The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is All Set to Monitor Digital Media; US Senate Judiciary Committee approves the Small-Claims Copyright Bill (CASE Act); Twitch Bans Gamers for Streaming a Copyrighted Debate; Flipkart Enters the Video Streaming Market; Facebook to Launch a Dedicated News Section; Karigar Store-Latest Addition on the Amazon Website; Fed-Ex Ends Partnership with Amazon and more.
NATIONAL
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry is All Set to Monitor Digital Media
For the purpose of monitoring the media better, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued a notification on 7th August 2019, declaring that it is on the hunt for an agency for compiling news from various newspapers, TV and digital platforms and give a consolidated report. This report would help the government to improve its feedback system and keep a track of the social media and digital platforms. The notification says that the reports would be updated on a dashboard owned by the ministry three times in a day.
INTERNATIONAL
US Senate Judiciary Committee approves the Small-Claims Copyright Bill (CASE Act)
The US-Senate has sent back the Small-Claims Copyright Bill (CASE Act) to the legislature with its approval and no amendments as of now. The CASE Act seems to be useful in speedy disposal of copyright infringement cases by sending them to the Copyright Claims Board rather than the Federal District Court. The Board would be formed by three officers chosen by the Congress. They can hear the matters and render orders to the extent of monetary relief. The CASE Act would be beneficial for small artists and other copyright owners for whom getting into a lengthy and expensive legal proceeding becomes a major obstacle. However, the option to opt-out of the Board proceedings by the defendants might be detrimental to the effectiveness of the Act.
Twitch Bans Gamers for Streaming a Copyrighted Debate
Twitch, one of the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers, banned three of its prominent gamers for live streaming the Second Democratic Debate. Being under the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act (DMCA), Twitch, like other online platforms are protected from being held liable for content posted by users if they take necessary steps to bring down infringing content. CNN, who owned the rights to the Debate, sent a take down notice to Twitch, following which the suspensions were made. One of the gamers, while accepting his mistake of rebroadcasting the Debate without seeking permission from CNN, have taken the defence of ‘fair use’ claiming that he assumed making a commentary of the debate would serve as awareness among gamers about political matters.
LICENSING
Flipkart Enters the Video Streaming Market
After acquiring a majority stake in Flipkart, Walmart, the American multinational retail chain, is now pushing the Indian e-commerce website into the video streaming market, by launching ‘Flipkart Videos’. This service will showcase short-films, full-length movies and episodic series. Through this service, Walmart aims to compete with Amazon’s video streaming service. The content on ‘Flipkart Video’ will be made available in vernacular languages as well, to reach a wider audience of 200 million users on the Flipkart platform.
The launch of ‘Flipkart Video’ has now increased licensing opportunities for content creators in India.
Facebook to Launch a Dedicated News Section
The social media site has decided to publish news articles in an attempt to recover from a string of recent controversies that have surrounded Facebook. It aims to re-build itself as a platform which publishes credible news. Inorder to publish these news articles Facebook will enter into licensing deals with various media and news organisations. These publishers will have complete control over the manner in which the news will be appear on Facebook.
The estimated value of the deals will be in millions, with Facebook looking at signing long term deals for as long as three years. Some of the media outlets that Facebook has already approached include Disney-owned ABC News, Bloomberg, Dow Jones (also the parent company of the WSJ), and The Washington Post.
E-COMMERCE
Karigar Store-Latest Addition on the Amazon Website
Amazon has recently launched the Karigar Store, on the eve of National Handloom Day, which will be selling 55,000 products from 20 different states. The main objective behind launching this store is to help SMB’s (Small and medium business), get access to a larger market where they can sell their goods. This initiative will boost the sales of handmade crafts which include Bengal handloom sarees, Jaipur blue pottery decorative items, among other products. The logo for Amazon Karigar is a thumbprint, which symbolizes the diversity, authenticity, rich culture and uniqueness of the products from all over India.
In the recent past, the Rural Development Ministry and Tata Trust also came together to promote the sale of rural products through e-commerce platforms. With this, we can now see the focus of e-commerce platforms moving towards rural India and recognizing the monetary value and potential of the products created by the local artisans.
Fed-Ex Ends Partnership with Amazon
The long-standing partnership between Fed-Ex and Amazon has now ended. Fed-Ex will no longer be providing on-ground delivery service to Amazon, because Amazon is in the process of expanding its internal delivery service. With this decision the e-commerce giant, intends to increase its scope of services, while competing with other courier services including United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS).
Amazon currently has its own fleet of planes, trucks and vans for the delivery services and is looking at a long-term growth of the same.
Shamnad Basheer-The Loss of an IP Visionary
The IP world is coping with the recent and untimely demise of Shamnad Basheer, who was an Indian Legal Scholar. Mr. Basheer had made great strides in the field of Intellectual Property as a scholar and teacher and also worked tirelessly to make legal education available to underprivileged children.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. His invaluable contributions in the field of IP Law will always be remembered.
Authored and compiled by Neharika Vhatkar and Anusmita Mazumder (Associates, BananaIP Counsels)
The Entertainment Law News Bulletin is brought to you jointly by the Entertainment Law, eCommerce Law, and Consulting/Strategy Divisions of BananaIP Counsels, a Top IP Firm in India. If you have any questions, or need any clarifications, please write to contact@bananaip.com with the subject: Ent Law News.
Disclaimer: Please note that the news bulletin has been put together from different sources, primary and secondary, and BananaIP’s reporters may not have verified all the news published in the bulletin. You may write to contact@bananaip.com for corrections and take down.
