Weekly Copyright Update

April 15, 2016

Facebook Unveils New Rights Manager Tool for Video

BY ANNA WASHENKO: Facebook has launched a Rights Manager tool to help monitor and protect copyrighted content on the social media network. The main focus of the discussion is “freebooting,” in which videos are easily ripped from the content creators and shared by Business Pages to grow their own online audiences to the loss of the original sources. People can use the administrative tool to upload videos to Facebook that they don’t want others using. READ MORE…

Led Zepplin Members Face “Stairway to Heaven” Copyright Infringement Suit

BY JUSTIN WM. MOYER: But after decades of gossip, members of Led Zeppelin — specifically, singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page, the writers of “Stairway” — will face a jury trial on May 10. The question: Did they copy at least some parts of their most famous song? “While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,” U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner of the Central District of California wrote. READ MORE…

Will “We Shall Overcome” Be Another “Happy Birthday to You” Class Action Suit?

BY JOE MULLIN: “We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the “unofficial anthem to the civil rights movement,” was wrongly placed under copyright and should be put in the public domain, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court. The complaint (PDF) was filed by the same group of lawyers who succeeded at putting the world’s most famous song, Happy Birthday, into the public domain after years of litigation. READ MORE…

It’s Your Copyright. Don’t Apologize for Defending It!

BY PETER CSATHY: We live in a world where many share the belief that content is ‘free,’ while rampant piracy has been significantly curtailed by new legitimate services and business models (like subscription streaming). But, it just ain’t so. One of the biggest and pervasive myths is that piracy is actually decreasing. That couldn’t be further to the truth: Cisco forecasts that file-sharing in North America will grow a massive 51% from 2014-2019. READ MORE…

Copyright Creators and Users Deserve Modernized Copyright Office

BY KEITH KUPFERSCHMID: This Friday, the University of Baltimore Law School will hold an all-day event titled Copyright Realignment for the Twenty-First Century and I am pleased to be participating in a panel that will focus on modernizing the Copyright Office. There are few issues that seem to galvanize and unify the copyright community more than modernizing the Copyright Office. READ MORE…

About Christian Copyright Solutions: CCS’s quest is to help churches and Christian ministries “do music right.” CCS is an expert on church music copyrights and our primary focus is providing licensing and clear educational resources to churches, as well as representation, administration and advocacy for copyright owners. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only, and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel.