In the latest twist to the story of Kim Dotcom and his defunct file-sharing site Megaupload, the prime minister of New Zealand has publicly apologized to Mr. Dotcom after it was determined that the country's foreign intelligence service spied on him illegally.
Mr. Dotcom was arrested in January after the police raided his home near Auckland on behalf of the United States government, which had indicted him and six others on charges of criminal copyright infringement. According to a recent report by the inspector general of New Zealand's intelligence service, the Government Communications Security Bureau, the agency gathered information on Mr. Dotcom for use by the police, but had no right to do so because Mr. Dotcom holds a permanent resident's visa.
“I apologize to Mr. Dotcom,†Prime Minister John Key said on Thursday, according to TVNZ. “I apologize to New Zealanders because every New Zealander that sits within the category of having permanent residency or is a New Zealand citizen is entitled to be protected from the law when it comes to the G.C.S.B., and we failed to provide that appropriate protection for him.â€
Mr. Dotcom has been released on bail and is awaiting an extradition trial next year. In the months since his arrest, he has successfully challenged some aspects of the case against him in New Zealand courts, including winning more favorable bail conditions and forcing United States prosecutors to turn over Federal Bureau of Investigation files to his defense.
As diverting as the case may be to watch unfold, it is being watched intently by the entertainment and technology industries and by legal experts, wh o see it as a test of whether the United States can pursue copyright infringement cases overseas.
Another Radio Royalties Deal: Clear Channel Communications, the radio giant that in June took a big step in a new direction over how it pays royalties through a deal with Taylor Swift's record label, has now made a similar deal with another independent label, this one behind major alternative rock bands like Mumford & Sons and Phoenix.
Clear Channel announced on Thursday that it would pay the label, Glassnote, an undisclosed percentage of its revenue whenever music by Glassnote's acts are played on its terrestrial stations or on Clear Channel's Internet radio streams, like those available on its iHeartRadio app.
Such deals break with almost a century of copyright history by letting record labels collect a royalty when their songs are played on the air. Under United States copyright law, stations are required to pay only music publishers and songwriters for the music they play.
In exchange, these deals with labels allow Clear Channel to change its online royalty method from a “penny rate†- in which it pays a fraction of a cent every time someone listens to a song online - to a percentage of its advertising revenue, which could reduce its online royalty costs.
Clear Channel's first such arrangement was with Big Machine, the label behind Ms. Swift. Last week Big Machine made a similar deal with Entercom Communications, which owns more than 100 radio stations around the country.
Glassnote's arrangement with Clear Channel, which takes effect Monday, is well timed for the label. This week, it released “Babel,†the new album by Mumford & Sons, a young British folk-rock group, which is projected to sell more than 600,000 copies in its first week and be one of the most popular rock records of the year.
Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.
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