Comments are due Feb. 25 for a proposed settlement “governing royalty rates and terms for the distant retransmission of over-the-air television and radio broadcast stations by cable television systems to their subscribers,” the Library of Congress announced Thursday.

Consumers are benefiting from some tech trends the pandemic accelerated, and while the impact on movie theaters may reduce that sector's societal influence, it could still mean higher prices to go to the movies. Those were among predictions from MoffettNathanson's Michael Nathanson, speaking with us on C-SPAN Wednesday. The analyst noted many can save money by cutting the cord while watching new films at home rather than in theaters, a trend he expects to continue post-coronavirus crisis. The traditional pay-TV bundle "will serve sports, news, live event customers," he said on a Communicators episode to be televised later and posted online here. "If you're a fan of the NFL, the bundle brings all to you," Nathanson said: "It’s the only option for people who are passionate sports fans," though some sports are moving over the top. Older viewers haven't "pivoted away" from MVPDs "as quickly as you might think," while younger people moved to virtual MVPDs for good in a "faster erosion" of traditional subscription video, the analyst said. NCTA declined to comment. Amid new streaming products from companies that also own studios like AT&T, Comcast and Disney, "you’re seeing a real collapse" in some film revenue, Nathanson noted. "There’s going to be less movie theaters in the world." The likes of Netflix and AT&T's HBO Max bring "better and better quality films through streaming," so theaters may need to improve service and raise prices to pay for the better features, Nathanson said: If theaters raise prices and don’t innovate quickly enough, they could face consumer backlash, like MVPDs have over high prices. "Consumers seem to really, really value the optionality of watching a premiere in the living room." Nathanson foresees ‘"generations of people down the road" who "won't experience the joy" of seeing a film on a big screen with an audience. The National Association of Theatre Owners didn't comment. Meanwhile, platform usage keeps rising, even as lawmakers increasingly scrutinize the sector, indicating consumers aren't much worried about content moderation, privacy, election meddling and other hot-button policy issues, Nathanson noted. "I don’t think the average consumer is as concerned" about such topics "as people might think."

Applications to join the Library of Congress’ Copyright Public Modernization Committee must be submitted by March 15, the LOC announced Wednesday. The first meeting will be in early summer, with biennial meetings expected through fiscal 2023.

TiVo extended for multiple years its patent agreements with Sony for technology that simplifies media search and discovery, it said Tuesday.

Warner Music Chief Financial Officer Eric Levin expects it will cost more to stream music, referring to “an enormous gap between the monetization of eyeballs and the monetization of ears.” He sees the gap narrowing with increasing adoption of premium features, such as Amazon Music HD and higher subscription prices. “Ultimately, we think that all of the services over time will increase prices,” and “we encourage them,” he said on the company's fiscal Q1 call Monday. “Our expectations every day grow that the services will begin to raise prices for functionality and features.” In the quarter ended Dec. 31, "robust" digital sales in the recorded music and music publishing segments drove Warner Music revenue up 6.3% year on year to $1.3 billion. They were offset by COVID-19-related declines in physical recorded music, artist services, expanded-rights and performance revenue. Digital revenue grew 17% for 62% of total revenue, up from 56%. The music label is taking advantage of live streaming to promote artists via digital partners that are operating successfully during the pandemic, said CEO Steve Cooper.

Washington state Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) floated an alternative privacy bill Thursday, as expected (see 2101240003). Unlike SB-5062 in the Senate, HB-1433 includes a private right of action and opt-in consent. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said it wrote the House bill with the Tech Equity Coalition.

Samsung Electronics for 2021 “will continue to strengthen” its Z Fold and Z Flip foldable smartphone lineup “with the aim of popularizing the foldable form factor” as it looks to more such designs, said President Yoon-Ho Cho on a Q4 call Wednesday. Samsung will work to “solidify” the Z Fold’s “positioning in the super premium segment, especially highlighting the usability it offers with a large screen” for viewing entertainment content and as a “productivity” tool for remote work and learning, he said: Z Flip's goal is “to satisfy and target the needs of the millennials, as well as female users."

The production company behind 2010's I Spit on Your Grave remake is suing a variety of John Doe users of alleged piracy website 1137x for direct and contributory copyright infringement for sharing the film via BitTorrent. In the suit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Denver (docket 21-cv-00239, in Pacer), Family of the Year Productions said it plans to subpoena Google and unnamed ISPs to learn the John Doe subscriber identities and IP address log information.

Trade groups representing intellectual property rightsholders told the Patent and Trademark Office that secondary trademark infringement liability hasn't been effective in getting e-commerce platforms to police themselves. Some want Congress to define the parameters of this doctrine by passing a law. Comments were due Monday. The Computer and Communications Industry Association said shifting responsibility to platforms would reduce voluntary cooperation and wouldn't decrease the number of counterfeits for sale. The American Apparel and Footwear Association said the test of platform liability, that a company should “know or have reason to know” of trademark infringement, seems straightforward, but courts have applied it differently. “The court in Tiffany v. eBay believed that market-based forces would provide a strong incentive for platforms to combat counterfeits. Empirically, it is irrefutable that this assumption is false," said AAFA. The Shop Safe Act (HR-6058) from the last session of Congress would have created a new form of secondary liability for counterfeits, and AAFA said it needs a clearer definition and its coverage should be expanded. The National Association of Manufacturers said legislation is needed to set “judicial review standards that encourage courts to develop critical fact-specific case law.” NAM said some courts say Communications Decency Act Section 230 protections for platforms give them a safe harbor to host sellers of bogus goods, and that wasn't what Congress intended. Amazon noted that in 2019 it invested more than a half-billion dollars to fight counterfeits and other fraud and abuse on its site. “Amazon’s primary focus is on preventative, technology-driven tools built on machine learning and data science to proactively scan the more than 5 billion changes submitted to Amazon’s worldwide catalog" daily, it commented. “For every one of the self-service takedowns by brands, Amazon’s automated protections proactively stop more than 100 listings.” It said it launched a Counterfeit Crimes Unit in June 2020: "Amazon needs the help of rights holders, the company said, and information sharing, from both [Customs and Border Protection] on seizures and from other platforms, would help the company stop counterfeiters."

Copyright royalty judges amended regulations to “revise the allocation of the initial administrative assessment” for funding the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 2012310019), effective Friday, the Copyright Royalty Board announced.