Rights

Many blockchain projects are based on the premise of ownership. But what does owning an NFT actually mean? To answer that, we need to recognize the difference between “on-chain” and “off-chain” assets. The rights to an off-chain asset are linked by an invisible legal connection to an on-chain asset (the NFT). Lawyers sometimes call this connection “tethering” — although some legal scholars are skeptical about whether tethering actually holds up in court.

Source: The tangled truth about NFTs and copyright

A federal judge has asked the parties for a proposed declaratory judgment to end the legal dispute over Maryland’s library e-book law, but the parties dispute whether the request means the court is preparing to deny the AAP’s bid for a permanent injunction.

Source: Court Seeks Proposed Declaratory Judgment in Maryland E-book Case

Platforms such as YouTube and Uploaded could be directly liable for the copyright-infringing uploads of their users. The German Federal Court of Justice came to this conclusion based on advice from the EU’s top court. Several liability lawsuits will now be sent back to the lower court to decide whether damages are indeed warranted.

Source: YouTube and Uploaded Could be Liable For Pirating Users, Court Rules * TorrentFreak

After being introduced as a bill back in February, the Freelance Isn’t Free Act has been passed in New York State. The law is intended to establish and enhance the rights of freelance workers including authors, journalists, and other writers on contract. S8369 will build upon the law previously instated in New York City, expanding the protections for freelancers state-wide.

Source: Freelance Isn’t Free Act Passes in New York State

Over the years, many publishers have been forced to remove their games from storefronts due to issues with music licensing. Remedy’s Alan Wake had to be removed from sale on PC and consoles. It took the company almost a year and a half to renegotiate the music rights and return to stores. Meanwhile, SEGA’s Alpha Protocol was taken off Steam in 2019 for the same reason. At the time of writing, the Obsidian-developed RPG remains absent from PC gaming’s biggest digital store.

Source: Music licensing in games: trials, tribulations, and what’s next

NiftyLit is a new literary magazine that publishes literary works exclusively as unlockable content linked to NFTs. More importantly, the NFT book publishing company promises to give its writers the majority of the revenue from NFT sales. Furthermore, the company’s aim is to establish a more “equitable system for publishing, community engagement, and compensation for writers and artists.”

Source: Meet The NFT Book Publishing Company: NiftyLit

Under current growth rates, 75% of the movies and TV seasons available on Netflix will be either originals or exclusives by the end of 2024, according to the analysis. Ampere points out, originals have been central to Netflix’s strategy for more than five years, and may be even more critical now that media companies are shrinking the pool of licensable content by keeping their studio content for their own streamers.

Source: Video Insider: Originals, Exclusives Now The Majority Of Netflix’s U.S. Catalog

In copyright law, AR will likely add new dimensions to the concepts of fair use and derivative works. For example, when AR artists use the physical world as their canvas, there will be copyrighted works everywhere in the form of artwork, statues, architecture, etc. Would morphing a copyrighted work into another similar object infringe the right to create a derivative work of the copyrighted work?

Source: Protecting Intellectual Property in Augmented Reality

Tuned Global says that only child-friendly tracks are being made available on Gabb’s streaming service. This has been made possible through Tuned Global’s new integration with lyrics data company LyricFind and Gabb’s proprietary AI filtration system. As part of this integration, Tuned Global powers the delivery of a rights-cleared music catalog from rightsholders to Gabb’s system including LyricFind’s song IDs.

Source: B2B music firm Tuned Global to power Gabb Music streaming app for kids in the US

This week, Q News and 17 other small Australian news publishers clubbed together to form the Public Interest Publishers Alliance, which wants to collectively negotiate licensing deals with Google and Facebook. With support from the Minderoo Foundation – the charity of mining billionaire Andrew Forrest – the group will take advantage of new collective bargaining rules recently introduced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Source: News media bargaining code: New publisher alliance takes on big tech