Month: October

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After years of debate over many proposals, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has made a decision on statutory and industry rates for physical product, permanent downloads, and master ringtones. The new royalties did not stray far from the existing rates. Permanent downloads and physical product rates remain at 9.1 cents/song. Ringtones have moved from a 10% of retail price to a rate of 24 cents/mastertone. Two new types of services that were ruled upon were interactive streaming and limited downloads (DRM-wrapped). Each were given a mechanical royalty rate at 10.5% of revenue. Despite the fact that these rates are far off from many of the rates proposed by the NMPA, DiMA, and RIAA, every group involved in the matter seems to be very pleased. These and other groups involved have issued statements regarding their content with the decision and the certainty it provides all sides. Even Apple, which stated that an increase in mechanical rates would shut down iTunes, said they were pleased. We are still waiting for President Bush to sign off on the Webcaster's Settlement Act of 2008. This allows webcasters, National Public Radio, and SoundExchange to continue negotiating a settlement for royalty rates.

Month: July

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A judge ruled in US court that the use of John Lennon's song 'Imagine' in a documentary is allowed under the fair use US copyright law. Lennon's family and EMI Blackwood Music, which administers the rights to the song, were the plaintiffs and the defendants were Premise Media et al, the producers of the documentary 'EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.' This is a film about 'intelligent design' and attacks the theory of Darwinism. A 15 second clip of the song is used in a part of the movie that shows a young girl dancing and a close-up of Stalin waving. The lyrics used are 'nothing to kill or die for / and no religion too.' This constitutes 0.27% of the film. There were four main factors that the judge ruled on. The purpose and character of the use, whether used for commercial or non-profit, was ruled to be less commercial and more 'transformative.' By that, the judge meant that the use of the song by the filmmakers showed the original work used with new expression and meaning. The nature of the copyright work is clearly creative, but the songs appearance in the film did not outweigh the important transformative use made of it. The amount and substantiality of the portion was under question. While the clip was 15 seconds of a three minute song, the plaintiffs used a musicologist to argue that the clip was from the 'heart' of the song and the repeating phrase used appears in over 50% of the song itself. The judge ruled that the song is repetitive and no part of the song could have been used without using that part and also that the recognizable part of the song was key in the use in the film. The last factor, the effect of the use on the potential market and value of the copyright work, the judge ruled that the use fell into the 'tranformative market.' The judge concluded that the injunction could not be granted because the fair use of the copyright would prevail in any trial awarded.

Month: June

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The RIAA has a team of individuals working hard to crack down on illegal downloading. This group investigates peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and is seen as vital to the successful future of the recording industry. Despite its efforts, the demand for pirated content online is still high and it is hard to see how much illegal downloading their actions have deterred. To root out illegal downloading activity, the RIAA works with MediaSentry, which has developed customized programs that operate over the Gnutella Network, the same as many popular P2P networks. The company has a list of song titles owned by RIAA-member company and gives specific hash codes to each song file. If more than one user on a network has the same song file with the same hash code, they know it is being shared illegally. The company can also download songs that they do not already have to see if they are RIAA-owned by "fingerprinting" the recordings. While a copyright owner cannot sue every person who downloads their song illegally, they can notify the infringer's Internet service and block their material. If the RIAA identifies a user with a popular hash code of just one digital file, it is enough to send a take down notice to the ISP. Many universities claim that they are being targeted illegally, but the RIAA says that is not true and not technically possible. They find what they find through public means. The RIAA uses litigation against only the most egregious of users. When that happens, they file the suit and target the IP address's registered user. OF the tens of thousands of suits filed against commercial ISP's, universities, and individual file sharers, only one has reached trial.

Month: May

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As Congress comes to a close at the end of June, the bills up for debate regarding publishing royalty rates are finding it hard to make it through. Any bill that does not will likely be shelved. Only two bills seem to have a chance of passing. One is for orphan works, which would make copyrighted works available for licensing even if the copyright owners cannot be found. It protects copyright users under the conduct that the user performed proper research to find the owner, but was unable to locate them. The bill is primarily for artwork and photographs, but could affect the music industry. The other bill focuses on intellectual property (IP) protection. An act already passed in the House in early May, and a similar bill is being made in Congress. This will setup an IP advisor to the President and a division in the Dept. of Justice.

Month: Winter

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Peer-to-peer file sharing is one of the most prominent ways in which people illegally give and receive music. The RIAA takes the stance that “ making available” a copyrighted sound recording on a p2p file-sharing networks is a violation of the copyright holder’s exclusive right of distribution. The article looks at both the position of the RIAA and the rebuttal, while also providing a solution.

Month: February

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The EU commissioner proposed to extend the term of copyright in sound recordings in the EU from 50 years to 95 years. He argued that since composers' terms are longer, the performers' terms should be as well.

Month: October

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Congress has replaced the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), with the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB). The most notable change is that the proceedings have changed from informal arbitrations to formal trials.

Month: March

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DiMA challenges ASCAP's request for performance royalties from online music downloads.

Month: July

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US DoJ submitted the Intellectual Property Bill to Congress. The bill would strengthen existing laws concerning piracy and counterfeiting. Most significantly is the creation of a new crime of attempting to commit copyright infringement.