Rights

UK public performance joint venture PPL PRS has facilitated the distribution of GBP £1 billion (USD $1.2bn) in revenues to music creators and rightsholders in the five years since its launch in 2018. The group was established by UK collection societies PPL and PRS for Music to provide a point of contact for companies and organizations that are looking to buy a license to play recorded music in public.

Source: UK public performance joint venture PPL PRS has paid out $1.2bn+ to creators and rightsholders to date

The Mechanical Licensing Collective, or MLC, is now trumpeting cumulative payouts of more than $1 billion to songwriters, publishers, and other compositional IP owners since its formal inception in 2020. That heady payout, however, is being rivaled by unallocated ‘black box’ royalty accounts that may also be approaching the $1 billion threshold. MLC chief executive Kris Ahrend has declined multiple requests by Digital Music News to clarify the specific black box amounts held by the organization.

Source: Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) Refuses to Disclose ‘Black Box’ Totals as Payouts Top $1 Billion

London’s Musicians’ Union has announced the completion of a “significant round” of collective bargaining negotiations with the BBC, Sky, and others, which it says will deliver “meaningful pay increases” to its approximately 32,000 members in the approaching years. According to the Musicians’ Union, the three-year BBC tie-up will deliver a 7.5 percent rate boost in 2023 and additional 2.3 percent raises in 2024 and 2025.

Source: Musicians’ Union Unveils ‘Milestone’ Pacts With the BBC, Others

The process of collecting public performance royalties from DJ sets has long been a tricky one in the United States. That makes it difficult for artists with the rights to the music to get paid what they’re due. But one music market with a firm grasp on the performance royalties collection and distribution process as it relates to the dance world is The Netherlands, where electronic music is deeply woven into the country’s social fabric.

Source: Songs in DJ Sets Are Notoriously Hard to Track — How a Dutch Rights Organization Is Paying Royalties

It was just over a year ago that a federal judge in Maryland struck down the state’s groundbreaking library e-book law. But with the 2023 legislative year underway, library advocates are back with new model legislation they say can help ensure “fair and equitable licensing terms in e-book contracts for libraries” while avoiding the thorny copyright issue that doomed Maryland’s law.

Source: With New Model Language, Library E-book Bills Are Back

The US Copyright Office has reconsidered the copyright protection it granted last fall to Kristina Kashtanova for her comic book Zarya of the Dawn. It featured pictures created by feeding text prompts to Midjourney, an artificial intelligence image generator. The Copyright Office says it only became aware the images were produced by Midjourney after the registration was granted, based on social media posts by Kashtanova.

Source: The US Copyright Office says you can’t copyright Midjourney AI-generated images

Alphabet Inc’s Google is rolling out tests that block access to news content for some Canadian users, the company confirmed on Wednesday, in what it says is a test run of a potential response to the government’s online news bill. The “Online News Act,” or House of Commons bill C-18, introduced in April by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, laid out rules to force platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.

Source: Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians

Source: After Winnie the Pooh, many other iconic characters will soon enter public domain

ICE, the music tech company providing royalties for songwriters, has announced a deal with gaming metaverse start-up STYNGR. This deal brings the ICE Core repertoire to STYNGR’s new service in gaming and gaming metaverses, where players can choose in-game music channels and clips to personalize their experience. The multi-year deal covers a range of territories and supports accurate, usage-based writer payments.

Source: ICE Strikes Deal with Gaming & Metaverse Start-Up STYNGR

Months after a final round of reply briefs was filed, a federal judge is now ready to hear oral arguments for summary judgment in a closely watched copyright case filed by four major publishers against the Internet Archive over its program to scan and lend library books. In a brief order filed late last week, Judge John G. Koeltl set March 20 at 1 p.m. to hear arguments, which will be heard over the phone rather than in a Manhattan courtroom.

Source: Oral Argument Set in Internet Archive Copyright Case