IN THIS ISSUE
MOBILE PHONE DOWNLOADS - THE NEXT NAPSTER ?
Envisional has identified hundreds of sites on the internet that make ringtones available for download to mobile phones. While most sites charge users for each tune they download (around £1.50 per tone on average), industry analysts investigating the ringtone phenomenon say very few of these companies ever return any royalties to the record companies who own the copyright to the tunes. The record companies are entitled to a fee of 7.5 US cents for every tune downloaded meaning that, with hundreds of sites allowing hundreds of thousands of ringtones to be downloaded every day, the music industry is suffering massive losses due to copyright abuse.
Ben Coppin, chief operating officer of Envisional, said, "Reliable figures on the total ringtone market are very hard to come by, but we know that one site has seen more than thirty thousand downloads of a single ringtone - Mission Impossible - in a two month period with a further 270 tones available from that one site alone. Averaging out the number of downloads for each tune and multiplying that figure by the number of similar sites quickly brings the possibility of potential music industry losses to over one million dollars per day in the future. These are very rough estimates - and we'd be delighted to see market analysts qualifying these figures - but there is no doubt as to the scale of the problem. This is another Napster in the making."
Envisional's research found that the problem was largely created by teenagers downloading their favourite artists - Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Destiny's Child and S Club 7 being the most popular - and thirtysomethings copying hits from the 1980's. TV shows such as Big Brother and the A Team were also popular and there was a growing trend towards downloading specialist tunes such as those from Indian 'Bollywood' movies, and seasonal tunes (around Christmas, for example).
According to Clare Griffiths, a lawyer at intellectual property niche law firm Briffa, the legal issues surrounding the practise of downloading ringtones are extremely complex - both for the site owners and the consumers. "Copyright in the music will be infringed by taking a 'substantial part' of a musical work. The most recognisable melody of a song, even if it is only 10 seconds out of 3 minutes, could be substantial copying. The moral rights of the song writer may also be infringed through the derogatory treatment of their work, having a beautiful melody reduced to a ring tone could be seen as damaging to the integrity of the music."
"There is also a question of who may be liable for the infringement. It is the person doing the copying that is infringing. This will be the company/person putting the tunes on a web site for download, but the act of downloading by individuals is also creating another copy on the person's phone and so both could be liable. Individuals who key in the tunes for themselves are also making copies and so cannot evade liability this way. The application of the existing law to these new scenarios can also throw up interesting debates: for example, is the song being broadcast/performed when the phone rings, especially in a public place, further infringing the rights of the copyright owner?"
LANDMARK WINS COPYRIGHT DISPUTE
Landmark launched Envirosearch two years ago - the service provides solicitors acting for home buyers with data on contaminated land and environment risk factors - however last year Sitescope launched its rival Homecheck Pro service which contained features Landmark claimed had been copied from Envirosearch. After Landmark commenced proceedings, Sitescope admitted infringement and the case was settled out of court on payment of an undisclosed sum in damages. Sitescope has also given undertaking not to infringe again and agreed to changes in the design and content of its Homecheck Pro report.
In a statement Landmark said "We felt we had to bring this case to protect our clients, who were understandably confused at the launch of a product that was so obviously modelled on our own... This action was not about stifling competition. We think there is plenty of room in the marketplace for competing products but it is important that all the players stand or fall on their own merits."
LEGAL PUBLISHING NEWS ROUND-UP
Scottish legal publisher W Green last week launched the first Scots law specific online legal research service. Called Westlaw UK Scots Law, it runs on Sweet & Maxwell's Westlaw UK platform. Its content include the "Scots Law Times", a daily current awareness service, as well as the latest legislation from Holyrood.
Sweet & Maxwell has published two new titles of relevance to the new media law market. These are: the second edition of "Electronic Commerce - Law & Practice" by Michael Chissick & Alistair Kelman, price £155 and "Domain Names Global Practice & Procedures" by John Olsen, Spyros Maniatis & Nick Wood, price £250 including monthly update service. Both books are international in their content and jurisdictional scope. For details call 020 7449 1111 or +44 1264 342906 for international customers.
ELLIOTT SLONE GETS A NEW MONIKER
MOBILE PAYMENTS SYSTEM INITIATIVE
The plan is to create a system that will make it possible to use a mobile phone to
make cashless payments as an alternative to credit cards. Customers will be able to use it to pay for their groceries in supermarkets, for example, or to transfer money between bank accounts. The same applies to goods ordered by telephone or in the internet and, in future, multimedia content called up direct via mobile phones. Payitmobile customers will identify themselves when turning on their mobile phone by entering their mobile phone number. In addition to this, they use a PIN code supplied by Payitmobile for each payment transaction. This, the joint vemnture group claims, eliminates the possibility of misuse.
iMANAGE EXPANDS IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE
PUBLISHER BUYS A SLICE OF VIRTUAL LAW FIRM
eLawForum founder John B Henry said it was unlikely the company would now seek additional outside financing. The company will use the investment for "further expansion into US and European markets sectors". In the latter case its only real competitor is Anthony Armitage's FirstLAW.co.uk virtual law firm. As part of the deal eLawForum will also make its services available to the Wolters Kluwer group. eLawForum says it is also in discussions with other "strategic partners". US report that eLawForum had previously raised $4 million from individual investors, has a monthly burn rate of $200,000 and a post-money valuation of $22 million.
WEST GROUP ANNOUNCE CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION DEALS
Recent Glasser LegalWorks programmes include Cyber Securities Law and Privacy Law Challenges 2001. In addition, West Group and Glasser LegalWorks will jointly produce CLE programs on significant hot legal topics. The Rutter Group offers a wide range of CLE courses from basic programming such as Persuasive Speaking Skills, Elimination of Bias and Basic Training for Litigators - Civil Procedure Before Trial to course work on advanced and practice-specific topics such as "Home Run" Motions in Federal Court, Personal Injury Update 2001 and Pollution Liability in Commercial/Real Estate Transactions. Through FindLaw, currently recknoned to be the world's most highly trafficked legal portal, West LegalEdcenter delivers streaming video of live and archived programs to a worldwide audience of attorneys and legal professionals. Course materials contain links to related legal documents on Westlaw and KeyCite.
TWO MORE NET RESULTS WINS FOR KEYSTONE IN US
ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WINS IN ONLINE TV AND RADIO DISPUTES
RecordTV, which admits it has run out of money following the collapse of the dotcom market, had been offering a service which it described as the online version of a VCR - users could ask it to copy programmes which they could watch later via a video streaming feed. The company argued that the service was legal since it should enjoy the same legal status that allows consumers to tape TV programmes on their home VCRs however the out of court settlement, which also saw RecordTV agree to pay $50,000 towards the entertainment companies' legal fees, effectively concedes that the service constituted an illegal use of copyrighted television programmes.
In a similar vein, Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) earlier this week won a battle with the US Copyright Office when it published a ruling that radio broadcasters are not exempt from licensing royalties when they simulcast their programs on the internet. Surprisingly, the decision was also welcomed by a number of webcasters who are concerned that the gray areas of copyright law are impeding their efforts to provide entertainment services on the web.
SINGLES SALES HIT BY ONLINE SITES - CD BURNERS THE NEXT BIG ISSUE ?
Jay Berman, the chairman of IFPI said the 2000 figures revealed "the first evidence of the impact of free online music" and refuted earlier claims by Napster and other that such services actually stimulate record sales. "It defies logic to assume that someone who can have access to and download a single would then go out and buy it," he added.
Meanwhile, as Napster currently experiments with digital fingerprinting technology in a better attempt to comply with the court order requiring it to cut back on the pirate copies and move to a subscription-based service, the music industry is now addressing the threat posed by another new technology - the CD burner. With Apple and Philips now making CD burners a standard feature of home computers and stereo systems, there are growing concerns that some of the advertising being used to promote these products - one Apple ad uses the slogan "Burn a CD... that doesn't suck" - will encourage consumers to 'burn' pirate copies of tracks from friends' CDs rather than buy their own copies.
In fact it is already being suggested that the TLA (three letter acronym) for the year 2001 will be BBR - buy, burn, return. In otherwords, buy a CD, make a copy on your CD burner and then return the original for a refund!
LERNOUT & HAUSPIE ACCUSE FORMER KOREAN BOSS OF FRAUD
An auditor's report commissioned by L&H chief executive, Philippe Bodson, revealed this month that 70 percent of the $160 million sales reported by the Korean subsidiary between September 1999 and June 2000 were fictitious. The report alleges L&H Korea brought customer invoices to banks in exchange for cash, allowing the subsidiary to inflate its reported income, pay bonuses and drive up its stock price. The banks providing the de facto loans allegedly were given the option of reclaiming their money if the customers, many of whom were fake or came from L&H-funded ventures.
PHILLIPS FOX BUYS CMS OPEN
In July 1999 Phillips Fox moved from being a federation of individual offices to a corporately managed fully integrated legal firm with common strategies, systems, approaches and practices across all its offices. According to Phillips Fox chief executive Tony Crawford the changes within the firm have been in response to a rapidly changing legal services marketplace which requires law firms to service their clients more effectively. "We knew that to effectively implement our new business strategies on a firm wide basis we would require the best practice management technology. Our market research showed that CMS Open is best able to deliver these objectives. We were particularly impressed by CMS Open's graphic drill-down reporting ability, that users access via a browser, as well as the system's ability to be customised by our own people," said Crawford.
MERGED FIRMS SET FOR 1st JULY TECHNOLOGY SWITCH ON
DISKCOVERY IN SPEECH TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE
From the publishers of Legal Technology Insider. Click here for the latest legal IT jobs, events diary and additional law reports. Next issue - 03.05.2001
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