Rights

A High Court judge says that nineteen scientists and three scientific and medical organizations will have their intervention applications heard before any decision is handed down in the ongoing Sci-Hub blocking case. Filed by several publishers, the lawsuit seeks ISP blocking of the platform in India. Justice JR Midha notes that the case addresses an “issue of public importance.”

Source: Judge: Sci-Hub Blocking Case “Important” For Science, Community Representations Will Be Heard * TorrentFreak

Roku is obtaining exclusive global rights to Quibi’s scripted series, alternative and reality programming and documentaries featuring such stars as Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, Liam Hemsworth, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Richie, Chrissy Teigen and Lena Waithe. More than a dozen Quibi shows will debut on the Roku Channel for first time.

Source: Roku Acquires Global Rights to 75-Plus Quibi Shows, Will Stream Them for Free

Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society filed a lawsuit in India late December to compel local ISPs to block access to Sci-Hub and Libgen on copyright infringement grounds. With the case set for a hearing tomorrow, scientists, academics, teachers and students are calling on the government to prevent a blockade for the good of society.

Source: Sci-Hub: Scientists, Academics, Teachers & Students Protest Blocking Lawsuit * TorrentFreak

Heading into 2021, piracy experts told CNBC that they have theories about how pirates will react to these different models, but aren’t entirely sure what will happen. For one, piracy is a difficult thing to track. Experts can track some downloads from major piracy websites, but once that file is downloaded, it can be distributed and streamed to thousands of other viewers privately.

Source: Studios are experimenting with film release models. Here’s what that could mean for movie piracy

President Trump has received many copyright complaints on Twitter, a tally that has just increased due to yet another DMCA takedown notice. However, a policy decision by Twitter means he’s been able to circumvent the platform’s repeat infringer rules. The big question is whether he’ll continue getting special treatment moving forward or will Twitter eventually have to nuke his account?

Source: Could Trump’s Twitter Account Be ‘DMCA-Banned’? Not Long To Find Out * TorrentFreak

For Peloton, which has seen its stock price explode from approximately $30 per share at 2020’s start to nearly $155 per share when the market closed today, the high-profile move is just the latest byproduct of a long-running emphasis on direct music integration and song-centered exercise experiences.

Source: Peloton Begins Producing Exclusive Music With Three Elvis Remixes

A federal court in Florida has dismissed a complaint from ISP Bright House Networks, which accused several major record labels of targeting subscribers with false and deceptive piracy notices. The ISP, which wanted to add RIAA and its anti-piracy partner MarkMonitor to the suit as well, doesn’t have a valid claim as it failed to act on the ‘false’ claims.

Source: Record Labels Defeat False DMCA Takedown Claims in Court * TorrentFreak

Tips Music, part of Mumbai-headquartered music and film company Tips Industries, recently unveiled the massive licensing deal with Facebook. Under the contract, Facebook’s approximately 350 million India-based users (along with Instagram’s 120 million or so Indian users) will have the chance to add Tips tracks to their posts and stories.

Source: Facebook Inks Major Licensing Deal With Bollywood Label Tips Music

Hiding in plain sight: a “loophole” in Spotify’s platform allows unauthorized remixes and bootlegs of songs to live as podcasts. Using simple keywords and terms like “chopped and screwed,” “slowed and reverbed,” “remix,” and “mashup” in Spotify’s search bar, users can track down bootlegged reworks of songs by many top artists which live on Spotify’s podcast hub.

Source: Spotify’s Podcasting Problem: Loophole Allows Remixes and Unreleased Songs to Hide in Plain Sight

This is Spinal Tap co-creators Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest have got a deal that could potentially revive the franchise. On Friday, attorneys for the group as well as Vivendi and its StudioCanal division told a California federal court that they had finally achieved settlement.

Source: ‘Spinal Tap’ creators settle rights dispute with StudioCanal