The Digital Meteor

Looming AFTRA-SAG Battle for New Media Jurisdiction?

From Jonathan Handel's blog:

The issue is which union has jurisdiction over original programming made for new media. The AFTRA deal, which was ratified four months ago, has a provision that says “[i]t is understood and agreed that AFTRA shares jurisdiction” over such programs. That provision would seem to give producers a choice of unions when making such shows.

However, when reviewing the AMPTP offer to SAG, I noticed that the comparable language—“[i]t is understood and agreed that SAG shares jurisdiction”—is struck out...Instead, there are a footnote and another paragraph which state that the studios and SAG disagree on whether jurisdiction would be shared. The language then states that each party reserves its legal positions on the issue. In other words, SAG refuses to agree to shared jurisdiction, and the AMPTP is not pressing the point.

Digital Media Law Blog: "SAG-AFTRA New Media Battle?"

Is It Legal? Hack Strips iTunes & Windows Media of DRM

A free application purports to convert music purchased from Apple's iTunes music store into plain old unprotected MP3s that can be played on any number of computers or MP3 players.

DVD Next Copy iTurns Free works  by tricking iTunes into thinking it's a CD burner. However, rather than being burned to CD, the music files are saved as MP3s.

Hack Strips iTunes, Windows Media of DRM

Courts OK Remote DVR Function for Cable Companies

This ruling allows cable companies to essentially function as DVR's (e.g. TiVo) remotely, that is, without a set top box.  If this holds up, it further clears the way for what some have termed the "celestial jukebox," where consumers can play any content from anywhere at anytime.

Cablevision Wins on Appeal...

Report: Television Still the One

Watching online streams isn't going to replace the living room TV set anytime soon: According to a study released Monday, 94% of adults who subscribe to a cable or satellite service prefer to watch programming on their traditional sets rather than online.

Study: TV Still the Viewing Workhorse

Gene Simmons Gives Digital Music Fans the Kiss-off

An interesting commentary on Kiss' Gene Simmons' grumping about digital music:

What's with all these old fools trying to make a name for themselves in the music business again by speaking out against piracy? First it was Metallica, who hated on bloggers, but came off its high horse only after we took the band to task. And now, it's Gene Simmons of the once-important KISS, who is blaming fans and peer-to-peer networks for the destruction of the poor music industry...

Gene Simmons Shows His Age...

MPAA Asks FCC to Block DVR Recordings

...the MPAA is asking the FCC to remove certain restrictions that forbid it from blocking the recording of certain movies and from downgrading the ability to record certain movies. Basically, the MPAA is asking the FCC let it make use of "Selectable Output Control" to keep its rapidly disappearing "release windows" business model possible.

MPAA Asks FCC...

Google, Viacom Slap-fight to Continue to Supreme Court?

We've always assumed that one day we'd wake up and read that Viacom and Google (GOOG) have settled their YouTube lawsuit. But both companies insist that's not happening.

Google, Viacom We Won't Settle YouTube Fight Out of Court...

Online Music Services Could Pay $100 Million in Royalties

Time Warner Inc's AOL unit, RealNetworks and Yahoo Inc could stand to pay up to $100 million in royalties owed to thousands of songwriters and publishers, after a federal judge established a formula for determining the payments.

The move could force the three online services to pay royalties to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) worth 2.5 percent of their music revenue dating back to 2002, ASCAP said.

                        

Online Music Services Could Pay...

Despite Lawsuits: Piracy Grows

Unfortunately, people are discovering The Pirate Bay and a whole host of other sites. Even as the MPA, MPAA, IFPI, and other groups have scored legal victories over torrent sites, BitTorrent use is growing. In fact, average BitTorrent traffic for the two-month period from mid-January to mid-March was up almost 25 percent compared with the month before Christmas, according to online media measurement firm BigChampagne.

BitTorrent Use Soars...

"iTunes Tax" fails by One Vote

Lawmakers in California rejected a bill to tax internet download sales by only one vote, motivating supporters to keep the measure alive and go for another attempt as early as next week. California is one of many states considering a tax on digital downloads, which could considerably affect the price of per-track or per-album downloads and in turn impact adoption by already wary music fans.

iTunes Tax Fails

Directors' Guild Lawyer Kenny Ziffren on Digital Shift and Profit

In the long-term, we’re dealing with two industries — TV and features — where the growth rate is probably flat or down over the next three-five years. New media, while it may eventually be additive to existing distribution structures, will be cannibalistic in the short run, and that will present a major challenge not only to the studios, but obviously to the guilds in terms of how talent is employed and what structures are desirable or necessary to either maintain or augment their current income. Additionally, it’s just knowing more and more as time goes on about what new technologies are available and whether they are again additive, cannibalistic or both, and how to manage those in a way that’s good for talent—and the industry.

DGA's Q&A with Kenny Ziffren

Copying: Most Popular Form of Piracy-- 95% Teens Illegally Copy

More than half of young people copy the songs on their hard drives to friends and even more swap CD copies, according to research that reveals the huge challenge home copying poses to a music industry already battling internet file-sharing...

The industry's anti-piracy efforts have largely focused on illegal online music swapping - with estimates suggesting only one in 20 digital downloads is paid for. But the online problem is potentially dwarfed by "offline copying", argues BMR. Its research, carried out by the University of Hertfordshire, suggests that, for 18-24-year-olds, home copying remains more popular than file sharing. Two-thirds of people it surveyed copy five CDs a month from friends.

Home Copying- Burnt into Teenage Psyche
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US Speeds Up Oversees TV Distribution to Fight Piracy

US media groups are trying to speed up the overseas distribution of their leading television programmes to contain a rapidly-growing piracy epidemic fuelled by easy access to video from websites.

NBC Universal is planning, as part of that effort, to expand on a ground-breaking agreement it struck last year with France’s TF-1 in which viewers were offered paid-for access to subtitled episodes of Heroes, one of its biggest hits, just a day after their US premiere.

US Steps Up TV Piracy Battle

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Judge Rules You Cannot Sue Over Songs "Made Available" on P2P

A federal judge in New York has dealt the Recording Industry Association of America a setback in its thousands of lawsuits over piracy on peer-to-peer networks.

Judge to RIAA: You Can't Sue...
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Trying to Get Internet Service Providers to Voluntarily Police Piracy

Warner has floated trying to compensate for piracy by implementing a monthly tax on internet service providers (ISP's).  Britain's Virgin Music is trying to get ISP's voluntarily monitor and track file sharing and downloading and then hand this info over to them for legal action...

Six million broadband users are estimated to download files illegally each year, costing record labels billions of pounds in lost CD sales. ISPs have so far resisted calls to control the traffic that passes over their networks, raising issues around customer privacy and the difficulty of accurately pinpointing file sharers.

Virgin Media Takes Fight to Illegal Downloaders
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Japanese Internet Service Providers Bow to Entertainment Industry Pressure

...the entertainment industry's anti-piracy strategy over the past year or so has focused increasingly on putting legal or peer pressure on ISPs to handle the problem... bunch of Japanese ISPs have agreed to cut off the users of the incredibly popular "Winny" file sharing applicationSlashdot) if the entertainment industry alerts them to the IP addresses of excessively heavy users.  ..the press likes to focus on the more sensational data leaks that happened via Winny, including Japan's nuclear secrets.

Japanese ISP's the Latest to Bow to Pressure from the Entertainment Industry
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Another article:

Of course, there are legitimate organisations using P2P, including the BBC, and people who still want to share will use ways that make it impossible for ISPs to see what they are doing. Also, it would still be possible to "leak illegally copied material" using services such as MegaUpload and even YouTube.

Japanese ISP's Threaten to Cut Off File Sharers

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Proposal: Piracy Tax on Internet Service Providers

Can upping the cost of web access lead to fair compensation for performers & studios?  Digital strategy consultant Jim Griffin thinks so:

"Having failed to stop piracy by suing internet users, the music industry is for the first time seriously considering a file sharing surcharge that internet service providers would collect from users."

[the proposed]..."idea is to collect a fee from internet service providers -- something like $5 per user per month -- and put it into a pool that would be used to compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels. A collecting agency would divvy up the money according to artists' popularity on P2P sites, just as ASCAP and BMI pay songwriters for broadcasts and live performances of their work."

Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on Internet Service Providers (ISP's)
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Or, you could tax music downloads...

California Internet Sales Tax Bill Faces Long Odds

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Viacom vs. Youtube-- Youtube Wins First Round

Viacom (Paramount, Nickelodeon, etc.) has a suit against YouTube for having everything under the sun posted for free on its site.  Youtube removed most everything, I believe, and has won the first round in a lawsuit that threatened to bring it down completely...

"A federal judge denied Viacom’s claim for punitive damages in its $1 billion copyright lawsuit against Google/YouTube. Viacom can still sue for damages..."

No Punitive Damages in Viacom vs. YouTube Lawsuit
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Here's the short version of the lawsuit:

YouTube-Viacom, the CliffNotes Version

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A judge explains to Viacom that they cannot demand punitive damages:

Techdirt: Court Explains Copywrite Laws to Viacom