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1: Wixen Sues Triller for Copyright Infringement
First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that the music publisher Wixen has filed a lawsuit against TikTok competitor Triller claiming that the viral video site is not paying songwriters for the use of their music and, instead, is focusing on deals with “social influencers”.
The service has been around for several years but has recently begun to expand amidst both external investment and various political issues befalling its main rival. It’s reached deals with many music companies, including all the major record labels, but Wixen argues that it has not completely covered its bases when dealing with the music publisher side of things and that many of the compositions it uses are unlicensed at this time.
According to the lawsuit, the company had many opportunities to reach out and negotiate a license with Wixen and other publishers. Instead, they claim that the company has sought out deals with large “influencers” in a bid to poach them from TikTok and other platforms. Wixen is seeking statutory damages for all of the Wixen-licensed music that appears on the platform.
2: Nintendo Asks Court to Put an End to ‘Domain Hopping’ Piracy Hack Stores
Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that Nintendo is asking a U.S. court to take additional action against online stores selling mod chips after GoDaddy declined to transfer a domain that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in an injunction.
The case relates to Team-Xecuter, which has released a series of hacks and modchips for the Nintendo Switch console. Among other things, these hacks enable the Switch to play pirated games. Those hacks and modchips have appeared on a variety of online stores, including Txswitch which was briefly shuttered after it’s domain was seized by Nintendo as part of a court order.
However, the site did not disappear for long, simply reappearing on a domain name nearly identical to the previous but with two letters transposed. Nintendo demanded that the new domain be transferred as well but GoDaddy declined as it wasn’t in the original court order. Nintendo is now going back to court asking for the new domain to be seized and for a clarification on the original court order that would give it more power to seize future domains the site uses.
3: Twitch Streamer Goes Viral for Creative Way of Dodging DMCA Claims
Finally today, Luke Shaw at NME reports that Twitch streamer PlayWithJambo has found a creative way to avoid copyright claims on her videos. She follows Twitch’s advice of muting the game’s audio and, instead, has begun filling in the audio herself to comical effect.
The move comes after Twitch drew controversy for its handling of an onslaught of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown requests due to unlicensed music appearing in users’ videos. Twitch has advised streamers to mute in-game audio to avoid such copyright notices and that has led to a slew of parody videos, including streamers playing silent Guitar Hero on the service.
However, PlayWithJambo took things to the next level by muting her audio while playing Skyrim and doing all the sound effects herself as she was streaming. Others have followed suit and are playing other games while providing all of the in-game audio themselves.
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