3 Count: Pirates of the Caribbean

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1: The Trinidad & Tobago Government Threatens Streaming Pirates with Imprisonment Sentences

First off today, Bill Toulas at TechNadu reports that the government of the Caribbean nation Trinidad & Tobago has released a strong warning to its citizens: Buying or selling devices used in piracy can net you fines of up to $250,000 and prison sentences as long as ten years.

The notice was published by the telecommunications authority along with the intellectual property office of the country. It warned users of small devices that are used to access pirated content and stream it to a television.

However, the harshness of the language and issues determining which devices are legitimate led to confusion and fear among many of the nation’s citizens. This prompted the government to provide a clarification and make it clear that’s perfectly legal to access free resources, like YouTube or services that you pay for, like Netflix. They added that it is unpaid pirate apps that they are targeting.

2: K-pop Damaged by Adapted Chinese Songs that Pretend to be Original

Next up today, Korea Bizwire reports that Korea Music Copyright Association (KMCA) has released a study that found many popular K-pop songs are copied and translated by Chinese music companies and released as original works, both in China and abroad.

According to their research, at least three Chinese music companies have done this have not paid royalties to the original composers of those songs. This problem is often especially bad on YouTube as K-pop labels are not registered with Content ID, allowing the Chinese versions to take their place.

However, the KMCA said that it has “completed measures” to ensure that YouTube distributes the royalties correctly in the future and is encouraging local music companies all over the world to actively monitor online content and ensure their work is not infringing.

3: ‘New .MUSIC Top-Level Domain Will Be Piracy Hostile, Despite Early Fears

Finally today, Andy Maxwell at TorrentFreak writes that Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has agreed to allow the creation of domains that end in .MUSIC and the company that’s placed in charge of selling those domains has said that piracy will not be tolerated.

The company that holds the rights, DotMusic Limited, has held the domains since 2003 but just recently reached an agreement with ICANN to start selling those domains to the public. The company has said that it intends to tightly control those that can register such domains, limiting it to professional musicians and or organizations involved in the music industry.

Everyone that opts for a .MUSIC domain will have to go through a validation process and names for famous bands and organizations will be held for a period of time to allow them to obtain it first. The company has also drafted a very strict anti-piracy policy that will see it getting information from major rights enforcement agencies and boot sites that get too many notices.

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