The richest man on the planet has just shared some controversial takes on copyright and the DMCA. Elon Musk, who might take over Twitter, believes that the current copyright term goes “absurdly far” in protecting creators. In addition, he characterizes the “overzealous” DMCA as a “plague on humanity.”
Source: Elon Musk: “Overzealous DMCA Is a Plague On Humanity” * TorrentFreak
After entertainment companies announced suspensions of new business in Russia, the government faced key questions: What happens when the supply of new movies and music runs dry and existing licensing agreements for older content expire? It appears that the Kremlin has a plan for ‘enemy’ content but according to legal video platforms in Russia, it will effectively legalize piracy.
Source: Russia’s Forced Licensing Plan For ‘Enemy’ Content “Legalizes Piracy” * TorrentFreak
While songwriters should, in theory, be major beneficiaries of the shift to streaming (in the UK and Europe, song rights are allocated almost double the revenues from a stream than they received from a CD sale), in practice their revenues are reduced significantly by gross inefficiencies in our arcane and byzantine system of collection and distribution.
Source: ‘What is currently an opaque black box of song royalties, needs to be transformed into a glass box.’
The electronic music duo The Chainsmokers are best known for catchy hits like “Closer” and “Paris,” but they have also made a name for themselves as Web3 innovators. The latest example comes with the release of their new album “So Far So Good,” which will include a drop of 5,000 NFTs that will let fans share in 1% of the royalties.
Source: Chainsmokers Share New Album Royalties With Fans via NFT Drop in Music Industry First – Decrypt
The Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM already has tools at its disposal to fight piracy but legislation winding its way through the corridors of power will move things to a new level. In addition to making it easier for copyright holders to disable access to identified infringing content at the ISP level, similar powers will enable urgent and precautionary blocking even before an infringement takes place.
Source: New Legislation Gives Telecoms Regulator Major Powers to Fight Piracy * TorrentFreak
In February, following a much-publicized licensing dispute, multiple comedians (and Word Collections clients) sued Pandora for allegedly failing to license their comedy albums’ underlying compositions. Now, Pandora has fired back with a countersuit.
Source: Pandora Files Antitrust Countersuit Against Comedians, Word Collections
While much is going right for the book business, Hachette Book Group CEO and AAP chair Michael Pietsch said that, in the current moment, publishing is dealing with “the biggest set of simultaneous challenges our industry has faced in a generation.” In addition to the ongoing pandemic, the book business is confronted with “sensational and outrageous book bans, an unprovoked war in Ukraine…and unrelenting efforts to weaken the copyright framework.”
Source: AAP Annual Meeting Spotlights Copyright, First Amendment Concerns
The new free trade agreement between Australia and the UK includes a site blocking paragraph. The text requires the countries to provide injunctive relief to require ISPs to prevent subscribers from accessing pirate sites. While this doesn’t change much for the two countries, rightsholders are already eying similar requirements for trade deals with other nations.
Source: Pirate Site Blocking is Making its Way Into Free Trade Agreements * TorrentFreak
Major entertainment industry groups representing film studios, record labels, videogame developers and publishers have signed a deal with internet service providers in Sweden to simplify the blocking of pirate sites. The signatories will also work together to help form clear legislation that will pave the way for a streamlined administrative site-blocking regime.
Source: Movie, Music, Gaming & Publishing Groups Join ISPs in Deal to Block Piracy * TorrentFreak
The collection was supposed to be historic. It would mark the first time the archive of a major figure in the history of photography would be made available as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), allowing a historically significant photography collection to be communally owned on the blockchain. But a long-established cultural foundation in Germany has stuck a serious spoke in the wheels of the project, asserting a huge copyright claim over the August Sander archive.
Source: Major court battle looms over NFT launch of August Sander photographs