France fines Google $593 million for news copyright violations — “French competition regulators said Tuesday they are fining Google 500 million euros, or roughly $593 million, for failing to comply with copyright rules around negotiating payment terms for news publishers. . . . It’s the latest in a string of competition penalties and investigations Google has faced abroad and at home, several of which concern the way Google compensates news publishers for distributing their work.”
Advocat General dismisses Poland’s challenge to Copyright Directive — “Article 17 of the Copyright directive introduces the principle content sharing service providers might be liable if users upload content that breaches copyrights. Providers can be exempted from this liability if they take measures to prevent illegal uploads, which most commonly takes the form of automatic content recognition tools. Poland challenged the provisions before the Court of Justice, contending that Article 17 should be annulled because it violates freedom of expression.”
Copyright Office’s Busy Summer Includes a Full Slate of Studies and Rulemakings — The Copyright Alliance reviews the full slate of studies and rulemakings that the US Copyright Office is engaged in this summer, addressing everything from implementation of the new copyright small claims tribunal to state sovereign immunity and state compulsory e-book licensing bills.
US Copyright Office report: The MLC should hold unclaimed mechanical royalties for longer than the statutory minimum periods — “The US Copyright Office has issued a series of recommendations regarding the way the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), created by the 2018 Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernisation Act (MMA) to license and administer mechanical royalties for the digital use of music in the United States, should deal with unclaimed royalties, in particular that they ‘should be held for longer than the statutory minimum periods where appropriate.'”Â
Spotify Blocks Users For “Improperly Downloading†Tracks With Third-Party Software — “Spotify has reportedly blocked the accounts of several customers after they ‘improperly’ downloaded tracks from the service using a third-party software tool. Audials Music exploits Spotify to stream music to users at breakneck speed while recording tracks locally as MP3 files. This was noticed at Spotify and has resulted in users being suspended from the service for abuse.”