EU Court Opinion States YouTube Not Liable For Copyright Infringement. The advocate general for the EU’s highest court issued an opinion on July 16 stating that online platform operators are not legally responsible for copyright infringement. “As EU law currently stands, online platform operators, such as YouTube and Uploaded, are not directly liable for the illegal uploading of protected works by the users of those platforms,” the press statement said. The opinion is in response to a case brought by a record producer who sought damages from YouTube for recordings he owned that he claims were re-uploaded online without his authorization. The case was brought before the EU adopted its controversial copyright directive last year.
What If The U.S. Bans TikTok? Since the Trump administration said that the United States was considering banning the popular social media app TikTok, much of the millennial and Gen Z populations have expressed outrage and disappointment. One TikTok star, Hootie Hurley, said the app has put food on his table and banning it would be particularly devastating right now. “TikTok has been such a big part of everyone’s quarantine and helping everyone get through this pandemic,” he said. Some TikTok users have already started moving elsewhere to platforms like YouTube, Byte and Dubsmash.
Copyright Office Letter Stresses Impact Of Section 512 On Users. In a letter written in response to questions submitted by Senate Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis and Senator Pat Leahy, the U.S. Copyright Office sought to address criticisms that its report on Section 512 focused too much on rightsholders and online service providers and largely ignored Section 512’s impact on users. In a blog for Project Disco, Jonathan Band commended the letter and its focus on users: “The Office’s response to the Senators’ question concerning what approach would the ‘Office recommend if Congress were to start from scratch’ demonstrated a sensitivity to the impact of different policy choices on users.”
Great Gatsby Prequel Scheduled For 2021. Fans of The Great Gatsby have something to look forward to as the American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald enters the public domain on January 1, 2021. The Guardian reports that author Nick Farris has a prequel scheduled to be published just four days later on January 5 in the United States and on February 25 in the UK. According to the report, more than 25 million copies have been sold since it was published in 1925.
New NBC Streaming Service Launched This Week. The Verge reports that NBCUniversal seeks to differentiate its new streaming service, Peacock, from competitors by offering its content “mostly for free.” Launched this week, Peacock will offer three different subscription tiers. According to Gidon Katz, the company’s president of direct to consumer, “The idea of launching a free service at this point, in this kind of economically challenged environment, for us is absolutely fundamental. It removes all those barriers for those consumers who are concerned about, while looking at it on paper, all those other subscription fees.”
Get To Know Re:Create Member Engine: Re:Create’s Get to Know Our Members blog series recently heard from Engine, which is a policy, advocacy, and research organization supporting startups as an engine for economic growth. Read here to learn more about the organization and its work on behalf of thousands of high-growth startups, pioneers, innovators, investors, and technologists across the country.