As marketplaces moved to stop (or potentially stop) enforcing creator royalties on NFT sales late last year, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club made their position clear: they didn’t love it. With yesterday’s Sewer Pass NFT launch, Yuga Labs has taken direct action and blocked secondary trading on certain marketplaces. The Sewer Pass rolled out on Wednesday for owners of Bored Ape or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and serves as an access pass to the upcoming Dookey Dash web game.
Rights
Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger Join TikTok
In joining TikTok, the Rolling Stones have agreed to provide access to their full music catalog on the platform. Note that the Rolling Stones do not control their pre-1971 catalog; those rights are held by Abkco Music & Records. For the first time, TikTok users will be able to use the band’s tracks in their videos (available on the TikTok Sounds Page), including hits like “Start Me Up,” “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It),” “Miss You,” “Angie” and “Beast of Burden.”
Gamemaker Shakes Up NFT Royalties With New Smart Contracts
Gabriel Leydon, the CEO of the gaming company Limit Break, added the latest piece of the royalty saga with a post outlining how the fees could regain dominance after marketplaces like Magic Eden, and SudoAMM have made inroads by nixing them. The key in Limit Break’s proposed system is that if an NFT’s owner decides to stake their token in a new contract, the NFT’s creator can then imbue the token with essentially any feature.
Source: Gamemaker Shakes Up NFT Royalties With New Smart Contracts – The Defiant
AI image creator faces UK and US legal challenges
Getty Images, one of the worlds biggest picture agencies, is taking action against the makers of artificial-intelligence image-creation tool Stability AI. The agency, which sells the rights to use photographers’ and illustrators’ images, said Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion system had infringed these. “Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright… to the detriment of the content creators” and “chose to ignore viable licensing options and long‑standing legal protections”, Getty alleges.
The Ins and Outs of AI Art and Copyright
EXTRA A trio of artists last week filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the developers of Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and DeviantArt, charging them with copyright infringement for scraping millions of images from the internet and using them without permission to train their artificial intelligence-based image-generating software. The complaint, which asks the court to certify it as a class action, also charges the defendants with unfair competition and violating the plaintiffs’ right of publicity under California law for advertising their AI’s ability to create works “in the style of” named artists.
Epidemic Sound, Meta Trial Scheduled For September of 2024
Epidemic Sound sued Meta for copyright infringement in July 2022, and the two are now scheduled to head to trial in September 2024. This purported infringement, the plaintiff company claims, centers on Meta’s allegedly “offering Epidemic’s works through its ‘music library’ for any of its users to use…without license or other authorization.”
Source: Epidemic Sound, Meta Trial Scheduled For September of 2024
TeamLab Wins an Early Victory in Its Copyright Suit Against an L.A. Museum
The Japanese art collective teamLab, which draws crowds around the world for its immersive environments, is declaring a partial victory in an ongoing copyright dispute with a Los Angles museum that may have infringed on its work. Though the complex case is far from over, and is still set to proceed to a jury trial, the latest ruling is likely to set key precedents for the increasingly popular realm of immersive installations.
International Literary Properties Adds Nonfiction Estates
Working with film, television, and stage producers, the company uses as a motto, “We invest in rights to the written word,” and most recently has demonstrated this with Monday’s news (January 9) that it has just added three new estates to its nonfiction portfolio—the writings of Roger Tory Peterson, John Brooks, and HW Janson.
Source: Rights Edition: International Literary Properties Adds Nonfiction Estates
PRS sues platform behind record-breaking Dua Lipa livestream for lack of licenses
In a lawsuit filed in December, PRS for Music alleges LIVENow concerts lacked the correct licensing, including the Dua Lipa “Studio 2054” online event, which took place in November 2020. The event sold 285,000 tickets and attracted 5 million viewers. Gavin Larkins, Director of Commercial Development, PRS for Music, said in a statement that, “no PRS member has been paid for the use of their songs in this event, or the other concerts held by LIVENow”.
Source: PRS for Music sues platform behind record-breaking Dua Lipa livestream for alleged lack of licenses
Warner Bros. Discovery Exploring Sale of Music Assets
Warner Bros. Discovery is exploring a sale for its music assets that could be worth upwards of $1 billion in a deal being shopped by Allen Grubman. Universal Music Group (UMG) already administers the publishing assets, which are likely the largest part of the deal, and Warner Music Group (WMG) distributes WaterTower Music, Warner Bros. Discovery’s in-house record label.
Source: Warner Bros. Discovery Exploring Sale of Music Assets