Month: March 2020

It has been patently obvious from the first discussions of the Mechanical Licensing Collective several years ago that transitioning from a century of song-by-song licensing was going to be a highly costly and highly complex process. The MLC was sold to songwriters on the idea that there would be no administrative costs to song copyright owners for participation in the MLC. Why? Because the services were going to pay for those administrative costs. Like the world’s songwriters, we take them at their word.

Zero means zero.

Read More: https://artistrightswatch.com/2020/03/27/abby-norths-excellent-analysis-of-mlc-metadata-issues/?curator=MusicREDEF

Some unions cited as progress provisions that include an additional $600 per week payment to each recipient of unemployment insurance or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for up to four months.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/hollywood-unions-applaud-congressional-coronavirus-relief-package-1287125

Social distancing, disposable gloves and dedicated staff make it possible.

On average, SAG-AFTRA processes 90,000 to 100,000 residuals checks a week, intaking, scanning and remailing to members or their agents the vital funds that help sustain working and middle-class actors between gigs.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sag-aftra-processing-100000-residuals-checks-weekly-crisis-1287015

UPDATED with latest: The coronavirus has hit the movie industry hard, with dozens of films around the world halting production or seeing their starts delayed as the outbreak continues to spread. Have a look at our list of impacted feature films.

Things are happening fast, but we will update this regularly so keep checking back.

Read More: https://deadline.com/feature/movie-productions-postponed-coronavirus-hollywood-films-1202882857/

Emerging actors, producers and directors who make ends meet working at restaurants and bars are filing for unemployment in record numbers after forced shutdowns in Los Angeles: “We feel like we’re extras in a disaster movie.”

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-s-hospitality-moonlighters-are-dealt-brutal-double-blow-industries-are-gone-1286419

TransPerfect, which counts Viacom, Warner Bros. and Amazon as clients, is rolling out a recording platform to eliminate the need for having talent in-studio while displaying all necessary information for talent.

With nearly a billion people across the world in coronavirus lockdown, the need for dubbing Hollywood content into local languages has never been greater. But what to do when voice actors can’t access the recording studio because of their own local quarantines?

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dubbing-service-rolls-virtual-studio-voice-actors-1286462

Under the deal, production companies will give actors short-term work allowance payments for shoots canceled or postponed due to the pandemic.

Germany’s main actors and production associations have reached a deal that will see film and TV talent continue to be paid for productions shut down because of the coronavirus.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/german-actors-producers-reach-deal-coronavirus-crisis-pay-1286445

Decisions in copyright cases involving Led Zeppelin and Katy Perry suggest the open season on lawsuits could be coming to a close.

Read More: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/arts/music/blurred-lines-led-zeppelin-copyright.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_200325&instance_id=16984&nl=todaysheadlines

The Coronavirus outbreak is disrupting entertainment events in Hollywood and around the world, from the theatrical releases of major studio tentpoles to the launch of film festivals and TV conferences. IndieWire will continue to update this page with the latest breaking news regarding production delays, festival cancellations, release date changes, and more entertainment disruptions caused by the coronavirus.

Read More: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/03/coronavirus-cancellations-hollywood-entertainment-covid19-1202215596/

Citing an “extraordinary national emergency,” the delegation includes the right to approve contracts with the studios and submit them to the membership.

In an unusual — but under the circumstances, unsurprising — move, SAG-AFTRA’s approximately 80-member board of directors voted 93.73 percent to 6.27 percent to delegate all of its authority to the organization’s executive committee due to the impossibility of holding in-person meetings during the coronavirus pandemic and the impracticality of holding large meetings even electronically, the union announced Tuesday.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sag-aftra-votes-delegate-board-s-powers-executive-committee-as-virus-rages-1286384

Back in 2015, WARM founder & CEO Jesper Skibsby managed Few Wolves, a two-piece Danish act. Under Skibsby’s direction, Few Wolves signed a contract with a major record label and released two singles: “Smile” and “Never Know,” both of which, admittedly, didn’t live up to commercial expectations.

In the wake of this rough domestic debut, Skibsby felt that Few Wolves had become a secondary priority for its record label — that the group had taken a back seat to many other artists.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/03/24/warm-radio-data-absent/

It seems a formal extension might not be in the works.

The Writers Guild of America on Tuesday advised its members that previously scheduled bargaining for a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which did not commence as scheduled Monday, has been upended by the coronavirus.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/writers-guild-may-work-under-expired-contract-won-t-seek-strike-vote-prior-expiration-1286326

This open letter to governments internationally was issued today by the President and Vice-Presidents of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.

Read More: https://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/Calling-on-governments-for-global-action-to-help-creators

A federal judge rejects arguments from Bradley Cooper and other ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ stars and comes to a conclusion that the DGA, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA warn could deprive their members of bargained film profits

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/hollywoods-creatives-suffer-blow-appeal-weinstein-cos-bankruptcy-sale-1285727

A federal court has ordered Universal Music Group to produce documents relating to their insurance settlement following the 2008 Universal Studios fire, which destroyed, among other invaluable media items, as many as 500,000 master recordings.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/03/20/judge-orders-universal-music-to-produce-documents/

Currently, the Canadian government is considering implementing two legislative proposals concerning a 25-year reversion right for authors. Section 14(1) of the Canadian Copyright Act currently provides that the copyright in a work reverts automatically to the author’s estate twenty-five years after the author’s death. The operation of the present reversion right is unrelated to the date of initial publication of the work or the date of assignment of the work; as a result, the right often vests long after publication.

Read More: https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2020/03/study-on-implications-of-25-year.html?m=1

The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeal [in a 73 page judgement!] has upheld the verdict that Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ did not infringe the copyright of the song ‘Taurus’. The case on Appeal involved a number of copyright issues, including the standards for infringement, the interplay between the 1909 and 1976 Copyright Acts, the scope of copyright in music copyright and overturning the inverse ratio rule.

Read More: https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2020/03/has-skidmore-v-led-zeppelin-changed-us.html?m=1

Florida-based royalty collection firm Pro Music Rights LLC (PMR) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against what it says is “the entire music industry”.

Filed in Connecticut federal court Monday (March 9), PMR’s suit alleges that the named defendants are “running an illegal cartel for the performance rights of musical works”.

Read More: https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/pro-music-rights-sues-the-entire-music-industry-for-allegedly-running-an-illegal-cartel/

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Google, Facebook and other popular Internet platforms generate multibillions of dollars in revenues from ads they run with user-uploaded media content. Yet those lucrative Internet platforms can avoid legal responsibility by looking the other way when users post movies, music and other content that infringe copyrights on their websites.

It’s time for Congress to modernize the so-called notice and takedown system for removing copyright-infringing works by making online websites more responsible for the infringement that occurs on their sites.

Read More: https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/10/copyright-infringing-works-should-find-no-safe-hav/

(Reuters) – Led Zeppelin on Monday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to reinstate a jury verdict that it did not steal the opening guitar riff for “Stairway to Heaven” from an obscure song written four years earlier.

Read More: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-music-ledzeppelin-idUSKBN20W2DI

The Directors Guild of America has voted unanimously to approve a new three-year agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, including streaming residuals topping traditional TV.

Read More: https://www.multichannel.com/news/dga-secures-streaming-residuals-boost

The union achieved a substantial increase in SVOD residuals.

The Directors Guild of America’s board of directors unanimously approved a new three-year agreement reached several days earlier with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers, the DGA announced Saturday.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/directors-guild-board-approves-new-studio-deal-1283093

ACTRA’s best practices go beyond intimacy coordinators to protect actors during nude and simulated sex scenes from auditions and closed sets to the edit suite.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/canadas-actors-union-updates-guidelines-nudity-simulated-sex-scenes-1282975

Every year, artist-rights blog The Trichordist publishes an updated ‘streaming price bible’ comparing the per-stream payouts of the major music streaming services. The latest version, for 2019, was published overnight, and as ever is based on “a mid-sized indie label with an approximately 350+ album catalog now generating over 1.5b streams annually”.

Read More: https://musically.com/2020/03/06/trichordist-per-stream-royalties-data-2019/

Bargaining is expected to be difficult, and the coronavirus adds to the uncertainty.

The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will begin talks March 23 on a new three-year theatrical and television agreement ahead of a May 1 contract expiration, the WGA disclosed Friday.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/writers-guild-studios-set-talks-new-basic-agreement-1283034

Experimental rock band Yeasayer’s Black Panther copyright infringement lawsuit against The Weeknd is set to initiate in April, according to a new filing.

Specifically, United States District Judge Lorna G. Shofield will hear opening statements on April 16th, provided that a settlement isn’t reached in the interim. As first reported by Digital Music News, Yeasayer’s attorneys filed the lawsuit against The Weeknd in late February.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/03/06/yeasayer-black-panther-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-the-weeknd/

Details will be released after submission of the deal to the guild’s national board on Saturday.

The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers have reached an agreement on a new three-year agreement ahead of a June 30 contract expiration, the DGA announced Thursday.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dga-studios-reach-new-deal-1282862

One of the loose ends from Title I of the Music Modernization Act is how the Congress is going to permit the Mechanical Licensing Collective and the Digital Licensee Coordinator to process the “black box” or unclaimed royalties. It’s common to hear people using the experience with various private settlements as a guide for how to handle the MLC’s black box. It is said that a small percentage of the black box was actually claimed, so it’s the fault of those who failed to make their claim that they missed out.

Read More: https://musictech.solutions/2020/03/05/copyright-office-unclaimed-royalties-study-meeting-12-6-19/

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Publishing has published a new report, asking the government to “protect and respect” the UK’s gold-standard copyright regime.

In the report, entitled Maintaining a World-Leading Publishing Sector, the APPG for Publishing’s chair, Andrew Lewer MBE MP, makes a number of key recommendations for maintaining a world-leading publishing sector based on the meetings it has co-ordinated in recent months between publishing experts and parliamentarians and written submissions.

Read More: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/appg-tells-government-protect-and-respect-gold-standard-copyright-regime-1194947

Journey’s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain have fired long-time bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith from the band after accusing them of trying to fund their retirement by wresting control of the band’s name.

Read More: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/journey-fire-ross-valory-steve-smith-lawsuit-962246/

There is an unsurprising discussion going on about song titles in the metadata deliberations regarding the regulations mandating the conduct of the Mechanical Licensing Collective quango. The least surprising part of the discussion is that the services change song titles as it suits them.

Read More: https://thetrichordist.com/2020/03/04/guest-post-mlc-metadata-showdown-whats-in-a-name-your-money/

SOCAN members — including songwriters, composers, producers, publishers, and other composition rights owners — received an average of $67 (Canadian dollars) for domestic digital royalties in 2019, according to the organization.

Read More: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2020/03/03/songwriters-canadian-average-digital/

Rapper Megan Thee Stallion claims that her record label is preventing her from releasing new music. The star, who released the platinum-selling single Hot Girl Summer last year, says she’s been frozen out since asking to renegotiate her contract.

Read More: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51704533

Some recording artists have contracts that expressly discuss streaming while others don’t. The lack of conformity presents an obstacle to a group lawsuit focused on “intercompany charges” at Warner Music Group

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rejects-class-action-streaming-royalties-musicians-1282048

Facing a billion-dollar lawsuit, the internet service provider questions whether a big percentage of sound recordings have been improperly registered as works for hire.

Read More: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/charter-challenges-copyright-registration-music-recordings-1282216