Music industry legal news

Supertramp in court over song royalties dispute

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Supertramp • 1 min read

Supertramp in court over song royalties dispute

Four former members are in court in a dispute over a 1977 agreement outlining royalty splits between them. Co-founder Roger Hodgson says that the deal that gave Dougie Thomson, John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg a share of songwriting royalties was never supposed to be permanent…

Chris Cooke • 21 Feb 2024

New study says web-blocking drives people from piracy to legit sites

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Piracy • 2 min read

New study says web-blocking drives people from piracy to legit sites

A new study suggests that the web-blocking of piracy sites does result in more consumers accessing licensed content services, though it also drives more users to unblocked piracy platforms. The music industry is keen for web-blocks to be available in more countries…

Chris Cooke • 20 Feb 2024

Ticket tout defendant insists he wasn't actively involved in his wife's fraudulent scheme

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TQ Tickets • 2 min read

Ticket tout defendant insists he wasn't actively involved in his wife's fraudulent scheme

A director of ticket touting company TQ Tickets accused of fraudulent trading has told a court that he wasn’t actually involved in the business. He claims that he simply allowed his wife to list him as a director because she couldn’t perform that role due to an earlier bankruptcy…

Chris Cooke • 20 Feb 2024

EU to investigate TikTok over online safety concerns

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TikTok • 2 min read

EU to investigate TikTok over online safety concerns

The European Union has announced it is investigating TikTok for potential breaches of its Digital Services Act - failure to deal with harmful content was one of the concerns cited by Universal Music when it pulled out of licensing negotiations last month…

Andy Malt • 20 Feb 2024

Apple faces €500 million fine after Spotify-prompted EU competition investigation

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Apple • 2 min read

Apple faces €500 million fine after Spotify-prompted EU competition investigation

Nearly five years after Spotify first submitted a formal complaint to the European Union over Apple’s App Store rules regarding in-app payments, EU regulators are reportedly about to fine the tech giant €500 million having concluded that those rules breach competition law…

Chris Cooke • 19 Feb 2024

Hipgnosis Songs Fund goes legal to indemnify itself in relation to a different Hipgnosis v Hipgnosis legal battle

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Hipgnosis • 2 min read

Hipgnosis Songs Fund goes legal to indemnify itself in relation to a different Hipgnosis v Hipgnosis legal battle

The Hipgnosis Songs Fund has filed legal action against its investment advisor Hipgnosis Song Management in a dispute relating to a lawsuit filed by another Hipgnosis company, the defunct Hipgnosis Music Limited…

Chris Cooke • 19 Feb 2024

Sony Music sues over unpaid sync fees from Whitney Houston biopic

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Sony Music • 2 min read

Sony Music sues over unpaid sync fees from Whitney Houston biopic

The producers of the Whitney Houston biopic 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' have been accused on infringing the copyright in her recordings after failing to pay the fees due on a sync deal negotiated with the late musician’s label, Sony Music…

Chris Cooke • 19 Feb 2024

Anthropic's fair use defence and Claude 'guardrails' are defective, say the music publishers

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Anthropic • 2 min read

Anthropic's fair use defence and Claude 'guardrails' are defective, say the music publishers

The music publishers that sued Anthropic have again demanded a preliminary injunction against the AI company ordering it to stop using and outputting lyrics they control, while also disputing its fair use defence…

Chris Cooke • 16 Feb 2024

Russell Simmons sued for defamation over his response to allegations of sexual assault

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Russell Simmons • 2 min read

Russell Simmons sued for defamation over his response to allegations of sexual assault

Russell Simmons has been sued for defamation over comments he made last year regarding the allegations of sexual assault that have been made against him. Those comments were part “a concerted and malicious campaign” to discredit his accusers, a lawsuit claims…

Chris Cooke • 16 Feb 2024

Music industry welcomes German ruling holding TikTok liable for unlicensed content

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TikTok • 5 min read

Music industry welcomes German ruling holding TikTok liable for unlicensed content

A German court has held TikTok liable for hosting unlicensed content following a lawsuit filed by a Berlin film distributor which relied on changes made to the copyright safe harbour by the 2019 EU Copyright Directive…

Chris Cooke • 15 Feb 2024

Russell Simmons sued over allegations of rape

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Russell Simmons • 2 min read

Russell Simmons sued over allegations of rape

A former employee at Def Jam has filed a lawsuit accusing the label’s founder Russell Simmons of rape. It relates to an incident in the 1990s, with the plaintiff relying on a New York City law that allows the filing of lawsuits that would usually be prohibited by the statute of limitations…

Chris Cooke • 14 Feb 2024

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Pandora • 3 min read

MLC sues Pandora over unpaid royalties

Pandora has been sued by collecting society MLC in a dispute over whether or not the US streaming service needs to pay mechanical royalties on all the revenues associated with its free tier…

Chris Cooke • 13 Feb 2024

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