3 Count: Baby Come Back

You can pay it all... to... me...

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

1: Universal Music Sued Over “Baby Come Back” Royalties

First off today, Ashley Cullins at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Overrated Productions has filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Vivendi alleging underpayment of royalties on the Player’s 1977 hit song Baby Come Back.

According to Overrated, they recently acquired the rights to the song and, shortly after doing so, learned that Universal was providing royalty statements that were either “intentionally confusing” or “misleading”. They claim that the song is still being actively licensed, including for commercials and TV shows, and they are not seeing their fair share of the royalties.

As such, Overrated is suing for breach of contact and unfair competition. It is seeking a complete restitution of all profits and at least 19% of the relevant profits. Universal has not responded to the lawsuit.

2: MPAA Unhappy with Australia Over Proposed Copyright Changes

Next up today, Sam Verghese at ITWire reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed a response to the Australian government’s Productivity Commission and has objected to many of its proposed copyright reforms.

The Productivity Commission recently made several recommendations for copyright reform in the country. They included allowing users to use VPNs to circumvent geoblocking, expanding fair use exemptions and strengthening ISP safe harbor protections.

The MPAA objected to all of those proposals saying that they not only put an additional burden on content creators, but violate international norms on copyright. They are calling for the proposals to be scrapped in favor of stronger anti-piracy efforts in the country.

3: MPAA: Almost 70% of 38 Million Kodi Users Are Pirates

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that, during a panel discussion hosted by the Copyright Alliance, the MPAA’s Senior Vice President said that the Kodi platform is used legally about around 12 million users though another 26 million are using it for piracy.

Kodi is an open source platform for streaming video content and is used similar to Amazon Fire TVs and Apple TVs. The problem is that many users of Kodi use pirate addons that give access to illegal sources.

According to data from Sandvine, some 6.5% of North American households are using pirate TV services. According to the MPAA, some 70% of Kodi users install piracy addons and use the platform for illegal streaming, making it a major threat to video content producers everywhere.

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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