3 Count: Clueless 360

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1: Film Studios in Talks With Musicians Guild to Settle Dispute Over Unoriginal Scores

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, often called the Musicians Guild, is close to a settlement with movie studios over the reuse of music in film scores.

According to the guild, its agreement with the labels requires that all films have a unique score that is written by its members. However, they cited several examples of studios reusing parts of previous scores in newer works. Now an attorney representing the studios has informed the judge that the parties are close to a deal that would not only resolve the litigation but also prevent future lawsuits.

The move comes shortly after the guild suffered a setback in a different case over the studios alleged outsourcing of film scores to other countries. In that case, Paramount convinced the judge it wasn’t the employer of the Slovakian composers who worked on the film, which could have a major impact on all agreements between the studios and the guild.

2: Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, 1,000 More Petition European Commission Over YouTube

Next up today, Marc Hogan at Pitchfork reports that over 1,000 musicians, including Paul McCartney, Coldplay and Lady Gaga, have signed a petition sent to the European Commission asking for help in changing safe harbor provisions to better protect artists from sites like YouTube.

According to the letter, YouTube exploits safe harbor, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States, to create a “value gap” that allows YouTube to pay far below market rates for music. The letter, which was coordinated by industry groups, says they want a fair playing field for creators and rights holders.

The letter follows an ad with a similar message in the U.S that was targeted at Washington D.C. It also follows a letter signed by 58 members of the European Parliament that asks the commission to strengthen its safe harbor laws.

3: Pirates Using YouTube’s 360 Videos to Hide Movies from Copyright Detection

Finally today, Ken Yeung reports that pirates may have found one way to circumvent Content ID and other anti-piracy controls on YouTube by uploading the entire film Clueless to the site as a 360 video rather than a regular YouTube video.

The technology is designed for people to view on virtual reality devices and let you look in all directions when watching a film. One user, however, stitched together two videos to create a 360 film that contained the entire film Clueless, likely in a bid to avoid detection. The move seems to have worked, pointing to a possible gap in YouTube’s antipiracy efforts.

The video is currently down due to a copyright claim. The issue was first brought to light by Adam Conover, the star of the show Adam Ruins Everything, who posted about it on Twitter saying “Whoa, pirates have started hiding movies in YouTube 360 videos to avoid Content ID.”

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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