House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., applauded the administration for addressing “rampant piracy and counterfeiting” through foreign trade negotiations in its Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’s (IPEC) annual report to Congress. “I am encouraged by the IPEC’s annual report, which lays out a thorough strategy to continue economic growth by ensuring American innovation is protected and able to flourish,” Goodlatte said Thursday.

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals' February decision against TVEyes (see 1802270025) points to transformative use arguably being best seen as a part of a fair use analysis, rather than the entirety of the analysis, as a lot of courts have ruled in recent years, Copyright Clearance Center research analyst Dave Davis blogged Monday. He said the decision sets limits of a proper transformative use defense and makes clear it can't be used as an excuse for any copyright infringing activity a company engages in.

The Songwriters Guild of America endorsed the Music Modernization Act (HR-4706/S-2334) Friday, saying lawmakers agreed to modify provisions to address the group's previous objections. Backers frame it as a compromise supported by songwriters, music publishers and digital streaming services to revamp elements of Copyright Act sections 114 and 115. It would affect some rules on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handling of cases involving DOJ consent decrees on the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations. House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., filed HR-4706 in December (see 1712210046). Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed S-2334 in January (see 1801240049). SGA initially opposed HR-4706/S-2334 because it worried provisions in the bill inadequately benefited songwriters, including language that would create the Mechanical Licensing Collective. Digital services voluntarily agreed to fund the MLC as a self-governing body using a free-market standard for determining digital music royalty rates (see 1712290025). Agreed-upon amendments include doubling the number of songwriters and composers represented on the MLC's board and shifting the balance on a proposed Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee so half its members come from the music creator community and half from music publishers, SGA said. Lawmakers also agreed to modify language on payments to songwriters from music publishers' “unclaimed” funds under negotiated publishing agreements, SGA said. Music publishers agreed to join SGA in supporting the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (Case) Act (HR-3945), which would establish the Copyright Claims Board, a voluntary alternative forum to U.S. District courts, for copyright owners to protect their work from infringement. The board would be housed in Copyright Office, with jurisdiction limited to civil copyright cases capped at $30,000 in damages (see 1710040058). HR4706/S-2334 is now “deserving of our support,” said SGA President Rick Carnes. “The bill as it now stands would -- on balance -- benefit those creators we are sworn to protect significantly more than no bill at all.” NAB, which also initially opposed HR4706/S-2334, signed on as a supporter in January after lawmakers modified the bill to assuage its concerns (see 1801260049).

The Copyright Office set seven April hearings in Washington and Los Angeles on possible exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201’s ban on circumvention of technological protection measures as part of the office’s triennial review process for the statute, which began in July (see 1706300066). Civil liberties groups, computer scientists and library and tech associations seeking to renew exemptions for device jailbreaking, security research, e-books and other device software (see 1708090071). The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-recommended exemptions to 1201 in 2015 at the conclusion of the last triennial, including expansions of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions (see 1510270056). The CO recommended last year Congress shouldn’t use legislation to significantly revamp the statute but said legislators could expand the granting of permanent exemptions and improve the triennial process (see 1706220014). The Washington hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 10-13, in the Mumford Room of the LOC’s James Madison Building, the office said in Friday’s Federal Register. The Los Angeles hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 23-25, in UCLA School of Law, Room 1314. Requests are due before Feb. 22.

Google's YouTube requires nondisparagement of the company in less than 0.01 percent of its promotional agreements with content creators and the like, a spokeswoman said, in response to the Content Creators Coalition seeking congressional hearings on the practice (see 1801290039). Typical contracts for music creators to monetize their works on the platform lack such mandates, she said Tuesday. "In rare instances when we align our brand more closely to a specific creator tied to new original content or one-off promotional work, we may ask them to sign an agreement that includes general language around conduct. This type of clause is often used in the entertainment industry and is intended to protect companies, not so much from the words an individual may express, but more so their actions, especially in today's times."

The Copyright Royalty Board said the mechanical royalty rate for interactive streaming should increase gradually through 2022 to 15.1 percent of revenue or 26.2 percent of total content cost, whichever is more. The existing rate is 10.8 percent of revenue. The ruling withdrew a cap on the amount of content costs. The Copyright Office on Monday announced the initial ruling in the 2018-2022 interactive streaming royalty ratesetting proceeding. It's “the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history,” said National Music Publishers' Association President David Israelite. “Crucially, the decision also allows songwriters to benefit from deals done by record labels in the free market. The ratio of what labels are paid by the services versus what publishers are paid has significantly improved, resulting in the most favorable balance.” It's the result of 2017 litigation by the NMPA and Nashville Songwriters Association International against Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify. Songwriters and music publishers faced a “long and difficult process” to get here, said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison in a statement with NPMA. Those increases could hurt streaming services facing financial losses, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Monday: It "leaves little money for the service to pay all of its other operating costs.” Timing could disrupt the nascent Music Modernization Act (HR-4706/S-2334) (see 1801260049), which had been gaining momentum, Oxenford said. A final determination will be published after the register of copyrights completes a statutory review and the librarian of Congress approves, the CRB said. This is “another pressure point” for Pandora, said Dougherty & Co. in a Monday investor note. The new rate schedule will affect about 25 percent of Pandora’s revenue and 5.19 million out of its 73 million total active monthly listeners, said analyst Steven Frankel. Although the ad-supported business won’t be affected, Pandora faces a “stagnating listening base and a music market that has rapidly shifted to Spotify and Apple Music,” Frankel said.

TickBox's voluntary changes to operations -- so it no longer ships its streaming video player with easy access to copyright-infringing video streams -- don't moot content companies' entitlement to injunctive relief, those companies said Friday in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles docket 17-CV-7496 reply (in Pacer) in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction. TickBox is opposing the motion (see 1712290026). The programmer plaintiffs -- Universal City Studios, Columbia Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Twentieth Century Fox Films, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Amazon Content Services and Netflix Studios -- said TickBox "has exaggerated its claimed conversion" and customers still can easily launch the same Kodi software add-ons at issue. They said evidence TickBox was advertised for infringing purposes "is clear, overwhelming and undisputed." Outside counsel for TickBox didn't comment Tuesday.

Facebook’s twice-a-year transparency report now includes data on IP rights requests on copyright, trademark and counterfeit, blogged Deputy General Counsel Chris Sonderby. In the first half of 2017, it received 224,464 copyright reports about content, 41,854 trademark reports and 14,279 counterfeit reports, Sonderby said Monday. Government requests for account data increased by 21 percent globally compared with the second half of 2016, from 64,279 to 78,890, and more than half of requests from law enforcement contained a nondisclosure order preventing the company from notifying users about the information request, he said. Tuesday, the company expanded facial identity privacy opt out (see 1712190024).

SiriusXM could face materially higher copyright expenses after Thursday's Copyright Royalty Board determination of a 41 percent hike, the company said in an SEC filing Friday. It said it's still evaluating the CRB terms and rates announced, and it anticipates evaluating changes in pricing. It said the determination likely will mean higher aggregate royalty expenses annually starting next year. SiriusXM said it will have to pay a royalty of 15.5 percent of gross revenue, subject to exclusions and adjustments, for the five years ending Dec. 31, 2022, up from its current 11 percent. The company didn't comment further. SoundExchange said CRB didn't adopt the rates it advocated, but the ruling "demonstrates an important step in the right direction toward valuing the contributions of the music creators." It said the decision reinforces the need to amend the Copyright Act Section 801(b) rate standards for satellite radio and some cable radio services. American Federation of Musicians said the rate increase is welcome, but "our broken copyright system still allows this wildly profitable company to underpay for recorded music based on a below-market standard." SiriusXM shares closed down 5.1 percent at $5.37.

Comments are due Jan. 16 on a Copyright Office NPRM on an update of rules for cable operators' royalty reporting practices, the Copyright Office said Friday. It said it's proposing a variety of changes to the statement of account forms, including greater specificity of subscriber and rate information requested and a requirement covered cable systems pay a separate per-telecast royalty atop other royalties that cable systems must pay under Section 111 of the Copyright Act.