Friday’s Endnotes – 04/01/16

Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera sign letter calling for changes to copyright law — “Hundreds of artists, songwriters, managers, and other players in the music industry are calling on the U.S. Copyright Office to make what they consider to be long overdue changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law they say is not only out-of-date, but detrimental to artists and the future of the industry.”

Guadamuz on the Monkey Selfie — Andrés Guadamuz (University of Sussex) looks at the copyright issues of the (in)famous monkey selfie from a UK and European perspective, concluding that, “Under current originality rules, David Slater has a good copyright claim for ownership of the picture.”

Video Creators Are Frustrated With Facebook’s Antipirating Efforts — Facebook has seen staggering growth in the amount of users watching videos on its platform, but its antipiracy efforts have not kept pace. This is especially frustrating for individual YouTube creators, who see their own videos “freebooted” onto Facebook, hurting their ability to earn revenue.

Web TV Company Not Entitled to License to Stream Content — A federal district court in Illinois held that FilmOn X does not qualify for the cable compulsory license in the Copyright Act, making it the third court to say as much, and making the sole court to hold otherwise even more of an outlier.

The Costs and Benefits of Copyright: Getting the Facts Straight — Hugh Stephens takes a look at the flaws in a number of studies purporting to show losses due to stronger copyright provisions in trade agreements.

How to Send a Takedown Notice to Google in 46 (or more) Easy Steps! — Unfortunately, not an April Fools joke!