On his last day at Warner Music Group, Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. had some strong words for Universal Music Group: “It does strike me as hubris… particularly for Universal to think its going to be easy to buy EMI and, in fact, frankly that they can buy EMI at all.”
Tuesday, January 31st, may have marked Edgar Bronfman’s final day as chairman of Warner Music Group, but that didn’t stop him from making one more promise regarding the label’s future plans on his way out. In an interview with Peter Kafka at the “D: Dive into Media Conference,” Bronfman had some choice words regarding Universal Music Group’s scheduled purchase of EMI’s recorded music division. Not only did he publicly call Universal’s plan “dangerous,” “problematic,” and a deal that “has got to be stopped,” Bronfman showed no hesitation in promising that, even after he steps down, Warner Music Group will be fighting the Universal-EMI merger “tooth and nail.”
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On January 27, 2012 the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York approved a settlement reached after a nearly two year debate over the fees the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) would pay for the privilege to air the approximately 8.5 million songs in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) arsenal. The battle between the 10,000 or so radio stations verse the 425,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members began when the previous agreement expired on December 31, 2009. Read more
Elvis Presley "Magic Moments"
On January 18, 2012 in Golan v. Holder the Supreme Court upheld amendments made to the “Copyright in Restored Works” section of the U.S. Code in response to the Uruguay Round Agreements Act § 514 as per the U.S. membership in the Berne Convention. Article 18 of Berne requires countries to protect the works of other member states unless the works’ copyright term has expired in either the country where protection is claimed or the country of origin. While the U.S. upon becoming a Berne member state in 1989, notably 103 years after its formation, initially offered minimal compliance with Article 18, in 1994 when the World Trade Organization’s “Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights” provided a more secure forum for enforcement, Congress felt compelled to implement the amendment at issue in Golan.
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Thanks to the Copyright Act of 1976 the recording industry has yet another battle to worry about . . . copyright termination. What do I mean by termination? Well, the Copyright Act includes sections 203 and 304, which are often called the “termination provisions.” These provisions allow authors to recapture their copyrights after a certain number of years. Specifically, section 203- which is the section I’ll be referring to- allows authors who granted a transfer or license of copyright on or after January 1, 1978 to recapture the copyright after 35 years. This means that January 1, 2013 marks the first day that terminations can go into effect for sound recordings- that is, if the artist(s) successfully satisfies the notice requirements (which are essentially a number of procedural hurdles that an artist must satisfy before he/she can recapture copyrights). Another major part of the termination provision- if not the most important part- is the work made for hire exception which essentially states if sound recordings fall within the work made for hire provision, record labels are the legal authors of the recordings and artists can say goodbye to their right to recapture copyrights. Do you see why this is an issue? If artists are able to recapture their sound recordings (often called “masters”), the recording industry will be at a huge financial loss that will greatly affect its already “rocky” stability. Under these circumstances, the threshold question that creates the battle between artists and the recording industry is: are sound recordings works made for hire?
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In a world where Newt Gingrich is being sued for copyright infringement by the composers of “Eye of the Tiger”, lays the hopes and dreams of Indie music labels. These labels have been making gains in pursuing their goals; the start of which was their “Manifesto” produced on January 29th.
January 28-31, 2012 marked this year’s Annual MIDEM (“MarchĂ© International du Disque et de l’Edition Musicale”) Festival in Cannes, France. At this three-day, internationally renowned trade festival, artists, label representatives and industry professionals gathered, shared ideas, networked, and apparently lobbied their complaints and some responses to those complaints. This is precisely what a few, big names from independent music labels did at MIDEM and the result was a list of 10 bullet-points which outline and detail a plan to increase the Indie music sector’s rights and reputation.
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The “world’s largest funding platform,” Kickstarter raised $20 million for musicians in 2011. The Kickstarter-crowdfunding model demonstrates that musicians can successfully (and directly) obtain funding for their creative projects from their fans, without record label backing- either major or independent. This all begs the question, what does Kickstarter’s $20 million mean for the future of the music industry?
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Double, Double, Newt’s In Trouble.
With the Republican primaries approaching an end, I am sure a few candidates and their advisors have been thinking of ways to motivate voters. The power of music has long been recognized to move people and stir emotions. So if Orpheus could convince Hades to free his beloved Eurydice from the underworld, surely “Eye of The Tiger” could at least have some sway on voters.  Unlike Newt Gingrich however, Orpheus was not living in a world of copyright law.
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Facebook has launched a lawsuit against Adscend Media, alleging that they developed and encouraged others to spread spam using a variety of tactics, but most notably clickjacking. Facebook is not going at this alone. The State of Washington has filed suit, alleging violations of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM), 15 U.S.C. §§7701-7713 and other laws, against Delaware-based Adscend and co-owners Jeremy Bash and Fehzan Ali. Both Facebook and The State of Washington allege the advertising company has profited by collecting money from clients for every Facebook user misdirected to an advertisement or subscription offer.
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With the recent shutdown of Megaupload and the arrest of Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz (founder of Megaupload and formerly the number one ranked Call of Duty player) for massive amounts of alleged copyright infringement, other legal news relating to Megaupload might be overlooked. Well, have no fear, here is some information about the lawsuit filed by Megaupload weeks before its shutdown.
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The 2011 end of the year numbers are in! Was 2011 the year when the music industry went back to black?
Well that depends on what numbers you compare and who you ask. The Nielson-Billboard 2011 Music Industry Report indicates that music sales for 2011 are up for the first time in seven years (thanks to lower album prices and Adele), while others claim that the recorded music industry remains “plagued” by declining CD sales with digital revenue failing to make up the difference.
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