US Senator Thom Tillis is incredibly disappointed that Twitter declined his invite to testify at a subcommittee hearing to discuss how online piracy can be tackled through voluntary agreements. In a letter sent to CEO Jack Dorsey, the senator criticizes the company’s track record, suggesting that “Twitter simply does not take copyright piracy seriously.”
Source: Twitter Under Fire for Refusal to Attend Senate’s Anti-Piracy Hearing * TorrentFreak
UK-based fitness brand (and Peloton rival) Echelon has launched a fully-licensed music offering with MediaNet, a music distribution and rights management platform designed for business use. SOCAN-owned MediaNet will provide licensing, catalog, and rights management services for Echelon through its MediaNet Enterprise product integration.
Source: Peloton rival Echelon launches fully-licensed music offering for fitness classes
The Authors Guild and other writer organizations are gathering signatures on a letter protesting a policy by Audible that enables Audible Premium Plus customers to exchange audiobooks they have purchased within 365 days and deducts those returns and exchanges from authors’ accounts.
For Warner Music, the opportunities in games are numerous, and the recent Fortnite events with Marshmello and Travis Scott show how much impact these tie-ups can have. “Seeing persistent worlds become more popular in games has been a big thing for music,” Vicars says. “Fortnite is social in a way that people in the music industry can understand.”
Knight is taking the lead into uncharted territory with the push to make all dance and choreography copyrightable. “When you are at a concert or watch your favorite music video, the excitement in the room is unavoidable and powerful but unfortunately, the creator is often left behind. It’s time for the choreographers to be recognized and receive appropriate credit and protection.
Source: JaQuel Knight Is Paving The Way For The Future Of Copyrighting Dance
The Orphan Works Directive was adopted in October 2012 and sought to facilitate the mass digitisation projects going on across Europe by removing some copyright barriers. It created an exception to copyright, so that the digitisation and dissemination of orphan works could be done without necessarily seeking permission from every rights holder.
Source: Evaluating the Orphan Works Directive | Europeana Pro
Even for astute followers of the discussions around the implementation of Article 17, the hearing contained a number of surprises. While several Member States have been soldiering on with their national implementation proposals the hearing showed that the Court is taking Poland’s complaint very seriously and that the compliance of the contested provisions of Article 17 with the Charter is far from evident.
CD Projekt Red is the first game developer to make it easier for streamers to sidestep music copyright violations. Cyberpunk 2077 is due to launch in about a month with a setting to disable copyrighted music. It allows streamers to avoid receiving DMCA strikes on their Twitch account.
Source: Games are Adapting to the Twitch DMCA Issue – Streamer-Friendly Mode
Source: Google signs copyright agreements with six French newspapers
Wixen Music Publishing is suing short-form video-sharing app Triller for $50 million alleging copyright infringement on more than 1,000 songs. Wixen claims that Triller has been “willfully infringing” its musical compositions by allowing users to include them in videos without authorization or compensation, according to the federal complaint filed U.S. Central District of California on Tuesday.
Source: Wixen Music Publishing Hits Triller With $50M Copyright Lawsuit