The Copyright Office set seven April hearings in Washington and Los Angeles on possible exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201’s ban on circumvention of technological protection measures as part of the office’s triennial review process for the statute, which began in July (see 1706300066). Civil liberties groups, computer scientists and library and tech associations seeking to renew exemptions for device jailbreaking, security research, e-books and other device software (see 1708090071). The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-recommended exemptions to 1201 in 2015 at the conclusion of the last triennial, including expansions of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions (see 1510270056). The CO recommended last year Congress shouldn’t use legislation to significantly revamp the statute but said legislators could expand the granting of permanent exemptions and improve the triennial process (see 1706220014). The Washington hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 10-13, in the Mumford Room of the LOC’s James Madison Building, the office said in Friday’s Federal Register. The Los Angeles hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 23-25, in UCLA School of Law, Room 1314. Requests are due before Feb. 22.

Google's YouTube requires nondisparagement of the company in less than 0.01 percent of its promotional agreements with content creators and the like, a spokeswoman said, in response to the Content Creators Coalition seeking congressional hearings on the practice (see 1801290039). Typical contracts for music creators to monetize their works on the platform lack such mandates, she said Tuesday. "In rare instances when we align our brand more closely to a specific creator tied to new original content or one-off promotional work, we may ask them to sign an agreement that includes general language around conduct. This type of clause is often used in the entertainment industry and is intended to protect companies, not so much from the words an individual may express, but more so their actions, especially in today's times."

Amendments to Copyright Office rules for the group registration option for newspapers take effect March 1, said a notice in Tuesday's Federal Register. Among changes is a requirement applicants file online rather than on paper and that they upload a complete digital copy of each issue instead of submitting hard copies. The CO said the Library of Congress will put the digital copies of the registration filings into its collections, and give public onsite access, subject to restrictions in the final rule.

The Copyright Royalty Board said the mechanical royalty rate for interactive streaming should increase gradually through 2022 to 15.1 percent of revenue or 26.2 percent of total content cost, whichever is more. The existing rate is 10.8 percent of revenue. The ruling withdrew a cap on the amount of content costs. The Copyright Office on Monday announced the initial ruling in the 2018-2022 interactive streaming royalty ratesetting proceeding. It's “the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history,” said National Music Publishers' Association President David Israelite. “Crucially, the decision also allows songwriters to benefit from deals done by record labels in the free market. The ratio of what labels are paid by the services versus what publishers are paid has significantly improved, resulting in the most favorable balance.” It's the result of 2017 litigation by the NMPA and Nashville Songwriters Association International against Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify. Songwriters and music publishers faced a “long and difficult process” to get here, said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison in a statement with NPMA. Those increases could hurt streaming services facing financial losses, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Monday: It "leaves little money for the service to pay all of its other operating costs.” Timing could disrupt the nascent Music Modernization Act (HR-4706/S-2334) (see 1801260049), which had been gaining momentum, Oxenford said. A final determination will be published after the register of copyrights completes a statutory review and the librarian of Congress approves, the CRB said. This is “another pressure point” for Pandora, said Dougherty & Co. in a Monday investor note. The new rate schedule will affect about 25 percent of Pandora’s revenue and 5.19 million out of its 73 million total active monthly listeners, said analyst Steven Frankel. Although the ad-supported business won’t be affected, Pandora faces a “stagnating listening base and a music market that has rapidly shifted to Spotify and Apple Music,” Frankel said.

NAB said Friday it reached agreement with the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations to resolve the broadcasting group's concerns with the Music Modernization Act. HR-4706/S-2334 was called a compromise supported by songwriters, music publishers and digital streaming services to revamp elements of Copyright Act sections 114 and 115. The legislation would affect some rules on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handling of cases involving DOJ consent decrees governing the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations. House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., filed HR-4706 in December (see 1712210046). Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed S-2334 last week (see 1801240049). NAB opposed language affecting the ASCAP/BMI ratesetting process, including repeal of Section 114 language that bars the district court judges who oversee DOJ's consent decrees governing the two PROs from considering sound recording royalty rates as a relevant benchmark when setting performance royalty rates. NAB also opposed language that would allow ASCAP and BMI rate-setting disputes to be heard on a rotating basis by any Southern District of New York judge rather than requiring all cases to go before the PROs' assigned rate court judges -- Denise Cote for ASCAP and Louis Stanton for BMI. The new agreement on language for the bills “resolves NAB’s concerns with the potential introduction of new evidence into the ratesetting process while preserving ASCAP’s and BMI’s ability to seek meaningful compensation from the growing digital music marketplace,” the three groups announced. Collins' office told us HR-2706/2334 would still repeal some Section 114 language and will now “include language that alleviates” NAB's concerns. ASCAP and BMI “are on board with the update,” Collins' office said. The Songwriters Guild of America has opposed the bill (see 1712290025). The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in New York Friday that focused partly on HR-4706 (see 1801250051).

Microsoft’s push to use TV white spaces is a threat to low-power TV, the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance blogged Wednesday. Microsoft filed for a trademark -- AIRBAND -- for use in providing apps and business consulting in white space telecom. “The proposed set aside of three channels in the television broadcast bands will severely limit the rebuild of many Low Power TV and Translator stations displaced in the recent FCC incentive spectrum auction,” ATBA said. “Microsoft is looking for a free ride on channels they could have purchased, channels that T-Mobile spent over $8 billion to buy and channels that broadcasters have spent untold billions to develop and maintain.” Microsoft didn’t comment.

A "new threat" to IP-intensive music and film industries is emerging in copyright trade talks, said a letter that 37 groups, including MPAA and creative groups, sent Monday to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking America's negotiators to ignore voices backing "vast new immunities" for online services. "If these anti-IP voices succeed, they will turn long-standing trade policy, with creativity and innovation at its core, on its head by transforming our trade agreements into blueprints for how to evade liability for IP theft," they said. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, BMI, Digital Media Licensing Association, News Media Alliance, SoundExchange and others asked the U.S. to "chart a pro-IP course." NAFTA delegates and policymakers "shouldn't be fooled by Hollywood rhetoric," responded Joshua Lamel, Re:Create Coalition executive director. "The gatekeepers of the entertainment industry claim to represent ‘creators' yet they routinely ignore the interests of millions of bloggers, podcasters, internet video stars and Etsy artisans who rely on balanced copyright provisions to utilize online platforms," he said in a statement. “Fair use and safe harbors are essential parts of the American intellectual property framework and actually make IP stronger. If NAFTA covers intellectual property, fair use and safe harbors must be explicitly included."

Energous patents and applications reveal theoretical detail on WattUp power-at-a-distance RF wireless-charging technology that landed FCC certification last month (see 1712270024). On questions about how WattUp distance-charging can in practice be used without interfering with wireless devices, Energous said it changed its system to successfully address any such “coexistence” issues. One wave may be transmitted at 5.7 GHz and another at 5.8 GHz. This is in the band originally reserved internationally for use with industrial, scientific and medical equipment, now also widely used for low-power, short-range communication devices such as cordless phones, Bluetooth links, near-field communication devices and Wi-Fi. In a patent application (2017/0373725) coincidentally published two days after Energous landed FCC OK, inventors from Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea fleshed out risks of wireless power technology causing interference. “In general,” interference will result when a “wireless power transfer apparatus uses the same frequency band as a wireless communication system such as Wi-Fi,” said the application. One could make the wireless-charging system behave more like a Wi-Fi communications network and continually exchange handshake signals that check whether the communications airspace is “clear to send” so it can avoid “collisions” with wireless devices, it said. An Energous spokeswoman responded that WattUp uses the 913 MHz band for transmission of power, not 5.8 GHz. “WattUp will launch and operate in the 900MHz band,” because it has two main advantages over 5.8 GHz “for non-contact, charging at a distance,” she said: 900 MHz offers better safety about how energy is absorbed by the human body, and “coexistence” with other devices is improved in 900 MHz.

Garmin (Europe) Ltd. said it prevailed in an intellectual property dispute over its Elevate wrist-based heart-rate monitoring technology. The High Court of Justice ruled Garmin’s technology didn't infringe two designs owned by PulseOn anywhere in the EU, it said. “We’re pleased that the Court rejected PulseOn’s allegations,” said Andrew Etkind, Garmin general counsel, saying the company is “proud and resolute to fight those who abuse the legal system falsely to take credit for Garmin’s own technology or to make unfounded claims of infringement of IP rights.”

A content creators group slammed the American Law Institute for pro tech copyright proposals that will "siphon yet more of the value of creative work into the online monopolies' already overstuffed pockets," blogged the Content Creators Coalition Friday. C3 criticized ALI's copyright restatement project for "taking extreme positions against creators and their rights." ALI's mission is "to put a thumb on the scale for the internet behemoths and win concessions Congress has refused to make," c3 said, urging Congress to "reject this attempted run around of its power and help the ALI leaders see what a serious risk they are taking." ALI didn't comment.