UK Copyright if there’s no Brexit deal

The UK's Department for Business, Energy& Industrial Strategy has now published it's long awaited paper which offers guidance on what will happen with copyright if the UK leaves the European Union with 'no deal' outcome - an increasingly likely scenario (although the paper paints a more positive picture!).

The key points?

- The UK and other EU member states are already party to the main international treaties on copyright and related rights. Under the rules of these treaties, countries provide copyright protection for works originating in or made by nationals of other countries. These rules underpin the copyright legislation in all member states of the EU and do not depend on the UK’s membership of the EU.

There is also a body of EU law on copyright and related rights that goes beyond the provisions of the international treaties, including several cross-border copyright mechanisms. These mechanisms are unique to the EU and provide reciprocal protections and benefits between EU member states. They include:

• Sui generis database rights. Under the Database Directive (Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, extended to the EEA in paragraph 9a, Annex XVII of EEA Agreement), nationals, residents, and businesses of EEA member states are eligible for database rights in all EEA member states. These rights are unique to the EEA and do not arise in relation to databases created or owned by non-EEA citizens, residents, or businesses.
• Portability of online content service. The Portability Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market) allows consumers to access their online content services when they are temporarily in an EU member state other than their home state.
• Country-of-origin principle for copyright clearance in satellite broadcasting. The Satellite and Cable Directive (Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission, extended to the EEA in paragraph 8, Annex XVII of the EEA Agreement) simplifies the clearance of rights for cross-border satellite broadcasting. Under the Directive, a satellite broadcaster can broadcast a work protected by copyright into any EEA member state after having cleared the copyright requirements for the member state in which the broadcast originates. Wider country-of-origin issues in relation to broadcasting are covered in Broadcasting and video on demand if there’s no Brexit deal.
• Orphan works (works without documented owners) copyright exception. The Orphan Works Directive (Directive 2012/28/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on certain permitted uses of orphan works, extended to the EEA in paragraph 10, Annex XVII of the EEA Agreement) allows cultural heritage institutions established in the EEA to digitise orphan works in their collection and make them available online across the EEA without the permission of the right holder.
• Collective management of copyright. The Collective Rights Management Directive (Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market, extended to the EEA in paragraph 11, Annex XVII of the EEA Agreement) places obligations on EEA Collective Management Organisations – bodies that manage the licensing of copyright works on behalf of right holders. Among these is a requirement that EEA Collective Management Organisations that offer multi-territorial licensing of online rights of musical works must represent on request the catalogues of EEA Collective Management Organisations that do not offer such licences.
• Cross-border transfer of accessible format copies of copyright works. The Marrakesh Directive (Directive (EU) 2017/1564 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2017 on certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled and amending Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society) and Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/1563 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2017 on the cross-border exchange between the Union and third countries of accessible format copies of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled) implement the Marrakesh Treaty (the Marrakesh VIP Treaty, previously the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled) in EU law and allow the cross-border transfer of accessible format copies of copyright works between EU member states and with other countries that have ratified the Treaty.

The Portability and Marrakesh Regulations take effect directly in the UK. The remainder of the cross-border mechanisms have been or will be implemented in UK legislation.

After March 2019 if there’s no deal

The UK’s continued membership of the main international treaties on copyright will ensure that the scope of protection for copyright works in the UK and for UK works abroad will remain largely unchanged.

The EU cross-border copyright mechanisms extend only to member states of the EU or EEA. On exit, the UK will be treated by the EU and EEA as a third country and the reciprocal element of these mechanisms will cease to apply to the UK.

The EU Directives and Regulations on copyright and related rights will be preserved in UK law as retained EU law under the powers in the EU Withdrawal Act 2018. The government will make adjustments under the powers of the Act to ensure the retained law can operate effectively.

Implications

In respect of the cross-border mechanisms, in a ‘no deal’ scenario for:

• Sui generis database rights. There will be no obligation for EEA states to provide database rights to UK nationals, residents, and businesses. UK owners of UK database rights may find that their rights are unenforceable in the EEA.
• Portability of online content service. The Portability Regulation will cease to apply to UK nationals when they travel to the EU. This means online content service providers will not be required or able to offer cross-border access to UK consumers under the EU Regulation. UK consumers may see restrictions to their online content services when they temporarily visit the EU.
• Country-of-origin principle for copyright clearance in satellite broadcasting. UK-based satellite broadcasters that currently rely on the country-of-origin copyright clearance rule when broadcasting into the EEA may need to clear copyright in each member state to which they broadcast.
• Orphan works copyright exception. UK-based Cultural Heritage Institutions that make works available online in the EEA under the exception may be infringing copyright.
• Collective management of copyright. UK Collective Management Organisations will not be able to mandate EEA Collective Management Organisations to provide multi-territorial licensing of the online rights in their musical works.
• Cross-border transfer of accessible format copies of copyright works. The UK intends to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty after exit but ratification will not have taken place before 29 March 2019. Between exit and the point of ratification, businesses, organisations or individuals transferring accessible format copies between the EU and UK may not be able to rely on the EU Regulation.

The above is taken from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/copyright-if-theres-no-brexit-deal. There is a FACT SHEET from the UK;s Intellectual Property Office  IP and BREXIT: The fact - Facts on the future of intellectual property laws following the decision that the UK will leave the EU. This can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ip-and-brexit-the-facts and as well as copyright extends to trade marks, patents and other rights.

THE COPYKAT

This CopyKat from Tibbie McIntyre

The UK Copyright Officers survey – deadline 3^rd April

If you work at a UK library and educational/cultural institution, your organisation is warmly invited to take part in a survey about copyright officers and copyright education here. The survey is available until 3^rd April.

The UK Copyright Literacy page states that the research is regarding “copyright officers or similar specialists in UK libraries and educational / cultural institutions. We want to find out more about the value and status of these positions, the responsibilities that they entail and the ways in which copyright education is delivered. … The findings should be of interest to organisations wishing to benchmark the copyright training and advice services they currently offer.”

Even if your UK library and educational/cultural institution does not have a dedicated copyright officer, your organisation is still invited to participate, as there are questions designed to determine how copyright is managed in the absence of a designated copyright post.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact ukcopyrightlit@gmail.com.

You can find the survey here until 3^rd April.

Australia NOT to grant safe harbour to Google, Facebook, at al.

The Australian government had recently been seeking to extend its safe harbour provisions to online intermediaries (including Google and Facebook) that rely on user-generated content. The move would have given immunity to online intermediaries for infringing content uploaded onto platforms by users.

Across Europe and the U.S., online intermediaries already enjoy such a safe harbour (European legislation can be viewed here, American here). However, safe harbour provisions have generated much heated debate, with copyright holders arguing that it has led to the copyright ‘value gap’. For example, rights holders have argued that platforms that benefit from the safe harbour rule facilitate nearly half of all music consumption on the internet but represent only around 4% of the revenue generated by the industry.

Also, platforms are only under an obligation to remove infringing content when notification is given by the rights-holder. This leaves copyright holders in the position of eternally having to search YouTube, Facebook et al. for instances of infringement – an eternal game of ‘whack-a-mole’. This topic is coveredhere and here, and reports on controversial measures proposed by the EU to overcome the ‘value gap’ can be found here.

TorrentFreak reports that “Due to what some believe amounts to a drafting error in Australia’s implementation of the Australia – US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), so-called safe harbor provisions only apply to commercial Internet service providers.” This means that platforms allowing the upload of user-generated content may be found liable for infringing content uploaded by 3^rd parties.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield confirmed in a statement that the amendment had been dropped: “Provisions relating to safe harbour were removed from the bill before its introduction to enable the government to further consider feedback received on this proposal whilst not delaying the passage of other important reforms”.  

Lobbying from a consortium on copyright holders to drop the safe harbour amendment has been intense. The Australian has published a series of articles against implementation of the safe harbour rule, arguing that Google et al. are “ruthlessly exploiting” safe harbour rules in the US and Europe (no links are available as the content is behind a paywall).

What are the implications for platforms that allow 3^rd parties to upload content?

There is legal uncertainty – platforms may be found liable for any acts of infringement by their users. There are a number of options from which the platforms can choose;

1.      Run the risk of being found liable of copyright infringement because of the actions of 3^rd party users, having to pay penalties to copyright holders.

2.      Enter into agreements with copyright holders on a pre-emptive basis, licensing content that 3^rd party users might upload onto the platform.

3.      Implement filtering technology, identifying and blocking infringing content when it is uploaded. (This is also a live issue in Europe.)

4.      Exit the Australian market altogether.

The exemption from liability enjoyed by platforms is an important issue worldwide, and it should be interesting to observe how events unfold in Australia in the coming months.

There are more stairs? – Stairway to Heaven saga continues

This saga has previously been reported on the 1709 blog here and on the  IPKat here. This case deals with the potential infringement of a song by Spirit, ‘Taurus’, by Led Zeppelin in their ‘Stairway to Heaven’.

A 90 page brief was recently filed to the 9^th Circuit Appeals court by the agent of Michael Skidmor, trustee of Spirit guitarist, Randy Woolfe (California). The brief asks the court to reverse the previous finding, where the jury found unanimously in favour of Led Zeppelin in June 2016. This brief also asks for remand for a new trial, including striking the bill of costs.

Copykat will issue updates as and when they come.

By Alf van Beem (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Compulsory Licences for “cable systems” do not apply to TV streamers

The 9^th Circuit delivered its ruling in the Fox Television Stations v Aereokiller case on 21 March. The case relates to the TV streaming services provided by FilmOn.

FilmOn provides a service that uses antennas to capture over-the-air broadcast programming – much of it copyrighted – and then uses the internet to retransmit this programming, utilising both subscription and ad-based methods of revenue generation. Essentially, it enables you to watch TV on your computer.

The dispute centred on section 111 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 111), which provides that a “cable system” is eligible for a compulsory license. Such a compulsory licence allows “cable systems” to retransmit “a performance or display of a work” originally broadcast by someone else without having to secure the consent of the copyright holder.

In order to maintain its compulsory licence, the “cable system” must pay a statutory fee to the Copyright Office – as well as complying with other regulations.

FilmOn contended that its services fall under the “cable system” definition and it should therefore be granted a compulsory licence.  

A group of broadcasters (including, inter alia, Fox, NBC Universal, ABC, CBS and Disney Enterprises Inc.) argued that the services provided by FilmOn do not fall under the definition of “cable system” as provided under § 111 and it should therefore not be granted a compulsory licence.

A statement on page 7 the ruling sheds further light on why this issue was so hotly contested by the parties:

“Compulsory licences are highly coveted, in no small part because, according to the Copyright Office, the royalty payments the Act requires cable companies to pay are “de minimis” when compared to the gross receipts and revenues the cable industry collects, a gap suggesting that the government-set rates fall well below market levels.”

Unfortunately, court found itself at an impasse: “The text of § 111 is written in broad terms, and both sides can make plausible arguments about the statute’s purposes and legislative history.”

The court goes on to state “that the meaning of § 111 is ambiguous on the precise question before us”.

To overcome this impasse, the decision hinged on arguments brought by the Copyright Office and the weight the court was willing to give those arguments. The court utilised the Skidmore framework (precedent that allows the court to rely on the arguments of a government agency in cases where there is no clear law).

The Copyright Office argued that FilmOn’s services do not fall under the definition of “cable systems”. Historic Copyright Office arguments have posited “that a provider of broadcast signals [must] be an inherently localized transmission media of limited availability to qualify as a cable system.” Significantly, Congress has for years been aware that the Copyright Office views internet-based retransmission services as not falling under the definition of “cable systems” and has never moved to amend or comment upon this view.

The arguments presented by the Copyright Office were therefore afforded significant deference in this case, since the statute was found to be ambiguous on the issues at stake and the Copyright Office proffered cogent arguments to address matters. The court noted that “To the extent the legislative history provides relevant evidence of § 111’s meaning, we would defer to the Copyright Office’s interpretation of it, seeing as the Copyright Office has a much more intimate relationship with Congress and is

institutionally better equipped than we are to sift through and to make sense of the vast and heterogeneous expanse that is the Act’s legislative history.

In summary, it was on the strength of the arguments brought by the Copyright Office, that court found that “a service that captures copyrighted works broadcast over the air, and then retransmits them to paying subscribers over the Internet without the consent of the copyright holders, is not a “cable system” eligible for a compulsory license under the Copyright Act.”

This story will continue, as FilmOn is arguing two similar cases at the D.C. Court of Appeals and the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeal.

THE COPYKAT - the macaque is back

New research from the UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) shows that internet streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have resulted in online piracy falling to its lowest rate in years.The research shows that that 15% of internet users illegally accessed films, music and other material between March and May. This is down from 18% a year ago and was the lowest recorded rate in the five years the study has been carried out. Muasic, TV and films dominate piracted material. 

Naruto by ...... ??

We have repeatedly reported on Naruto, the rare crested macaque that took the now internationally famous 'selfie' - and the recents and unsuucesful arguments by animal rights group  PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to persuade the courts that the monkey should be considered the author and copyright owner of the photo saying "While the claim of authorship by species other than homo sapiens may be novel, 'authorship; under the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq., is sufficiently broad so as to permit the protections of the law to extend to any original work, including those created by Naruto". US District Judge William Orrick was unimpressed and ruled that the monkey, who borrowed British photographer David Slater's camera and took the selfies, cannot own the copyright in the pictures. During a brief hearing the judge, dismissing the suit, stated: "I'm not the person to weigh into this. This is an issue for Congress and the president. If they think animals should have the right of copyright they're free, I think, under the Constitution, to do that."  Now the group has filed an apeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. More here and here.

An infringement case against rapper Ghostface Killah has been revived after a judge ruled that composer Jack Urbont could move forward with the case. The initial lawsuit was dismissed, but in April, 2015 judges for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision. Urbont, who created the theme song for the 1960s TV version of Iron Man, filed a lawsuit in 2011, claiming Ghostface sampled the Iron Man Theme twice on his 2000 album 'Supreme Clientele'. Now Judge Peter Hall has ruled that Urbont could argue he owns the rights to the Iron Man Theme, and also suggested Ghostface and the songs' producer RZA may have infringed on the audiovisual rights for the tune, because the Iron Man track was never officially released as a single and was likely lifted from the Marvel Super Heroes show, according to RollingStone.com.

LeBron James by Keith Allison

Tattoo artists Solid Oak Sketches have lost an important battle in their claim against the animators behind the NBA 2K video game series - which feature  several NBA stars including James, Kobe Bryant and Eric Bledsoe - tattoos and all! The tattoo designers were seeking actual damages in an amount to be determined at trial, or statutory damages and attorneys' fees — but a New York federal judge on Tuesday ruled out the latter. "[I]n order to obtain statutory damages and attorneys' fees, a plaintiff must have registered its copyright prior to the alleged infringement," U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote. And the copyrights in the tattoos were not registered until 2015 - AFTER the alleged infringements began in 2013 with the Judge saying "[W]hen the same defendant infringes on the same protected work in the same manner as it did prior to the work's registration, the post-registration infringement constitutes the continuation of a series of ongoing infringements" The judge also dimissed a claim of willful infringemet by 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive Software, saying willfulness is not relevant to analysis of Section 412 of the Copyright Act, which imposes a bright-line rule barring statutory damages and fees if the first act of infringement happened before the work was registered.

The U.S. Copyright Office has criticized the Federal Communications Commission's plans to open up the market for pay-TV set-top boxes, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been pushing for new FCC rules to open up the market for the costly set-top boxes, currently dominated by cable and satellite pay-TV providers, to let in new entrants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google. .Mr. Wheeler’s plan has prompted strong objections from pay-TV providers and TV-program producers. They argue that the current plan could upset their carefully-negotiated contractual arrangements with pay-TV providers on issues such as channel placement and advertising. The letter from the Copyright Office appears to back those concerns, saying, “As currently proposed, the [FCC] rule could interfere with copyright owners’ rights to license their works as provided by copyright law” adding that Copyright Office is “hopeful that the FCC will refine its approach as necessary to avoid conflicts with copyright law and authors’ interests under that law.”

Its not April Fool's day is it? Anyway, the lawyer of a 90-year-old woman identified as Hannelore K, who mistakenly started filling in an art exhibit in the form of a crossword puzzle, now claims that she holds the copyright of the "new" work. The 1977 creation by the 20th-century artist Arthur Köpcke was lent to Nuremberg’s Neues Museum by a private collector, and is said to be worth around £70,000 and the woman, a retired dentist, said that she started filling in the artwork's crossword puzzle because it bore the phrases "Insert words" and "so it suits." Whilst the artwork has been clensed of her additions in biro, the lawyer has had to rebutt a police investigation into his client's behaviour and has now said that far from harming the work in question, his client has increased its value by bringing the relatively-unknown Köpcke to the attention of a wider public. Moreover, her "invigorating re-working" of the exhibit further increased its worth. Indeed, Frau K.'s lawyer claimed that her additions meant that she now held the copyright of the combined artwork - and that, in theory, the private collector might sue the museum for destroying that new collaborative work (made without his permission) by restoring it to its original state. More on Arts Technica here. Image by Chip Griffin. 

Copyright Education and Awareness Symposium

One of the symposium panellists 

From 1709 Blog friend Nic Fearon-Low (UK Intellectual Property Office) comes the news of a forthcoming event that looks fairly interesting.

Here's what Nic writes:

"What would bring together representatives from the creative industries, academics and policymakers? A chance to discuss how to improve the impact of copyright education initiatives and the research that informs and underpins them? Yes indeed!

On 24 May the BPI will play host to a gathering of people across these communities to assess the effectiveness of copyright education and get a grip on what research and initiatives are out there, what is working and what can be improved as we look ahead.

Creativity and innovation are important drivers of economic development.  They are crucial to the character of our society. Too often a lack of understanding or respect for the work of others means that creators are not properly recognised or rewarded for their work. The challenge is to educate people, particularly the next generations of consumers and creators, as to the value of IP and especially copyright.

The response to this challenge from industry, academia, government and others has been to come up with a range of initiatives to help improve understanding and change behaviour, from the work of Creative Content UK and the Industry Trust for IP Awareness, Into Film and Copyright User, to games, competitions and resources generated by the IPO. And increasingly much of this work is being done in collaboration. As Mike Weatherley – the Prime Minister’s former IP adviser pointed out - there is scope for more and greater collaboration, sharing of insight and resources in order to have a greater impact.

This is where the Copyright Education Symposium comes in. Sponsored by CREATe, ALCS, CLA, ERA, PRS for Music, The Industry Trust for IP Awareness and supported by the IPO, the event will be opened by IP Minister, Baroness Neville-Rolfe and PRS for Music CEO. Firstly it will provide an opportunity to showcase the work of industry, academia and government. Secondly, with an ambitious agenda, it will aim to tackle a range of issues via workshop sessions including: how can we best measure attitudes, perceptions and behaviour towards copyright; how do we better promote research findings; and how do we use this research to inform better policy making.

The Symposium will not just be a talking shop. It has a clear aim of increasing awareness and encouraging sharing and collaboration to improve the effectiveness of copyright education. It will also aim to create consensus within the community and create a foundation to continue the conversation beyond the event.

If you would like more information about the event or would like to participate, there are limited places left. Please get in touch with us at caesymposium@gmail.com before 16 May."

One Year on, the Private Copying Exception is now Dead

Following the CJEU's decision in the Reprobel case (reported here and here), it is perhaps not surprising that the UK Intellectual Property Office has announced that it is to abandon the UK's private-copying exception which was introduced in October 2014, and which was effectively declared illegal by the High Court in July of this year, and so had to be withdrawn. 

For the background to Mr Justice Green's decision in July's Judicial Review, please see this blog post. It now seems clear that the IPO were never going to find a workable scheme which met the criterion of 'fair compensation' for rights holders demanded by the EU InfoSoc Directive, while at the same time avoiding unpopular levies on consumables and hardware capable of being used to copy, in particular, music, computer games, ebooks and films, for personal use.

The Reprobel decision, although not specifically concerned with copying for private use, highlights just how complicated the levy system can become. Each EU member state has found its own way of tackling the issue, with no overall EU-wide harmonisation in prospect. It seems that the IPO and those representing rights owners could not find an existing model to achieve 'fair compensation'.

So where does this leave ordinary users in the UK? Clearly some will have been unaware of the introduction of the exception last year, and possibly a larger minority will have been unaware of the rescinding of the exception, so they will no doubt continue to format shift their personally owned music and store tracks on the cloud in blissful ignorance that that is not legal in most cases. Then there is the grey area of the legality of copies made while the exception was in force. Those users who are aware of the changes face a difficult decision: whether to make copies for personal use in contravention of the law in the reasonably sure knowledge that they won't get caught, or abide by the law and deny themselves a degree of sensible flexibility in their viewing and listening choices. One thing they will not do is go out and buy a digital replacement such as a download, for a CD or DVD they already own.

The decision not go ahead with the private copying exception will also have implications for other parts of the music distribution industry. Operators of cloud services may face pressure to amend their terms of service to reflect the new status quo, and some streaming services may be forced to tighten up their procedures to prevent users from creating multiple copies of the same download. But what also seems clear is that the music industry has won a Pyrrhic victory since whether or not it is illegal, many users will continue to make private copies of their legally owned music etc, just as they used to do in the pre-digital age. No doubt the BPI and its members will complain that they will lose revenue through this behaviour but I think it is fair to say that they will, privately, continue with their old policy of not seeking to sue or prosecute anyone for personal format shifting. To do otherwise would undoubtedly alienate the buying public and strengthen the argument that the record labels are out of touch with what music fans want. It remains to be seen how organisations such as the Featured Artists Coalition and the collecting societies will react to this latest development. Arguably it was the artists who stood to gain from the imposition of a levy on consumables etc, but even they would no doubt acknowledge that a blanket system is neither fair to consumers, in that much copying is of non-copyright material, nor does it result in a fair distribution of the proceeds to the artists and authors of the works, since there is no way to monitor which actual works have been copied.

Third UK-China IP Symposium (London)

Third UK-China IP Symposium (London)	September 2015
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace London, SW1Y 5AG

09:00-17:00, Wednesday 21 October Do you want to know more about obtaining and enforcing your intellectual property rights in China? Have you experienced IP issues in China and want to know more about the support networks available or how the IP system is changing? Do you work for a Chinese company looking to protect IP as you invest and do business in the UK? The 3rd UK-China Intellectual Property Symposium is an opportunity for businesses to engage with policymakers to understand the current IP systems in both countries and to learn about future reforms. China is a key priority of the Government’s trade and investment strategy. In 2013, UK exports to China were worth $24.5bn (£15.7bn). The Government has worked to increase two-way trade to $100 billion by the end of 2015, and within this to double UK exports to China from their 2010 level to $30 billion. The UK is on track towards achieving this goal. An effective IP regime is crucial to the success of British businesses in China. China’s IP legal framework is improving through a rapid and relatively transparent process of legislative reform. In this dynamic context the UK Intellectual Property Office and the China-Britain Business Council, will host the 3rd UK-China IP Symposium in London at the Royal Society on 21st October. It will be opened by the UK’s Minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville-Rolfe. The Symposium will cover all the intellectual property rights as well as more focused sessions on anti-counterfeiting and judicial enforcement. Each session will include a diverse panel of speakers from the British and Chinese governments, industry and academia. They will outline the latest developments and current approaches to IP in both China and the UK. For more information, the full agenda and to register, visit the cbbc.org

The CopyKat dips a paw into the fast flowing stream

In China. the the National Copyright Administration has updated its policies on music streaming, updating saying online streaming services must stop providing unlicensed music to users. Service providers were required to remove unlicensed music by the end of July . The NCA said in a stament that the move was in line with China's copyright law and regulations. Those who do not follow the order will be 'seriously punished'. Duan Yuping, an official from the NCA, said the violation of copyright is common in China. “(Music streaming providers) infringed the rights of royalty holders, disturbed the order of the online music market, and also impacted the development of our music industry” - the latter being a common thread amongst comments with artistes, record labels and music industry executives supporting the fight against piracy. 

And Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant Alibaba is launching a music division to join its existing film and video units in China. Ali Music Group will be run by singer-songwriter and TV host Gao Xiaosong, who serves as chairman, and Song Ke, a former Warner Music executive, as CEO. Alibaba already has a number of licensing deals in place with the likes of BMG, Rock Records and HIM Records for their content to play on its platforms. 

In the UK, The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has released data that shows that the number of UK consumers accessing digital content through legal download or streaming platforms has risen 10% since 2013 - but one in five consumers continues to access music, movie, TV or gaming goodies from unlicensed sources online. The IPO survey says that 15.6 million UK internet users now access music online, with twelve million streaming and 10.5 million downloading - confirming the rise of the streams in recent years whic has been a common thread amionst recent figures from the recorded music sector showing streaming income rising at a very fast rate. whilst Spotify and Amazon are amongst the most use streaming music platforms in the UK, 54% of online music was consumed via YouTube - which whilst a licensed service certainly for songs via its licence with PRS for Music - its not seen as a primary revenue source by record labels and music publishers.  10 million UK internet users have accessed films online. Netflix, Amazon and YouTube were the top platforms for film downloads and streaming with Netflix responsible for 44 per cent of all activity. With TV, 15 million UK internet users have accessed a TV programme online. BBC iPlayer, You Tube and ITV Player were the top platforms for accessing TV programmes online with BBC iPlayer responsible for 62 per cent of activity. 21 per cent of users accessed some content illegally. The IPO survey highlighted 62% of internet users in the UK have downloaded or streamed music, TV shows, films, computer software, videogames or e-books. This is up from 56% in 2013. The survey showed that there was a 10% increase in UK consumers accessing content through legal services. One in five consumers still access some content illegally. The survey was published in parallel with research in Australia and shows that while British and Australian users consumed online media at similar rates, illegal downloading for UK consumers was half the rate of their Australian counterparts. 

Last week representatives from the UK’s creative industries, supported by the UK government confirmed the agencies that will help to deliver a major multi-media education campaign aimed at encouraging consumers to do the right thing and access content from a wide range of legal services as part of the Creative Content UK initiative.  The education programme will target 16-24 year-olds, their parents, those responsible for household internet connections, as well as others who influence young people’s attitudes to accessing content. A second part of the initiative will be a subscriber alerts programme that will be co-managed and co-funded by ISPs and content creators and due to begin at a later date.  Participating ISPs will alert and advise subscribers when their accounts are believed to have been used to infringe copyright. The four largest ISPs in the UK- BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are partnering with Creative Content UK: other partners include the BBC, the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the Musicians’ Union and UK Music. 

And YouTube's dominance has prompted the major labels (Universal, Sony and Warner) to start to explore ways to loosen YouTube’s grip on free ad-supported music videos - not least by supporting rival sites like Vessel and Snapchat. The New York Post says that separately, the labels are weighing going nuclear — "potentially yanking rights to the Web’s most valuable and highly trafficked content" with one industry source telling the Post "They are not serious about monetizing music on behalf of creators and, as a result, music companies are realizing they have to reset the current relationship,” The labels are far keener on subscription streaming services such as Spotify's top tier. Industry body RIAA says ad-supported streaming services (both visual and audio) contributed just $295 million in 2014 to the US record industry — with YouTube’s contribution estimated to be about half of that sum. Google has said that YouTube has paid out billions of dollars to the music industry over the last few years and that partner revenue has increased 50 percent year on year the last three years in a row. More on Music Busines Worldwide here.

And Recent statistics explain why the record labels are so focussed: The income of Germany's recorded music market grew 4.4% year-on-year in the first half of 2015. That was mainly driven by a whopping 87% rise in streaming subscription revenues, which easily offset a decline in CD album sales. Download sales also increased. Germany’s record industry, the world’s third-biggest music territory behind the US and Japan, accrued €686m in the first half of 2015. The income of Sweden's recorded music market rose 4.2% in the first six months of 2015 - with streaming growing once again to claim 83.9% of revenues. According to new data from IFPI Sweden analysed by MBW, the market's recorded music turnover in Jan-June this year stood at 507.5m SEK (€54.6m), up from 486.9m SEK in H1 2014 (€52.4m).
And the income of the Italian recorded music market jumped up 22% in the first half of 2015, according to new figures published by Deloitte. The total revenues of the region stood at €65.55m, compared to €53.61m in H1 2014. A strong release schedule by local pop artists helped lift the total physical market by 22% to €37.3 million. Digital revenues increased 37% to €21.18m, with download sales up by 6% to €10.82m. Streaming, increased its year-on-year H1 income by 37%, up to €17.36m.

The Russian government's top Internet regulator has officially warned YouTube that it could be added to the Kremlin's Internet blacklist unless it removes unauthorised copies of Russian TV shows. It's the second time the agency has warned YouTube about the shows in question, and now the video streaming site must comply in a matter of days. A Moscow city court ruled on April 7th that YouTube was violating Russian copyright law by hosting copies of “Chernobyl” and “Fizruk.” YouTube removed the offending cntent but the shows have been uploaded again since, along with another 137 illegal videos. YouTube has until July 27 to remove the URLs in question or be included on the Russian RuNet blacklist, according to Global Voices Online, which tracks Russian media freedom.

The pit at Glastonbury (Denis O'Regan)

ImageRights International has announced the first "fully automated copyright registration service" designed specifically for the needs of professional photographers, "revolutionizing the process for registering photographs with the United States Copyright Office (USCO)". To be clear - ImageRights is a business - not a government or a free service - but makes the point that they have statistics that show that the time, cost, and complexity of registration has deterred 97% of US professional photographers from registering their work with the USCO, potentially losing out on "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in licence fees and indeed statutory damages from copyright infringement claims. There is a cost of course, but any interested (and unregistered) photographers can find out more here.

Oracle has asked a U.S. judge for permission to update its copyright lawsuit against Google Inc to include the Android operating system's current market dominance - Google's Android operating system is now the world's best-selling smartphone platform.  Oracle said it wants to update the copyright lawsuit, filed in October 2010, to add that Google continues its copyright infringement through updated versions of Android in both existing and new markets and this is resulting in harm to Oracle and (of course!)  benefit to Google. More here.  In June the US Supreme Court denied Google's writ of certiorari to re-examine the 2014 decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in favor of Oracle which held that application programming interfaces (APIs) in Java were subject to copyright protection. The next stop for these two companies is back to the trial court to determine whether Google has a defense to copyright infringement under the doctrine of  “fair use.” 

And finally a couple of technology updates - and sorry I have drifted into patents - not the CopyKat's field at all - but fascinating for all lovers of copyright too:

First up, Techcrunch tells us that "Researchers at the University of Cambridge have linked musical taste to thinking style, with possible implications for how future algorithms might better tailor music recommendations. Not to mention the flip side: how music streaming services could psychologically classify their users based on what they like to listen to".

And Mashable says that Apple has filed a fingerprnt sensitive patent application posted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website on Thursday -  "Apple detailed technology for a specialized TV remote control which could be used to access a person's TV preferences, bypass passcodes for services such as Netflix, enable child proofing and even control smart products in the home, such as garage doors and thermostats."