The heirs of George and Ira Gershwin have filed multiple suits (one in Federal court, the other in a Los Angeles Superior Court) disputing foreign royalties which represent roughly $200,000 of a catalog yielding $8 million a year. More from LA Times. Firebowl makers feud over the validity of copyright, ability to compete in the [...]

Claiming that each ring constituted a public performance under 17 USC  § 106(4), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was seeking to increase the royalties paid by phone carriers. 17  USC § 106(4) states that the owner of copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize the performance the copyrighted [...]

Just a week after the September 25th opening arguments, the $2.58 million suit by Eight Mile Style LLC against Apple, Inc. has been quietly settled. Filed in 2004, the suit alleged that Apple, “distributed, publicly performed, [and] made available” various Eminem recordings which amounted to copyright infringement and false endorsement under the Lanham Act. More [...]

From Reuters.