Katy Perry Wins in ‘Dark Horse’ Copyright Appeal — The Ninth Circuit lays down a speed bump in front of music infringement cases, affirming a trial court judge’s decision that elements of a song popstar Katy Perry allegedly copied in her hit Dark Horse were not protectable expression under copyright law. In what may become a frequently cited phrase by copyright lawyers, the Circuit called the combination of elements that plaintiffs identified as copied a “manifestly conventional arrangement of musical building blocks” that lacks the requisite originality to be protected by copyright.
Cox Moves to Overturn $1 Billion Music Suit — “A Virginia federal court awarded 53 music publishers, including Sony Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music and others, $1 billion in December 2019, agreeing with claims that despite complaints and warnings from the music publishers, Cox continued to allow its broadband subscribers to illegally download music. All in all the publishers found 10,017 instances of infringement by Cox customers, and a jury assigned a value of $99,830.29 to each one, for a total of $1 billion.”
ResearchGate dealt a blow in copyright lawsuit — “A landmark court case in which two major academic publishers sued the popular website ResearchGate for hosting 50 of their copyrighted papers has come to a close — although both sides say that they will appeal. The court in Munich, Germany, has not only prohibited ResearchGate from hosting the papers, but also ruled that it is responsible for copyright-infringing content uploaded on its platform. The decision has the potential to set a precedent for further restrictions on the site, which has 20 million users worldwide.”
Here’s the difference between Jeff Bezos and me — “Amazon’s retreat from the physical bookstore business underscores what those of us in it know all too well: It isn’t easy. It requires superb customer service, dedicated staff who provide knowledgeable advice about what to read, an inviting environment in which to browse and shop, and literary activities that connect patrons directly to authors through book talks and other programming. Most of all, it demands a deep commitment to the local communities that sustain us.”