licensing
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Apple and Ericsson call truce in years-long fight over cellular patents
Apple and Ericsson have struck a deal that ends a years-long battle over LTE patents.
Estates of Robin Williams, George Carlin sue Pandora over comedy rights
The estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin have sued Pandora for allegedly failing to properly pay comedians for streaming rights.
Konami pulls some Metal Gear Solid games from digital stores
The publisher is trying to renew licenses for archival footage in 'MGS2' and 'MGS3.'
LG confirms webOS will power smart TVs by other manufacturers too
Just like Roku, Android and Fire TV, LG's webOS smart TV platform will run on TVs made by multiple brand names.
Twitch faces music industry backlash over proper licensing (updated)
The RIAA and other music industry groups have written a letter to Twitch complaining that the service isn't licensing their songs.
Twitch offers streamers a way to safely use licensed music
Twitch streamers are no strangers to DMCA music claims. Over the summer, the platform acknowledged a flood of takedown requests for older videos, which could’ve potentially put streamers in jeopardy of consequences under Twitch’s content policy. The company has offered a library of free-to-use tunes for years, but using a song from one of today’s popular artists could land you in hot water.
Google starts displaying licensing details for image results
Google is making it a lot easier to find images you can legally use for your projects. The tech giant will now mark image results with a badge that says “Licensable” if their publishers or creators have provided their licensing information. You’ll get a link to those licensing details — say, if they’re under Creative Commons and can be used for free with attribution or if they have a commercial license — when you select an image to view.
Apple stops updates for thousands of games in China’s App Store
Apple has suspended updates for thousands of games on its App Store in China because they lack a license from the Chinese government, The Financial Times reported. The company has faced mounting pressure from the Chinese government in recent weeks to comply with local regulations, including that all games show proof of a government granted license. Apple’s biggest App Store market is China, according to The Financial Times, and most of the $16.4 billion App Store revenue in the country comes from games.
Eight US companies will manufacture NASA’s COVID-19 ventilator
Eight US companies will manufacture the ventilator designed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and fast-tracked by the FDA.
Spotify and Warner sign a new global music licensing deal
Spotify and Warner Music Group have signed a new global licensing agreement. If Spotify is your go-to streaming platform, the good news here is that your music listening experience won't change as a result of this deal. The Warner Music artists you were listening to yesterday will still be available to stream into the immediate future.
'Dreams' creators can apply to sell their work beyond the PS4
The PS4 title Dreams is a surprisingly powerful creative tool for both hobbyist game creators and artists, and Media Molecule wants to ensure at least some of those people are rewarded for their talent. The studio has launched a beta evaluation program that will let creators sell their work "off PlayStation" -- say, to produce a music video or poster. You own the rights to your original creations in Dreams, Media Molecule said, and the company wants to "make it easier" for you to profit from that work.
Peloton settles music licensing lawsuit over its exercise videos
After almost a year-long legal battle, Peloton users' shared nightmare of online spin classes with "terrible tunes" is coming to an end. On Thursday, the connected exercise bike manufacturer announced it successfully negotiated a settlement with the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA). The organization launched a complaint last year in which it sought $150 million in damages from Peloton for failing to properly license some of the songs it played during its online spin and exercise classes.
Google might finally pay news outlets for their content
Google is considering paying news publishers for their content, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company is reportedly in talks with publishers about licensing fees. The details are still sparse, but it sounds like Google could be working on a news subscription service like Apple News+.
Facebook Watch could soon play music videos
Facebook may soon bring music videos to Watch. The company is reportedly negotiating new licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group. According to Bloomberg, it's asking each label for rights to music videos.
TiVo announces plans to merge with entertainment tech firm Xperi
TiVo is scrapping plans to split its product and licensing divisions. Instead, it's merging with the entertainment tech firm Xperi. The new, $3 billion company will take on the Xperi name, but it will continue to sell TiVo-branded products.
Amazon may open checkout-free supermarkets early next year
There have been plenty of rumors about Amazon's plans to shake up the grocery industry with cashierless stores. The latest is that Amazon plans to launch checkout-free supermarkets in the first quarter of 2020. The company may also license its Amazon Go cashierless tech to other retailers, a person close to the project told Bloomberg.
Uber may have to pay Waymo or redesign its self-driving software
In 2017, Waymo accused Uber of stealing its autonomous driving trade secrets. You may have thought the Uber-Waymo legal battle was over when, in 2018, the companies reached a settlement and Uber agreed to pay around $245 million. But as part of the settlement, the parties brought in an independent software expert to review Uber's software and make sure it didn't misappropriate Waymo's intellectual property. Now, the review is complete, and Uber admits that the findings are not good.
Disney+ downloads will disappear when they leave the service (updated)
While Disney leans hard on nostalgia for content from its vast archives to push its upcoming Disney+ package, one downside is that licensing deals signed years ago will mean some movies aren't always available. In the past, it's made limited availability of content part of the business model, rotating classics in and out of the Disney vault to encourage purchases while they're available. As CEO Bob Iger explained during an interview at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit 2019, that shouldn't be an issue -- as long as people keep subscribing. Asked about the availability of older movies (around 25 minutes into the video below), he referenced the three-hour "All Your Favorites" sizzle reel Disney released last week, and said that there is "some of it but very very little" that will be removed from the service at times. However, as long as someone is an active Disney+ subscriber, he said, they'll be able to watch downloaded copies of those movies anyway. It's not the perfect solution, but it may nudge some people to get -- and keep -- that annual subscription, even in future years if Disney ever raises the prices. Disney+ launches November 12th, with a $6.99 per month / $69.99 annual price tag. Update 11:30AM ET: It seems that Iger's statements have caused some confusion. While he seemed to be suggesting that any videos you downloaded from Disney+ would continue to be available as long as you were a subscriber, regardless of changes in licensing or things going back in the "vault" so to speak, that's not necessarily the case. A Disney spokesperson clarified to The Verge that, if a movie or show leaves the Disney+ platform, then it will no longer be available as a download. To give you the full context of Iger's statement, we've included a transcript below. Q: I have a quick, you mentioned the breadth of content and you kind of, you guys exploded the internet, I think it was last week, with this incredible flex of everything from the vault. Now I grew up in the tradition of the Disney vault, you know the movie would come out and then it would go back in the vault, and if you didn't get it, it was gone. So I'm just curious as the mother of a five year old, is the stuff gonna stay on Disney Plus or are you gonna take The Love Bug away? A: No, no, no. What you're referring to they've someone in our marketing department decided to put out a trailer which I think was a snippet from every one of the movies and television shows that will be on and it was a three and a half hour trailer. It was kind of inventive although I have not gotten through it all yet. Virtually all of the library is on Disney Plus and will be available. There's some encumbrances from deals that we had, legacy deals that we had before, which will prevent some of it from being on initially, and will cause some of it but very very little to come off for brief periods of time. But by and large, almost all of it is there. And if you are a subscriber, you can download it and put it on a device and it will stay on that device as long as you continue to subscribe. So in your case if you wanted to download 10 classic Disney films that may not have all been available at once before, you can do that basically fill all of your hard drive space on one of your devices and your child can watch wherever they are.
CERN turns to open source software as Microsoft increases its fees
For the last 20 years, CERN -- home of the Large Hadron Collider -- has been using Microsoft products under a discounted "academic institution" rate. But in March, at the end of its previous contract, Microsoft revoked CERN's academic status. According to a CERN blog post, under the new contract, licensing costs have increased more than tenfold. In response, CERN is pulling back the curtain on a now year-old project to migrate to open source software, and it's calling it the Microsoft Alternatives project, or MAlt.
AMD will share its graphics technology with Samsung
AMD stole the spotlight at Computex 2019, where it shared details on its third generation Ryzen CPUs and first Navi GPUs. But that's not the only big news AMD has in store. Today, the company announced a multi-year partnership with Samsung, in which AMD will license its Radeon graphics IP for use in Samsung smartphones and other mobile applications.
