In today’s CMU Daily: The UK government has been reviewing the rules about which foreign performers should get equitable remuneration when their recordings are broadcast or performed in the UK. There was a plan that all foreign performers should earn ER, but a compromise means some performers will still miss out

Also today: Cox Communications has made another filing with the US Supreme Court, which it wants to intervene in its billion dollar legal dispute with the major record companies. Much of the submission deals with legal technicalities, but it also makes some bombastic ‘save the internet’ type statements; a man believed to be behind the mega-hack of Ticketmaster data earlier this year was in court in Canada yesterday having been arrested last week. The US want to extradite him in connection with multiple data breaches which also impacted companies like AT&T and Santander

Proposed UK copyright amendment will see US performers frozen out of equitable remuneration deal

The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has announced a plan to amend copyright law so that more foreign performers can earn equitable remuneration when their recordings are broadcast or performed in the UK. 

ER refers to the payments performers receive, under law, when recordings on which they appear are broadcast or played in public, which is administered by collecting societies like PPL. 

Some foreign performers don’t currently get any ER from UK airplay or performances, and the IPO plans to change that. However, the changes are not as radical as previously proposed, meaning fewer foreign performers will newly qualify for ER, with those appearing on tracks released by US labels not automatically benefiting.

That’s because, the IPO says, the more ambitious plan that was originally proposed would hit UK label revenues more significantly than the government agency had anticipated. 

Based on input from labels, the IPO now estimates that basically allowing all foreign performers to earn ER would “reduce UK record labels revenue by £7.4 million per year”, which “equates to an approximately 5.3% reduction to UK record label annual profits”. 

That reduction, argued the labels, would impact on their “abilities to invest in new British music and artists” and “less investment by UK record labels could undermine the quality or quantity of British music enjoyed by the public”. 

This all relates to money generated by the broadcast and public performance of recorded music, which in the UK is managed by collecting society PPL. 

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Cox again urges Supreme Court to review major label dispute, to stop “innocent users” losing internet access because “a guest downloaded a couple of songs”

American internet service provider Cox Communications has made another filing with the US Supreme Court, which will decide later this month whether to review the ISP’s billion dollar legal battle with the major record companies. 

Cox continues to ramp up the drama in a bid to persuade the top US court that this is a case it needs to review. The major labels do not dispute, it writes, that rulings made in the lower courts in this case have “installed a copyright regime that requires ISPs to reflexively terminate the internet access of entire households and businesses upon a couple accusations of infringement”.

Under the precedent set, it continues, “innocent users could lose their internet lifelines merely because a guest downloaded a couple of songs”. To avoid liability for copyright infringement “ISPs must sever connections to hospitals and universities” where a few people have illegally shared music files. 

The major labels, they then say, “express no compunction about any of this - they say the concern is ‘overblown’”. Yet, Cox adds, “in this case, they won $1 billion on the theory that Cox should have cut 57,000 internet connections after a second infringement accusation”. They also “depict Cox as especially culpable”, even though they have filed very similar lawsuits against numerous other ISPs. 

“This is possible only because of the widespread confusion about how this court’s decades-old contributory-liability rulings map onto the modern internet”, Cox concludes.

Man arrested in Canada in relation to Ticketmaster data hack

A man who is accused of being the ringleader of the group behind the massive hack of Ticketmaster data earlier this year has been arrested in Canada. He appeared in court yesterday as the legal process begins to try to extradite him to the US. 

A spokesperson for the Canadian Department Of Justice told reporters that Alexander ‘Connor’ Moucka was arrested on 30 Oct following a request from the US government. He appeared in court the same day and again yesterday. The spokesperson then added, “As extradition requests are considered confidential state-to-state communications, we cannot comment further on this case”.

According to 404, at yesterday’s court session Moucka appeared remotely from prison and told the judge that he is yet to appoint a lawyer because “the prison’s been locked down a lot”. But, he added, “I’ll get one soon I think”, later confirming that he would be applying for legal aid to help fund attorney costs.

Moucka is allegedly part of a mysterious group of hackers who were responsible for a number of major data breaches earlier this year, all of which involved companies who were customers of cloud data storage business Snowflake.

Personal data of more than half a billion ticket-buyers was stolen from Live Nation’s Ticketmaster. Some of the customers whose data was taken are now suing the ticketing firm.