Business of Media
Music publishers sue Twitter for $250m citing Elon Musk’s copyright stance
A group of 17 music publishers have sued Twitter for more than $250m over bulk copyright infringement, citing Elon Musk’s tweets to argue that the company has deliberately stopped enforcing the rules, reports The Guardian’s Alex Hern.
In the lawsuit, filed in a US federal court in Tennessee, Musk is cited as having said copyright “goes absurdly far beyond protecting the original creator” and “overzealous” application of copyright laws “is a plague on humanity”.
“This statement and others like it exert pressure on Twitter employees, including those in its trust and safety team, on issues relating to copyright and infringement,” argues the suit brought by the National Music Publishers’ Association on behalf of firms including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management and Universal Music Publishing Group.
Since Musk bought the company late last year, two of its trust and safety officials, Yoel Roth and Ella Irwin, have left.
At the heart of the claim lies the fact that Twitter has not paid for a blanket licence allowing its users to upload copyrighted material, unlike most of its competitors including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
Walkley Awards 2023: Mid-Year Celebration winners
Winners weere announced last night in the 2023 Mid-Year Celebration of Journalism in Sydney, reports TV Tonight.
Daryna Zadvirna a cross platform reporter from Western Australia, was named the 2023 John B Fairfax Family Young Australian Journalist of the Year.
In TV and related categories there were wins for ABC, SBS and Network 10.
Netflix settles defamation lawsuit over Afflicted docuseries
Netflix and the production company behind Afflicted have settled a suit brought by subjects of the docuseries who said they were defamed when the show misrepresented their chronic illnesses, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Winston Cho.
Both sides moved to drop the suit, according to a request for dismissal filed on June 6. Details of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The settlement comes after a state appeals court last year turned down a bid from Netflix and Doc Shop Productions to overturn a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge’s order declining to dismiss the suit. The subjects sued in 2019 alleging they were “duped into participating in a salacious reality television program that questioned the existence of chronic illnesses” and portrayed them as “lazy, crazy, hypochondriacs.”
The series explores people suffering from and attempting to treat chronic and sometimes unexplainable illnesses like wifi sensitivity and mold toxicity. While some episodes seriously examined the conditions, others advanced narratives that the conditions were actually psychosomatic. An open letter to Netflix signed by Lena Dunham, Monica Lewinsky and dozens of doctors, scientists, artists and writers urged the company to immediately remove the series from its platform and issue a formal apology.
Disney CFO McCarthy to step down for family medical leave
Walt Disney Co chief financial officer Christine McCarthy is stepping down from her position to take family medical leave and will help search for a long-term successor, the company said on Thursday, report Reuters’ Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine.
Kevin Lansberry, currently chief financial officer for Disney’s parks, experiences and products division, will serve as the company’s interim CFO starting July 1.
McCarthy, a 23-year Disney veteran who became CFO in 2015, will continue to serve as a strategic adviser to ensure a successful transition, Disney said in a statement. A source said McCarthy’s husband has been ill.
News Brands
The Guardian to forfeit ‘millions’ as it dumps gambling ads
The Guardian will stop accepting gambling advertising across all its channels, in a move its local boss says will cost it millions of dollars, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
Coming into effect on Thursday, the ad ban applies to all Guardian’s services locally and globally, including the United Kingdom where it continues a print edition.
With the inquiry into online gambling advertising expected to offer its recommendations early next week, Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor said: “We’ve been thinking about this at a global level for quite a long time”.
“We’ve done a lot of reporting on gambling harm in the UK and in Australia, so the timing is a result of the outcome of those quite lengthy conversations,” she said.
The gambling sector contributed $310 million of the reported $9 billion spent on advertising in 2022, and this decision is set to cost The Guardian “multi-millions”, according to its outgoing managing director, Dan Stinton.
“I won’t go into the specifics, but wagering advertising has grown really massively for us over the last few years, and that is the reason why we have become more uncomfortable with this, because it has felt like it is not in alignment with our editorial values or our journalism values,” he said.
Podcasts
Meghan Markle’s Archetypes podcast at Spotify won’t be renewed
Meghan Markle’s Archetypes Spotify podcast won’t be renewed for a second season, according to people familiar with the matter, a casualty of the audio company’s overhaul of its approach to podcasting, report The Wall Street Journal’s Anne Steele and Sarah Krouse.
Producers of the show, which explored labels that hold women back, have been told that a second season won’t move forward, the people said, following discussions months ago about the possibility of one.
Markle’s podcast is the only project she and her husband, Prince Harry, completed for Spotify Technology after signing a roughly $20 million overall deal with the company in late 2020. The couple hasn’t met the productivity benchmarks required to receive the full payout from the deal, people familiar with the matter said.
The cancellation is a sign of the continuing correction in the podcast market, a format popular among listeners, but one that has proved hard to make profitable for Spotify and many of its rivals.
Sports Media
‘Joey has this built-up anger’: Johns quits SEN over feud with brother
The relationship between the famous Johns brothers has hit rock bottom with Andrew quitting SEN because he refuses to work with brother Matthew over his pro-Queensland Origin comments, reports Nine Publishing’s Christian Nicolussi.
SEN chief executive Craig Hutchison said on Thursday he would try to speak with rugby league’s eighth Immortal once the State of Origin series was completed.
“Joey is an important part of SEN, and I’m optimistic we will continue our journey,” Hutchison told this masthead. “We’re fully supportive of Matty and Joey. And Matty’s show Morning Glory goes from strength to strength each Friday.”
The brothers locked horns on air last month when Matthew went out of his way to praise Queensland coach Billy Slater, and called him “almost the best coach in the game”.
“You just know how he explains, how he coaches, the intricacies, the players absolutely love him,” Matthew said at the time. “Queensland know exactly how they’re going to play and who they need to pick to make that happen.”
A clearly irritated Andrew, who is a Blues assistant coach, responded: “And NSW don’t know how they’re going to play?”
After NSW lost to Queensland in game one, Andrew was due to join Matthew on air but failed to show up for his shift. It prompted Matthew to tell his listeners: “It’s official: Andrew Johns, my brother, is completely off me.”