3 Count: Settled Again?
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1: Charter Settles Piracy Liability Lawsuits With Major Record Labels
First off today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that internet service provider Charter Communications has reached a second settlement with the major record labels over allegations that it failed to do enough to stop piracy on its service.
Charter, along with several other ISPs, were sued by the labels alleging that they were not fulfilling their obligations under the law. Specifically, they said the ISPs were not doing enough to terminate repeat infringers operating on their service.
Last week, news came out that ISP Bright House settled their lawsuit with the labels the day before a trial was scheduled to begin. Bright House, however, is now owned by Charter, and it also appears that Charter has settled the lawsuit filed directly against them on similar grounds.
2: Artists to Cash in When Work is Resold with Update of Copyright Laws
Next up today, Marie Woolf of the Canadian Press reports that, in Canada, a new law is being drafted by Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez that would give artists a “resale right” in their paintings.
The idea of the law is fairly straightforward, when a painting is resold, under the new proposed law, the artist would be entitled to royalties on that sale. For example, local artist Claude Tousignant had one of his paintings sell in 2012 for $110,000. Under the current law, he received nothing, but would receive $5,500 under this law.
The law aims to follow some 90 other countries, including France and the United Kingdom, both of which have such resale rights. The law is widely supported by both artists and groups representing artists in the country.
3: Taylor Swift Files Motion in “Shake It Off” Copyright Lawsuit, Says Lyrics “Were Written Entirely by Me”
Finally today, Nina Corcoran at Pitchfork writes that Taylor Swift has filed a motion in her ongoing lawsuit over her 2014 song Shake it Off. In the motion, she made it clear that the lyrics to Shake it Off were entirely written by her and that she had not heard the plaintiff’s track until 2017, when the lawsuit was filed.
The lawsuit was filed by members of the band 3LW, who claimed that Switf’s song was an infringement of their earlier track, Playas Gon’ Play. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2018 but revived on appeal in 2021 and is now back before the lower court, where the judge has refused to throw out the case a second time.
According to Swift, she was unable to watch music videos at the time 3LW was active, did not own any of their albums and that any similarities between the tracks were created independently by her.
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