All the copyrights to all the sound recordings made prior to 1923 in the US have expired on January 1, 2022, according to the Music Modernization Act, passed by US Congress in 2018. For the first year under the new rule, some 400,000 recordings stretching back to the 19th century have suddenly become available. Check out all pre-1923 recordings on Internet Archive here, and the Library of Congress’ Citizen DJ project here.

A police officer from Oakland, California played a Taylor Swift song on his phone in a bid to prevent activists who were filming him uploading the video to YouTube, since the video platform regularly removes videos that break music copyright rules, Variety reports. The video was filmed by members of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), which says it is a coalition that seeks to "eradicate police terror in communities of colour". The officer's efforts were in vain as the clip of the encounter in Alameda County promptly went viral and remained on YouTube.

Nike is suing Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over a pair of "Satan Shoes" that contain a drop of real human blood in the soles, feature an inverted cross, and a pentagram, the Verge reports. MSCHF released 666 pairs of shoes in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X who wears a pair in his latest video 'Montero (Call Me By Your Name)', where he hangs out with the devil. The trainers, which cost $1,018 a pair, sold out in less than a minute. Nike claims trademark infringement, and believes they’ve harmed its reputation since consumers might think "that Nike is endorsing satanism”. MSCHF is known for stunt products like its 2019 “Jesus Shoes”, a $1,425 pair of white Nike Air Max 97s with custom stitching and 60ccs of water from the River Jordan. Nike didn’t object to the Jesus Shoes. UPDATE: Nike's lawsuit succeeded in halting production.

A very interesting article in Vice about tactics of police officers in Beverly Hills who have been playing music while being filmed, seemingly in an effort to trigger Instagram’s copyright filters and get those videos removed. Instagram in particular has been increasingly strict on posting copyrighted material. Any video that contains music, even if it’s playing in the background, is potentially subject to removal by Instagram.

Google beat back a lawsuit over alleged scraping of song lyrics from lyrics site Genius, according to Hollywood Reporter. Federal judge Margo Brodie in the Eastern District of New York found that while the claims of scraping were credible, the scraping did not constitute a copyright violation, since Genius isn’t the actual copyright holder, and the lawsuit was dismissed as a result.

Music companies, film-makers and media publishers could be in line for billions in payouts after EU lawmakers voted to accept controversial changes to copyright rules that aim to make tech companies including Facebook and Google share more of their revenue, Guardian reports. Article 11, which critics have dubbed a “link tax”, would force news aggregation […]

Controversial new copyright laws have been approved by members of the European Parliament. The legislation had been changed since July when the first version of the copyright directive was voted down. Critics say it remains problematic. Many musicians and creators claim the reforms are necessary to fairly compensate artists. But opponents fear that the plans […]