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1: Kat Von D’s Miles Davis Tattoo Draws Copyright Infringement Suit
First off today, Claudia Rosenbaum at Billboard reports that celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D has been sued by a California photographer over a 2017 tattoo that she drew for a customer and posted on her Instagram.
The lawsuit was filed by photographer Jeffrey Sedik, who claims that Von D’s tattoo has based on a 1989 photograph he took of musician Miles Davis. Sedik claims that Von Di made no effort to license the photo and used it in a tattoo she put on a man’s shoulder and then posted on her Instagram account in March 2017.
Sedik is requesting the removal of the image, all promotional material featuring the work (not the tattoo fortunately) and statutory damages of $150,000 per work depicting the tattoo. Von D has not responded to the lawsuit.
2: EU Ready to Follow Australia’s Lead on Making Big Tech Pay for News
Next up today, The Irish Times reports that EU lawmakers are eying the ongoing Google News dispute in Australia and looking at it as a potential model to compel Google and other search engines to pay for the news they present.
The MEPs are working on two pieces of draft legislation, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). However, policymakers have said they are open to amending those draft laws following a push in Australia to force Google to pay for the content it uses.
Australia is currently considering new legislation that would force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers and broadcasters for any of their content that has shared. Both Google and Facebook have threatened to pull out of Australia, saying the law is unworkable. However, EU lawmakers say that Australia may have found a way to fix imbalances in their 2019 law that aimed to do something similar.
3: Here’s Why Dwight Yoakam Is Suing His Old Record Label
Finally today, Samantha Hissong at Rolling Stone reports that musician Dwight Yoakam is in a legal battle with Warner Music Group (WMG) over the rights to his songs. According to Yoakam, this legal battle prompted WMG to remove his songs from streaming services in a bid to “spite” him.
Yoakam is currently attempting to use copyright reversion, sometimes referred to as copyright termination, to reclaim the rights to many of his earlier songs. He first expressed his intent to do so back in 2019. However, WMG has not acknowledged the validity of those termination notices and that has put the ownership of these songs in limbo.
WMG has removed the songs from streaming platforms in a bid to avoid any copyright infringement from those works but, by not acknowledging the notices, Yoakam himself cannot exploit them. Yoakam is asking the courts to affirm the validity of the notices, saying that WMG is “implicitly recognizing” the termination by pulling down the works.
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