Tweet Complaining About DMCA Takedown Abuse Gets Hit With a DMCA Takedown Notice

The brouhaha started when Twitter removed a tweet from a popular torrent news site for sharing information about an unreleased TV show.  But that was just the beginning. Torrentfreak tweeted an article about unreleased episodes of the Starz show Americ…

EU Gives Final Approval To Article 13 Copyright Directive, YouTube, Facebook Expected To Be Hit Hard

On Monday morning, the EU Member States gave the Article 13 copyright directive the final green light, after months of contentious debate. Nineteen member countries voted yes, six voted against and three abstained. The directive is expected to hit platforms based on user-generated content including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram hardest….

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Says He Won’t Raise the $10/Month Price Point — Tough Luck, Songwriters?

Spotify has a lot of reasons for refusing to pay increased royalties to songwriters.  But this is easily the biggest one. In its formal filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., Spotify outlined a number of reasons for refusing to pay …

SoundExchange Sues Music Choice Over a ‘Persistent Effort to Avoid Paying Royalties’

SoundExchange’s lawsuit alleges that cable-based streaming music service Music Choice is cooking its books.  But is there more to this story? Another day, another contentious music royalty lawsuit. This time, the plaintiff is SoundExchange, a non-profi…

Trump Tweet Removed by Twitter Following a Warner Bros. Copyright Claim

Warner Bros. Pictures filed a copyright infringement claim on one of President Trump’s tweets for his 2020 campaign last night.  The tweet was removed. The video used part of Hans Zimmer’s score from the 2012 movie, The Dark Knight Rises. The president…

Today In Copyright Lawsuits: TeeFlii and 2 Chainz Face $10 Million In Damages for Willful Copyright Infringement

Did TeeFlii and 2 Chainz copy a 1993 minor hit to create ’24 Hours’? According to a new lawsuit, rappers TeeFlii and 2 Chainz, along with producers DJ Mustard and DJ Ketchup, blatantly ripped off a song from 1993. Composers Allen George and Sten Hallst…

Songwriters vs Big Tech: Has The Tide Turned? [David Israelite]

[UPDATED] In this guest post, National Music Publishers Association head David Israelite explores how social media has shifted public opinion toward the songwriters and music publishers in their battles with Spotify, YouTube and other music services. _____________________________________ By David Israelite of the National Music Publishers Association [NMPA], This first appeared…

British Songwriting Trio Files Song Theft Lawsuit Against The Weeknd

Does The Weeknd ever truly write an original song? Multiple British songwriters have filed a lawsuit against The Weeknd – real name Abel Makkonen Tesfaye. Filed at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Brian Clover, Scott McCu…

Creators May Have Won Battle, But Lost War With EU Copyright Directive Passage

As the European Parliament finally pushes its long-contested Copyright Directive to passage (Article 13 included) many content creators are claiming victory over their tech overlords, but such immediate successes could overshadowed in the near future. _____________________________ Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0 The European Parliament finally is about…

Everything You Need To Know About Article 13

The Article 13 copyright directive passed the European Parliament this week, bringing with it sweeping copyright reform, limits to Safe Harbor and an end to YouTube as we know it, at least in the EU. The legislation is complex, so here is Everything You Need To Know About Article 13….