The European Commission's proposal to implement cross-border levies on VOD services could lead to fragmentation of the digital single market, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said in a report. The VOD cross-border levies provision is part of the EC's larger proposal to revamp European audiovisual rules. CCIA raised concerns earlier this year about the prospect that the EC would propose VOD levies (see 1605240018). The Commission has framed the VOD rules as necessary to create a “level playing field,” but instead tilts the field against VOD services and would have other unintended consequences, CCIA said. “This proposal abandons key principles which have underpinned the success of the Digital Single Market,” said Perspective Associates Managing Director Tim Suter, one of the report's co-authors, in a news release. “A deeply flawed process has led to a deeply flawed conclusion.” The EC “is applying cross-border levies only to VOD services, while leaving broadcasters with the advantages of free spectrum, prominence, must-carry and so on,” said Communications Chambers co-founder Rob Kenny. “This isn’t level -- it’s the North Face of the Eiger.”

Libraries are an important resource for small businesses to consult on IP issues, the American Library Association said Thursday in a policy paper aimed at influencing President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. IP “considerations are integral to many business ventures, and even more so in the digital economy,” ALA said. Most college and university libraries have at least one copyright specialist on staff “providing expertise and resources,” the library group said. Libraries also serve as Patent and Trademark Resource Centers under the Patent and Trademark Office’s auspices, ALA said. Patent specialists at libraries “help entrepreneurs determine whether someone else has registered a trademark or obtained a patent,” ALA said. Libraries also provide public programming on patent issues, the group said.

The Copyright Office sought further comment Tuesday on its study of Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512 notice-and-takedown process and the section’s safe harbors. The review in part examines the effectiveness of the current notice-and-takedown process, the counter-notification process and the legal standards that apply under the section (see 1512300039). The CO received more than 91,000 responses to its initial request for comment, though the vast majority were generated as part of a Fight for the Future campaign (see 1604010057 and 1604040051). Stakeholders said following two May roundtables on the study that they expected the CO to favor nonlegislative fixes to Section 512 -- particularly voluntary measures -- in a final report (see 1605040064 and 1605130047). The initial round of comments and the May roundtables have shown “a number of themes merit additional consideration,” the CO said in a notice in the Federal Register. “Many of these relate to questions of balance,” it said, including “how to weigh the diverse interests and needs of affected stakeholders.” The office also said it's interested in feedback on “how to continue to propel” the DMCA's twin public interest goals of “fostering a robust and innovative online environment while protecting the rights of content creators.” The CO sought comment on how Section 512 should be updated to account for diversity in the internet ecosystem and how policymakers should factor diverging views of the efficacy of 512's safe harbors. The office also sought comment on how to update the safe harbors system to address issues with its current efficacy and how to clarify Section 512 to address changes in copyright case law. Comments are due Feb. 6. Studies "providing quantitative or qualitative data relevant to" Section 512 are due by March 8.

The Copyright Office said it finished developing an online system for designating and searching for agents to received copyright infringement claim notifications under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This “modernizes the designation process and ensures a more usable and accurate public directory,” the CO said in a Monday news release. “The system has also been designed to encourage service providers to keep their information up to date.” The office sought comment in May on a rulemaking that would reduce the agent designation fees from $105 per designation to $6 ahead of the designation system's deployment (see 1605250055). Stakeholders raised concerns about the NPRM's requirement that they renew designations every three years (see 1606240028 and 1606270079). The CO said it will publish a final rule in Tuesday's Federal Register for the designation system, which is to officially deploy Dec. 1. Stakeholders “can begin to acquaint themselves with the new system” via video tutorials, the office said. Online service providers that have previously designated agents with the CO will have until the end of 2017 to submit a new designation electronically via the online system, the office said.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against cyberlocker pioneer MP3tunes Tuesday on appeals from Sony, Universal Music Group and former MP3tunes owner Michael Robertson of a 2014 U.S. District Court jury verdict in New York saying Robertson and his firm were liable for secondary, contributory and vicarious infringement. The jury originally awarded Sony and UMG, owners of elements of original plaintiff EMI, $48 million in damages. Judge William Pauley slashed the damages award to $12 million in 2015 because he said Robertson was mostly immune from infringement liability because of the safe harbors included in Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512. The 2nd Circuit vacated the portion of Pauley's verdict that said Robertson had partial immunity under Section 512. Pauley “applied too narrow a definition of 'repeat infringer'” under the statute, Judge Raymond Lohier wrote, joined by José Cabranes and Chester Straub. The 2nd Circuit reversed the district court's ruling dismissing claims that MP3tunes and Robertson were liable for permitting pre-2007 infringement of EMI's catalog and Beatles songs “because there was sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable jury to conclude that MP3tunes had red-flag knowledge of, or was willfully blind to, infringing activity” related to the songs. The 2nd Circuit remanded the case to Pauley's court for a new decision on damages. Robertson’s own appeal of the case was struck down, with the 2nd Circuit saying the “evidence showed that Robertson acted in a manner intended to promote infringement.” Sony and UMG didn’t comment. Robertson’s lawyer declined comment.

The Library of Congress plans to launch an electronic filing system next year for all Copyright Royalty Board proceedings, the CRB said Monday. The LOC plans to complete work on the e-filing system by spring, with the system then set to “go live later in the year,” the CRB emailed stakeholders. The CRB is aiming to “create a system that is both user-friendly and technologically effective,” the board said. The contractor developing the system is seeking input from CRB stakeholders “about the best and the least valuable aspects of electronic filing systems with which they have experience,” the board said. “Many attorneys who represent parties to [CRB] proceedings may have relevant experience with federal and state court electronic filing systems they may wish to share. Or parties who routinely filed documents with the CRB or appear at hearings may wish to comment on features and processes they would like to see in the system.” The CRB said it plans to make the e-filing system mandatory for “most filers” after an “appropriate” transition period, and will issue an NPRM on such a rule change.

The number of lawsuits filed in federal courts about cable and satellite TV payments in FY 2016 is expected to be down 42 percent from FY 2016 and down 56.2 percent from FY 2011, said a report Wednesday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. TRAC said the first 11 months of FY 2016 saw 613 such suits, putting the year on pace for 669 suits. There were 1,158 a year earlier and 1,526 five years earlier, said TRAC, which is run out of Syracuse University. The suits usually involve restaurant and bar owners allegedly pirating signals by showing pay-per-view programs in their establishments without paying the commercial rate, said the clearinghouse. The amount of such litigation grew sizably in FY 2010 and 2011 and plateaued for a time before dropping notably in FY 2016, TRAC said. It said much of the litigation comes out of U.S. District Court in Houston, which had 101 of the 613 suits. That court also ranked first with the highest rate of filings, followed by U.S. District Court in Tulsa, Oklahoma, TRAC said.

Despite claims of proprietary formatting for imported DVD sets, a classification protest lacked necessary information, Customs and Border Protection responded to an application for further review dated in June and released this month. The DVD sets, imported by Vintage, included digital catalogs, brochures, and educational, documentary and marketing videos, CBP said. Vintage protested CBP's classification of the DVDs under one subheading and said the media is better classified under another due to proprietary formatting. The classification hinges on whether DVDs include "proprietary formatting," previously defined by CBP as "encrypted in such a way that it can only read data if the devices with which the media are used contain a decryption algorithm that is not publicly available." While Vintage said "the subject DVD sets contain data that is encrypted in such a manner that they can only be played by a machine specifically encoded to read the data properly," proprietary formatting is not "necessarily tied" to the copyrightable content of the merchandise, CBP said. The associated duty rate is 2.7 percent.

The European Commission's draft copyright law revamp proposal “is more of a regression than the reform we need to support European businesses and Internet users,” said Mozilla Chief Legal and Business Officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer in a blog post. The draft, released earlier Wednesday, would require service providers to monitor content uploaded by subscribers to ensure it's not copyright-protected. The EC proposed its expected pan-EU ancillary copyright aimed at allowing publishers to claim royalties from news aggregation services like Google News (see 1609140010). The regime “does little to address much-needed exceptions to copyright law,” Dixon-Thayer said: “It provides some exceptions for education and preservation of cultural heritage,” while a new exception for text and data mining “could ultimately restrict, rather than accelerate, TDM to unlock research and innovation across sectors throughout Europe.” There are “no exceptions for panorama, parody, or remixing,” Dixon-Thayer said. “We also regret that provisions which would add needed flexibility to the copyright system -- such as a UGC (user-generated content) exception and a flexible user clause like an open norm, fair dealing or fair use -- have not been included.”

The European Commission's likely proposal to introduce a pan-EU 20-year ancillary copyright aimed at allowing publishers to claim royalties from news aggregation services that link to their content is part of a pattern of recent EU policy decisions that “create a blockade on information for Europeans that rivals the blockades on information imposed by Communist countries,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a Friday blog post. The possible EU ancillary copyright was outlined in leaked EC documents on the commission's larger EU copyright law revamp proposal, which is expected to be introduced this month (see 1608290062). The EC may roll out its copyright revamp proposal as soon as this week, an industry lobbyist told us. The ancillary copyright proposal, along with the EU's demand for $14.5 billion in retroactive taxes from Apple and the EU's “right to be forgotten” law, “increasingly restrict access to information,” Shapiro said. “They are also dangerous moves for a government to make as they parallel controls and access to information imposed by totalitarian societies.” The recent dearth of new tech startups in the EU is already “a source of embarrassment and concern,” but the ancillary copyright “will hasten the exodus of promising European tech companies to Silicon Valley and other locales more open to the access to information the internet encourages,” Shapiro said. He urged companies to consider a “blackout day” of European websites similar to the one used in 2012 to protest the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act. “Hopefully, it won't come down to engaging angry European citizens,” Shapiro said. “Cooler heads should withdraw or modify these wrongheaded policies.”