London’s Musicians’ Union has announced the completion of a “significant round” of collective bargaining negotiations with the BBC, Sky, and others, which it says will deliver “meaningful pay increases” to its approximately 32,000 members in the approaching years. According to the Musicians’ Union, the three-year BBC tie-up will deliver a 7.5 percent rate boost in 2023 and additional 2.3 percent raises in 2024 and 2025.
Source: Musicians’ Union Unveils ‘Milestone’ Pacts With the BBC, Others
The process of collecting public performance royalties from DJ sets has long been a tricky one in the United States. That makes it difficult for artists with the rights to the music to get paid what they’re due. But one music market with a firm grasp on the performance royalties collection and distribution process as it relates to the dance world is The Netherlands, where electronic music is deeply woven into the country’s social fabric.
Source: Songs in DJ Sets Are Notoriously Hard to Track — How a Dutch Rights Organization Is Paying Royalties
It was just over a year ago that a federal judge in Maryland struck down the state’s groundbreaking library e-book law. But with the 2023 legislative year underway, library advocates are back with new model legislation they say can help ensure “fair and equitable licensing terms in e-book contracts for libraries” while avoiding the thorny copyright issue that doomed Maryland’s law.
Source: With New Model Language, Library E-book Bills Are Back
The US Copyright Office has reconsidered the copyright protection it granted last fall to Kristina Kashtanova for her comic book Zarya of the Dawn. It featured pictures created by feeding text prompts to Midjourney, an artificial intelligence image generator. The Copyright Office says it only became aware the images were produced by Midjourney after the registration was granted, based on social media posts by Kashtanova.
Source: The US Copyright Office says you can’t copyright Midjourney AI-generated images
Alphabet Inc’s Google is rolling out tests that block access to news content for some Canadian users, the company confirmed on Wednesday, in what it says is a test run of a potential response to the government’s online news bill. The “Online News Act,” or House of Commons bill C-18, introduced in April by Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, laid out rules to force platforms like Meta’s Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content.
Source: Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, the low-budget horror film that opened in America on Friday, has grossed more than $2.5 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo. Admittedly, $2.5 million would be a disastrous figure for most films, but the haul makes Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey a financial hit. This is because the movie reportedly cost less than $100,000 to make, which means it’s already grossed 25 times its production budget.
Source: After Winnie the Pooh, many other iconic characters will soon enter public domain
ICE, the music tech company providing royalties for songwriters, has announced a deal with gaming metaverse start-up STYNGR. This deal brings the ICE Core repertoire to STYNGR’s new service in gaming and gaming metaverses, where players can choose in-game music channels and clips to personalize their experience. The multi-year deal covers a range of territories and supports accurate, usage-based writer payments.
Source: ICE Strikes Deal with Gaming & Metaverse Start-Up STYNGR
Months after a final round of reply briefs was filed, a federal judge is now ready to hear oral arguments for summary judgment in a closely watched copyright case filed by four major publishers against the Internet Archive over its program to scan and lend library books. In a brief order filed late last week, Judge John G. Koeltl set March 20 at 1 p.m. to hear arguments, which will be heard over the phone rather than in a Manhattan courtroom.
Source: Oral Argument Set in Internet Archive Copyright Case
Subscription OTT services’ global spend on sports rights in 17 major markets around the world will reach $8.5 billion in 2023 — up 64% versus 2022, projects Ampere Analysis. The research also predicts that the platforms’ share of total global spending on sports rights will leap to 21%, from 13% in 2022. Up to now, subscription OTT services’ spend on sports rights has lagged their investment in original TV and film content.
Source: Digital News Daily: Streamers Projected To Spend $8.5B Globally On Sports Rights In 2023
Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s horror film might ruin your childhood, but it’s a win for creative freedom. Before Winnie-the-Pooh was anything else, he was the intellectual property of the English writer A. A. Milne, who invented the character after seeing a bear from Ontario in a London zoo. But fourteen months ago, Milne’s version of Pooh entered the US public domain. Suddenly, pretty much everything in Milne’s first Pooh collection—the characters, the stories, the line drawings by E. H. Shepard—was up for grabs.
Source: Blood and Honey: In Defence of the Winnie-the-Pooh Slasher Flick | The Walrus