Independent artist distribution platform UnitedMasters has launched a new subscription tier that allows acts to keep 100% of their royalties from digital services. To date, the US-based company has operated a model in which it keeps 10% of an artist’s royalties on any distributed platform.
Source: UnitedMasters now gives artists 100% of royalties via $5-per-month subscription tier
The Authors Guild, Amazon Publishing, and Penguin Random House filed suit in federal court in Washington State seeking to enjoin a Ukraine-based piracy site from illegally copying, distributing, and selling works written or published by the plaintiffs.
Source: Authors Guild, Amazon, PRH File Suit Against E-book Pirate Site
In this guest column, David Israelite, president & CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners, argues in favor of the CASE Act, which would create a board within the U.S. Copyright Office to decide copyright disputes rather than going before a court.
In the creative world, the pandemic has illuminated one of the first lies Big Tech started pitching more than twenty years ago—namely that wiping out the market for music sales was an opportunity that musical artists were failing to understand.
Source: Coronavirus Exposes Big Tech’s Big Bad Ideas for Artists – The Illusion of More
In a letter to US Senators, the Copyright Office comments in detail on the ‘repeat infringer’ issue, stressing that a one-size-fits-all approach is not ideal. It may not always be appropriate to terminate the Internet accounts of persistent pirates. Instead, ISPs could also limit their bandwidth, the Office suggests.
Source: U.S. Copyright Office: Disconnecting Persistent Pirates is Not Always Preferred * TorrentFreak
Grammy-winning jazz artist and composer Maria Schneider has filed a class-action lawsuit against YouTube over alleged Content ID discrimination. “If a rights holder does not have the economic clout to qualify for Content ID,” writes the plaintiffs’ legal team, “YouTube refuses to add their works to the Content ID catalog for prepublication protection even if those works have previously been infringed on YouTube hundreds or even thousands of times.”
Source: Grammy-Winning Artist Sues YouTube Over Content ID Discrimination
According to a coalition of prominent copyright industry groups, piracy remains a widespread and serious problem among all African countries. United in the IIPA, they ask the US Government to make trade benefits for sub-Saharan African countries dependent on local copyright laws and the effectiveness of their anti-piracy enforcement.
Source: Rightsholders Want African Countries to Up Their Anti-Piracy Game * TorrentFreak
The new claim was filed in a Nashville court yesterday (July 1) and suggests that Spotify and HFA’s alleged “scheme to engage in copyright infringement was a massive success”. The filing suggests that Kobalt “was tricked into believing that Spotify had compulsory licenses and into accepting ‘royalty statements’ distributed by HFA on behalf of Spotify” and “was further tricked into believing that Eight Mile was being accounted to properly”.
Amazon is facing a US copyright infringement lawsuit for distributing movies on its streaming service for which it doesn’t hold the rights. Filed in a New York court and alleging direct and contributory copyright infringement, the suit covers movies including Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. It demands a jury trial and statutory damages that could run to millions of dollars.
Source: Amazon Sued For Copyright Infringement on Movies Including Austin Powers * TorrentFreak
The Times, which has made adding new subscribers a key business goal, said Apple had given it little in the way of direct relationships with readers and little control over the business. It said it hoped to instead drive readers directly to its own website and mobile app so that it could “fund quality journalism.”