Congressional committee says copyright safe harbour shouldn't be included in new US trade agreement with Canada and Mexico
The judiciary committee of the US House Of Representatives has written to the US Trade Representative expressing concerns about the inclusion of the pesky copyright safe harbour in a new free trade agreement between America, Canada and Mexico. The Congressional committee also reveals that the US Copyright Office's long-running review of said copyright safe harbour should finally result in a report later this year.

The American record industry has already had a good moan about the decision to include the safe harbour from US copyright law in that new Donald Trump instigated free trade agreement. Its inclusion would force Canadian and Mexican lawmakers to ensure that their copyright systems are in line with US law when it comes to protecting internet companies from liability for the copyright infringement of their customers.

Obviously, the music industry has been very critical of that safe harbour over the years, and in particular its employment by user-upload platforms like YouTube. The music community argues that companies that basically build streaming services out of the content their users upload - even though some of that content is unlicensed - should not enjoy the same kind of safe harbour protection as server hosting companies and internet service providers.

The new European Copyright Directive seeks to increase the liabilities of safe harbour dwelling user-upload platforms, though quite how that will work remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the US Copyright Office began a review of the American safe harbour all the way back in late 2015. We are yet to get a report from that review, but it seems publication could now be imminent. It may well recommend reforms of US copyright law.

With all that in mind, the music industry reckons the existing US safe harbour - found in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act - shouldn't be cut and pasted directly into the new US/Canada/Mexico free trade agreement. And now the judiciary committee has expressed the same viewpoint in a letter to US Trade Representative Robert E Lighthizer.

The committee writes in its new letter that the US copyright safe harbour has been "the subject of much attention in recent years - some have called on Congress to update these very provisions, enacted in the days of a dial-up internet".

The Congress members go on: "The US Copyright Office is expected to produce a report on [the safe harbour] around the end of this year, the result of a multi-year process that started in 2015. Moreover, the European Union has recently issued a copyright directive that includes reforms to its analogous safe harbour for online platforms, which may have an impact on the US domestic policy debate".

The committee says that it is not taking any position on whether or not the US copyright safe harbour should indeed be reformed, but adds "we find it problematic for the US to exploit language mirroring this provision while such serious policy discussions are ongoing. For that reason, we do not believe a provision requiring parties to adopt a [DMCA]-style safe harbour system ... should continue to be included in future trade agreements".

It remains to be seen how Lighthizer responds. The American music industry will be hoping he listens to the Congress members.

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The Clash sue over Clash tennis racket
The UK company that controls the trademarks of The Clash has gone legal in the US against a business called Wilson Sporting Goods Co, over a range of tennis rackets that are branded Clash.

Wilson does own a trademark in the US allowing it to use the word Clash on sporty products. But Dorisimo Limited, owner of The Clash trademarks - which include US marks for recordings, shows and merch - reckons that the Wilson-made tennis racket could confuse consumers. In that tennis players may think that the racket is officially endorsed by the surviving members of the band The Clash.

And while you might think that that's a bit of a stretch, you're clearly forgetting the tie up between The Clash and Converse that began in 2010. That resulted in some official The Clash branded sneakers, otherwise known - Dorisimo would like you to remember - as "tennis shoes". Not only that, but The Clash have licensed their music to a number of sporty shindigs, not least a little tennis competition we know as fucking WIMBLEDON.

Therefore, clearly, any tennis racket containing the word 'Clash' will clearly make tennis fans think of the punk band. Or so says Dorisimo, which wants Wilson's Clash trademark cancelled, plus an injunction stopping the firm from producing any other tennis goods with the Clash brand, as well as profits to date from the Clash racket and some lovely damages.

Wilson is yet to respond.

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7digital secures funding to stay in business
B2B digital music outfit and radio production company 7digital has secured funds to keep it in operation, and announced improved financial results for the first half of 2019.

In June, the company said that it needed to raise £4.5 million by the end of July or face administration. Slightly later than that original deadline, it announced last week that £4.8 million had now been raised. The last £1.8 million came from issuing new shares. A sizeable chunk of the money overall came from eMusic president Tamir Koch, who is now Chair of the 7digital board.

"We are delighted to have secured further funding from our supportive Chairman, Tamir Koch and non-executive director David Lazurus as well as new shareholders", says Mark Foster, Senior Independent Non-executive Director of 7digital. "On behalf of the board, I would like to thank them for their continued support at this crucial time as this financing secures the company's working capital needs as 7digital prepares itself to embark on its next phase of development and achieve for the first time operational profitability in 2020".

Recently appointed CEO Paul Langworthy adds: "The music industry has experienced continued growth, which has been led by the expansion in streaming services. Having reduced our operational costs and secured this new funding, we are in a good position to benefit from this industry trend and expedite the scale up of the business".

He goes on: "With the additional financing we are able to implement our plan to build a new partner programme to drive new customer growth; expand sales and support in the US market; as well as invest in market-driven product development thereby delivering sustained growth and shareholder value".

In its financial results for the first half of the year, the company announced reduced losses compared to the same period in 2018. In part this was aided by a £3.5 million reduction in administrative costs.

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DJ Shadow announces politically charged new album, Our Pathetic Age
DJ Shadow has announced that he will release a new album, 'Our Pathetic Age', later this year. Split into two halves, the first will be instrumental, while the second will feature collaborations with Nas, Pharoahe Monch, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, De La Soul, Wiki, Interpol's Paul Banks, Run The Jewels, Dave East and Future Islands' Samuel T Herring.

"In my part of the world, people are scared", says the producer. "There's rampant homelessness and a real fear of falling into generational poverty. People are addicted to and addled by distraction; they're angry and confused, and disaffected by their own governmental institutions".

"There are songs that are inspired by this energy and seek to harness it, to make sense of it", he continues. "In some cases, there's attempts to salve the wound; in others, the songs merely observe but don't offer solutions. Despite the title, it's a hopeful, vibrant album - there is always light in darkness. I want it to reflect the times we live in, a signpost in the ground to mark the era: 'Our Pathetic Age'".

The album is out on 15 Nov. New single 'Rosie' is out now, listen here.

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Georgia announces new album and tour dates
Georgia has announced that she will release her new album, 'Seeking Thrills', in the new year. She'll also be heading out on tour in October and November.

Featuring previous single 'About Work The Dancefloor', the album will also include collaborations with Shygirl and Maurice. It will be out on 10 Jan, and new single 'Never Let You Go' is available now. Look, here's the video.

Here are the tour dates:

30 Oct: Manchester, Night People
31 Oct: Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach
1 Nov: Brighton, Patterns
5 Nov: London, Scala

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BRIT Awards confirms review of prize categories, following reports it is dropping male and female category divisions
The BPI has confirmed plans to review the prize categories at its annual BRIT Awards, following reports that it is planning to go gender neutral in its award giving.

A Sunday Times report yesterday claimed that the decision had already been made by BRIT Award bosses to drop male and female categories in order to better accommodate the growing number of artists who do not identify along traditional gender lines. It comes a week after Sam Smith confirmed a preference for the pronouns they and them, rather than he and him.

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for the awards said that claims that the categories are definitely being changed are "based on rumour and speculation", adding that "we can 100% confirm that there will be male and female awards in the UK and international categories in February 2020".

Critics of any potential changes - including The Sun and Piers Morgan - argue that such a shift is likely to mean that women win fewer awards than men. The Grammys stopped handing out male and female specific prizes in 2012 and has since been heavily criticised for failing to recognise women in music. However, that event has made moves to address this issue since former boss Neil Portnow's infamous "women need to step up" comment in 2018.

Of course, it is true that handing out prizes based on gender does ensure that women definitely win some prizes. But it also means that women cannot have their creative efforts judged against their male counterparts, at which point it looks like you're saying that music made by women isn't as good as that made by men.

Gender isn't a genre and clearly has no actual impact on musical ability. So if having gender neutral award categories results in less awards for women overall, clearly there's something wrong with the system for picking the winners. Or maybe the people doing the picking.

And that's before you consider the other implications of awarding prizes on entirely binary male/female lines.

Would those who argue that male and female categories should be kept also argue that we should introduce separate transgender and non-binary awards? Maybe we should split up meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans too. How about dividing up awards on racial lines? Perhaps, in the interests of fairness, we should just have a specific category for each and every individual artist.

Or, of course, we could just get rid of awards altogether, because awards are stupid. That'd solve it.

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RELEASES

A posthumous new Leonard Cohen album, titled 'Thanks For The Dance', is set for release on 22 Nov. At his father's request, Cohen's son Adam added music to his final vocal recordings, with contributions from Damien Rice, Leslie Feist, The National's Bryce Dessner and more. "In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us", says the younger Cohen. "What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. 'Leonard lives!' they say, one after the other". From the album, this is 'The Goal'.

Dixie Chicks have announced that they will release their first new album for fourteen years next year. Titled 'Gaslighter', it will be their first release since 'Taking The Long Way', which came three years after the backlash to negative comments they made about then US president George W Bush threatened to end their career. "Our last album was the most personal and autobiographical we'd ever been, and then this one is, like, ten times that", the band's Natalie Maine tells the Spiritualgasm podcast.

Tegan & Sara have released new single 'Don't Believe The Things They Tell You (They Lie)'. Their new album, 'Hey, I'm Just Like You', is out this week. "Our mother tells a story about watching the 1980s television show 'Punky Brewster' with us when we were four years old", says Sara. "The episode's morality tale focused on lying, and near the end of the show, she describes one of us climbing onto her back, sobbing into her neck and confessing a lie we'd told her earlier in the day. At fifteen, we started telling lies again, and we absolved ourselves constantly in the lyrics of our songs".

Richie Hawtin has released new mix 'Close Combined'. As well as being available on digital audio services, you can also watch it with accompanying visuals. "I believe that as our scene has become more popular, the definition of DJing has become more narrow", he says. "I want to be as transparent as possible in how, why and what I play in order to bring focus onto the intuitive spontaneity that is at the heart of a great DJ performance. 'Close Combined' continues my exploration into my own creative tendencies and invites my fans along to get closer to the instinctive impulses that drive my creativity".

Green Day have released the video for new single 'Father Of All...' "We wanted to make something about dancing", say the band.

TNGHT - aka Hudson Mohawke and Lunice - have returned with their first new track for six year, 'Serpent'.

Shhe has released new single 'Emma', taken from her upcoming debut album. "It's about a relationship that is unhealthy", she says of the song. "You still have unanswered questions and you're still trying to make sense of everything. The track is about the aftermath of that. It's about letting go. It's about seeing things how they really are. It's about reclaiming strength through that process".

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GIGS & TOURS

Frank Turner And The Rattlesnakes have postponed the first week of their US tour, which was due to start in New York tonight, after Carter and a friend were involved in a car accident in Devon on Thursday.

Check out our weekly Spotify playlist of new music featured in the CMU Daily - updated every Friday.

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Liam Gallagher says bacon sandwich demands forced Jamie Oliver to move house
Imagine if Liam Gallagher came drunkenly begging for food outside your house so often that you moved house just to avoid the awkwardness. Unless you're Jamie Oliver, in which case you don't have to imagine, because that actually happened. Or Liam Gallagher reckons it actually happened, anyway.

Apparently Oliver and his family used to live opposite a pub that Gallagher liked to frequent. "On the way home, we'd be going, 'He's got some scran in there'", Gallagher has told Jonathan Ross on his ITV chat show. "He'd come to his window and be going, 'Liam, stop fucking about, I'm getting the kids to bed'. I'm going, 'Just chuck us down a couple of bacon sarnies!' And then he moves".

"The thing is he's moved to where I live now as well", he added, in a final twist. Although, Gallagher hasn't carried on demanding late night bacon sarnies at Oliver's new abode. Maybe he's found another celebrity chef to hassle on his walk home.

"I am a bit of a twat", Gallagher conceded. "Funny though, innit? I don't wish them any harm".

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