The Copyright Office extended comments to Nov. 26 for a rulemaking on “noncommercial use of pre-1972 sound recordings that are not being commercially exploited” (see 1810160023). Replies are due Dec. 11, the office said Tuesday.
BMI and ASCAP consent decrees let companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix not pay songwriters what they deserve (see 1810010031), and it’s good DOJ is exploring these decrees, National Music Publishers Association CEO David Israelite said in a Technology Policy Institute podcast. Songwriters “should have a right to negotiate the price of what they create in a free market, and the consent decrees prevent them,” he said in a conversation TPI promoted this week that included RIAA President Mitch Glazier. Thursday, the Internet Association didn’t comment. The Music Modernization Act’s Mechanical Licensing Collective (see 1809180059) will revolutionize how the music industry treats data, Israelite said. The MLC establishes a royalty payment database governed by a board of 10 publishers and four songwriters with oversight from the Copyright Office. It’s unique that the industry won’t “treat the ownership information as proprietary or confidential but rather as public information that is designed to get proper payment,” Israelite said, noting sound recordings will be publicly accessible for three years when the proper owner can’t be found.
Three men are facing federal criminal charges for allegedly pirating Dish Network signals. DOJ on Friday said Arnaldo (“Naldo," “naldo.dish") Vazquez, 41, Awildo (“Wildo,” “joselo626” and “wildo20”) Jimenez, 36, and Higinio ("Ingi") Lamboy, 46, all of Puerto Rico, were indicted on conspiracy to circumvent protective systems, infringe copyrights and traffic in satellite decryption devices; trafficking in technology designed to circumvent technology copyright protection systems; and circumventing a technological measure that protects a copyrighted work. Justice contended Vazquez and Jimenez own and operate a company that provided the pirated services to subscribers, and Lamboy was salesman and repairman for the hardware they provided to their customers. It alleged the defendants sold their customers receivers programmed to bypass Dish anti-piracy measures and connect to a bootleg internet key sharing server to access the copyrighted content.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a pornography studio’s lawsuit attempting to hold a content website liable for user-uploaded copyright-infringing material. Without sending takedown notices, Ventura Content sued Motherless.com for hosting copyright infringing material. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of Motherless, saying a website operator can't lose its Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbor protections when reasonably monitoring for infringing content.
The librarian of Congress will adopt noncontroversial “exemptions to the statutory prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, says a Federal Register notice for Friday. Based on recommendations from the acting register of copyrights, the librarian of Congress will renew, expand and adopt various exemptions through a final rule, completing the seventh triennial rulemaking proceeding. Newly adopted classes include specific types of audiovisual works and computer programs. One renewed exemption that was unopposed facilitates assistive technology for digital books. Also being renewed are “unlocking” of cellphones, tablets, mobile hot spots or wearable devices or “jailbreaking” of similar devices.
Diminishing software copyright by overbroad applications of fair use or denial of protection would be a “step in the wrong direction,” Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid said Tuesday at an FTC hearing. The software industry would be forced to retrench to a closed model, no longer sharing code and instead relying on proprietary contracts to keep code protected, he said. He repeated his organization’s support for HR-3945, which would establish a voluntary small claims tribunal in the Copyright Office. Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Meredith Rose urged the FTC to collaborate with the Copyright Office on the overlap between copyright and competition, which increased with IoT technology. Hearings on copyright continue Wednesday (see 1810110056).
The Copyright Office is seeking comment by Jan. 15 on “how to improve the regulations and practices related to the registration of copyright claims in the digital age." The CO said Wednesday it plans to replace the electronic system “to improve user experience, increase Office efficiency, and decrease processing times.”
The U.S. trade representative shouldn't designate WeChat a notorious market (see 1810040053) because its policies combat copyright infringement, the owner of the mobile app commented, filed Tuesday. Tencent acknowledged “some bad actors may seek to use the WeChat instant messaging platform to promote infringing goods,” but its terms of service prohibit such activity. Thailand argued its online and offline markets shouldn't receive the designation, either, citing widespread enforcement. January-August, Thai authorities did 4,800 raids on physical markets and seized 10.5 million items, officials said. January-July, Thai authorities did 117 raids in online markets and seized 4,878 products. Like entertainment industry groups, the International Intellectual Property Alliance cited The Pirate Bay as a bad actor, plus Rapidgator.net and Uploaded.net.
An interim rule and notice of inquiry for sound recordings "fixed" before Feb. 15, 1972, was issued, the Copyright Office announced Tuesday. The interim rule was triggered by the signing of the Music Modernization Act (see 1810110038). It “establishes a mechanism for rights owners to file schedules listing their pre-1972 sound recordings with the Office, for individuals to request timely notification of when such filings are indexed into the Office’s public records, and for the submission of contact information by entities publicly performing pre-1972 sound recordings by means of digital audio transmission as of October 11, 2018.” Comments on the noncommercial use exception are due Nov. 15.
The Copyright Office adopted a final rule to “streamline the administration of digital audio recording technology (DART) royalty accounts and electronic royalty payment processes,” the office said Monday. Effective Nov. 14, it “gives the Register discretion to close out royalty payments accounts for a calendar year four years after the close of that year.”