3 Count: Sins of the Father

Jonathan BaileyJune 13, 2014

3 minutes read

Have any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Sixth Circuit Upholds Infringement Finding Against Bar’s Owner for Copyright Violations

First off today, Bloomberg BNA reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld a lower court ruling against Rafters, a golf course restaurant in Canton, Ohio that was sued by Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) of the restaurants playing of BMI-licensed music without obtaining a license from the organization.

BMI sued the restaurant and its owners Roy E. Barr and his son Phillip Barr, after warning the restaurant multiple times to obtain a license for the music. Phillip Barr was dropped from the lawsuit after he declared bankruptcy but Roy Barr, who owns 95% o the restaurant, fought the case claiming that he was unaware of the infringement as his son was the one who managed the location.

However, the lower court found on a summary judgment that Roy Barr was vicariously liable for the copyright infringement and, in a 3-0 ruling, the appeals court upheld that verdict. According the appellate court judges, the actions of Roy Barr meet the standards of vicarious liability set forth in the Grokster case and that his ignorance about the infringement does not blunt liability as the law was meant to encourage owners to police their establishments for infringement.

2: NMPA Puts U.S. Publishing Revenues at $2.2 Billion Annually

Next up today, Ed Christman at Billboard reports that The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has released a report estimating that U.S. music publishing earns some $2.2 billion in revenue in the past year. However, the organization estimates that roughly $2.3 billion in revenue is missed out due to what it considers outdated laws.

The NMPA reached the latter calculation by by looking at direct deals that publishers had cut with iTunes Radio and Pandora before the rate court ruled that publishers can’t singularly pull out their digital rights without pulling out completely from performing rights organizations.

The NMPA also claims that performance licensing accounts for 52% of the U.S. publishing revenue, mechanical licensing 23% and synch licensing 20%.

3: World’s ‘Most Infringing’ Music Site Faces Legal Action

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that Dilandau, a popular music download site that has seen more DMCA notices filed against it with Google than any other music-oriented site, has had its French servers seized and may be soon losing its .eu domain.

Dilandau was formerly a music search engine that gave users easy access to MP3s. However, several weeks ago the site’s severs, located in France, were reportedly seized and when the site returned its .eu domain redirected to a .la domain and, rather thank linking to MP3 downloads, the site was directing searchers to YouTube videos for the artists.

Torrentfreak also noticed that the registration for the .eu domain is listed as being “on hold” pending legal action, meaning it may soon lose the domain. The operators of the site are reportedly based in Spain but hosted the site in France before moving it to its current home in Germany.

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.