An argument for the CASE Act — Indie musician, composer, and cellist Zoë Keating cuts through the unfounded claims against the CASE Act, which would create a copyright small claims court for individuals and small businesses, and shares her experiences with infringement. She writes, “My work is supposedly protected by copyright law but when such an infringement occurs I have little recourse beyond sending a stern letter or attempting to shame them on social media. I would like to explain why, from my perspective, the CASE act sounds like a good idea.”
European Court Rules In Favor Of Kraftwerk In 20 Year-Long Copyright Dispute — Billboard reports, “On Monday July 29 the European Court of Justice returned its verdict, ruling that the sampling of a sound recording, even a very short sequence, must be regarded as a reproduction of the original work and therefore require clearance from the rights holders. There are some important and, on the surface, seemingly contradictory exceptions to that ruling though, which could impact on future copyright infringement and sampling cases in Europe. Significantly, the court states that in instances where a producer or artist samples a musical recording ‘in a modified form unrecognizable to the ear’ it does not amount to a reproduction of the original work.” The judgment of the court can be found here.
Artists group urges crackdown on Big Tech — “A trade group representing musicians and other content creators wants Congress to take in their perspectives as it investigates the effects of large tech companies’ market power. The Artist Rights Alliance (ARA) sent a letter on Wednesday to lawmakers leading an antitrust probe into Silicon Valley’s giants, raising concerns about how large internet platforms impact the music business.”
U.S. Publishers Are Still Losing $300 Million Annually To Ebook Piracy — From Forbes: “$300 million in publisher income is lost annually as a result of online piracy, according to data from the Authors Guild presented during Book Expo 2019.”
Third Circuit Reinforces Banana-Costume Injunction — Coming soon to every copyright conference presentation near you, this dispute involving banana costumes. The Third Circuit on Thursday affirmed a preliminary injunction against the alleged infringer, finding the plaintiff’s costume met the threshold for copyright protection and “established a reasonable likelihood that it could prove entitlement to protection for the veritable fruits of its intellectual labor.” The full decision is here [PDF].