Copyrights

You can’t say these people aren’t cagey. Remember that one of the big selling points for the Music Modernization Act was that in return for the under-reported reach back safe harbor, songwriters would get paid on “black box” income by each digital music service dating back to the inception of ... Read More

[One of the problems that The MLC will encounter is matching songs to transaction data from the “safe harbor services” using the blanket licenses and enjoying the reach back safe harbor giveaway in the Music Modernization Act. There are different ways to do this, but it appears that The MLC ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: RIAA Sued By YouTube-Ripping Site Over DMCA Anti-Circumvention Notices First off today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that the company Yout LLC has filed a lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America (RiAA) over allegations the ... Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic and the events that have taken place over the past year have impacted society at every level. While the effects of the pandemic on society, the economy, political structure and so forth will be studied for decades to come, it has also had a slew of ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Disney Accused Of Ripping Off ‘Muppet Babies’ Reboot; ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Scribe Sues First off today, Dominic Patten at Deadline reports that TV writer Jeffrey Scott has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Disney claiming that ... Read More

The first part of this blogpost analysed the main theoretical foundations of the AG’s Opinion in the VG Bild-Kunst case (C‑392/19). The second part focuses on the application of this theoretical background to frame links and inline (automatic) links. As will be shown, the AG has proposed a methodological model ... Read More

On the occasion of International Open Access Week, we’re delighted to bring to our readers an insightful post by Dr. Arul George Scaria, discussing whether the process of relinquishment of rights granted to authors under the Indian copyright law may cause copyright to be a hindrance for open access in ... Read More

The consequences of ignoring the CMOs is that any ex-US songwriter whose songs are exploited in the US and who relies on their CMO to collect their US earnings may find their streaming mechanicals reduced to zero after 1/1/21 if the HFA database that The MLC is using is not ... Read More

News Media Canada (NMC), the lobby group representing the major newspaper publishers in Canada, released a new report yesterday calling for the creation of a government digital media regulatory agency that would have the power to establish mandated payments for linking to news articles, establish what content is prioritized on ... Read More

The Digital Piracy Dilemma — Researchers Michael D. Smith and Brett Danaher discuss two recent papers on digital piracy. “Piracy, the papers suggest, can actually boost sales of some digital products by increasing word-of-mouth and overall market awareness. This has led some industry observers to argue that efforts by firms ... Read More

With the recent announcement that acclaimed satirist Tom Lehrer is placing all of his lyrics and much of his music in the public domain (or at least as close to it as practical), it seemed like a good time to take a look at one of his songs: Lobachevsky ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Post Malone Collaborator Allowed to Proceed with Circles Copyright Dispute First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that a California judge has allowed a lawsuit against Post Malone to move forward, despite Malone’s best ... Read More

On September 10, 2020 the Advocate General (AG) Maciej Szpunar delivered his Opinion on the case of VG Bild-Kunst v Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitzanother (C‑392/19), a further case concerning the legality of linking. The assessment of linking from an EU copyright law perspective appears to be a labyrinthine legal exercise, since, ... Read More

Without a doubt, Tom Lehrer is one of the most brilliant satirists in modern American history. His music and humor have remained both popular and relevant for nearly 70 years now as he has inspired literal generations of satirists and musicians with his work. With songs such as ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Twitch Streamers are Getting DMCA Takedown Notices (Again) First off today, Bijan Stephen at The Verge reports that Twitch has sent out a series of emails informing users that their videos have been the subject of DMCA ... Read More

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who says his top legislative priority is to “get money from web giants”, has discussed creating a new mandated licence for social media linking to news articles. Guilbeault calls the practice “immoral” and envisions using the Copyright Board of Canada to create a tariff for ... Read More

Future of Music Coalition calls for Copyright Office to protect songwriters from shenanigans with HFA and The MLC. Continue reading → ... Read More

The Songwriters Guild and the Society of Composers and Lyricists ask for clarificiation on the ownership of the Musical Works Database and including songwriter credits in the database. Continue reading → ... Read More

[Kerry Muzzey is an independent classical and film composer and artist rights advocate. In his comment to the Copyright Office on the MLC regulations he asks why songwriter names are not required to be included in the public database currently being stewarded by The MLC, Inc. Including songwriter names in ... Read More

The Alliance for Recorded Music asks the Copyright Office to confirm who owns the public database in the temporary stewardship of the MLC. Continue reading → ... Read More

One of street artist Banksy's most iconic images—a mural sprayed on a Jerusalem building of a protester preparing to hurl flowers—failed to win trademark approval from the European Union in September because the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) doubted the sincerity of his attempt to merchandise the image. Banksy ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Cloudflare Counters Mass Piracy Allegations in ‘Thothub’ Lawsuit First off today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that Cloudflare has responded to a lawsuit in the US that seeks to hold them responsible for their ... Read More

Template from here In the first part of the post, I assessed the joint statement proposed by South Africa and India for waiver of certain key provisions of TRIPS. Following the joint statement, 379 NGOs and members of civil societies wrote to WTO, in support ... Read More

Image from here On 2nd October, 2020, India and South Africa issued a joint statement before the WTO TRIPS Council, with a request to waive “the implementation, application and enforcement of Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in ... Read More

Miniatures have been growing in popularity over the past few years. These small figurines, used in a variety of both tabletop and role-playing games, have become both big business and a major creative outlet for their fans. Miniature painting has been a hobby and a craft for quite some ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Top Court to Examine Payment for Classroom Use of Copyrighted Works First off today, The Canadian Press reports that the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an ongoing case between York University and Access Copyright ... Read More

At the onset of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic in early March 2020, the legal community immediately became concerned about its economic prospects. Particularly in the intellectual property (IP) legal community, bad memories from the 2007-2009 mortgage crisis and Great Recession surfaced, and fears of losing clients, billable hours, and jobs ... Read More

Topical Highlight Delhi High Court Issues Anti Anti-Suit Injunction in InterDigital v. Xiaomi Patent Infringement Dispute In a guest post, Rajiv looks at the anti anti-suit injunction granted by the Delhi High Court (‘DHC’) against Xiaomi in the patent infringement dispute with InterDigital. He highlights that the court viewed the ... Read More

Photo Credit: Tdorante10 / CC BY-SA Back in June, I reported the University of Lincoln, a UK university located in Lincoln. There, the CEO of the school’s student union, James Brooks, was accused of plagiarizing a statement and apology on racial inequality from another school, Though Brooks apologized for the ... Read More

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday. 1: Freeplay Music Calls Ford’s “False Advertising” Claim in Copyright Dispute “Absurd” First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that Freeplay music has hit back at the Ford Motor company saying that claims of false ... Read More