3 Count: Death’s Door

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1: Blaming Piracy, Music Industry Says It’s Lost a Third of Its Value Over Past 7 Years

First off today, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) released its annual report today and, as one might expect, it’s fairly grim. According to the report, the record industry has lost about 30% of its total value globally over the past 7 years and even the growth in digital music sales is slowing.The report places the blame for this on piracy and calls for governments to take stronger action against it, saying that some 1.2 million jobs in Europe may disappear by 2015 if nothing is done.

2: Record Labels Seek To Disqualify LimeWire’s Law Firm For Ethical Conflict

Next up today, though Limewire may have been shut down, the case against it continues as record industry attorneys attempt to get damages from the company. However, now the attorneys for the plaintiffs are attempting to get the opposing counsel disqualified for an alleged conflict of interest. According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, Cravath, Swaine & Moore (CSM), one of the core members of their team in the case, Jeffrey Korn, now works for Limewire’s counsel, Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG), and has a critical role in the case. This, according to CSM, creates a conflict of interest that should result in WFG from working on the case any farther. This could, potentially, slow down the case greatly as Limewire may have to obtain new counsel and bring them up to speed in the case.

3: Cheap Books or End of Indian Writing?

Finally today, publishers in India are worried about pending changes in the country’s copyright law that, they say, could flood the market with cheap books. The current law requires publishers to get specific territorial rights to distribute books in India but changes to the law, largely aimed at helping Bollywood handle licensing of music and other content, would allow books to be sold in the country that were printed anywhere. According to publishers, this could jeopardize the Indian publishing system as a flood of books unable to be sold in other markets are sold cheap within the country. Publishers have vowed to lobby against the law or for changes to it to protect them.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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