The Pitch newsletter is a monthly update of legal issues and news affecting or related to the music, film and television, fine arts, media, professional athletics, eSports, and gaming industries. The Pitch features a diverse...more
The Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”) was created to make paying songwriters and publishers easier. Just as performance rights organizations issue blanket licenses to music users (radio stations, television, venues,...more
The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act (“MMA”), signed into law on October 11, 2018, has transformed the music streaming industry in the years since its implementation. The...more
Online platform operators have a rare cause to be cautiously optimistic at news from the European court. In a recently-published European Court of Justice (ECJ) opinion, Advocate General Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe stated that,...more
Companies may face a challenging regulatory environment following the EU-wide implementation of the Copyright Directive by 7 June 2021. On 21 January 2020, the UK government confirmed that the UK will not be required to...more
The CJEU in its Tom Kabinet judgment has ruled that the supply of e-books qualifies as “an act of communication to the public” under the InfoSoc Directive instead of “a distribution to the public” as is the case with physical...more
For the last twenty years, the music industry has been in a pitched battle to combat unauthorized downloading of music. Initially, the industry focused on filing lawsuits to shut down services that offered peer-to-peer or...more
U.S. Copyright Office Approves Mechanical Licensing Collective - There is a new federally appointed team in charge of licensing music to digital services which will result in payments to songwriters. The U.S. Copyright...more
Today the Council of the European Union adopted the EU Copyright Directive (the “Directive”), ending a negotiation process which first started with the Commission’s proposal for a new Directive in early 2016. ...more
On 26 March 2019 the EU Parliament voted to pass the draft Copyright Directive (“Directive”) into EU law. After adoption by the EU Council (representatives of Member State governments) and official publication, the EP’s...more
On 13 February 2019 the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council finally agreed the text of the long-awaited draft Copyright Directive (COM(2016)593) (“Directive“). ...more
A purchaser of an article of commerce expects to be able to freely sell it regardless of any intellectual property rights that it may embody. The resale of digital files, however, runs into a special barrier that ReDigi...more
The recently enacted Music Modernization Act (MMA) dramatically modernizes licensing in the digital age and attempts to fill gaps in the copyright landscape. The Act encompasses not only the MMA itself but, as well, the...more
Over the years, tastes have shifted from bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to more electronically-produced sounds. But no matter your opinion of Justin Bieber’s or Lady Gaga’s artistic chops, there’s no doubt music –...more
A federal appeals court finds that online music service ReDigi infringed Capitol Records' copyrights by allowing users to resell legally purchased iTunes files. Digital music files may not be lawfully resold, according to...more
In a case involving the infringing download and distribution of plaintiff’s film through peer-to-peer BitTorrent networks, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s...more
Only two weeks ago, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) referred various questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the liability of the video platform YouTube....more
Ever since the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in its highly regarded UsedSoft ruling declared the resale of “used” software admissible (dated 3 July 2012, C-128/11)...more
The results of the 2017 edition of China’s annual online piracy crackdown campaign, called the “Sword Net Action”, were recently published. As we announced earlier, the 2017 crackdown campaign promised to take a heavy hand...more
In a dispute that touches on the intersection of copyright, contract law and cloud technology, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of copyright claims against Barnes & Noble (“B&N”) related to ebook samples stored on a...more
During recent years, the Internet has become the basic foundational infrastructure for the global movement of data of all kinds. With continued growth at a phenomenal rate, the Internet has moved from a quiet means of...more
Blockchain technology offers new possibilities for owners to sell digital copies of “pre-owned” content on secondary markets, as we’ve discussed in prior posts. But virtual flea markets – where an owner of a collection of...more
Online content providers continue to struggle with the challenge of copyright infringement by BitTorrent users. One of the most aggressive tacks is the one taken by Malibu Media, which, after instituting over 4,500 lawsuits...more
So You Want Music in Your Video: 5 Things to Remember so You Don't Get Sued - Last month we received a call from a woman who made an unassuming video of her daughter's wedding and added her favorite song as the musical...more
Much has been made of the question of liability for the operation or furnishing of digital platforms in the copyright context. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the provider of the Betamax recorder did not itself...more