Warner Music Chief Financial Officer Eric Levin expects it will cost more to stream music, referring to “an enormous gap between the monetization of eyeballs and the monetization of ears.” He sees the gap narrowing with increasing adoption of premium features, such as Amazon Music HD and higher subscription prices. “Ultimately, we think that all of the services over time will increase prices,” and “we encourage them,” he said on the company's fiscal Q1 call Monday. “Our expectations every day grow that the services will begin to raise prices for functionality and features.” In the quarter ended Dec. 31, "robust" digital sales in the recorded music and music publishing segments drove Warner Music revenue up 6.3% year on year to $1.3 billion. They were offset by COVID-19-related declines in physical recorded music, artist services, expanded-rights and performance revenue. Digital revenue grew 17% for 62% of total revenue, up from 56%. The music label is taking advantage of live streaming to promote artists via digital partners that are operating successfully during the pandemic, said CEO Steve Cooper.

Washington state Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) floated an alternative privacy bill Thursday, as expected (see 2101240003). Unlike SB-5062 in the Senate, HB-1433 includes a private right of action and opt-in consent. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said it wrote the House bill with the Tech Equity Coalition.

Samsung Electronics for 2021 “will continue to strengthen” its Z Fold and Z Flip foldable smartphone lineup “with the aim of popularizing the foldable form factor” as it looks to more such designs, said President Yoon-Ho Cho on a Q4 call Wednesday. Samsung will work to “solidify” the Z Fold’s “positioning in the super premium segment, especially highlighting the usability it offers with a large screen” for viewing entertainment content and as a “productivity” tool for remote work and learning, he said: Z Flip's goal is “to satisfy and target the needs of the millennials, as well as female users."

The production company behind 2010's I Spit on Your Grave remake is suing a variety of John Doe users of alleged piracy website 1137x for direct and contributory copyright infringement for sharing the film via BitTorrent. In the suit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Denver (docket 21-cv-00239, in Pacer), Family of the Year Productions said it plans to subpoena Google and unnamed ISPs to learn the John Doe subscriber identities and IP address log information.

Trade groups representing intellectual property rightsholders told the Patent and Trademark Office that secondary trademark infringement liability hasn't been effective in getting e-commerce platforms to police themselves. Some want Congress to define the parameters of this doctrine by passing a law. Comments were due Monday. The Computer and Communications Industry Association said shifting responsibility to platforms would reduce voluntary cooperation and wouldn't decrease the number of counterfeits for sale. The American Apparel and Footwear Association said the test of platform liability, that a company should “know or have reason to know” of trademark infringement, seems straightforward, but courts have applied it differently. “The court in Tiffany v. eBay believed that market-based forces would provide a strong incentive for platforms to combat counterfeits. Empirically, it is irrefutable that this assumption is false," said AAFA. The Shop Safe Act (HR-6058) from the last session of Congress would have created a new form of secondary liability for counterfeits, and AAFA said it needs a clearer definition and its coverage should be expanded. The National Association of Manufacturers said legislation is needed to set “judicial review standards that encourage courts to develop critical fact-specific case law.” NAM said some courts say Communications Decency Act Section 230 protections for platforms give them a safe harbor to host sellers of bogus goods, and that wasn't what Congress intended. Amazon noted that in 2019 it invested more than a half-billion dollars to fight counterfeits and other fraud and abuse on its site. “Amazon’s primary focus is on preventative, technology-driven tools built on machine learning and data science to proactively scan the more than 5 billion changes submitted to Amazon’s worldwide catalog" daily, it commented. “For every one of the self-service takedowns by brands, Amazon’s automated protections proactively stop more than 100 listings.” It said it launched a Counterfeit Crimes Unit in June 2020: "Amazon needs the help of rights holders, the company said, and information sharing, from both [Customs and Border Protection] on seizures and from other platforms, would help the company stop counterfeiters."

Copyright royalty judges amended regulations to “revise the allocation of the initial administrative assessment” for funding the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 2012310019), effective Friday, the Copyright Royalty Board announced.

TiVo and TCL expanded and extended a licensing agreement for TiVo’s media patents, they said Thursday. The multiyear deal applies to TCL's TVs and AV devices. It lets TCL continue to deliver a good viewing experience "even as the television industry undergoes rapid transformation and change," said Samir Armaly, president-IP licensing at TiVo parent Xperi.

The import ban Ericsson seeks at the International Trade Commission against Samsung smart devices for allegedly infringing four wireless connectivity patents (see 2101080043) would “harm health and welfare, competitive conditions, and ultimately consumers in the United States,” Samsung commented (login required), as posted Tuesday in docket 337-3520. Though Ericsson “glibly assures” the ITC that its licensees “would be able to supply smartphones, tablets and smart TVs to backfill the vacuum its requested remedial orders would create, its failure to identify its alleged licensees, other than Apple (which does not produce devices for the Android ecosystem), makes it difficult to assess such a claim,” said Samsung. Ericsson “has failed to provide any factual support for its assertions,” it said. “Samsung cannot assess the manufacturing capacity of Ericsson’s unidentified alleged licensees, nor can Samsung determine whether these licensees offer competing products across the broad range of consumer electronic devices implicated by this investigation.” Samsung is the U.S. market leader in Android smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, it said. Apple devices “are not suitable replacements,” it said. Suppliers of Android and other operating systems “that currently enjoy minimal U.S. market share cannot replace the market leader in a commercially reasonable time,” it said. Ericsson didn’t comment Wednesday.

Samsung’s eNB LTE network equipment and 5G “access unit” infringe six Ericsson wireless communications patents dating to 2012, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas. It's Ericsson’s third patent infringement action against Samsung this month. Comments were due Tuesday at the International Trade Commission on public interest ramifications of the Tariff Act Section 337 import ban Ericsson seeks in a Jan. 4 complaint against Samsung smartphones, tablets and smart TVs for allegedly infringing four of its wireless connectivity patents (see 2101080043). Ericsson made similar accusations against Samsung Jan. 1 in the same Marshall court as Friday’s action (see 2101030001). Through its manufacture and sales of the eNB network equipment and 5G millimeter-wave access unit, “Samsung performed the acts that constitute induced infringement with knowledge or willful blindness that the induced acts would constitute infringement,” said the latest complaint. It seeks punitive and compensatory damages, plus a court declaration that Samsung’s infringement is willing. Samsung didn’t comment Tuesday.

China is “firmly opposed” to the Trump administration’s decision Thursday to add smartphone maker Xiaomi to a list of “Communist Chinese military companies” for new export restrictions, said a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Friday. “What the U.S. side has done goes against the trend of history” and “violates the principles of market competition and international economic and trade rules,” he said. “China will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and support them in defending their own rights and interests in accordance with law.”