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CMU Digest
CMU Digest 09.07.18: Copyright directive, SGAE, MegaUpload, Strongroom, bots ban
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 9 July 2018
The key stories from the last week in the music business…
The European Parliament voted down the proposed new copyright directive, which includes the music industry backed article thirteen that seeks to reform the copyright safe harbour and increase the liabilities of user-upload sites like YouTube. That article was among the most controversial and resulted in a big push by the tech lobby encouraging MEPs to block the new directive. The whole matter will now go back for a debate involving the full European Parliament in September. [READ MORE]
Five global music publishers told Spanish collecting society SGAE that they were pulling some of the rights in their Anglo-American repertoires out of the organisation. SGAE management continues to be criticised about the controversy over the way TV royalties are distributed in Spain. There have been a number of allegations of misconduct against SGAE bosses over the years and the big publishers reckon that the wider collective licensing community has not done enough to address these issues. [READ MORE]
The New Zealand Court Of Appeal said there were grounds to extradite MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom to face charges of copyright crimes in the US. Dotcom argues that the allegations of copyright infringement against his former company are insufficient to allow extradition. But US prosecutors counter that the copyright infringing activities of MegaUpload constituted fraud, which is covered by the extradition treaty between America and New Zealand. Dotcom now plans to take his case to NZ’s Supreme Court. [READ MORE]
Shoreditch-based recording studio Strongroom urged the music community to sign a petition opposing the redevelopment of a neighbouring building. Strongroom reckons that the eighteen months of disruption the proposed new tower block build would cause could put them out of business. The studio asked: “Does Shoreditch really need another ugly office block to benefit a Guernsey-based corporation? We ask you to stand with us and save culture over big business”. [READ MORE]
The ticket touting bots ban came into effect in the UK. Stemming from the 2017 Digital Economy Act, this new ban makes it illegal to use special software to buy up lots of tickets to shows from primary sites in order to resell them on the secondary market. It is generally the least controversial of the proposed anti-touting measures, and is often supported by the big ticket resale sites themselves. [READ MORE]
The big deals from the last seven days in the music business…
• Peermusic acquired Accorder Music [INFO]
• Warner Music allied with Internet Media Services on YouTube ad sales [INFO]
• TuneCore announced a partnership with Sentric Music [INFO]
• Kilimanjaro bought Belladrum festival [INFO]
• Superstruct bought Sonar [INFO]
• NEC Group announced a partnership with start-up Make It Social [INFO]
• MJR announced a deal with Eventbrite [INFO]
• Warner/Chappell signed Kloe [INFO]
