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Record Labels Wins $47 Million Piracy Liability Verdict Against ISP GrandeErnesto Van der Sar, 04 Nov 09:34 AM Three years ago, several of the world

Record Labels Wins $47 Million Piracy Liability Verdict Against ISP Grande Ernesto Van der Sar, 04 Nov 09:34 AM Three years ago, several of the world's largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music sued Internet provider Grande Communications. The recording labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers. Jury Finds Grande Guilty The case eventually went to trial which, after more than two weeks, reached its conclusion a few hours ago. At the Texas federal court, the jury found Grande contributorily liable for willful infringement of 1,403 copyrighted works. The guilty verdict comes with a hefty damages award. For willful copyright infringement, a jury can award between $750 and $150,000 per work and here it decided that $33,333 is appropriate. That brings the total damages amount to $46,766,200. The Jury Verdict RIAA is Pleased Music industry group RIAA, which offered a helping hand in the legal battle, is pleased with the outcome. It sees the verdict as yet another confirmation that Internet providers must tackle copyright infringements on their network; they can't simply ignore third-party piracy notifications. "This is the latest validation by US courts and juries that unchecked online infringement will not stand," RIAA's Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier says. "The jury's strong action here sends an important message to Internet Service Providers. Artists, songwriters, rightsholders, fans and legitimate services all depend upon a healthy digital music ecosystem that effectively protects creative works online." Opposing Arguments At trial, Grande argued that it shouldn't be held liable for alleged copyright infringements committed by its subscribers. The company portrayed itself as a neutral service provider that has never encouraged any type of piracy. The ISP critiqued the record labels' piracy monitoring service Rightscorp which, according to Grande, cannot accurately or reliably identify copyright infringements. In addition, Rightscorp allegedly destroyed or failed to preserve key evidence, the ISP said. The record labels countered that Grande willingly profited from subscribers who downloaded and shared their music. The music companies explained that they sent over a million copyright infringement notices but Grande failed to terminate even a single subscriber account in response. Appeal? The $47 million damages award is substantially lower than the labels' $1 billion verdict against Cox, where both the number of works and the damages per sound recording were higher. That case is still being appealed. In a similar verdict in favor of music group BMG, Cox was ordered to pay $25 million in damages. That ruling was overturned, after which the parties reached a confidential settlement. Whether Grande will appeal this jury verdict remains to be seen. TorrentFreak reached out to the company's current owner Astound Broadband but, at the time of publication, we have yet to receive a response. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. MPA: Mandatory Release Windows Could Exacerbate Piracy Ernesto Van der Sar, 03 Nov 09:29 PM The Motion Picture Association (MPA) represents several of the world's largest movie industry companies. Traditionally its members were restricted to top Hollywood studios such as Disney and Warner Bros, but three years ago streaming giant Netflix joined the exclusive club. The newcomer hasn't changed the MPA's main goal of protecting its members' content from piracy. The MPA is the driving force behind the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment which tackles copyright infringement globally on behalf of dozens of major rightsholders, Netflix included. Foreign Trade Barriers Aside from enforcement, the MPA is also heavily involved in lobbying efforts. This week it sent an overview of global copyright-related challenges to the US Trade Representative (USTR), as input for the yearly report on foreign trade barriers. As usual, the comments detail piracy problems and challenges in countries around the globe. They include concerns over lacking anti-camcording legislation, weak anti-piracy enforcement, as well as general shortcomings in overseas copyright laws. The general tendency of these comments is that 'more' should be done to address the piracy problem. However, when looking over this year's report, we noticed an interesting observation, suggesting that less can sometimes be more. France's Release Windows As reported a few months ago, France has a "media chronology" law that grants an exclusive release window to movie theaters. This also applies to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. The theatrical release window was reduced from three years to 15-17 months earlier this year. While that's a step in the right direction, streaming services would like the window to be reduced even further. According to the MPA, these windows could be seen as a trade barrier that, as suggested, might make piracy an even bigger problem. "The media chronology was last updated in January 2022. However, several international and local stakeholders have argued that the chronology lacks flexibility, that the mandated release windows are too long, and that such windows exacerbate piracy," the MPA writes. Sensitive Issue The MPA points to "stakeholders" and doesn't take a strong position itself. The windowing issue is highly sensitive as many movie theater owners believe that shorter windows will hurt box office revenues. When movie companies began to experiment with simultaneous streaming and theatrical releases during the COVID pandemic, theater owners sounded the alarm bell. According to the movie theater industry group NATO, exclusive release periods are vital to the survival and success of the industry. The MPA is more reserved and doesn't believe that the two revenue streams are in competition. This could also explain why the group decided to highlight the issue in a trade barriers report. Italy Too Interestingly, the discussion doesn't end with France. Italy also considered a 90-day mandatory release window for all theatrical films this year. This also has the MPA worried, even though piracy isn't mentioned directly there. Instead, the Hollywood group is worried about the marketing issues these windows could present. "MPA is concerned about the impact of such an extension on a broad scale, as this mandatory window would have serious repercussions on producers' ability to adequately market their works," the movie group notes. The marketing problem could also have piracy repercussions, of course. If a film's digital release is widely promoted throughout the world, Italians may be more eager to pirate it if no legal options are available to them. All-in-all, the MPA's release window comments, no matter how small, are noteworthy. For decades consumers have called for shorter windows and it appears that several movie industry stakeholders are now in the same camp. — The full overview of the MPA's trade barrier comments to the US Trade Representative is available here (pdf). From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2022 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company