Rights

This month, UMG boss Sir Lucian Grainge went public with his belief that “the economic model for streaming needs to evolve”. Grainge wrote of his desire for “an updated model… an innovative, ‘artist-centric’ model that values all subscribers and rewards the music they love.” This is a wider discussion within the music industry, as shown by Ivors Academy chair and Broken Record campaigner Tom Gray’s comments at this month’s NY:LON Connect conference.

Source: What do we mean by ‘artist-centric’ music streaming models? – Music Ally

With war raging over the border in Ukraine, a pro-Moscow separatist region to its east, and inflation at 35%, former soviet republic Moldova was granted EU candidate status last summer. New copyright law crafted to protect artists under strict EU standards is now mired in allegations of corruption and Russian interference. Meanwhile, local artists are currently being paid absolutely nothing.

Source: Under a New EU-Focused Copyright Law, Musical Artists Currently Earn *Nothing* * TorrentFreak

As marketplaces moved to stop (or potentially stop) enforcing creator royalties on NFT sales late last year, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club made their position clear: they didn’t love it. With yesterday’s Sewer Pass NFT launch, Yuga Labs has taken direct action and blocked secondary trading on certain marketplaces. The Sewer Pass rolled out on Wednesday for owners of Bored Ape or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and serves as an access pass to the upcoming Dookey Dash web game.

Source: ‘Creator Royalties Must Be Respected,’ Says Bored Ape Creator as Some Sewer Pass NFT Trades Blocked – Decrypt

In joining TikTok, the Rolling Stones have agreed to provide access to their full music catalog on the platform. Note that the Rolling Stones do not control their pre-1971 catalog; those rights are held by Abkco Music & Records. For the first time, TikTok users will be able to use the band’s tracks in their videos (available on the TikTok Sounds Page), including hits like “Start Me Up,” “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It),” “Miss You,” “Angie” and “Beast of Burden.”

Source: Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger Join TikTok: ‘Hello, TikTok! We Have Joined Your World,’ Legendary Rocker Says in First Post

Gabriel Leydon, the CEO of the gaming company Limit Break, added the latest piece of the royalty saga with a post outlining how the fees could regain dominance after marketplaces like Magic Eden, and SudoAMM have made inroads by nixing them. The key in Limit Break’s proposed system is that if an NFT’s owner decides to stake their token in a new contract, the NFT’s creator can then imbue the token with essentially any feature.

Source: Gamemaker Shakes Up NFT Royalties With New Smart Contracts – The Defiant

Getty Images, one of the worlds biggest picture agencies, is taking action against the makers of artificial-intelligence image-creation tool Stability AI. The agency, which sells the rights to use photographers’ and illustrators’ images, said Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion system had infringed these. “Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright… to the detriment of the content creators” and “chose to ignore viable licensing options and long‑standing legal protections”, Getty alleges.

Source: AI image creator faces UK and US legal challenges

Epidemic Sound sued Meta for copyright infringement in July 2022, and the two are now scheduled to head to trial in September 2024. This purported infringement, the plaintiff company claims, centers on Meta’s allegedly “offering Epidemic’s works through its ‘music library’ for any of its users to use…without license or other authorization.”

Source: Epidemic Sound, Meta Trial Scheduled For September of 2024

The Japanese art collective teamLab, which draws crowds around the world for its immersive environments, is declaring a partial victory in an ongoing copyright dispute with a Los Angles museum that may have infringed on its work. Though the complex case is far from over, and is still set to proceed to a jury trial, the latest ruling is likely to set key precedents for the increasingly popular realm of immersive installations.

Source: TeamLab Wins an Early Victory in Its Copyright Suit Against an L.A. Museum It Says Copied Its Immersive Installations | Artnet News

Working with film, television, and stage producers, the company uses as a motto, “We invest in rights to the written word,” and most recently has demonstrated this with Monday’s news (January 9) that it has just added three new estates to its nonfiction portfolio—the writings of Roger Tory Peterson, John Brooks, and HW Janson.

Source: Rights Edition: International Literary Properties Adds Nonfiction Estates