3 Count: Guitars, Cadillacs and Settlement

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1: Warner Music, Country Star Dwight Yoakam Settle Copyrights Dispute

First off today, Blake Brittain at Reuters reports that country music singer Dwight Yoakam has reached a settlement with Warner Music Group (WMG) that puts an end to their copyright termination battle.

Yoakam sued WMG last year alleging that WMG was not honoring his copyright termination notices. Copyright termination is a clause in the law that allows original creators to reclaim rights to their work after a set period of time. However, WMG argued that the notices were not timely and that he did not own some of the rights involved.

However, the case has now been quietly settled, with both sides moving to dismiss the case. However, no details about the terms of the settlement have been released.

2: Village Roadshow Widens Legal Fight With Warner Bros. Over Film Sequels, Remakes

Next up today, Winston Cho at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Village Roadshow has filed a motion to end a stay in their lawsuit against Warner Bros. as both sides have engaged in a war of words over their rights to multiple films.

The dispute is over Warner Bros. decision to release many of its biggest blockbusters both in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time. According to Village Roadshow, this impacts their rights to those films and that Warner Bros. is growing their company value at the expense of the rights it, and others, own in the films.

However, Warner Bros. has hit back, saying that they reached settlements with all their other partners, and that Village Roadshow was offered multiple fair deals to either increase their revenue or eliminate the risk that the new strategy faced. Warner Bros. alleges that Village Roadshow took none of those deals, but still enjoyed the benefits of its share of the rights. The lawsuit is currently stayed pending arbitration and Village Roadshow is moving to end that stay.

3: IPA and Kenyan Publishers Blast ‘Unacceptable’ Copyright Bill

Finally today, Porter Anderson from Publishing Perspectives reports that the International Publishers Association is joining a chorus of Kenyan-based publishers in decrying proposed changes to the nation’s copyright law.

In 2019, Kenya updated its national copyright to better comply with international treaties and allow publishers (and other rightsholders) a means to file takedown notices against allegedly infringing works and have them removed. However, a new draft legislation seeks to undo that and roll back other protections that were just introduced three years ago.

Both the International Publishers Association and the Kenyan Publishers Association are decrying the changes, saying that they would harm the ability of rightsholders to protect their works online and discourage publishers from releasing digital copies of works.

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