3 Count: Remix Reboot

Heading to Spotify and Apple Music...

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

1: Dubset Makes Sony the First Major Label Legalized for Remixing

First off today, Josh Constine at TechCrunch reports that Sony Music has signed a deal with startup Dubset to license its music for DJ sets and remixes making it the first record label to offer a blanket license for its music for these purposes.

Dubset is a company that digitally fingerprints mixes and compares them to a library of known music. It can then divide up royalties with labels and publishers, ensuring that everyone gets paid, even for very short samples. Though the company had some 35,000 small publishers and labels already, Sony represents the first of the big three record labels to sign up.

To that end, Dubset has said it is close to deals with the other two labels, Universal and Warner, If it’s able to do that, it could make it possible for remixes to appear on Apple Music, Spotify and similar services because Dubset will handle the (often times extremely complex) royalty issues that arise from remixes.

2: Pirate Bay Founders Ordered to Pay Music Labels $477,000

Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that a court in Finland has ordered two of the founders of The Pirate Bay to pay record labels $477,000 in damages.

The lawsuit began in November 2011 when the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) filed a lawsuit against the site. The case moved slowly but this week the court ordered Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm to pay the damages.

Hoever, neither Neij nor Svartholm put up any defense in the case. The court was unable to contact either man nor get any kind of a reply. The case was heard in their absence and the judgment is a default judgment. This judgment follows a similar Finnish judgment against Peter Sunde, another Pirate Bay founder. He was found liable last year for a similar amount of money.

3: The Copyright Status of MP3 Resale Back in Court via the ReDigi Appeal

Finally today, Complete Music Update reports that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has heard the ReDigi appeal and is tackling the question about reselling MP3s and other digital goods.

ReDigi was a company that claimed to resell digital music files, similar to a used record shop online. However, while copyright does grant the right of first sale, meaning its legal resale legally-obtained products, Capitol Records sued arguing that it’s impossible to resell digital goods and that ReDigi was essentially selling unauthorized copies.

In 2013 the lower court agreed, siding with Capitol. Since then ReDigi has filed for bankruptcy and the music industry has mostly moved to streaming. However, the appeal has moved forward with the judges hearing about the technical issues involved in reselling an MP3 file and the impact it has on copyright law. The court is not expected to issue a ruling for several weeks or months.

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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

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