Shifting from Downloads to Streaming

Apple in advanced talks to buy Beats Music

Apple has established itself as the most profitable digital music downloads seller for most of the world over the course of just 10 years. Recently, the trend has shifted from downloading to streaming of music according to IFPI, the recording industry trade group. IFPI data indicated the streaming revenue has reached more than $1 billion and has tripled since 2010. 

As always, Apple will try to outpace competitors, this time Apple is in advanced talks with Beats Electronics to acquire the headphone maker and streaming-music service for $3.2 billion. Beats Music app is just a few months old and only available in US. The app, which lets subscribers stream more than 20 million tracks. Beats Music recently placed an ad on Super Bowl.

Comments:

This seems like a ever changing industry, particularly in entertainment industry. Online streaming is getting popular and it is replacing downloading (legal and illegally) fast. What are the impacts on copyrights protection law? The question of the legality of streaming films or musics online. Beats Music demonstrated how to do it legally for digital streaming service. Beats music has deals with all major record companies, thus they charge the user by on-demand streaming. Users downloads songs and play songs locally on their own devices. Due to Digital rights management (DRM), the songs will not playable after expiration of the subscription.  This is all according to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to impose criminal penalties on those who make available technologies to circular copyright contents digitally. So, it is still illegal for you to upload copyrighted movies or songs for streaming; And to be prosecuted by doing that, you have to be big! At least that is what has happened in U.S.

Sources:
1. www.forbes.com/sites
2. 9to5mac.com/sites
3. www.ifpi.org/digital-music-report.php
4. Ellen Reveals Her Beats Music Super Bowl Commercial

“Happy Birthday” song was copyrighted!

Do you know that “Happy Birthday” song was copyrighted?

Apparently, the song copyright is owned by Warner/ Chappell Music. Based on the 1935 copyright registration, the copyright will not expire until 2030 in the United Stated. In United States, if all the necessary documentations of the copyright  papers appeared upon publication and proper renewal was filed, the duration of copyright is tied together with the publication date. Thus the song will pass into the public domain only after the end of 2030. Until then, that means that you need to pay royalties to Warner Music if you intended to play the song publicly, such as playing the song at the restaurant. though the validity of the copyright of the song have been questions and some even challenged it in court, up until now, it has proven more cost effective to just pay Warner Music to use the song than take the case to court. 

Pertaining to cyberspace law:

In US, The copyright protection law is under the Copyright Act 1976 and the Congress there passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) in 1998 to cater issue of copyright pertaining to cyberspace, notably in music industry where the fear of the loss of sales due to file sharing in internet. In Malaysia, the legal provisions for cyberspace copyright issues, including copyright infringement, are dealt under the Copyright Act 1987 (CA 1987). Copyright infringement occurs when one copies the original work as a whole or substantially. Section 3 of CA 1987 defines copyright infringement as reproducing of any work eligible for copyright without consent from the copyright holder. However, under the concept of fair dealing there is this exemption for others to use the work without obtaining consent from the copyright holder, e.g. for the purposes of private study, non-profit research , criticism, review, or the reporting of current events. But if such uses are for public benefit, the work must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the title of the work and its authorship (Section 13(2)(a) of CA 1987) will be sufficient. The Copyright Act (Amendment) 1997 is the expansion on the CA 1987 to expand the scope of copyright over the internet.

Link:
http://www.myipo.gov.my/hakcipta-akta