3 Count: International Shipment

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1: Appeal Court Orders Attorney-General to Issue New Directions on Sending Dotcom’s Devices to US

First off today, The New Zealand Herald is reporting that a New Zealand Court of Appeals has ordered the Attorney-General to issue new directions to police that will enable them to send devices and passwords seized from Kim Dotcom over to U.S. authorities.

Kim Dotcom, along with several co-conspirators, were arrested in January of 2012 in New Zealand on allegations of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. Dotcom has since fought extradition, with a hearing currently scheduled for September. Among his challenges, Dotcom fought the search warrants that were issued for his property, saying they ere invalid though the country’s Supreme Court ruled in December that they were proper.

With that decision, the Attorney-General sought to have an earlier order barring the police from handing over seized data and computer equipment to U.S. authorities. With the Supreme Court’s decision in mind, the appeals court has decided to allow evidence to be transferred. However, the issue may be appealed. Dotcom, historically, has said he has no objection to the evidence being transferred as long as personal data is removed, something New Zealand authorities said they lack the resources to do.

2: Miguel Gave Billy Corgan A Writing Credit To Avoid Copyright Issues

Next up today, Sam Murphy at MusicFeeds reports that the musician Miguel has given Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan songwriting credit on his song Leaves, which he decided sounded a great deal like The Smashing Pumpkins song 1979.

Murphy approached Corgan voluntarily after realizing the similarities. He said that they were not intentional, but that he noticed them after he recorded it. Corgan, for his part, approved of the song.

According to Miguel, the similarities become clear “when the drum programming kicks in” but were not intentional. Miguel’s move comes not long after a jury awarded the estate of Marvin Gaye $7.4 million over similarities between Gaye’s Got to Give it Up and Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines. A judge, however, has since reduced that damage award to $5.3 million.

3: NPR Follows Amazon in Withdrawing From MIC Coalition

Finally today, Ed Christman at Billboard reports that NPR has pulled out of the MIC Coalition, a group of digital music service providers and terrestrial broadcasters who banded together to argue for lower royalty rates on music that they play.

The organization still has many prominent members including Google, Pandora, iHeartRadio and more. However, NPR joins Amazon in leaving the group, which formed a month ago.

While NPR did not state a reason for leaving the organization, Amazon said it left because the issue it was interested in, simplifying the royalty payment process, was taking a backseat to the rates themselves.

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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