Jeff Bezos Stumped on Royalties in Congressional Listening to

“Alexa, are we paying music royalties?”

It’s a demand that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would possibly per chance well need wished to are waiting for final week, when he testified in entrance of a U.S. Condominium of Representatives antitrust subcommittee, alongside with the executive executives of Apple, Google and Fb. The topic of the listening to used to be opponents within the know-how industry — a subject that’s been heating up in Washington D.C. over the outdated few years. Nonetheless Assemble. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) took the chance to throw in a demand about music licensing on Twitch, which Amazon sold in 2014 for almost a thousand million greenbacks and has change staunch into a essential platform for livestreaming in every single place in the coronavirus pandemic.

“My determining is that Twitch enables users to dash music however doesn’t license the music,” Armstrong requested. “Is that staunch?”

That’s where Bezos can maintain outdated Alexa. “I’m going to must are waiting for that I would possibly per chance well internet lend a hand to your place of job with an reply to that demand,” Bezos replied. “I don’t know.”

Amazon licenses music, finally, and it has change into an an increasing number of essential offer of earnings to the music industry, particularly for the rock and nation genres. Up to now, though, Twitch most productive has affords with performing rights organizations – now not music publishers (for the mechanical licenses or synch rights that will also very effectively be required for some movies) or labels. When users encompass music in movies, it operates under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (continually is opinion as the DMCA) a 1998 law that affords “safe harbor” from copyright infringement complaints for the actions of shoppers for on-line platforms that allow rights holders file takedown notices. While many companies expend this, few are owned by a know-how big that also licenses music: Deem “one company, two systems.”

As Twitch turns into more standard, that’s now not sitting effectively with rights holders, which would be now searching for to negotiate licensing affords with products and companies like Twitch and TikTok that expend music however don’t take care of streaming whole songs the model Spotify does. By allowing products and companies to expend music to make their companies, as long as they reply to takedown notices, the easy interpretation of the DMCA makes it now not easy for rights holders to internet the a comparable form of affords they internet from streaming products and companies that must license music before they expend it. That’s why YouTube will pay decrease than Spotify and Apple Tune, in step with industry sources conversant in the subject. The unusual EU Copyright Directive would possibly per chance well change this dynamic — it can per chance well most productive note in Europe, however it can well maintain a global affect — and there had been hearings within the U.S. on the subject as effectively.

As of Friday afternoon, two days after the listening to, Armstrong’s place of job hadn’t but bought an reply from Amazon. per chance the congressman would possibly per chance well aloof maintain requested for an reply to be delivered with Amazon Prime.