Pirated books thrive on Amazon — and authors say web giant ignores fraud — NYPost: “The end result is that readers are getting stuck with illegible books that bleed ink or fall apart, while authors and publishers lose revenue to the publishing pirates. Amazon, however, takes a cut of third-party sales regardless of whether the books they ship are real or fake, giving the company no incentive to crack down on counterfeits, people in the publishing industry gripe. They say the site that’s typically known for speedy service is excessively slow to respond to their concerns about fakes.”
YouTube Lawyers Fail to Shut Down Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Brought By Grammy-Winning Jazz Composer Maria Schneider — Digital Music News: “Maria Schneider is seeking to turn her YouTube lawsuit into a potential class-action, where other creators can share their copyright woes. YouTube sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, but U.S. District Court Judge James Donato said YouTube failed to show why the lawsuit should be dismissed at this early stage.”
Copyright Online Recordation System Opens for Public Use — It’s worth appreciating the significance of this milestone. When the US Copyright Office began its comprehensive modernization of its enterprise copyright system over two years ago, the recordation system was still a paper-based, manual system. Now, all members of the public can record transfers of copyright ownership and other documents pertaining to copyright online, quickly and easily.
Music labels settle copyright dispute with Bright House on eve of trial — “The labels have sued several internet service providers for allegedly turning a blind eye to user piracy, including Frontier Communications, RCN Corp and Cox Communications Inc. They have also separately sued Bright House’s parent company Charter Communications in Colorado. A jury in Virginia awarded the labels $1 billion against Cox in 2019, which Cox has since appealed.”
Mechanical Licensing Collective 2021 Annual Report [PDF] — “The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is responsible for administering a new blanket compulsory license created by The Music Modernization Act of 2018 (MMA) that covers the use of musical works by U.S. interactive streaming and download services. As of January 2021, The MLC began collecting these digital audio mechanical royalties from the digital services operating under the blanket license and distributing those royalties on a monthly basis at no cost to its Members: music publishers and administrators; ex-U.S. collective management organizations (CMOs); and self-administered songwriters, composers and lyricists.”