Showing posts with label licensing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label licensing. Show all posts

Thursday, February 1, 2024

‘Please let me get what I want’: can artists stop politicians from using their songs?; The Guardian, January 30, 2024

 , The Guardian; ‘Please let me get what I want’: can artists stop politicians from using their songs?

"How much power do artists actually have in this scenario? It depends on the circumstances, says Ben Depoorter, a professor at University of California Law San Francisco. In the US, licensing companies including Ascap and BMI manage copyright issues on behalf of artists. Generally, venues like convention centers have their own licenses with these companies, meaning that, broadly speaking, the venues can play whatever they want.

However, the rules are a little different when a third party is involved. When a candidate “walks on and they play music, that is actually not covered by the standard license of the venue”, Depoorter says. Political campaigns often don’t realize that they need their own music licenses, under which musicians can opt out of having their music played. “When these authors are saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want him to play my music any more,’ it’s actually a legal right they have,” Depoorter explains."

Monday, January 29, 2024

Creatives Battling AI Companies Over Copyright Turn to Congress; Bloomberg Law, January 29, 2024

Isaiah Poritz, Legal Reporter; Diego Areas Munhoz 

"In 1908, the Supreme Court ruled that “piano rolls,” a new and increasingly popular technology that automatically played songs without a human musician, didn’t violate copyright law—a blow to the music industry. Songwriters and composers felt their livelihoods threatened but had no grounds to demand royalties from piano-roll makers that copied their sheet music.

That was until Congress stepped in the following year, amending the law to address piano rolls and ensure musicians were paid royalties.

More than a century later, musicians—along with other creatives—are yet again fearful an emerging technology could disrupt their industries: artificial intelligence."

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Boom in A.I. Prompts a Test of Copyright Law; The New York Times, December 30, 2023

J. Edward Moreno , The New York Times; Boom in A.I. Prompts a Test of Copyright Law

"The boom in artificial intelligence tools that draw on troves of content from across the internet has begun to test the bounds of copyright law...

Data is crucial to developing generative A.I. technologies — which can generate text, images and other media on their own — and to the business models of companies doing that work.

“Copyright will be one of the key points that shapes the generative A.I. industry,” said Fred Havemeyer, an analyst at the financial research firm Macquarie.

A central consideration is the “fair use” doctrine in intellectual property law, which allows creators to build upon copyrighted work...

“Ultimately, whether or not this lawsuit ends up shaping copyright law will be determined by whether the suit is really about the future of fair use and copyright, or whether it’s a salvo in a negotiation,” Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia Law School, said of the lawsuit by The Times...

Competition in the A.I. field may boil down to data haves and have-nots...

“Generative A.I. begins and ends with data,” Mr. Havemeyer said."

Monday, December 4, 2023

Jackson Slide and Ride sued over copyright infringement violations for the second time; Jackson Sun, December 4, 2023

Sarah Best, Jackson Sun; Jackson Slide and Ride sued over copyright infringement violations for the second time

"How licensing works

With an ASCAP license, owners then possess the legal right to use any and all of the more than 18 million works protected by ASCAP, according to Wagener.

The necessity of an ASCAP license extends to nightclubs, bars, restaurants and any venue where music will be played. However, failure to obtain a license results in legal fines whose financial detriments can cost triple or more than the yearly fee for an ASCAP license.

In a press release on Oct. 18, it was disclosed that for average restaurants and bars, licensing fees amount to an average of less than $2 per day. Licensing fees occur yearly and are determined based on an establishment's following characteristics:

  • Size/capacity (the larger the venue, the more valuable the performance is and the higher the licensing fee)
  • Type of music being performed (differentiated by live music, background music, karaoke, etc)
  • Occurrence of live music (distinguished by its playing three nights or less and four nights or more)"

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Blue Moose in Topeka is among a dozen bars and restaurants being sued. Here's why.; The Topeka Capital-Journal, November 7, 2023

Keishera Lately , The Topeka Capital-Journal; Blue Moose in Topeka is among a dozen bars and restaurants being sued. Here's why.

"What other restaurants and bars are being filed against?

Among The Blue Moose Bar & Grill, 11 other restaurants and bars nationwide have been filed against by the ASCAP for copyright infringement.

Those restaurants and bars include Commonwealth (Las Vegas), Dublin Square (East Lansing, Michigan), Fable Lounge (Nashville, Tennessee), Hennessy Tavern (Laguna Beach, California), Liquid Joe's (Salt Lake City, Utah), Lonerider Brewery (Raleigh, North Carolina), Olympix Sports Bar (Houston, Texas), Slide & Ride 2 (Jackson, Tennesse), The Stetson Bar (San Antonio, Texas), The Tonidale Pub (Oakdale, Pennsylvania), and Xpose (Beaverton, Oregon)."

Thursday, October 19, 2023

AI is learning from stolen intellectual property. It needs to stop.; The Washington Post, October 19, 2023

William D. Cohan , The Washington Post; AI is learning from stolen intellectual property. It needs to stop.

"The other day someone sent me the searchable database published by Atlantic magazine of more than 191,000 e-books that have been used to train the generative AI systems being developed by Meta, Bloomberg and others. It turns out that four of my seven books are in the data set, called Books3. Whoa.

Not only did I not give permission for my books to be used to generate AI products, but I also wasn’t even consulted about it. I had no idea this was happening. Neither did my publishers, Penguin Random House (for three of the books) and Macmillan (for the other one). Neither my publishers nor I were compensated for use of my intellectual property. Books3 just scraped the content away for free, with Meta et al. profiting merrily along the way. And Books3 is just one of many pirated collections being used for this purpose...

This is wholly unacceptable behavior. Our books are copyrighted material, not free fodder for wealthy companies to use as they see fit, without permission or compensation. Many, many hours of serious research, creative angst and plain old hard work go into writing and publishing a book, and few writers are compensated like professional athletes, Hollywood actors or Wall Street investment bankers. Stealing our intellectual property hurts."

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Publishers settle copyright infringement lawsuit with ResearchGate; Chemistry World, September 18, 2023

, Chemistry World ; Publishers settle copyright infringement lawsuit with ResearchGate

"Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, a librarian and professor of information science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says the settlement agreement ‘signals that ResearchGate has completed its journey from disrupter to partner within the scholarly communications ecosystem’. She notes that Elsevier and ACS have been using ResearchGate’s content blocking technology since at least early 2022, which indicates that ‘a more collaborative relationship’ has been in development for some time."

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright; The Verge, August 22, 2023

 Nilay Patel,, The Verge; Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright

"There’s only one name that springs to mind when you think of the cutting edge in copyright law online: Frank Sinatra. 

There’s nothing more important than making sure his estate — and his label, Universal Music Group — gets paid when people do AI versions of Ol’ Blue Eyes singing “Get Low” on YouTube, right? Even if that means creating an entirely new class of extralegal contractual royalties for big music labels just to protect the online dominance of your video platform while simultaneously insisting that training AI search results on books and news websites without paying anyone is permissible fair use? Right? Right?

This, broadly, is the position that Google is taking after announcing a deal with Universal Music Group yesterday “to develop an AI framework to help us work toward our common goals.” Google is signaling that it will pay off the music industry with special deals that create brand-new — and potentially devastating! — private intellectual property rights, while basically telling the rest of the web that the price of being indexed in Search is complete capitulation to allowing Google to scrape data for AI training."

Thursday, August 17, 2023

New York Times considers legal action against OpenAI as copyright tensions swirl; NPR, August 16, 2023

 , NPR; New York Times considers legal action against OpenAI as copyright tensions swirl

"The New York Times and OpenAI could end up in court. 

Lawyers for the newspaper are exploring whether to sue OpenAI to protect the intellectual property rights associated with its reporting, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. 

For weeks, The Times and the maker of ChatGPT have been locked in tense negotiations over reaching a licensing deal in which OpenAI would pay The Times for incorporating its stories in the tech company's AI tools, but the discussions have become so contentious that the paper is now considering legal action."

Friday, August 4, 2023

Inside The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy; Library Journal, August 3, 2023

 Claire Woodcock  , Library Journal; Inside The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy

"Most libraries don’t own their own ebooks. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to LJ readers, yet it’s a statement that continues to confound elected officials and administrators who get an astounding amount of say in how much money public and academic libraries are allotted.

This is one of the reasons I, along with my coauthors Sarah Lamdan, Michael Weinberg, and Jason Schultz at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at New York University (NYU) Law, published our recent report, The Anti-Ownership Ebook Economy: How Publishers and Platforms Have Reshaped the Way We Read in the Digital Age. In nearly 60 pages, this report takes a hard look at how license agreements dictate what consumers—both individual and institutional—get to do with their digital book collections."

Friday, July 7, 2023

Copyright Infringement Suit Involving Nirvana and Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Illustration Heads to the UK; ArtNews, July 5, 2023

DANIEL CASSADY , ArtNews; Copyright Infringement Suit Involving Nirvana and Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Illustration Heads to the UK

"According to Bundy, not only are Nirvana and Live Nation using her grandfather’s work without permission but they are also claiming ownership of the work and adding copyright notices to the image.

Nirvana and Live Nation’s legal representative told Courthouse News that in the United States the image has been in the public domain since at least 1949. “Resolving the claims will require determinations of complex English and German copyright law issues based on decades-old documents and witnesses in England,” the attorneys added."

Thursday, July 6, 2023

'Peaky Blinders' creators blast DeSantis for copyright violation in controversial ad; UPI, 7/5/23

 Adam Schrader, UPI; 'Peaky Blinders' creators blast DeSantis for copyright violation in controversial ad

"The production team for the hit series Peaky Blinders has ripped Ron DeSantis for copyright violation after the Florida governor used a clip of Cillian Murphy's character in the show without license or permission...

The video, which lasts just over a minute, criticizes Trump for seemingly supporting multiple gay-rights topics, as well as selling "LGBTQ for Trump" shirts, saying he would allow Caitlyn Jenner to use the bathroom at Trump Tower and for celebrating Pride Month in a 2019 tweet. Midway through, the video switches to a meme-filled, music-driven celebration of all the steps DeSantis has made to strip people of their rights in Florida.

The bizarre clip includes several extremely quick shots of Murphy as Thomas Shelby, the fictional boss of a brutal crime family in Britain in the 1920s, smoking a cigarette as if comparing DeSantis' leadership style with that of a criminal."

Thursday, June 29, 2023

AI Can Actually Help Protect Creativity and Copyrights: Guest Post by Reservoir Music CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi; Variety, June 28, 2023

Golnar Khosrowshahi, Variety ; AI Can Actually Help Protect Creativity and Copyrights: Guest Post by Reservoir Music CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi

"Used correctly, AI can actually help us preserve and protect copyright — versus the present fear of usurping it. Through audio fingerprinting, AI tools that verify authorship in real time will help reduce the unnecessary litigation that can be based on subjective interpretations or human error. AI will also equip both owners and distributors of content (i.e. streaming services) with significant changes in how we classify and catalog music (e.g., the micro categories that we can use to further define characteristics and attributes of songs). Not only can we then better understand the music, but we can also be more efficient at micro licensing, delving into why listeners love what they love, both in the moment in the context of a trend, and over time when it comes to standards and classics...

In any event, we first need to make sure that the ingestion of copyrights that enable AI is adequately policed and paid for, which is where a lot of important discussion and focus is today.  Advocating for rights holders and copyright protection is a routine part of our business, and regardless of whether an infringer is human or artificial doesn’t change our steadfast mission in upholding creators’ rights...

I have faith that the creators who have built this industry will continue to be the human driving force behind the art and connections we experience. I have faith the tools will help propel those creators and rights holders to new heights. I have faith in the protection of copyright through policy and legislation, and I have faith in the industry’s historic precedence of uncharted progress and success achieved in the face of technologic disruption.

So to those who fear the AI invasion, I say: keep calm, meet it head on and create something totally new, as only we humans can."

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Taco John’s responds to Taco Bell’s Taco Tuesday lawsuit; CNN, June 26, 2023

 , CNN; Taco John’s responds to Taco Bell’s Taco Tuesday lawsuit

"Last month, Taco Bell filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark office to cancel the trademark owned by rival Taco John’s for 34 years because Taco Bell claims the commonly used phrase “should be freely available to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos.” Since Taco John’s holds the trademark, other restaurants and companies must seek permission to use “Taco Tuesday” in branding and advertising.

The use of the phrase “potentially subjects Taco Bell and anyone else who wants to share tacos with the world to the possibility of legal action or angry letters if they say ‘Taco Tuesday’ without express permission from [Taco John’s] — simply for pursuing happiness on a Tuesday,” the original filing said.

In response, Taco John’s said it “has the right to enforce its trademark rights against infringers and those who want to infringe, including Taco Bell,” adding that it “denies that enforcing its trademark rights against infringers who seek to profit from the goodwill that Spicy Seasonings and its licensees … have created over the last forty-four years violates any American ideal.”"

ChatGPT and Generative AI Are Hits! Can Copyright Law Stop Them?; Bloomberg Law, June 26, 2023

Kirby Ferguson, Bloomberg Law; ChatGPT and Generative AI Are Hits! Can Copyright Law Stop Them?

"Getty Images, a top supplier of visual content for license, has sued two of the leading companies offering generative AI tools. Will intellectual property laws spell doom for the burgeoning generative AI business? We explore the brewing battle over copyright and AI in this video. 

Video features: 

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Matt Damon, Ben Affleck's production firm slams Donald Trump for misusing video; UPI, June 10, 2023

Adam Schrader , UPI; Matt Damon, Ben Affleck's production firm slams Donald Trump for misusing video

"Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's production company has slammed Donald Trump for violating its copyright after the former president shared a video that misused a monologue from their latest film, "Air."

Trump had shared a campaign video that used more than two minutes of Damon speaking as Sonny Vaccaro, the sports marketing executive behind Nike's Air Jordan shoe line."

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Tolkien Estate Suing Author for LOTR Rip-Off; Kirkus, June 5, 2023

MICHAEL SCHAUB, Kirkus; Tolkien Estate Suing Author for LOTR Rip-Off

"J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate is suing an author who it claims ripped off the author’s Lord of the Ringsbooks, Bloomberg Law reports.

The Tolkien Trust filed suit against an author named Demetrious Polychron, who wrote a sequel to the author’s famous series called The Fellowship of the King. The title references The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King, respectively the first and third installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy."

Why Wally’s Pub could pay up to $30K for playing Bad Company’s 'Feel Like Makin’ Love'; Portsmouth Herald via Seacoastonline, June 7, 2023

 Patrick CroninPortsmouth Herald via Seacoastonline; Why Wally’s Pub could pay up to $30K for playing Bad Company’s 'Feel Like Makin’ Love'

"A popular Hampton Beach bar and music venue is being sued for alleged copyright infringement after a cover band performed Bad Company's hit song "Feel Like Makin' Love."

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Wally's Pub and its owner Al Fleury this week in federal court.  It alleges the venue at 144 Ashworth Ave. continues to have "unauthorized public performance of its members’ copyrighted musical works."

The lawsuit was one of 13 filed nationwide by the nonprofit that represents more than 920,000 songwriters and music publishers.  Other establishments sued included Widow Fletcher’s in New Port Richey, Florida, and Bleachers Sports Grill in Phoenix, Arizona. 

"Each of the establishments sued today has decided to use music without compensating songwriters," said Stephanie Ruyle, ASCAP executive vice president, and head of licensing. "By filing these actions, ASCAP is standing up for songwriters whose creative work brings great value to all businesses that publicly perform their music.”"

Friday, May 26, 2023

Supreme Court Rules That Andy Warhol Violated a Photographer’s Copyright; Smithsonian Magazine, May 24, 2023

Christopher Parker, Smithsonian Magazine; Supreme Court Rules That Andy Warhol Violated a Photographer’s Copyright

"Reactions to the Supreme Court ruling are mixed. Noah Feldman, a scholar of law at Harvard, writes in Bloomberg that the decision helps artists but harms creativity. 

“The upshot is that little-guy artists win, because they now have more rights than they had before to claim credit for works reused by others,” he writes. “But art as a whole loses, because the decision restricts how artists generate creativity by sampling and remixing existing works.”

Carroll tells the Times that the ruling leaves a lot of room for conflicting interpretations, and the legal battle has only just begun.

“Is it really just about competitive licensing use, or is it more broadly about creating derivative works?” he adds. “I think what you’ll see is lower courts reading it each way, and then eventually this issue is going to find its way back to the Supreme Court.”"

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Canvas is half-blank for artists after Warhol's Supreme Court copyright loss; The Denver Gazette, May 20, 2023

John Moore, The Denver Gazette ; Canvas is half-blank for artists after Warhol's Supreme Court copyright loss 

"That’s why, Sink believes, “I don’t think this is going to open any floodgates of artistic repression,” he said. “I feel like that this case falls into its own category because it was a work-for-hire situation.”

The Andy Warhol Foundation issued a statement saying it was important to note that the ruling “did not question the legality of Andy Warhol's creation of the Prince series."

The case is, to put it mildly, “a very complicated, double-edge sword for artists,” Sink said. But two things he’s sure of: 1. “It really is the Wild West out there now” when it comes to these quickly evolving issues. And 2. Warhol (who died in 1987) would be loooooving this."