, blockchain can be used to timestamp copyright-protected works, and through its use of unique IDs can be used to prove ownership in litigation.
Source: WIPR webinar: Is blockchain the future of copyright protection?
In the past few years, podcasting has grown from a cottage industry into big business, with 93 million listeners and $479 million in yearly advertising revenue in the United States, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Producers have become more sophisticated about licensing music — and more willing to pay for it. But clearing rights, for both recordings and the underlying compositions, can be complicated and expensive.
Source: As Podcast Industry Grows, Licensing Music Can Get Complicated — and Pricey
Librarians are making a direct plea to Macmillan CEO John Sargent: please listen to your readers and abandon plans to embargo new release e-books in libraries. That was the appeal delivered at an American Library Association press conference on September 11, held at the Nashville Public Library, coinciding with this week’s Digital Book World Conference.
Source: Librarians Launch National Campaign to Oppose Macmillan’s Library E-book Embargo
Google won a legal battle on Thursday after Europe’s top court said publishers in Germany could not demand copyright fees since 2013 from the tech firm because the European Commission had not been notified of the German regulation. The group of publishers previously said they were demanding as much as 1 billion euros from Google-owner Alphabet in copyright fees for their news snippets and other items published by the U.S. company on the Web.
Source: Google wins legal battle with German publishers over fee demands
The service organization that classifies itself as the largest publishing trade association in the United States, the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), has added its membership’s objections to the “Audible Captions” functionality that’s now the subject of a seven-publisher lawsuit mounted by the Association of American Publishers.
Source: IBPA Backs US Publishers Association in Objections to ‘Audible Captions’
The United States-based performance rights organization has also reported record revenues of $1.283bn for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, up 7% over the previous year. The $1.196bn paid to songwriters, composers and publishers also represented a 7% – or $78m – increase over the prior year.