The European Commission's likely proposal to introduce a pan-EU 20-year ancillary copyright aimed at allowing publishers to claim royalties from news aggregation services that link to their content is part of a pattern of recent EU policy decisions that “create a blockade on information for Europeans that rivals the blockades on information imposed by Communist countries,” said CTA President Gary Shapiro in a Friday blog post. The possible EU ancillary copyright was outlined in leaked EC documents on the commission's larger EU copyright law revamp proposal, which is expected to be introduced this month (see 1608290062). The EC may roll out its copyright revamp proposal as soon as this week, an industry lobbyist told us. The ancillary copyright proposal, along with the EU's demand for $14.5 billion in retroactive taxes from Apple and the EU's “right to be forgotten” law, “increasingly restrict access to information,” Shapiro said. “They are also dangerous moves for a government to make as they parallel controls and access to information imposed by totalitarian societies.” The recent dearth of new tech startups in the EU is already “a source of embarrassment and concern,” but the ancillary copyright “will hasten the exodus of promising European tech companies to Silicon Valley and other locales more open to the access to information the internet encourages,” Shapiro said. He urged companies to consider a “blackout day” of European websites similar to the one used in 2012 to protest the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act. “Hopefully, it won't come down to engaging angry European citizens,” Shapiro said. “Cooler heads should withdraw or modify these wrongheaded policies.”

Sky joined HEVC Advance as a licensee, the H.265 patent pool said in a Thursday announcement. Sky promised the U.K.’s “most comprehensive” Ultra HD service on Sky Q Silver when it launched the service in mid-August (see 1607140028), and Sky Deutschland recently announced plans to debut two exclusive Ultra HD sports channels this fall (see 1608220001). Sky becomes HEVC Advance’s third known licensee, after Strong TV and Warner Bros. Entertainment, which also joined in June as a licensor (see 1606280012).

The Copyright Office said it's changed its deadline for parties to submit requests for reconsideration of previously denied copyright applications, so a party must have its reconsideration request postmarked by the deadline -- three months after the CO refused to grant the most recent copyright application. Refused applicants previously needed to ensure their reconsideration request made it to the CO before the three-month deadline. The rule took effect Friday and isn't subject to being initially noticed as a proposed rulemaking because the rule change doesn't affect how parties present themselves to the CO, said a notice in the Federal Register. The CO said it's adopting the deadline rule change because it “can be difficult to predict how long it will take for a reconsideration request to be received by the [CO], particularly given security screening related delays." A change to the “postal” deadline rule that covers “requests for reconsideration delivered by the United States Postal Service or dispatched by a commercial carrier, courier, or messenger” will “offer applicants greater certainty while continuing to ensure that appeals are considered in a timely fashion,” the CO said. The rule covers only reconsideration requests postmarked after Friday, the CO said.

A perpetual "revolving door" at the Copyright Office is allowing major entertainment industries to capture the agency and significantly influence its policies, Public Knowledge said Thursday in a report. PK said the CO “regularly contorts” copyright law issues to “further the monopoly interests of major rightsholders” and regularly advocates for an expansion of copyright law that allows for fewer exemptions and consumer protections. The CO repeatedly inserted itself “into more and farther-flung policy debates," including via its 2015 Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 exemptions triennial review, PK said. The CO prioritized its own views over those of other stakeholders, the group said. Congress, other federal agencies and federal courts also have noted the CO's failings by ignoring or overturning the agency's decisions, PK said. “With limited accountability [and] a pattern of favoritism toward industry and rightsholder groups, it is unsurprising that they have staked out tenuous positions and advocate for expansive copyright monopolies,” said PK Policy Advocate Meredith Rose in a news release. “It is clear from its positions … that the [CO] often acts more as an advocate for profit-maximizing entertainment industries, rather than as an impartial organ of government.” The CO didn't comment.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has put together a group of 14 academic, civil liberties, law enforcement, privacy and technology experts to study government encryption and surveillance. In a summary about the 12-month project, the National Academies said the group will examine tradeoffs in mechanisms for giving government "access to the plaintext version of encrypted information." The study will include identifying alternative ways government can get such information and seek ways to measure risks weighed against potential law enforcement and intelligence benefits. "The study will not seek to answer the question of whether access mechanisms should be required but rather will provide an authoritative analysis of options and tradeoffs," it said Wednesday. Chaired by Indiana University law professor Fred Cate, the group includes Scott Charney, Microsoft vice president-trustworthy computing group; David Kris, general counsel of Intellectual Venture; David Hoffman, Intel director-security policy and global privacy officer; Worcester Polytechnic Institute cybersecurity professor Susan Landau; Richard Littlehale, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent; Crowell & Moring privacy and cybersecurity attorney Harvey Rishikof; and Google software engineer Peter Weinberger. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the National Science Foundation sponsored the project.

Leaked proposals for the European Commission’s planned copyright law revamp “raise some troubling issues,” said Center for Democracy and Technology fellow Stan Adams in a Tuesday blog post. The commission may propose a pan-EU ancillary copyright aimed at allowing publishers to claim royalties from news aggregation services (see 1608290062). Similar ancillary rights in Germany and Spain haven’t worked as intended, Adams said. “Despite the questionable legal basis for this proposal, and despite the fact that publishers could easily configure their sites to limit or block automated access to the content therein, the Commission believes that creating this new right will benefit both publishers and consumers, who will enjoy the ‘enhanced availability of quality content in the long-term.’” The EC is also exploring a proposal to require ISPs hosting or storing user-generated content to “take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with right holders." Even “when dressed in the language of contractual agreements, this looks very much like a general obligation to monitor, which Article 15 of the [EC’s] E-Commerce Directive explicitly bars,” Adams said. “This proposal seems to go against some of the goals of the Digital Single Market Strategy, like making the EU an environment in which digital startups can thrive.”

Thursday's release of the HDMI “Alt Mode” spec will allow HDMI-enabled source devices to use a USB Type-C connector to link directly to HDMI-enabled displays, and “deliver native HDMI signals over a simple cable without the need for cumbersome protocol and connector adapters or dongles,” HDMI Licensing said in an announcement. The Alt-Mode spec “enables two of the most popular solutions for connectivity to come together,” pairing the multipurpose USB Type-C connector that’s “gaining traction” in smartphones and tablets, with HDMI, it said. HDMI Licensing expects nearly 290 million HDMI-enabled display devices to ship globally this year, adding to the installed base of “billions of displays,” it said.

The New York State Broadcasters Association disputed the U.S. District Court in New York's 2015 ruling in Flo & Eddie's lawsuit against SiriusXM that said state common law allowed a pre-1972 performance right, in a brief Thursday to the New York Court of Appeals. The court is reviewing the district court ruling's finding on state common law after the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals delayed its consideration of SiriusXM's appeal of the Flo & Eddie case pending the state court review (see 1605030055 and 1608050059). New York “has never recognized a public performance right in sound recordings, and such a sweeping alteration of the law is unsupported by prior case law, legislative history at the federal level, and the history of the recording and broadcasting industries” in the state, NYSBA President David Donovan said in the group's filing. He said that such a right “threatens to cast aside almost 100 years of accepted practices in the music broadcasting industry, while simultaneously circumventing the legislature and throwing copyright licensing into total disarray. NYSBA's members would be directly impacted by the ensuing chaos.”

Carla Hayden's Sept 14 swearing-in as librarian of Congress will be webcast live on YouTube, the Library of Congress said Friday. The Senate confirmed Hayden in July to lead the LOC after a weekslong hold by a Senate Republican (see 1607130061). Hayden, who will be the first woman and the first African-American to lead the LOC, will be sworn in using the Lincoln Bible, the LOC said in a blog post. The swearing-in ceremony is set to begin at noon.

Members of Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park and singer Jennifer Hudson are among 212 musicians jointly urging (in Pacer) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to overturn a 2015 jury verdict in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that said “Blurred Lines” co-writers Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharrell Williams infringed Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up." The Los Angeles jury determined (in Pacer) that infringement of Gaye’s copyright wasn’t willful but the “Blurred Lines” co-writers faced $5.3 million in damages. Public Knowledge backed the “Blurred Lines” supporters in an amicus brief also filed Tuesday. Gaye's family believes the Los Angeles jury’s verdict and District Judge John Kronstadt's confirmation of it “sit on unshakable footing," emailed family lawyer Paul Philips. “Got to Give It Up” was written before provisions in the 1976 Copyright Act protected sound recordings, musicologists said (in Pacer). PK said the borrowing and adaptation of existing works “takes on a particular importance” in music. “Greater similarity among musical works is to be expected simply due to the ordinary structures of Western music,” the group wrote (in Pacer). “Copyright has long been understood to be premised on a utilitarian justification, that the monopoly right to exclude copying is granted in service of encouraging creation and dissemination of new works. Consequently, the scope of that monopoly right must be limited to avoid interference with downstream creators who build upon the works of the past.”