Weekly IP Buzz for the week ending October 5, 2018
Here's a summary of interesting developments in intellectual property, technology, social media, and Internet law for the week ending October 5, 2018.
New Bill “Music Modernization Act” Proposed to Help Songwriters
In today’s day and age, it has often been difficult for the law to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of the Internet and new technological innovations. The music industry especially has been critical of the way copyrights are enforced and policed, often having to rely on suing universities or internet service providers on theories of contributory or secondary liability to enforce their copyrights or block piracy. This all may finally be changing, however, as Senate overwhelmingly passed the Music Modernization Act with a unanimous vote earlier this month.
The House is expected to quickly approve the bill with the intention to fast track the bill to the White House by the beginning of October. If made into law, the Music Modernization Act would mark the first revolution in copyright law, being the first to truly address technological innovation since digital music has become available. At its core, the Music Modernization Act would rewrite how songwriters are paid when their music is licensed or even played. Read more details here.
Music Industry Battles Internet Service Provider (ISP) Over Copyright Infringement
A Texas internet service provider (“ISP”) has taken to federal court to complain about the increased pressure from the music industry to monitor copyright infringement. In a federal filing, Texas ISP Grande Communications (“Grande”) has complained to federal court that record companies from the music industry have attempted to increasingly shift the burden of policing copyright infringement of their copyrighted works by abusing the use of legal takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). Read more about the story.
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Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. He also co-founded Project K, a charitable movement devoted to changing the world one random act of kindness at a time, and publishes Thriving Attorney, a blog dedicated to exploring the business of the practice of law, productivity and performance for attorneys, and other topics such as law firm leadership and management, law firm culture, and business development for attorneys.
Click to learn more about Darin M. Klemchuk's law practice as an intellectual property lawyer.