Z-Library appears to be shrugging off a criminal investigation as if nothing ever happened. The site continues to develop its shadow library and, following a successful fundraiser, now plans to expand its services to the physical book market. Z-Library envisions a book ‘sharing’ market, where its millions of users can pick up paperbacks at dedicated “Z-Points” around the globe.
Source: Z-Library Plans to Let Users Share Physical Books Through ‘Z-Points’ * TorrentFreak
A countersuit filed by Pandora against Word Collections and Spoken Giants has been dismissed with prejudice amid a wider licensing battle. This newest development in the high-profile legal battle just recently came to light in an almost 30-page-long order from Judge Mark C. Scarsi. In explaining the most recent dismissal decision, Judge Scarsi determined that Word Collections and Spoken Giants hadn’t in fact violated the first section of the Sherman Antitrust Act by coordinating to fix prices or to restrain trade via a series of competition-limiting exclusive agreements.
Source: Word Collections Beats Pandora Countersuit Amid Licensing Battle
Italy’s competition watchdog is launching an investigation into Facebook parent Meta’s handling of licensing negotiations with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE). The Italian Competition Authority or AGCM on Wednesday (April 5) said Meta “could have unduly interrupted the negotiations for licensing the use, on its platforms, of musical rights thus abusing SIAE’s economic dependence”.
Source: Meta faces competition probe in Italy after pulling music by Italian songwriters from its platforms
The Guild led a coalition of creative groups who spent a week lobbying lawmakers for legal guardrails against generative artificial intelligence programs and educating them on potential harms posed by such programs on literary and creative industries. The Guild is lobbying for compensation and credit for authors, creators, and copyright owners whose works are used to train AI machines.
Source: Authors Guild Meets with Legislators Over Generative AI Concerns
Amid recent debates over several publishers’ removal of potentially offensive material from the work of popular 20th-century authors — including Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie — is a less discussed but no less thorny question about the method of the revisions. For some e-book owners, the changes appeared as if made by a book thief in the night: quietly and with no clear evidence of a disturbance.
Speaking to Morgan Stanley, the Warner Music Group chief outlined a model that would reward certain artists more than others on streaming platform. The idea is to “separate user actions from algorithmic actions,” Kyncl told the conference, with more money going to the artists and labels that get playtime from user actions, rather than those whose music is served up by an algorithm.
Source: Could Robert Kyncl’s ‘multiplier’ plan improve the way artists are paid from music streaming?
Source: Who Owns SpongeBob? AI Shakes Hollywood’s Creative Foundation
In 2013, Sars launched Soundtrack Your Brand (then called Spotify For Business) as a JV with Spotify. The premise is simple: a music streaming service specifically made for businesses – whether multi-nationals or mom’n’pop shops. One of his key arguments: any business playing music from an individual’s Spotify account is breaking the terms and conditions of their agreement with the service.
Source: Can this Swedish entrepreneur unlock $40 billion in new money for the music business?
Copyright holders have sent hundreds of DMCA notices flagging alleged copyright infringements on Europa.eu, the official website of the European Commission. The EU seems unable to deal with a recurring piracy spam problem on its own portal, up to the point that Google has begun removing Europa.eu search results.
Source: Rightsholders Flag Official EU Website for Copyright Infringements * TorrentFreak
According to the IFPI‘s recently published IFPI Global Music Report, the global neighboring rights market grew to USD $2.5 billion in revenue in 2022 – up 8.6% YoY, and accounting for 9.4% of the worldwide recorded music market. This week, UK-based PPL announced that it will pay out GBP £17.4 million (USD $21.5m at current exchange rates) in its Q1 distribution of international revenues (aka neighboring rights revenues).