The LA Times reports “a stunning reversal of decades of copyright claims,” as a federal judge in Los Angeles declares Warner/Chappell Music does not hold a valid copyright claim to the “Happy Birthday To You” song. The royalties they demanded were not theirs to demand.
Continue reading… “Judge rules Happy Birthday song is public domain”
Instagram loses half it’s active users.
At the end of 2012, Instagram changed its Terms of Service (ToS) and it has proved far more calamitous for the Facebook-owned Photo app than first imagined. According to new data, Instagram appears to have lost half of its active users in a month.
Continue reading… “Instagram drops from 40 million to 17 million active users in one month”
Google has been acting as a copyright cop.
Google reports that in the past six months it’s takedown too for search results has grown tenfold. Around 250,000 requests a week went through the system when it started publicly posting takedown notices in May — which lets people or companies ask Google to remove links that infringe on their copyright. Now, that number has jumped to over 2.5 million a week. That’s a huge change, but not an unprecedented one, as requests have been increasing rapidly for the past several years. Back in May, Google reported that the 250,000 requests it received in a week were more than it got for the entirety of 2009.
Continue reading… “Google gets 2.5 million copyright removal requests every week”
A pack of digital authors ganged up on a useful site that connected e-book consumers and shut them down.
The process of lending an e-book is complicated and much of it is a result of conflicting DRM locks and platforms as well as a reluctance on the part of publishers to allow their books to be loaned. But authors can also be a roadblock when it comes to lending, and we’ve just had a classic example of how that can happen with the brouhaha over LendInk, a service that allowed readers to connect with others in order to share e-books. The site has effectively been put out of business by a virtual lynch mob of authors claiming it breached their rights, even though what it was doing was perfectly legal.
Continue reading… “Legitimate e-book lending site taken down by angry authors”
The US government learns that copyright maximalism won’t work as ACTA withers.
In San Diego last week, another negotiating round began for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. To the amazement of everyone, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on July 3 it would now include a provision in the intellectual property (IP) chapter recognizing the importance of “limitations and exceptions” to copyright and embracing the international 3-part test for what constitutes suitable limitations and exceptions. (For those not familiar with this term of art, “limitations and exceptions” are things like Fair Use and First Sale Doctrine in the United States. As the name implies, limitations and exceptions to copyright limit the rights of the copyright holder and create exceptions to the general rule against copying without permission.)
Continue reading… “U.S. backs copyright “limitations””
Wedding costs in Canada will double if you dance.
The Copyright Board of Canada reviews copyright tariffs for various collection societies (like ASCAP and BMI in America, which collect performance licensing fees from venues). They have just approved a new set of fees to cover recorded music at a bunch of different live events. Karaoke bars, conventions, parades, weddings and several other classes of event—which already pay fees to SOCAN, which represents songwriters—will now begin paying additional tariffs to collection society Re:Sound, which represents recording artists and labels.
Continue reading… “New tarriffs on music approved in Canada”
iPhone jailbreaking has now evolved into a lucrative industry with millions of consumers.
George Mason University senior, Kevin Lee, says he earns about $50,000 a year with an illicit-sounding pitch on Craigslist: “Get Your iPhone Jailbroken Today.”
Continue reading… “iPhone Jailbreaking Has Become a Lucrative Business”
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