In their announcement from Tokyo today (November 18), the Netherlands’ Elsevier and the Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources are outlining a three-year proposal for subscription publishing “with measures to support Japan’s open access goals.” The agreement is to go into effect on January 1 and is the first of its kind for Elsevier in the Asia-Pacific region and in Japan.
Source: Japanese Consortium and Elsevier Announce an Open Access Proposal
Several NFL teams have received warnings from the music industry in recent weeks about the use of copyrighted music on social media posts, and at least one team has already settled with a record label for a sum in the six figures according to multiple sources.
Instagram is mulling plans to pay publishers on its platform as it grows as a news and information source for users, sources tell Axios. Publishers are frustrated that prior monetization talks have been tabled from the second half of this year to an unknown date. Instagram plans to include select publishers in its next test in coming months for paying creators, sources say.
Streamers are turning off all in-game audio and providing content with their own mouth. Others are streaming in dead silence, highlighting just how integral sound can be to the experience. It’s funny to watch these streamers, but it highlights how poorly Twitch is dealing with the issue.
Source: Twitch Streamers Are Having Fun With the ‘No Recorded Music’ Policy
Unless music rights holders want to cede the growth in the music UGC space (which will be worth $5.9 billion by end 2022) to library music companies, they need to put alternative approaches at the core of their licensing strategy, not simply pursue them as interesting ‘edge’ experiments. However, the biggest music industry opportunity is not licensing music. It is monetizing fandom.
More than 2,500 UK university staff have called for an investigation into the “scandal” of excessive pricing of academic e-books. Organizer Johanna Anderson said some e-texts can cost 10 times print copies, with taxpayers and students the losers. Publishers say the costs are due to the different formats and shared-use.
Source: University staff urge probe into e-book pricing ‘scandal’
North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who has been a leader in the effort to reform the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, recently sent an open letter to stakeholders addressing the efforts he and his team have made. The letter from the senator, who fought off a strong challenge from Democratic candidate Cal Cunningham in last week’s election, is posted in full below.
Source: Senator Thom Tillis Seeks Suggestions for Reform of Digital Millenium Copyright Act
The famous ‘oof’ sound that accompanies a death in Roblox is temporarily removed. It will make a comeback as a microtransaction (correctly licensed) for players to buy for 100 Robux, or about $1 USD. The developer who originally created the sound will receive compensation from sales of the Roblox death sound.
Source: Roblox Licenses Death Sound Effect After Copyright Kerfuffle
The Amazon-owned live-streaming platform also claimed that it is “actively speaking with the major record labels about potential approaches to additional licenses that would be appropriate for the Twitch service.” However, the company also said that the “current constructs for licenses” that record labels have with other services (which typically take a cut of revenue from creators for payment to record labels) “make less sense for Twitch.”
Source: Twitch Says It’s in Talks to License Music, Tells Users to Delete Videos With Unauthorized Tracks
SoundCloud’s artist services and distribution platform Repost by SoundCloud has entered into a new partnership with Cosynd, a legal service that automates copyright contracts and registrations. The partnership will provide artists using Repost with user discounts to Cosynd’s suite of services to help register their copyrights, establish ownership, and create agreements to help protect their work.