EU in Final Stages of Clarifying Copyright Law for User Generated Content Platforms
The European Union is nearing finalization of significant changes to the copyright law, which will increase the legal obligations of websites and apps that allow sharing of user-uploaded content, often referred to as UGC or user-generated content. While it is still progressing through the legislative process, it seems likely some form of this legislation will become law. The three current versions approved by separate arms of the EU government share a few common provisions.
If it becomes law, it will likely apply to websites and app platforms that meet four basic conditions:
First, the platform allows the storing and distribution of UGC that may include copyright content, even if use is just incidental. If users can upload content with embedded clips of music or video as part of their content, this provision applies.
Second, the platform promotes or optimizes content for commercial purposes. Commercial purposes would include the generation of income through advertising, subscriptions, app and in-app purchases, and other creative income producing schemes, or attracting users to the service to increase the capital value of the platform.
Third, the platform is located in the EU or if it is located outside of the EU, is it accessible by users from any of the 28 countries currently in the EU. That means if the platform is based in the US but allows users in the EU to access it, this law applies.
Fourth, the platform is above a certain size, currently proposed to be more than 50 employees or annual revenues in excess of €10 million.
Some exceptions to the type of platforms covered are expected. For example, cloud storage services that are for individual use. Other examples include not-for-profit encyclopedia services (such as Wikipedia), open source software platforms (such as GitHub) and online markets whose main activity is selling of physical goods (such as eBay).
If a platform falls under these qualifying conditions of the directive, then what? The company will be required to obtain licenses from copyright owners or must take preventive measures to ensure that copyright works are not available through their service. Since there are inconsistencies between the three versions, it’s not yet clear what will qualify as a preventive requirement. However, it is expected that copyright owners will be obligated to specify what content they want protected.
So where do things go from here?
A trilogue process is currently underway by the EU to reconcile the three different approved versions. A compromise version is expected to be finalized before the end of 2018 and approved in the first quarter of 2019. Once approved, there is a two-year period before it becomes law in every EU member state.
Audible Magic Launches AMLive™ to Protect Against Rebroadcasting Premium Content by Users of Live Streaming Platforms
Los Gatos, CA (April 3, 2018) — Audible Magic Corporation, the leader in audio and video digital content identification solutions, announced today the availability of AMLive — a new service to identify unauthorized user streams of premium content registered by rights holders. The service addresses industry needs to protect live sports, live-broadcasted music and other premium content. AMLive operates on both live streams and video-on-demand.
Using a simple dashboard or via an API to integrate into existing workflows, AMLive makes it easy for broadcasters and programmers to register live broadcast events. Once content is registered with Audible Magic, the social platforms can automatically identify and block unauthorized streams in real-time.
“Content owners can now more easily ensure their valuable content is available only from authorized streaming services.” said Vance Ikezoye, Co-founder and CEO of Audible Magic. “AMLive is well suited for the live sports industry, where piracy of live streams is a major concern. The service also addresses a growing issue where recorded music is streamed live by bedroom DJs.”
“What makes Audible Magic unique in the industry is we provide a service used and paid for by the social platforms to proactively prevent the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content. The social platforms then make the service available to any content owner who wants to register content they own or control. AMLive enables greater cooperation between the social platforms and the content industry.”
Audible Magic is recognized for its pioneering work in audio and video digital fingerprinting, the foundation behind its content recognition technology, and is a trusted provider among both platforms and rights owners. With the launch of AMLive, Audible Magic expands its portfolio beyond video-on-demand (VOD) services.
Audible Magic will be discussing AMLive and other recent developments with content owners and OVSPs at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, April 9-11. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a meeting.
Additional information on AMLive can be found at http://bit.ly/ampr318
Audible Magic Honored With an Emmy® Award for Content Identification Technology
Audible Magic Honored with an Emmy® Award for the Company's Content Identification Technology
Los Gatos, CA (August 30, 2017) — Audible Magic has been recognized as one of a select few to be honored with the Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering in 2017 by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). The internationally-renowned Emmy® Award, granted by NATAS and chosen each year by dozens of industry experts and peers, recognizes excellence and creativity; and represents the highest achievement in the television industry.
Audible Magic was recognized by the NATAS for the company's more than 18 years of pioneering work in the development and use of content identification technologies to protect content value and copyright. The company's content recognition solutions, which are based on its patented digital fingerprinting technology, quickly and cost-effectively detect authorized and unauthorized uses of live and pre-recorded television content shared by consumers on social media and live streaming platforms.
"The Academy is pleased to highlight Audible Magic's contributions to the television industry addressing the need to respect television media copyrights on the Internet," said Robert P. Seidel, Chairman of the Technology & Engineering Committee of the NATAS. "Audible Magic's technology has had a significant positive impact in protecting the value of television content."
"Recognition by the NATAS and to be honored with an Emmy® Award is not only testimony to the extraordinary contribution of our technology but in addition, the entire ecosystem we've created," said Vance Ikezoye, Founder and CEO, Audible Magic. "Audible Magic has over 18 years developed industry-advancing technologies, resulting in over 65 patents covering a broad range of inventions in content identification."
This year’s recipients will be honored at the 69th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards that will take place in partnership with the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show/conference on Sunday, April 8, 2018 in Las Vegas, NV.
About Audible Magic
Audible Magic provides technologies that make media devices, apps and networks content aware. The company is the trusted leader in digital fingerprinting techniques that recognize audio and video content in all forms across radio and television broadcasts, Internet streams, cable and satellite transmissions, stored digital files, and on consumer devices such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, smart phones, tablets, and other appliances. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been awarded more than 65 patents. Currently Audible Magic has worked with more than 200 customers and thousands of content partners in technology, entertainment and media industries.
About The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy® Award for News & Documentary, Sports, Daytime Entertainment, Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment, Public & Community Service, and Technology & Engineering. NATAS membership consists of over 15,000 broadcast and media professionals represented in 19 regional chapters across the country. Beyond awards, NATAS has extensive educational programs including Regional Student Television and its Student Award for Excellence for outstanding journalistic work by high school students, as well as scholarships, publications, and major activities for both industry professionals and the viewing public. For more information, please visit the website at www.emmyonline.tvw.emmyonline.tv
Audible Magic Triumphs Over Blue Spike LLC in Patent Lawsuit
Audible Magic Leads Defense That Included 19 of its Customers
Los Gatos, CA (July 14th, 2016) — Audible Magic Corporation, the leader in digital fingerprinting and automated content recognition (ACR) solutions, announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted summary judgment of non-infringement in favor of Audible Magic on patent claims brought by Blue Spike.
Audible Magic also announced a settlement with Blue Spike to dismiss all outstanding claims and counterclaims between the parties. As part of that settlement, Blue Spike has agreed not to sue Audible Magic or any of its customers again for sales or use of Audible Magic’s products or services. This settlement also dismissed Blue Spike’s claims against Audible Magic’s 19 customers named in the original lawsuit.
“Audible Magic took immediate charge in leading the defense of itself and all its customers named in the suit, including Dailymotion. The company went above and beyond our expectations on this matter, which speaks to their character as a trusted partner,” said Giuseppe de Martino, Executive Vice President and Directeur Général Délégué at Dailymotion. “Obviously we are pleased with the outcome of this suit,” he added.
“Defending our customers and ourselves against these intellectual property related lawsuits is an arduous and costly process, but our trusted role in the industry demands an assertive response.” said Vance Ikezoye, Co-founder and CEO of Audible Magic. “We want our customers and strategic partners to have confidence in Audible Magic’s technology and know that the Company will actively defend their interests.”
About Audible Magic Audible Magic provides technologies that make media devices, apps and networks content aware. The company is the trusted leader in digital fingerprinting techniques that recognize audio and video content in all forms across radio and television broadcasts, Internet streams, cable and satellite transmissions, stored digital files, and on consumer devices such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, smart phones, tablets, and other appliances. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been awarded more than 33 patents in the U.S. and in Europe. Currently Audible Magic works with more than 200 customers and partners in technology, entertainment and media.
Audible Magic Introduces Upgraded DMCA Tool for Colleges and Universities
CopySense® Appliance 10G Automates DMCA Notice Reduction for Campus IT Networks
Los Gatos, Calif., February 3, 2015--(Business Wire)--Audible Magic, the leading provider of enterprise-class content recognition solutions announced the CopySense® Network Appliance 10G. This is a new version of Audible Magic’s CopySense Appliance that now accommodates a 10 GB network interface.
The CopySense Appliance is popular with college and university IT organizations for its ability to reduce workload and expenses related to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices. It also automates actions that educate students and other campus network users toward good digital citizenship with regard to the use and sharing of copyrighted content.
With a CopySense Appliance monitoring the campus network, users that engage peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to download or share copyrighted media content get automatically redirected to information on campus network use policies. These responses are only initiated when the user attempts copyright-infringing, public sharing of media content. Sharing of non-copyrighted files on P2P networks is ignored, thus allowing the campus to embrace and allow P2P file sharing for non-infringing uses.
As users become educated and stop participating in public sharing of copyrighted media, the number of DMCA infractions is reduced. The institution then spends less resource following up on takedown notices.
“The CopySense Appliance has helped top educational institutions large and small across the United States reduce their DMCA takedown notice workload,” said Vance Ikezoye, Audible Magic CEO. “The latest 10G version helps them keep up with their growing network bandwidth requirements.”
Visit Audible Magic’s website for more information on the CopySense Network Appliance.
Audible Magic is the trusted leader in automatic content recognition (ACR) fingerprinting technologies. The company offers a broad range of hosted solutions as well as hardware and software products that identify audio and video content, synchronize actions between media devices, trigger user interactivity and generate usage reporting. Audible Magic’s customers and partners span education, technology and media industries and include industry leaders such as Dailymotion, Deluxe Media, Ensequence, Sling Media, Sony Music and SoundCloud.
Audible Magic Receives Its 30th Patent Award
Latest Patents Add to Portfolio in the Areas of Audio and Video Content Recognition and Related Services Optimization
LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audible Magic, the leading provider of enterprise-class automatic content recognition (ACR) solutions announced that the company was recently issued three new patents. This brings the total patents awarded to the company to 30 overall in areas such as digital fingerprint-based media detection technology, detection of content on media-playing devices, identification of content flow across networks, and approaches to media identification information systems performance.
“Audible Magic’s intellectual property portfolio, plus our experience in massively scalable content identification and information services, makes the company’s offerings a preferred choice among the largest names in media and technology industries”
The recently-issued patents include:
- European Patent EP 1 490 767 B1, for copyright detection and protection system method regarding digital data processing. This patent involves identifying, reporting, and/or protecting digital works from unauthorized transmission and/or copying, such as over networks or network segments connected to the Internet.
- U.S. patent 8,732,858 B2, for identifying digital data content; a computing system selects data from an unknown work and detects each event. It determines an event metric between each successive event and generates a list of metrics between the events, comparing event metrics for the unknown work to those of a known work, to determine if the unknown work is a copy of the known work.
- U.S. patent 8,645,279 B2, in copyright detection and protection system method, for detecting against unauthorized transmission of digital works.
The generation of patents by this privately-funded company has enabled Audible Magic to establish itself as the leader in ACR solutions. “Audible Magic’s intellectual property portfolio, plus our experience in massively scalable content identification and information services, makes the company’s offerings a preferred choice among the largest names in media and technology industries,” said Vance Ikezoye, CEO. Visit Audible Magic’s website for the full patent documents.
Audible Magic is the trusted leader in automatic content recognition (ACR) fingerprinting technologies. The company offers a broad range of hosted solutions as well as hardware and software products that identify audio and video content, synchronize actions between media devices, trigger user interactivity, generate usage reporting and activate content monetization. Audible Magic’s customers and partners span technology, entertainment and media industries and include industry leaders such as Dailymotion, Ensequence, Sling Media, Sony Music and SoundCloud.
Crunch Digital Announces RegistryID™ and Strategic Partnership With Audible Magic to Streamline Licensing and Reporting to Record Labels and Music Publishers
Crunch Digital Forms Strategic Partnership with Audible Magic
Los Angeles, CA, October 28, 2014 - Today Crunch Digital, the data management and reporting service that bridges digital rights owners with content licensees, is announcing RegistryID™, their new system that will streamline music licensing and reporting. As an integral part of the RegistryID system, Crunch Digital has entered a strategic partnership with Audible Magic, the leader in automated content recognition (ACR) solutions for copyrighted content.
Matching music to copyright ownership data affects many digital services, apps and games. Finding the correct copyright owners and verifying licensing can become a monumental barrier for digital services. Over the last four years, Crunch Digital developed one of the most comprehensive registries for sound recording and musical composition metadata in the world. The release of RegistryID™, expected early next year, will enable distributors to verify licensing rights with music publishers for their content worldwide, ensuring that proper permissions have been obtained before the work is made available on their platform. RegistryID™ will be integrated with Crunch Digital's existing data management and reporting solutions.
When content is added to a provider's platform, RegistryID will use Audible Magic's fingerprinting solution to match the content against registered sound recordings. If a match is found, RegistryID will then associate registered content with an underlying musical composition and its owners or administrators. Then the system can determine if a license is in effect for the musical composition to ultimately "block" or "allow" use on the platform based on licensing terms specified by the provider.
"Crunch Digital's RegistryID addresses a problem we have seen for years in the digital marketplace," said Vance Ikezoye, Audible Magic's CEO. "Being able to match sound recordings to the underlying composition and verifying licenses can certainly enable access to more music for many delivery platforms."
"We are excited to work with Audible Magic to enable our RegistryID," said Keith Bernstein, founder of Crunch Digital. "Their fingerprinting technology allows us to deliver fast, robust responses to our customers so that they can focus on the customer experience without worrying about copyright issues."
About Audible Magic Audible Magic is the trusted leader in automatic content recognition (ACR) fingerprinting technologies. The company offers a broad range of hosted solutions as well as hardware and software products that identify audio and video content, synchronize actions between media devices, trigger user interactivity, generate usage reporting and activate content monetization. Audible Magic's customers and partners span technology, entertainment and media industries.
About Crunch Digital Crunch Digital™ is an independent technology firm whose mission is to eliminate the barriers of licensing and payments in the media & entertainment marketplace, fueling better revenue flow, improving business intelligence, and reducing operating costs for content licensees and content owners. Crunch Digital manages data flow for content licensees - digital service providers, multi-channel networks, game companies, app developers and mobile carriers - including royalty reporting for direct licenses. Crunch Digital also services content owners - including record labels, music publishers, audio book publishers, film & television studios and game publishers.