Italy’s competition watchdog is launching an investigation into Facebook parent Meta’s handling of licensing negotiations with the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE). The Italian Competition Authority or AGCM on Wednesday (April 5) said Meta “could have unduly interrupted the negotiations for licensing the use, on its platforms, of musical rights thus abusing SIAE’s economic dependence”.
Source: Meta faces competition probe in Italy after pulling music by Italian songwriters from its platforms
Amid recent debates over several publishers’ removal of potentially offensive material from the work of popular 20th-century authors — including Roald Dahl, R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie — is a less discussed but no less thorny question about the method of the revisions. For some e-book owners, the changes appeared as if made by a book thief in the night: quietly and with no clear evidence of a disturbance.
Speaking to Morgan Stanley, the Warner Music Group chief outlined a model that would reward certain artists more than others on streaming platform. The idea is to “separate user actions from algorithmic actions,” Kyncl told the conference, with more money going to the artists and labels that get playtime from user actions, rather than those whose music is served up by an algorithm.
Copyright holders have sent hundreds of DMCA notices flagging alleged copyright infringements on Europa.eu, the official website of the European Commission. The EU seems unable to deal with a recurring piracy spam problem on its own portal, up to the point that Google has begun removing Europa.eu search results.
According to the 
US music rights management company BMI has clinched victory in a rate court dispute against live events promoters Live Nation, AEG, and the North American Concert Promoters Association (NACPA). The win will see songwriters get a 138% increase in rates to 0.5% of every event’s revenue. BMI described the ruling handed down by New York District Court Judge Louis Stanton as a decision that ends “decades of below-market rates for songwriters, composers and publishers in the live concert industry.”