The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has shared its views on NFTs and related technology. Responding to a consultation launched by the Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office, the MPA sees plenty of commercial opportunities for NFTs but doesn’t believe the technology will help to fight piracy or manage copyrights.
Source: NFTs Excite Hollywood But Not Because They Can Solve Piracy * TorrentFreak
An artist who made and sold digital images of Birkin handbags covered in fur violated trademark rights, a Manhattan court has concluded. The fashion giant Hermes, which owns the luxury brand, sued Mason Rothschild after he created non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, based on the famous bags. Hermes said consumers would believe the products were officially associated with the brand. The landmark case sets a precedent for other trials around NFTs.
Source: NFT images of furry Birkin bags violated trademark rules
This report investigates two proposals that have been made to protect the contractual interests of UK music creators by making changes to domestic copyright law. One is to introduce a reversion right, which would provide a means by which the transfer of copyright returns to the music creator at an agreed time-period. The other is to introduce a contract adjustment right, which would enable music creators to address disproportionate revenues resulting from contractual terms.
The black box got a bit smaller this week, thanks to a cross-Atlantic partnership aimed at identifying and matching more music royalties to creators. Sound Credit and PPL have joined forces to bring international royalties to Sound Credit users based in North America. Both companies have been on a mission to provide comprehensive solutions for royalties via accuracy of metadata — and the infrastructure to support it all.
Source: Sound Credit, PPL Partnership Enables Neighboring Rights Collection
Getty Images is asking the court to make the London, UK-based Stability AI remove the violating images and pay up to $150,000 “for each infringed image,” alongside other damages for violating copyright law. Of course, if Stability AI were found to have violated copyright on the 12 million images and was fined the max amount, the damages would be obscene. Getty did include a list of more than 7,000 images plus metadata and copyright registration the company said was used to train Stable Diffusion.
Source: Getty Images Claims Stable Diffusion’s Creator ‘Copied’ 12 Million Copyrighted Images
One of the critical advantages of blockchain technology is that it is decentralized and distributed, meaning that no single entity controls the network. This can also make it difficult for authorities to monitor and control the content stored on the blockchain. For instance, if someone were to keep copyrighted material on a blockchain, it would be essentially impossible for copyright holders to remove it as it would be stored across thousands of nodes.
Source: Using Blockchain to Store Illicit or Copyrighted Content
AI art raises several paradoxical themes in copyright law. First, what constitutes a “work” and what constitutes an “author?” Traditionally, a “work” is defined by meeting a minimum level of originality and having been created by a human being. However, there is a separate doctrine in copyright law allowing a human being to be treated as a “mere amanuensis”—a tool by which the “author” achieves their artistic vision.
Source: StarrAI Night: AI Art and the Necessary Changes in the Copyright Law
Source: UK Music welcomes breakthrough in campaign to prevent music data mining
The music industry can count the MLC as another major contributor to the multi-billion-dollar ‘black box’ of unpaid royalties. Earlier this week, an anonymous source reached out with word of a massive tranche of owed-but-unpaid mechanical royalty compensation, as well as adjacent concerns about the operations of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. The organization said in October of 2022 that it had distributed $700 million to members.
Source: MLC ‘Unmatched Royalties’ Hit $561MM in 2021, Document Shows
A number of TikTok users in Australia no longer have the choice to use some major label-licensed music in their videos. In other words: TikTok has removed major record company music from its service for a subset of users in Oz. Why? Our sources suggest TikTok is aiming to use the results of the experiment in their next round of record company licensing negotiations.