Copyright controversy erupts as prominent scholars urge veto of ALI restatement — “In 2018, Balganesh, Menell and Nimmer asked ALI’s governing council to consider their objection to the restatement’s black letter departures from the language of the Copyright Act. The council, according to Balganesh, referred their concerns to a different ALI committee, but they were never apprised of that committee’s conclusions.” The ALI ignored the concerns and approved the sections of the draft on Tuesday.
How IP Rights Keep Markets Free — Law professor Jonathan Barnett writes in a new policy brief, “weak or nonexistent patents advantage larger integrated firms while disadvantaging smaller firms that have strong innovation but weak commercialization capacities. Rather than advancing the public interest in a robust innovation economy, IP-skeptical policies undertaken by courts, legislators, and regulators may have mostly promoted the private interests of large technology firms that advocated for those policies.”
Leading authors sound alarm over post-Brexit changes to copyright — “Mosse, author of the bestselling Labyrinth and founder of the Women’s prize, said: ‘If we don’t ensure writers remain respected for their work, then many will be forced to leave the industry and Britain’s cultural landscape will suffer hugely. . . . It will become less diverse, less innovative, less inspiring,’ said Mosse. ‘Copyright is the bedrock of authors’ earnings and ensures that everyone – whatever their background, their genre of writing – is properly remunerated for their talent.'”
Record Labels Sue Frontier For Failing to Terminate Persistent Pirates — Torrentfreak’s Andy Maxwell reports, “Holding Frontier liable for contributing to the direct infringements of its customers, the labels say that the ISP was motivated to keep infringing subscribers on board for financial benefit, adding that terminating subscribers would deprive it of revenue and make its service less attractive to existing and prospective customers. Since P2P use consumes lots of data usage, infringing customers were particularly lucrative, the plaintiffs add. Pirates are likely to pay more money for faster connections with greater usage limits, leading Frontier to turn a blind eye to repeat infringement by known specific subscribers.”
Roblox Hit With $200 Million-Plus Lawsuit by Music Publishers Alleging Unauthorized Song Use — Variety’s Todd Spangler reports, “NMPA president/CEO David Israelite announced the lawsuit against Roblox at the trade group’s 2021 annual meeting. He cited Roblox’s massive user base of more than 42 million active daily players and alleged that Roblox has gone to great lengths to avoid paying music creators.”