ACT|The App Association praised the Copyright Office Tuesday for its deployment this month of its online system for designating and searching for agents to receive copyright infringement claim notifications under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's Section 512. Online service providers that have previously designated agents with the CO will have until the end of 2017 to submit a new designation electronically via the online system (see 1610310050). "App developers will finally have the ability to protect their intellectual property with the click of a button instead of the lick of (thousands of) stamps," said ACT Senior Policy Counsel Brian Scarpelli in a blog post. The old designation system "resulted in an online searchable database that was not user-friendly (for example, many fields were not searchable), often contained outdated or erroneous information, and made it difficult for copyright owners to send take-down requests to protect their work." ACT members "can now know they will be able to submit DMCA take-down notices more easily and accurately through accessing this new [CO] database," Scarpelli said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the Association of American Publishers and major music industry interests for recent letters urging President-elect Donald Trump to strongly enforce IP rights and to push for changes to copyright law that appear to favor rightsholders. RIAA and other top music industry entities asked Trump last week to seek “strong protections” to protect IP rights, saying top tech sector firms “should follow others' example to effectively stop theft and assure fair payment.” AAP asked Trump last week to push Congress to make fixes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (see 1612130023 and 1612150033). EFF believes AAP and the music companies were pushing for a revamp of DMCA Section 512's safe harbor provisions, which “is a bad idea for everyone, including musicians,” said Policy Fellow Kerry Sheehan in a Tuesday blog post. “The music industry has benefited enormously from the Internet’s growth. Not only are there more opportunities for musicians to share their music with a global audience, but the industry itself is profiting handsomely.” AAP “also implies it wants even stricter enforcement against device manufacturers -- presumably through laws like Section 1201 that prohibit users from getting around digital locks on copyrighted content,” Sheehan said. “But locking down users’ devices, as with Digital Rights Management, is a massively unpopular strategy that impairs users’ ability to freely express themselves, interferes with access to books in accessible formats, hinders competition, and takes away users’ freedom to tinker with their own devices.” It appears “Big Content will never stop looking for more government support for their traditional business model, no matter what the cost to the Internet -- and they are never satisfied,” Sheehan said. “We urge the incoming administration to resist industry demands for more copyright regulation that, if history is any guide, will be both expensive and ineffective.”
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers said it reached agreement with Nielsen to improve reporting of music industry data. Nielsen agreed to give ASCAP “expanded” U.S. radio airplay data, including metadata and unique identifiers for recordings. The Nielsen data, when combined with ASCAP’s membership and copyright data, will significantly improve the transparency of information provided to ASCAP members, the performing rights organization said. The linkage to unique identifiers will particularly improve the potential for accurately reporting royalty information, ASCAP said. “Nielsen’s data will bring additional frequency and breadth to ASCAP’s reporting, enabling ASCAP’s members to have a 360-degree view of the performance landscape for their music, while enabling faster and more accurate reporting and tracking across all platforms,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews in a news release. “This deal also sets the stage for us to provide our members with new business intelligence tools with predictive analytics components.”
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) said Thursday they reached agreement on the royalty rate for ASCAP's recording repertory that RMLC member broadcasters must pay over the next five years. The agreement, which takes effect Jan. 1 and runs through 2021, sets unspecified increases in the rates for both terrestrial and digital performances of ASCAP members' music, the parties said. The agreement also “expressly affirms the percentage share of radio performances represented by ASCAP -- at a level that reflects that ASCAP licenses more performances on broadcast radio than any other performing rights organization" (PRO), ASCAP said. The new agreement “will provide enhanced financial benefits to ASCAP songwriters, composers and music publishers at a time of tremendous disruption in the music industry,” said ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews in a news release. RMLC Chairman Ed Christian in the news release said: “The increase in ASCAP fees is consistent with ASCAP's established spin share on radio.” A legal battle is ongoing between RMLC and the PRO Global Music Rights in which both parties are making antitrust claims. RMLC claimed in its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia that GMR's higher licensing rates were prompting ASCAP and Broadcast Music Inc. themselves to seek higher rates from radio stations (see 1611210011 and 1612090062).
The Copyright Office said it's extending to Jan. 30 the deadline for submitting comments on rulemakings to update the office's rules for supplementary registration information submissions, group registration of photos and group registration of periodicals. The CO released the NPRMs earlier this month (see 1612020025). The supplementary registration NPRM would update the rules to require an all-online application process. The photo registration NPRM would allow group registrations of unpublished photos, while the periodicals registration NPRM would require applicants for the group registration of contributions to periodicals to file claims online.
The Association of American Publishers urged President-elect Donald Trump Thursday to make IP rights protection a top priority. The administration should push for Congress to make fixes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said AAP Vice President-Legal and Governmental Affairs Allan Adler in a letter to the transition team. The House and Senate Judiciary committees are gearing up to explore copyright legislation in the 115th Congress (see 1612080061). “The current epidemic of online infringement harms public as well as private interests in the availability” of creative content “and the legal flaws that hamper the DMCA in its intended operation need to be fixed,” Adler said. Earlier this week, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, RIAA and 17 other music organizations asked Trump to enforce IP laws to promote creativity and technological innovation (see 1612130023).
Copyright Royalty Board official reinstatement of rules easing requirements for noncommercial broadcasters and commercial broadcasters to report streamed sound recordings to SoundExchange for royalty purposes came “as music to the ears of those noncommercial broadcasters,” said Fletcher Heald copyright and music licensing lawyer Karyn Ablin in a blog post Tuesday, the day the board's notice came. It reinstated previously allowed reporting relief requirements, which take effect when an eligible broadcaster pays no more than the $500 minimum annual royalty (see 1612130043). The CRB inadvertently rescinded the rule in a June technical amendment (see 1608100020). “Our prediction that there would not be ‘any fierce or widespread opposition to the Judges’ proposed amendment’ proved accurate,” said Ablin, who proposed the rule’s reinstatement on behalf of the NAB and the National Religious Broadcasters Noncommercial Music License Committee. “Judges received only three sets of comments,” which didn’t affect reinstatement, she wrote. “It’s hard to argue that noncommercial broadcasters should be treated more harshly under the reporting rules than commercial broadcasters,” Ablin said. “We are glad to see that the Judges have amended their rules in a way that more accurately reflects this commonsense principle.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’s strategic plan for IP rights enforcement for FY 2017-19, while Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said he’s “pleased” to implement it. IPEC’s plan, released Monday, urged improving citizens' understanding of the impacts of IP rights infringement and enhancing the domestic strategy for enforcing IP rights. Goals also include minimizing IP-infringing activity online and facilitating lawful trade activities (see 1612120062). The plan “seems to put the weight of the federal government behind these shadow regulations,” EFF senior staff attorney Mitch Stoltz said in a Wednesday blog post. “The plan gives lip service to transparency, good research, and respect for freedom of speech. Unfortunately, the plan also praises and encourages the negotiation of private agreements between Internet companies that fail to uphold those same values.” The document does contain “a strong statement about the importance of limitations on copyright (as well as trademark and patent rights),” Stoltz said. “But neither a shout-out to fair use nor the talisman of ‘multistakeholder’ policymaking are enough to protect Internet users against censorship, nor to give them a voice in the functioning of the Internet.” DHS supports the IPEC strategy and will “advance policy initiatives necessary to strengthen IP enforcement,” Johnson said Tuesday in a statement.
Broadband iTV won't get a rehearing en banc on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling in September affirming a U.S. District Court ruling in a patent fight between Broadband iTV and Hawaiian Telcom, Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Cable (see 1609280016). The appellate court in its order Wednesday denied the BBiTV petition without comment. Charter Communications now owns TWC.
The Patent and Trademark Office's Enhanced Patent Quality Initiative and other initiatives aimed at improving patent quality are “here to stay” despite the upcoming change in White House administration, Director Michelle Lee said Tuesday. PTO officials “will be working hard to keep this snowball moving forward and growing,” Lee said during an agency event, according to a prepared version of her remarks. “Stakeholder input and collaboration from around the country -- and indeed, from around the world, including with our counterpart offices overseas -- will continue to be vital to our efforts.” PTO's efforts to improve patent quality have been aimed at issuing patents that are “correct in accordance with the law,” clearly delineate “the patent's boundaries” and are “issued consistently” across examiners, Lee said. “There is a cost to society when the USPTO issues a patent that should not issue, just as there is a cost to society when we don’t issue a patent that should issue. With patents that are overly broad or vague, we create inefficiencies and opportunities for abuse. With patents that are unduly narrow, we discourage incentives to innovate. At a time when IP is more important to our economy than ever before, neither is an option, we have to get this right.”