Rights

TikTok Music to Shut Down in November After Launching in 2023

TikTok Music is officially set to cease operating on November 28th, 2024, after launching in 2023, TikTok has announced.  Absent from TikTok Music’s website is any mention of the precise cause(s) of the shutdown.
However, it’s possible that licensing problems (or at least friction) of some sort contributed to the decision. TikTok set its standalone streaming ambitions in motion in 2022, and even back then, reports suggested the majors were concerned with the service’s monetization potential.

Source: TikTok Music to Shut Down in November After Launching in 2023

Daily Mail CEO on Google lawsuits, AI and why future of news is bright

DMG Media chief executive Rich Caccappolo has said that monopoly lawsuits against Google and the prospect of new UK tech regulation could bring huge benefits to news publishers. Speaking at the Press Gazette Future of Media Technology Conference in London this month, Caccappolo said he expects the major tech companies in the UK media market to get designated as having “strategic market status” by December this year.

Source: Daily Mail CEO on Google lawsuits, AI and why future of news is bright

EU Copyright Directive finally implemented in all its countries

The European Union’s Copyright Directive was approved in 2019. Five years later, it is finally being implemented across the EU, with Poland the final member state to do the necessaries. Before it was passed in 2019 there was a bitter lobbying battle between some tech firms and the music industry over its provisions  around safe harbors and rights enforcement – the infamous Article 17 of the directive. It was the peak of the ‘value gap’ conflict between rightsholders and YouTube.

Source: EU Copyright Directive finally implemented in all its countries

SoundExchange signals plans for AI registry for music creators

Music rightsholders want AI-music companies to ask permission and strike licensing deals before training their models on commercial recordings. Now US firm SoundExchange has announced plans to launch a registry of sound recordings that will give AI companies a clear picture of what they can and can’t use for their training processes. It will launch in the first quarter of 2025, built using its existing ISRC (international standard recording code) database.

Source: SoundExchange signals plans for AI registry for music creators

Judge sharply criticizes lawyers for authors in AI suit against Meta

A federal judge on Friday brutally district Court Judge Vincent Chhabria accused the plaintiffs’ attorneys of dragging out litigation that may help set important guardrails for the emerging technology. “You are not doing your job. This is an important case,” Chhabria told lead counsel Joseph Saveri during an hour-long video conference about fact-finding issues in the case.

Source: Judge sharply criticizes lawyers for authors in AI suit against Meta

Lionsgate Inks Deal With AI Firm to Mine Its Massive Film and TV Library

In a significant move, Lionsgate and the video-focused artificial intelligence research firm Runway have inked a deal that will see Runway train a new generative AI model on Lionsgate content, and will see the entertainment company use the tech as it produces future film and TV projects. While details are scarce, the companies say that the new model will be “customized to Lionsgate’s proprietary portfolio of film and television content,” and exclusive to the studio.

Source: Lionsgate Inks Deal With AI Firm to Mine Its Massive Film and TV Library

Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs AI Bills Backed by SAG-AFTRA

California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Monday to sign two bills regulating the use of performances generated by artificial intelligence. The actors’ union lobbied for passage of the legislation, which builds on the protections won during the four-month actors’ strike against the major studios last year.

Source: Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs AI Bills Backed by SAG-AFTRA

Could a new remuneration right be the key to AI music licensing?

The music industry has been clear on its views about training musical AIs: licensing deals are required. But what should those licensing deals look like? A new white paper written by Professor Daniel J. Gervais of Vanderbilt Law School offers some ideas on that. “The best way for creators to generate a decent stream of ongoing revenue for the use of their copyrighted works by GenAI applications is to be paid when the datasets used to train GenAI containing their works are used to create new ‘content’.”

Source: Could a new remuneration right be the key to AI music licensing?

Web3 music streaming platform Tune.FM raises $50m in funding

The company has now raised $80M in its efforts to cut out the middleman between artists and music streamers. Unlike traditional platforms where artists receive a fraction of streaming profits, Tune.FM claims to pay artists 90%of their streaming revenue through its JAM token. This stands in contrast to industry giants like Spotify, which distributes “nearly 70%” of its music revenue to rightsholders, who then further distribute it to artists and songwriters.

Source: Web3 music streaming platform Tune.FM raises $50m in funding

House Judiciary Committee Asks Copyright Office to Examine ASCAP, BMI

House Judiciary members sent a letter to the Copyright Office requesting an examination of concerns related to performing rights organizations (PROs). In the letter, signed by the committee’s chairmen Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Darrell Issa as well as member Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, two particular areas of concern are addressed: the “proliferation” of new PROs and the lack of transparency about the distribution of general licensing revenue.

Source: House Judiciary Committee Asks Copyright Office to Examine PROs, Citing ‘Difficult to Assess’ Royalty Distributions

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