3 Count: Wolfgang Vaulted

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1: US Supreme Court Spurns Copyright Fight Over Concert Recordings

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear a case involving the concert archive site Wolfgang’s Vault and its owner, Bill Sagan.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of music publishers, who alleged that the Wolfgang’s Vault unlawfully hosted some 197 songs from various musicians. The case went to a jury trial, with the publishers winning some $189,000 in damages. The judge in that case also found Sagan himself personally liable, saying that he was the one who made the songs available.

However, the appeals court overturned Sagan’s liability, ruling that there was no evidence that he “pressed the button” to post the content at issue. The publishers appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear this case. This lets the appeals court ruling stand and frees Sagan from personal liability.

2: Ed Sheeran ‘Let’s Get It On’ Copyright Case Isn’t Over Quite Yet

Next up today, Bill Donahue at Billboard reports that Ed Sheeran will have to continue to face allegations that his hit song Thinking Out Loud is a copyright infringement after one group of plaintiffs have decided to appeal the case.

The case was initially filed by the estate of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the Marvin Gaye song Let’s Get it On. They claimed the Sheeran work was an infringement of the Gaye song, though a judge disagreed with that and dismissed the case ahead of a trial.

Initially, it was reported that the estate had no plans on appealing. However, a second plaintiff, a company that owns a one-third stake in Townsend’s copyrights, has filed an appeal. This means that the case is not fully over and will be heard by the appeals court, despite original claims that plans for an appeal were being dropped.

3: Spotify Threatens Uruguay Exit Amid Proposed Changes to Music Copyright Law

Finally today, Mandy Dalugdug at Music Business Worldwide reports that the music streaming service Spotify has threatened to pull out of Uruguay if the country moves ahead with proposed copyright reforms.

The changes, which were pushed for by local trade organizations, call for “social networks and the internet” to be added as formats for which musicians are given royalties. However, Spotify claims that this is simply “an additional mandatory payment for music services” and has notified the Ministry of Education and Culture that, if the changes do go into effect, they will be forced to withdraw from the country.

According to Spotify, the law would require them to “pay twice for the same music” and make the country untenable to operate in. They claim to already pay 70% of their revenue to labels and publishers and have helped the music industry in the country grow 20% in 2022.

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