Having now reviewed the proposed remedies in the DOJ's proposed settlement, we can say what the DOJ has proposed is wholly inadequate. Look at this list of venues that Live Nation has proposed divesting.
Live Nation does not even own any of these venues!
A key reason why so much dysfunction persists in the live event marketplace is that musicians have been too often excluded from policy debates that impact them, their fans, and their communities. In light of this, a weak settlement before any artists or managers are even allowed to take the witness stand would be a perverse and cruel outcome. We encourage state AGs to do the right thing and continue the fight for a breakup." --kevin erickson, director, Future of Music Coalition
A key reason why so much dysfunction persists in the live event marketplace is that musicians have been too often excluded from policy debates that impact them, their fans, and their communities. In light of this, a weak settlement before any artists or managers are even allowed to take the witness stand would be a perverse and cruel outcome. We encourage state AGs to do the right thing and continue the fight for a breakup." --kevin erickson, director, Future of Music Coalition
Anything short of a breakup is likely to be inadequate to put a stop to Live Nation's bullying behavior.
Politico is reporting that DOJ has reached a settlement with Live Nation after just one week at trial. We're going to withhold full judgment until we see details, but we've been clear that only a structural separation of LNE's various lines of business can adequately address harms.
Prosecutors Unable To Attend Live Nation Trial After Scalpers Buy Every Ticket
Prosecutors Unable To Attend Live Nation Trial After Scalpers Buy Every Ticket https://theonion.com/prosecutors-unable-to-attend-live-nation-trial-after-scalpers-buy-every-ticket/
🚨Live coverage of testimony by SeatGeek CEO on LiveNation in this thread.
SeatGeek's generally been lousy to artists, and the way they've conducted themselves in many public policy debates has been dishonest and inexcusable. But they have a reasonable and serious complaint here.
Did they really quote the Borg?
On other issues, though we have seen what seemed like a reflexive opposition to relatively benign efforts to allow creators to protect themselves using copyright. One example is the CASE Act. Another was the CLASSICS act.
There are a few places where we’ve been able to find alignment. Appreciated his inclusion of the chapter about radio consolidation and his 2022 book for example.
Definitely does. It’s a lot of hand waving about how if we don’t let the companies train their AI this way, it’s dangerous to fair use and has a range of other bad impacts. Generally though Cory has a very, very broad reading of fair use, at odds with what most creative worker groups believe.
Not a good piece. Cory mostly sides with the AI companies on the legality of unlicensed training and his analysis suffers as a result.
Also...generative AI works don't need to be protected by copyright to cause economic harm to creators whose work they train on and compete against. Such works still result in downward pressure on rates in licensing discussion.
Doctorow sides with the big extractive AI companies on the question of whether AI training counts as fair use. He's entitled to that view. But when he minimizes the harm associated with that view (and tries to shift focus to bosses) he's misrepresenting the landscape.
This is a very strange reading of SCOTUS' denial of cert in Thaler vs Perlmutter. The decision isn't limited to creative workers' "bosses." It's also about creative workers' *competitors.*
Doctorow wants us to imagine only bosses benefit from copyright. That's just not true.
Day 2 of the Live Nation trial is underway, with both sides offering opening statements. Note that the standard for liability here is "a preponderance of evidence"--the jury must agree that at least one of the government's claims meets this standard, which is lower than "beyond a reasonable doubt."
Bleak!
The rise of the DJ clout deepfake, because dance music isn't in enough trouble. My newest is up at Rolling Stone.
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
POLLSTAR: To what do you attribute your longevity? In many ways, you seem like an eternal adolescent.
JONATHAN RICHMAN: Me, young? If so, perhaps gratitude for life itself comes into play.
news.pollstar.com/2026/02/10/t...
No, masters ownership was going up prior to streaming. (in part because termination of transfer was kicking in.)
Musicians are more likely to own their own masters than at any time in the history of recorded music. Access to remedies is a challenge, of course, but ensuring that genAI without human involvement doesn't get copyright protection does mitigate downward pressure on licensing & rates.
Live Nation trial update: a jury of 12 has been successfully selected. Trial will resume tomorrow.
The best advice is to read the Copyright Office's report. www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright...
As Zvi Rosen has argued, "the focus on a caricature of Disney as a litigious bully emblematic of copyright stakeholders has been a useful smokescreen by which the actual copyright debates of today are obscured. As such the question becomes cui bono – who benefits from this?"
This is completely wrong.
In that case, that's just secondary to the difficulty of filing infringement claims--CASE act has been one useful tool.
The trial kicks off today!
Yes! The case specifically concerned visual art but applies to creative works of all disciplines.
