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A Possible Legal Trap for “Trap Queen”
According to MTV News, if it were up to Danish musician Lazar Lakic, we would all be living in a Trap Queen-less world. Lakic is suing rapper Fetty Wap and producer Tony Fadd over their quadruple platinum and Grammy nominated hit song “Trap Queen” on grounds that he is the true owner of the track’s underlying beat. The crux of the suit is that Lakick originally purchased the exclusive rights to the song “Hello,” which was sampled in “Trap Queen,” from Fadd in 2014 but less than a year later, after “Trap Queen” became a rousing success, Fadd asked to re-purchase […]
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N.C.A.A. Takes Stand Against North Carolina’s Anti-Gay Rights Law
The N.C.A.A. announced on September 12 that it is relocating all championship tournament games that were originally scheduled to take place in North Carolina over the 2016-2017 academic year. This news comes in reaction to a new North Carolina law, commonly referred to as House Bill 2, which nullified local government ordinances extending anti-discrimination protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and has gained national attention for its requirement that people in publicly owned buildings only use bathrooms that correspond with the gender on their birth certificate. Included among the events that will be moved is the […]
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Grand Theft Auto: Not Just Taking Cars
Zoom, Swerve, Crash! These are effectively the three steps of actress Lindsay Lohan’s and former Mob Wives star Karen Gravno lawsuits against the widely popular action-adventure video game series Grand Theft Auto. Zoom – Lohan filed suit under New York’s right of publicity statute, arguing that Grand Theft Auto V’s character “Lacey Jonas,” who is continuously portrayed evading paparazzi throughout the game, misappropriated her likeness. Lohan based her allegation off of the presumption that the game made multiple references to her famous Mean Girl’s character, the West Hollywood hotel where Lohan previously resided, and that the video game’s publisher used a […]
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Windowing in the Music Industry: Drake To Release New Album Exclusively on Apple Music
Drake’s upcoming album, View From The 6, is coming to fans on April 29th – but only fans who subscribe to Apple Music. As streaming has come to be an undeniable reality rather than a passing trend, “streaming exclusives” are becoming a powerful tool for stars like Drake, Rihanna, and Kanye West to use to grow subscriber numbers for streaming services that they have anointed as worthy of their new work. Due to Tidal’s recent significant growth linked to The Life of Pablo release, the industry anticipates that this Drake exclusive should significantly grow its already 11 million strong subscription […]
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Ticketmaster and Facebook Join Forces – Collusive or Collaborative?
Ticketmaster and Facebook have announced a new joint venture between these two industry-leading companies, where fans will be able to buy tickets from Ticketmaster directly through Facebook’s user interface. According to the announcement, the service will be rolled out as soon as the end of April 2016. Due to a “growing number of mobile-addicted fans,” desktop and tablet ticket transactions have been declining in recent years. Through this “tie-up,” Ticketmaster hopes that it will create a more “seamless transaction” between mobile users and Ticketmaster. The arrangement is also anticipated to create big benefits for Facebook, because it will help Facebook attract […]
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Spotify Agrees To Improve Song Matching Practices In $30 Million Settlement With Publishers
Spotify and the National Music Publishing Association have reached a $30 million settlement agreement to compensate publishers and songwriters for unpaid royalties that resulted from unmatched songs in its database. According to the Agreement, the $30 million will constitute a “payout pool” where $5 million is a “penalty pool.” Under the Agreement, publishers will claim and provide ownership of songs in the unpaid and unmatched pool of songs, and then Spotify will compensate the publishers for the relevant number of streams. Each publisher will also receive additional payments based on their market share from the penalty pool. Unique to this Agreement […]
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Jay-Z Serves Legal Papers to Tidal’s Former Owners for Providing Misrepresenting Figures
On the same week Tidal celebrated surpassing three million subscribers and turning one years old, current owner Jay-Z served its former owners legal papers for lying about Tidal’s business specifics when the company was purchased. According to the King of Roc Nation and his attorneys, Tidal’s former owners, Scandinavian company Aspiro AB, were dishonest about the subscriber numbers presented to Jay-Z during the $56 million transaction. Jay-Z claims that Aspiro AB, in a letter to Jay-Z, had presented Tidal as a service with half a million subscribers. Yet, after Jay-Z took control of Tidal, an audit showed the reality was well […]
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Individuals and Companies Submit Comments Regarding the DMCA’s Safe Harbor Provisions
Last Friday the period for individuals and companies to submit comments regarding the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA ended. The US Copyright Office provided this 4-month comment period to help “evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the safe harbor provisions.”1 The Copyright office cited rapid changes in the internet since 1998 when the DMCA was established, as creating a situation “ripe” to reconsider the way copyright owners can deal with online infringement. The study will “consider the costs and burdens of the notice-and-takedown process on large- and small-scale copyright owners, online service providers, and the general public.” Further, it “will also […]
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U.K. Hits Piracy Sites Where It Hurts: Ad Revenues
While websites that host infringing content are host to millions of users daily, few of these users pay money for the sites’ services. Instead, advertising from consumer brands does. In another step towards severing the “unholy alliance” between on-site advertisers and piracy websites that host infringing content, the British Government’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has published a video to educate actors about this issue. This video is a part of a campaign by the PIPCU to educate advertisers and deter their use of piracy sites to host their advertisements. According to the video, of the top 500 IP infringing […]
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@ThursdayNightFootball
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appropriately announced via a tweet on his personal Twitter account that ten Thursday night NFL games in the upcoming season will be live streamed on the macro-sized micro-blogging social network. According to the New York Times, while games will simultaneously be shown over the air on either NBC or CBS, Twitter will feature exclusive pre- and post-game highlights. The $15 million deal is advantageous to both parties. Twitter has been slowing in growth and the NFL has been searching for novel ways to reach younger audiences who may never have a cable or satellite subscription. By […]
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She shoots and he scores
The US Women’s National Soccer Team is a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the soccer field. As explained by the New York Times, the Women’s Team is a “quadrennial phenomenon;” they are the reigning World Cup champions, they won gold for the fourth time in five Olympics at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, and they are highly expected to emerge victorious again at this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Rio. On the other hand, the Men’s National Team has historically delivered forgettable and lackluster performances at virtually every major international tournament. While the disparity in performance on […]
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“Young Money, Cash Money” Records May Need to Change Its Name to “Young, But No Money”
Lil’ Wayne has been keeping his attorneys extremely busy the past two years, and with his latest $40 million case it looks like there is no end in sight. The first suit came in early 2015, when the rapper petitioned the court to release him from his contract with record label Cash Money, award him $51 million in damages, of which $10 million is due to the label purposefully delaying the release of his long awaited next album, Tha Carter V, and to rule that he owns the copyright to recordings by Cash Money artists. While that case is still pending […]