3 Count: Textual Dealings

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1: Justin Bieber To Undergo Grueling Deposition In $10 Million Lawsuit

First off today, Radar Online reports that the court has ordered Justin Bieber to be deposed in the Somebody to Love case and that he will have to appear in Virginia Beach on April 29 to answer questions about the case.

The case centers around accusations by songwriter Devin Copeland, who claims that Bieber and Usher infringed his song entitled Somebody to Love when Bieber and Usher created their song with the same name. The case was originally dismissed by the lower court judge but was reinstated after the Appeals Court ruled there were triable issues.

Now the judge in the case is preparing for a trial. Recently it was revealed that Bieber’s team missed a deadline for expert witness testimony. Even though both sides agreed to extend the deadline, the judge refused. Bieber has also missed two scheduled depositions but it now being required by the court to attend the one on the 29th, all in hopes of moving the case quickly to a trial.

2: Nikki Sixx Launches Campaign to Get YouTube to ‘Do the Right Thing’ Over Music Royalties

Next up today, Stuart Dredge at The Guardian reports that Mötley Crüe co-founder Nikki Sixx has become the latest in a long line of musicians to speak out against YouTube, claiming that the video streaming site is paying artists less than one-sixth what music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music are paying.

Sixx joins a slew of other musicians who claim that YouTube was taking advantage of its safe harbor protections, which means it can’t be held liable when users upload infringing content, to negotiate unfair deals with artists and labels.

YouTube, however, claims that it has contributed billions to the music industry and that it’s in negotiations to improve transparency with how the royalties are calculated. YouTube also claims that many smaller artists build their careers on YouTube, even if they never earn a great deal directly from the site.

3: Free Textra SMS App Threatens to Report Android Pirates

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that the makers of the Android app Textra SMS have begun sending messages to suspected pirates that they have three days to either install a legitimate copy of the app from the Google Play store or possibly be reported.

Textra SMS is a free SMS/Text messaging app that’s meant to replace the default in Android. But, even though its a free app, at least some users have taken to pirating it to remove ads that come with it. Those users still have to connect to Textra’s servers, which is how the piracy is detected.

The use of the pirated app comes with additional risks including possible malware injection into the code. However, it’s the anti-piracy messages that seem to have spooked at least some users the most, with posts on forums calling such piracy a “suicide mission” with others wondering why anyone would pirate an already free app. That being said, Textra SMS seems to be doing well, with between 5 and 10 million downloads being tracked by Google.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.