A coalition of nearly two dozen music organizations wrote U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the tech community is "working for a backward-looking agenda" for the North American Free Trade Agreement at the expense of U.S. cultural, economic and employment interests. In the Tuesday letter, the coalition, including ASCAP, BMI and RIAA, cited an Aug. 31 letter to him from CTA, Internet Association and other industry groups that want a "strong and balanced copyright framework," which includes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors. That tech letter said DMCA safe harbors and the Copyright Act exceptions are essential to the internet's commercial growth and any modernization of NAFTA that omits portions of a copyright framework that the tech sector relies on "will cause serious harm" to part of the economy and risk jobs. But the music coalition said the tech sector wants the U.S. to insert "vast loopholes" in the copyright system "such as broad copyright exceptions and sweeping immunities for those committing content theft." The music coalition said it would permit trading partners to be havens for piracy for those who illegally infringe on American content. "Beyond the U.S. experience, our trading partners are simply not in a position to implement U.S. safe harbor law in their own domestic systems, which lack fundamental aspects of the U.S. legal system, including our high-standard intellectual property protections, our case law and our Constitution," the music coalition said. It said adding safe harbors would put U.S. creative industries at a "competitive disadvantage."

Sony has ideas for adapting virtual-reality head-up display technology for use in cars, said a U.S. patent application (2017/0240047) published Aug. 24 at the Patent and Trademark Office. The application, filed in early 2016, describes an “active window” for vehicle infomatics and VR in which the car’s front windshield is partly covered with a flexible, transparent OLED screen so the driver or passengers can see a real-world view of the car’s surroundings overlaid by synthetic images. Using what Sony dubs a “fun selector,” occupants can decide whether to augment reality with useful information to aid navigation or to add whimsy. The outside world can be “enhanced to allow amusing things to happen,” such as an image of a dinosaur peering out from between two trees or boulders, or superimposing images of grass, lakes and flowers onto a desert landscape through which the vehicle is passing, it said. Sony didn’t comment Tuesday on possible commercial plans.

Sharp’s patent infringement complaint at the International Trade Commission seeking an import ban on Hisense smart TVs (see 1709050045) is part of a “scorched-earth campaign” to “undo” a 2015 license agreement that gave Hisense rights to sell Sharp-branded TVs in the U.S., Hisense commented (login required) in docket 337-TA-3246. Hisense-Sharp tensions gained in July with Foxconn plans to build a $10 billion LCD display fab in Wisconsin as the centerpiece of a Foxconn-Sharp commitment for an 8K ecosystem. Legislation authorizing Wisconsin to negotiate a contract that would pay Foxconn up to $3 billion cleared the Assembly Thursday. Gov. Scott Walker (R) was scheduled to have signed the bill into law Monday afternoon. An import ban would harm consumers, said Hisense. “Consumers will suffer from fewer choices among smart TVs.” A decrease “may also cause prices to increase,” it said. On a unit-share basis, Hisense's own product had 3 percent North American TV market share in the first half of 2017, Paul Gagnon, IHS Markit director-TV sets research, told us.

Some commenters told the Copyright Office they seek leeway under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for circumventing technological protection measures, showed filings last week on regulations.gov COLC-2017-0007-0001. The Auto Care Association and CTA requested "exemption for diagnosis, repair, and modification of computer programs that control" autos' operation so "owners of vehicles [can] obtain the benefits from the exemption recognized in the previous triennial review," "free of any constraint in time or scope based on external, non-copyright factors, as were imposed in the previously granted exemption." BSA|The Software Alliance also sought an exemption involving cars, for "good-faith security research [that] does not violate any applicable law." Repair entity iFixit asked the CO for "an expansion to all existing repair exemptions to allow third parties to provide service at the request of the owner" and contends "Sec. 1201(a) does not bar the creation and distribution of tools primarily intended for repair of devices that contain embedded software protected by technological measures."

The International Trade Commission began a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations of companies including DTS importing and selling wireless audio systems that infringe patents held by Broadcom and Avago Technologies, said an ITC news release. Broadcom and Avago's Aug. 10 complaint said DTS’ “Play-Fi” technology, which allows a user to stream music from a device into one or more speakers located throughout a user’s home, copies their patented technologies. DTS didn't comment.

The Copyright Office issued “model statutory language” Friday for potential legislation for a digital-age update of Copyright Act Section 108’s exemption allowing libraries and archives to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works, cautioning the discussion document wasn't its “final word.” The CO held meetings last year with stakeholders in advance of a planned legislative recommendation on a Section 108 update, though ongoing opposition from library stakeholders made it unclear that Congress would want to prioritize an update (see 1606070052 and 1606210066). The CO’s draft includes expected language that would extend Section 108’s exemption to include museums and all works publicly disseminated online (see report in the April 3, 2008, issue) but not a stricter definition of what constitutes a library or archive. “Adding museums as an eligible entity would ensure, among other things, that small museums that may not be associated with a library or archives could take advantage of the benefits” of Section 108, the CO said. The draft doesn’t attempt to more strictly define what a library or archive is, but the courts have “appropriately interpreted” what they are, the CO said. “It is likely that courts would draw similar lines in interpreting 'museums' within the proposed section 108 context." The draft also proposes to remove an existing three-copy limit under Section 108 and replace it with updated language that reflects libraries’ practice of relying 'on fair use to cover the making of additional copies, including temporary, incidental copies.'"

The Copyright Office published a final rule that puts all regulations for the use of a copyright notice into a single location, said a notice Tuesday. The rule takes effect Oct. 12. "This rule, intended to simplify and streamline the regulations, makes no substantive changes to the regulations" and combines "regulations at 37 C.F.R. 201.20 to 37 C.F.R. 202.2 into one location in section 202.2," it said.

A Germany-based site that offered illegally "stream ripped" music with 60 million monthly global visitors shut down after legal actions by the U.K. and U.S. record industries, said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in a Thursday news release. Like similar sites, YouTube-mp3.org extracted audio files typically from music videos and offered them as "free permanent" downloads to users, said IFPI, adding stream ripping is the "most prevalent form of online music copyright infringement." It said the site made hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad revenue per month, but didn't pay anything to music artists and creators. Capitol Records, Sony, Warner Brothers and other companies settled Tuesday with YouTube-mp3 and its operator Philip Matesanz in the District Court for the Central District of California, said an order (in Pacer) agreed to by Judge André Birotte. The industry's complaint (in Pacer) was filed a year ago.

BMI distributed and administered a record $1.02 billion in royalties to composers, songwriters and publishers and had $1.13 billion in revenue to end FY 2017, said the performing rights organization's news release Thursday. Royalty distributions -- including domestic, international and direct deals that BMI administers on behalf of publishers -- were 10 percent higher from the prior fiscal year. Total domestic revenue, which included digital, media and general licensing, reached $836 million, up 7 percent. It said new long-term agreements with Netflix, Hulu and others helped boost digital revenue 7 percent to $163 million, while growth in terrestrial radio, cable and satellite radio categories upped media licensing revenue 6 percent to $524 million. The PRO processed nearly 1.4 trillion performances -- 1.35 trillion digital -- this year, up about 40 percent.

Via Licensing said Verizon joined its LTE licensing program. “Via’s patent pool provides a fair, transparent and cost-effective license to all essential LTE and LTE-Advanced patents from Via's LTE licensors,” Via said.