Rights

Record companies, both majors and indies, are up in arms over suggestions from a British politician that signed artists should see a portion of their UK streaming royalties bypass the label system entirely, and be paid to performers directly via a collection society.

Source: Record labels really, really don’t like a new Bill that could – eventually – change how artists get paid in the UK

In August, a digital artist who closely guards his personal identity, going only by the online alias “loafgren,” did what the masters of his trade do best. He stole. Loafgren slapped a copy of “polka dots,” a famous work by Damien Hirst, one of the world’s most prominent artists, on a digital image of a pair of Crocs.

Source: Polka-dotted Crocs and the war over copyrights in NFT art

Although the dispute is fascinating, it may not turn out to be a landmark case for copyright and trademark law in the NFT age. Aaron Moss, an intellectual property attorney at Greenberg Glusker who’s an expert in entertainment cases, wrote in a blog post that this wasn’t really much of a copyright dispute at all and didn’t even have all that much to do with the weird nature of NFTs. It’s more a matter of interpreting Tarantino’s contract.

Source: The ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT fight isn’t really about NFTs

The suit appears to turn on the question of whether selling NFTs based on excerpts of a screenplay qualify as a “publication” of the screenplay. According to the suit, Tarantino’s lawyer has told Miramax that Tarantino retained the right to publish his screenplay in the Miramax contract, and that he is exercising that right through the NFT sale.

Source: Quentin Tarantino’s Attorney Responds to ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT Lawsuit: ‘Miramax Is Wrong’

Last December, academic publishers Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society filed a lawsuit demanding that Indian ISPs block access to Sci-Hub and Libgen for copyright infringement. The ongoing case now includes an intervention application from a group of social science researchers who say that blocking the platforms would result in a great societal loss to the country.

Source: Sci-Hub: Researchers File Intervention Application To Fight ISP Blocking * TorrentFreak

HBO Max will get its hands on Fox’s film slate for one final year — under an unusual deal to share streaming windows with Disney Plus and Hulu for half the studio’s titles, starting with animated family comedy “Ron’s Gone Wrong” next month. Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution and WarnerMedia amended their current output agreement for films from Fox (renamed 20th Century Studios) on HBO/HBO Max, which runs through the 2022 release year.

Source: Disney, WarnerMedia Carve Up Fox Film Slate Streaming Rights Through End of 2022 (EXCLUSIVE)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California) this week issued a set of questions to nine major distributors. The inquiry requests information including: copies of standard licensing agreements and a description of restrictions; sales information going back to 2018; information on the kind of patron data that is gathered and kept;  a description of any legal actions the firms may have undertaken; and information about each firm’s 100 most sold or licensed works from 2015 to 2019.

Source: Lawmakers Expand Inquiry into Library E-book Market

The incorporation of music into Twitch started from the bottom up, with some broadcasters playing music while streaming their game playing. “Over time, Twitch management became aware of this and so began doing some experiments and exploring whether music was a viable part of the platform.” However, getting the music side of things up and running wasn’t so simple. “Unfortunately, initially rights holders would not play ball at all with Twitch.”

Source: How Has Twitch Managed to Become a Go-To Music Platform During COVID?

When Taylor Swift first began releasing re-recordings of her old work earlier in 2021, it appeared many radio stations were just sticking with the Big Machine oldies they still had on file, if they were going to dip into catalog. But now the largest radio chain in the country, iHeart Radio is making a public pledge that its stations will abide with Swift’s wishes and stick with her remakes, as they come in.

Source: iHeart Promises to Only Play Taylor Swift’s New Versions of Her Songs, Once They’re Out

The “standard rerecording restriction” previously spanned the later of five years from the delivery of the final contracted work or two years from a contract’s expiration. But the leading label, in a change that could also be adopted by Sony Music and Warner Music, has reportedly upped the periods to seven years and five years, respectively,

Source: Taylor Swift Re-Recordings Prompt Contract Pivot at UMG