Music Ally

Chinese search giant Baidu has been found guilty of copyright infringement for providing unauthorised links to lyrics in its Baidu MP3 Lyrics search service. The case was brought by Chinese publisher MCSC which found 50 of its songs available on the service. According to local reports, Beijing People’s Court, Haidian district ordered that Baidu remove the links and pay 50,000 Yuan (GBP £4,750 or USD $7,300) plus 10,000 Yuan (£950) for litigation expenses.

While Baidu is expected to appeal, the case is nevertheless a notable step by the Chinese courts to assert the validity of copyright in the country. Baidu is China’s biggest search engine with over 60% market share; and also operates the largest online music service in the country, providing links to MP3 files hosted elsewhere on the net. Since the Baidu MP3 Search service links to music files on the web the company claims that it is not infringing copyright as it is not actually hosting the files. This claim was contested by the IFPI which fought a legal battle against Baidu but uiltimately lost in January this year when the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that linking to content does not constitute infringement.

The ruling against the IFPI appeared to be a huge blow against advocates of stronger intellectual property protection in China; but some observers have suggested that rather than proving that the Chinese courts are not sympathetic to copyright concerns, it instead suggests that the IFPI failed to bring a proper case.

This latest ruling in favour of a local music publisher certainly indicates that music rights owners in China can be heard; and it’s not the first time that Baidu has been slapped down by the courts. In 2005  Shanghai Busheng Music Culture Media Company, an affiliate of EMI, won an infringement case against Baidu’s MP3 Search feature. However, at the time press reports suggested that the MP3 Search feature may be disabled as a result, but Baidu continued regardless. It’s not yet clear whether this latest legal ruling will have any discernable effect on the search engine’s claim that linking to content is fine; or whether it marks a small but significant turning point in the way the Chinese courts are prepared to back rightsholders.

The ongoing saga over whether Palm’s Pre smartphone can or can’t synchronise with iTunes has another chapter, with Palm having restored the feature in the new release of its webOS smartphone software. Apple has blocked the feature twice now in iTunes updates, with Palm finding a workaround each time. We sense if neither side gives up, this could be heading to the courts.

Sony Music Entertainment has taken an undisclosed stake in digital distributor, and plans to integrate parts of the latter’s platform with its RED distribution subsidiary. Sony says the deal shows its commitment to expanding its services to indie labels. “Sony Music is committed to offering independent labels and distributors the most compelling package of distribution services in the industry,” says Sony’s Thomas Hesse.

Well, who saw this coming? The Pirate Bay has been sold to Swedish company Global Gaming Factory X for £4.7 million, and the site’s new owners say they plan to take it legit, with a new business model.

Specifically, GGFX said that the site needs a new model that “satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary”, while CEO Hans Pandeya backed that up with this statement: “We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site.”

So what’s going on here? The co-founders of The Pirate Bay are facing a £2.2 million fine and a year in jail following their recent conviction in Sweden – which they’re appealing – but say the sale is about ensuring the site itself survives.

(more…)

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook has turned down a potential $200 million VC funding round which would have valued the company at $8 billion. The sticking point appears to have been the demand by the potential investor of a seat on the company’s board. What’s more, the article suggests that the social network is telling investors that it expects to reach $550 million in revenue this year, up from $280 million last year.
Source: TechCrunch – http://tinyurl.com/r5xbvu

To follow is a blow by blow account of the Music Ally ‘labels in the dock’ session at the Great Escape festival in Brighton. Played out to a packed house it’s an interesting insight to the debate around whether artists really need labels in the digital age. (more…)

This week has seen several reports claiming that MySpace Music has so far been a bit of a damp squib. Why? According to boss of independent music licensing company or “the virtual fifth major” Merlin, it’s because there’s scant few indies on the service. (more…)

A new controversy has blown up in Sweden after reports that the judge in the recent Pirate Bay trial is a member of several pro-copyright groups, including one that also included lawyers who acted for the entertainment industry in the recent case.

Thomas Norström apparently belongs to the Swedish Copyright Association, and also the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property. Indeed, he sits on the board of the latter. And while Norström says that this did not “constitute a conflict of interest”, the lawyer for one of the defendants, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi has said he’ll make it a key part of the upcoming appeal, and may even demand a retrial.

“I will point that out in my appeal, then the Court of Appeal (Hovrätten) will decide if the district court decision should be set aside and the case revisited,” he tells The Local. “In the autumn I received information that a lay judge could have similar connections. I sent these to the court and the judge was excluded in order to prevent a conflict of interest. It would have been reasonable to then review this situation as well.”

What’s that? You’re wondering if Kolmisoppi has anything to say about it on Twitter? Of course: “For those who missed it – the #spectrial judge seems to be working within the copyright lobby. breaking news right now in sweden,” he tweeted earlier today.

If true, the news does beggar belief. Not necessarily because it means the judge was biased in this case – if he had a background as a copyright lawyer before becoming a judge, for example, it would not be surprising if he was  a member of the Swedish Copyright Association. Yet sitting on the board of the other body? And there’s the important matter of perception: did nobody twig that these affiliations may be seen as a problem?

This story is still developing, and there are doubtless more details to come out. But The Pirate Bay and its lawyers are understandably running with the news, as is the Swedish Pirate Party.

Hypebot has an interesting article highlighting the fact that Eddie Van Halen, Seal, Billy Corgan and Journey have all sent signed letters to the US Congress expressing their support for the proposed merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

Why is that interesting? Well, none of them mentioned the fact that they were either managed or co-managed by Front Line Management, whose boss Irving Azoff is also CEO of… Ticketmaster.

The problem isn’t that they signed letters supporting their boss’ corporate strategy, but that they didn’t declare the connection. That said, there are an increasing number of other artists who have come out against the merger too – whatever their affiliations.

Forget The Pirate Bay for a second: Swedish police have just busted a Stockholm man with more than 65 terabytes of pirated music, films, TV shows and software that were being made available for download via P2P networks.

The Swedish Antipiracy Agency claims it was part of a Scandinavian “FTP ring” called Sunnydale.

“The well-organized pirates on the scene seemed to have overestimated their ability to hide their identity and location, but the bust showed that we could find the responsible entity,” says lawyer Henrik Ponten.