EXCLUSIVE Google paying more than 300 EU publishers for news, more to come — Thanks to the EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, the search giant has come to the table and “signed deals to pay more than 300 publishers in Germany, France and four other EU countries for their news and will roll out a tool to make it easier for others to sign up too.”
Publishing and Library E-Lending: An Analysis of the Decade Before Covid-19 — From Publishing Research Quarterly: “What started as a search for the proper way to value ebooks and ensure their prosperity so all parties (including authors) could benefit, morphed into a widespread belief that all the Big publishers disliked libraries, only saw negatives in e-lending, and only begrudgingly started e-lending after they were coerced by the ALA. But a thorough assessment of the history shows that generalizing the Big publishers in this way was largely unfounded and inaccurate.”
Law360: ‘Mickey’ Singer Owns Recordings’ Copyright, 9th Circ. Affirms — In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit reviews the requirements for when a “joint work” is created under the Copyright Act and finds that Toni Basil’s record producer failed to meet the standard to be considered a co-author of the songs on Basil’s 1981 album, including the mega-hit “Mickey.”
Megaupload Pair Sign Deal to Avoid Extradition, Dotcom Vows to Fight On — Torrentfreak’s Andy Maxwell reports, “After 10 years of legal battles following the closure of Megaupload, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk have reached a deal with the authorities that will see them avoid extradition and face charges in New Zealand instead. Kim Dotcom says he won’t accept ‘injustice’ and will keep fighting against extradition to the United States.”
Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith at SCOTUS Part I: The Transformative Question — “Different meaning may be present, but if the secondary work does not contain at least some element of comment upon the original, there is no rationale keeping the first factor analysis from spilling over the levy quoted above in Campbell. . . . This is one reason why the ‘transformativeness’ concept has caused so much trouble: because it leads courts to find fair use solely on the basis of ‘some difference,’ and this implies a fair use doctrine without limits.”