Intellectual Property Protection

Intellectual property protection as it relates to the music industry, including copyrights, trademarks, and IP litigation.

Cloudflare Touts German Court’s Ruling in Universal Music Legal Battle As ‘Important Progress’ for the Internet

Dylan Smith

December 6, 2023

A nighttime shot of the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Germany. Photo Credit: Adnan Omicevic Amid a long-running legal battle with Universal Music Group (UMG) in Germany, Cloudflare is touting a new court ru... Read More...

Major Labels Have the Fight of Their Lives Against AI Tech Giants — Elon Musk Says It’s Already Too Late

Paul Resnikoff

December 4, 2023

Elon Musk during an interview at DealBook Summit 2023 on November 30th (photo: Digital Music News). In our most recent DMN Pro Weekly report, Digital Music News tallied the tens of billions of dollars that AI... Read More...

Nightshade poisons AI data scraping models

Meet Nightshade—A Tool for Fighting Back vs. AI Data Scraping

Ashley King

November 30, 2023

Photo Credit: JR Korpa Image-generating AI models like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E have been trained on images scraped from the internet. Nightshade is a tool artists can use to fight back agains... Read More...

DMN Pro Weekly: Should We Just Get Used to AI Voice Cloning?

Paul Resnikoff

November 29, 2023

Illustration Credit: Ironbull534 In our latest DMN Pro Weekly Report, we pick apart the tangled string of recent events surrounding generative AI voice cloning. Are we on a journey towards ‘generating’ an ent... Read More...

Daryl Hall has filed a declaration in court accusing ‘adversarial and aggressive' John Oates of secretly attempting to sell a 50% stake in their joint venture to Primary Wave — to 'burden and harass’ him.

Why Is Daryl Hall Suing John Oates? Here’s What We Know About the Surprising Lawsuit

Dylan Smith

November 24, 2023

Daryl Hall and John Oates deliver a live performance well before their legal battle. Photo Credit: Raph_PH “Say It Isn’t So” – over 50 years after the formation of Hall & Oates, Daryl Hall is officially s... Read More...

OpenAI and Microsoft Face New Copyright Lawsuit for Allegedly ‘Taking the Combined Works of Humanity Without Permission’

Dylan Smith

November 22, 2023

Photo Credit: Coolcaesar OpenAI is now facing yet another copyright infringement lawsuit over the protected media that it allegedly used to train ChatGPT. Unlike similar complaints, however, the newly filed c... Read More...

Spotify Didn’t Quite Think Its ‘Royalty Modernizing’ Plan Through — But That’s a Problem for the Accountants

Paul Resnikoff

November 21, 2023

Photo: Vlad Spotify overlooked a few details in its much-ballyhooed 'royalty modernizing' plan — including the illegal parts. What else is about to blow? On paper, it all seemed so simple. A well-considered,... Read More...

black sheep universal music group lawsuit

Federal Judge Dismisses Black Sheep Unpaid-Royalties Lawsuit Against Universal Music Group

Dylan Smith

November 21, 2023

A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit that rap duo Black Sheep filed against Universal Music Group. Photo Credit: Wesley Tingey Back in January, Universal Music Group (UMG) was named in a class-action law... Read More...

GEMA CEO Weighs In on Europe’s AI Act, Demands ‘Smart Regulation’

Ashley King

November 19, 2023

Photo Credit: GEMA (Dr. Tobias Holzmüller) The German Society for Musical Performing & Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) CEO Dr. Tobias Holzmüller says transparency should be a basic requirement of Eu... Read More...

Universal Music, Concord, and ABKCO Demand Preliminary Injunction in AI Infringement Suit: ‘Publishers Face Irreparable Harm if Anthropic’s Copying Is Not Enjoined’

Dylan Smith

November 17, 2023

Anthropic is facing a preliminary injunction motion in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by music publishers. Photo Credit: Igor Omilaev Last month, Universal Music, Concord, ABKCO, and a number of affil... Read More...

Rod Wave Sets His Sights on Fake Merch Peddlers in Latest Lawsuit

Ashley King

November 17, 2023

Photo Credit: YouTube / Rod Wave Rod Wave has joined the wave of artists who are protecting their merch sales by suing fake merch peddlers—even outside their own concerts. In the latest legal filing, Rod Wav... Read More...

WIPO & Music Rights Awareness Foundation Launches New Online Platform to Raise Creators’ Awareness of Their IP Rights

Ashley King

November 17, 2023

Photo Credit: Jefferson Santos WIPO and the Music Rights Awareness Foundation have launched a new online platform to raise creators’ awareness of intellectual property rights and related management practices ... Read More...