Each year the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) publishes a report on “online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting,” called the Notorious Markets List. As part of creating the report, the USTR requests the aid of the public to identify these marketplaces through […]
Disney doesn’t want you to hire “Big Hairy Guy,” a Chewbacca lookalike, for your child’s next birthday party. Disney and its corporate affiliates have filed a lawsuit against Characters For Hire, LLC (“CFH”) for copyright and trademark infringement. Though CFH changes the names of many of its characters, such as Darth Vader to “Dark Lord,”
As digital music streaming continues to explode, it calls for a platform that can track the data generated from billions of clicks and collect royalties for artists. Kobalt, the independent music services company founded in 2000, has been focusing on such a platform since Paul McCartney took his music publishing interest from EMI to Kobalt
Streaming companies and major film studios have joined forces to sue TickBox, the company behind TickBox TV, a device that offers its users easy access to free online content. The complaint filed on Friday, October 13 by companies such as Universal, Disney, Hulu and Netflix, has alleged that TickBox sells “illegal access to Plaintiff’s copyrighted
On Nov. 2 Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) won the bidding war to become “worldwide publishing administrator” for the entire Prince catalogue. Unfortunately, for streaming purposes, it may have to license those publishing rights exclusively to Tidal. According to Billboard, on Nov. 11, Jay Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, filed paperwork in a Minnesota district
When the owner of a public space plays recorded music, she must obtain a license for the public performance of the copyrighted musical work. American copyright laws require the owner to only obtain one license for the song copyright, whereas in other countries, owners are required to obtain an additional license for the recording copyright,
This past Monday, Warner Music agreed to pay $14 million dollars to end its lawsuit involving the rights to the song “Happy Birthday to You.” Back in 2014, a film producer and two New York music producers filed the class action lawsuit after paying exorbitant licensing fees for use of the popular song. One
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is one of the two largest Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) in the country. Boasting a repertoire of over 10 million musical compositions from over half a million members, ASCAP can now also boast that it is the first PRO to make “licensable share data” readily available
