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Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo Songs Vanish from TikTok as Licensing Battle With Universal Music Heats Up UMG, the biggest music company on the planet, failed to renew a licensing deal with TikTok amid a dispute over artist compensation, security, and the use of AI BY NANCY DILLON, ETHAN MILLMAN FEBRUARY 1, 2024 Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey Songs Disappear On TikTok Amid Universal Music's Licensing Battle A DAY AFTER Universal Music Group threatened to stop licensing its music to TikTok amid a breakdown in deal negotiations, songs from UMG‘s unparalleled stable of artists began vanishing from the social media platform...

To teach full time in a Wisconsin public school, one must jump through time-consuming, resource-draining hoops to obtain an occupational license. Our public schools are failing children by requiring strict, impractical licensing requirements and excluding highly qualified, would-be instructors from entering the teaching profession. We must create flexibility in licensing requirements to allow more experienced people to expand young minds. The kids will see the inherent value in this approach and respond. Our children are starving for people who can provide them with practical skills that will allow them to build a life for themselves. There are many adults who...

The province appointed Teri Bryant, longtime secretary of the Alberta Arms and Cartridge Collectors Association to the new role. Alberta has its first official chief firearms officer according to a news release from the province's United Conservative Party government. Teri Bryant, who has served the past 16 years as the secretary of the Alberta Arms and Cartridge Collectors Association, was awarded the newly-created position designed to oversee “licensing eligibility, compliance with legislation, overseeing the administration of firearms safety courses and other duties that previously fell to the federal government.” “I am delighted to welcome the province’s first-ever designated chief firearms...

Here it is – The Bill to Destroy Gun Ownership Blog/Regulation Posted Jan 30, 2021 by Martin Armstrong Spread the love Firearms BILLS-117hr127ih Here we have it. They are going after EVERYONE who has a gun or ammunition. They are deeply concerned about a revolution and they want to know every person who has a gun or ammunition. The object of this bill will be to identify every person who has a gun. They will be able to revoke a license and confiscate the gun under rules to be created by the Attorney General. Biden swore he would end the...

Just before the end of 2020, the NCAA has gone ahead and done maybe the most 2020 thing ever. The NCAA has filed a trademark for the term “Mask Madness,” as a way to promote the wearing of masks during the Division I men’s basketball tournament known as “March Madness.” “The National Collegiate Athletic Association made the filing on Dec. 23,” Sporting News reports. “According to the filing, the NCAA wants to use the term both to promote public awareness about the benefits of wearing masks, along with advertising and marketing around masks as a protection of viral infections.

The United States is far from the land of the free these days. The governments in state capitols and Washington DC have confiscated our rights and are selling them back to us. American culture has shifted in a frightening way that has expanded the number of professions and industries that now require an occupational license to legally provide a service or start a business. This stifles business creation in many states and disproportionally affects low and middle income individuals the most. Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute, Christina Sandefur, came on the Armstrong & Getty radio show earlier this...

Millions of Americans are shut out of jobs they could do because of occupational licensing laws. They have the ability and desire, but can’t overcome the high cost of getting the governmental license that’s required before they can legally work in a job field. Examples of this are legion. Here’s just one I came across recently in the state where I live, North Carolina. An immigrant, Jasna Bukvic-Bhayani is skilled in applying makeup, but she wants to open a school to teach others how to do that. When she announced in Facebook that she planned open a school for makeup...

Sheikh Nahjan Mubarak al Nahjan, the minister for tolerance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has said that inadequate surveillance of mosques has led to Islamist terrorism in Germany. “You can’t just leave a mosque open and allow anyone to go there and to preach. You need to have licenses,” said al Nahjan in an interview with DPA. He added that the problem existed in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, arguing that Muslims were becoming radicalized in mosques where the authorities were not exerting strong enough control. […] In the authoritarian UAE, mosques are comprehensively controlled by the authorities....

In 2007, David Hansen was a recent college graduate with an architect's degree trying to make some money. He and his business partner, who was a licensed architect in Washington, started an architectural firm there. At the time, the economy was still sluggish and there was not a lot of construction. So, to earn some extra cash and to get the business going, they agreed to do marketing work for a property development company in Oregon. Cognizant that they weren't licensed architects in Oregon, they limited their work to creating drawings of potential developments for the sole purpose of attracting...

The cost of toll roads, the toll of urban congestion, ride-hailing battles and a high-speed train war garnered plenty of attention in Texas this year. And after the Legislature spent two sessions focusing on highway funding, lawmakers now appear poised to tackle other transportation matters next year. Here's a look at the year's biggest transportation stories and how they may continue to unfold in the coming months:1. Uber and Lyft roll out of Austin after losing city electionNational ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft stopped operating in Austin after voters there rejected an ordinance that would have repealed certain regulations, including...

A recent MIRS report, “State Collects 32% More In Fees Than It Cost to Regulate,” notes that the state brings in $147 million in revenue for licenses and permits. But the total cost to regulate Michigan’s variety of industries was much probably much higher. The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, or LARA, is in charge of overseeing the occupations state law requires to be licensed. In theory, the fees collected for an occupation should pay the cost of regulating that occupation but that rarely works out in practice. According to MIRS, the state gained $25.5 million in revenue...

If you want to work in Michigan, you need to get a license — at least to work in one of 215 professions the state of Michigan licenses. These licenses, which typically require education, training, exams, state fees, or all four, apply to work ranging from acupuncturist through wholesale potato dealer. Even taxidermists and funeral directors are subject to state requirements. But in 2011, Gov. Rick Snyder promised change. Upon entering office, he issued an executive order to create the Office of Regulatory Reinvention. The governor told this new office to “simplify Michigan's regulatory environment by reducing obsolete, unnecessary, and...

A vet safely saves a dog’s life and the owners are happy, but he is punished with a fine and probation and could have lost his state license. Why? Because a state board — filled with his competitors — and a state department have that authority. This case involved Dr. Jan Pol, a veterinarian near Mt. Pleasant. As Michigan Capitol Confidential reports, five years ago, Pol performed an operation that was shown on his program on the Nat Geo Channel. The dog, Mr. Pigglesworth, was saved from being euthanized for under $300. But an out-of-state vet complained to the Michigan...

Which profession requires upwards of $10,000 in education costs, over $200 in state fees, and 1,800 hours of training to enter: emergency medical technician (EMT) or barber? The correct answer is barber. In terms of time and cost, a prospective EMT can obtain an occupational license, required by the state of Michigan, much more easily than a prospective barber. For example, Baker College’s EMT certification program costs $6,600 and takes six months to complete. Completing a barber certification program in Michigan takes two years. This example is not to criticize EMTs or question their ability to do their job but...

TAMPA, FLORIDA — President Barack Obama’s immediate leveraging of the atrocious Islamic terror attack in Orlando toward new gun control reforms may be predictable — yet the circumstances involving the professional background of Omar S. Mateen could prove a breaking point for his fellow anti-gun activists. As the debate eventually moves toward the Second Amendment, activists must answer how the most prevalent mass shooter in American history cleared background checks, medical examination, registration and dozens of hours of mandated training.

Occupational licensure is so damaging to the upward mobility of poor people and does so little to protect the public that even the Obama administration, with its reflexive pro-government inclinations, has criticized it. (See my February 2015 Forbes piece on that.) Unnecessary and anti-competitive licensing rules have been repeatedly challenged in court, and often struck down as a violation of either state law or the U.S. Constitution. The Institute for Justice has been particularly effective in protecting the liberty of people who just want a chance to succeed on their own, by persuading courts to invalidate ridiculous licensing regulations. A...

A Supreme Court order issued today closes the book on (or perhaps merely ends this chapter of) more than a decade of legal warfare between Google and the Authors Guild over the legality of the former’s scanning without permission of millions of copyrighted books. And the final word is: it’s fair use. The order is just an item in a long list of other orders that appeared today, and adds nothing to the argument except the tacit approval of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals 2015 decision — itself approving an even earlier decision, that of the U.S. District Court...

RICHMOND — A state report linking Virginia cigarette smuggling to terrorist organizations has prompted a Republican state senator to push a bill that would require retailers and wholesalers to obtain a state license to sell cigarettes. The bill, from Sen. Bryce E. Reeves (R-Spottsylvania), has cleared the Senate, but odds are against it in the GOP-dominated House because of conservative objections to increased government regulations and taxes. Even in the more moderate Senate, eight conservative Republicans voted against it. They are a group that Reeves, a fiscal and social conservative, often votes with. “I think they are concerned about regulatory...

An important if usually under-the-radar public policy issue is occupational licensing – state rules that require residents to meet various criteria (and pay for them) before they may earn a living in a particular profession. Rolling back licensure mandates requires taking on groups with a vested interest in preserving these restrictions on opportunity (and potential competitors). To its credit the previous Legislature did do some good if still-modest work in this area. In a bipartisan manner, legislators eliminated rules having to do with dieticians and nutritionists, interior designers, auctioneers, community planners, carnival workers, ocularists, school solicitors and immigration clerical assistants....

LANSING — Several decades ago, Dr. Morris Kleiner was assigned by his boss at the Department of Labor to look into occupational licensing. “What had I done to him to deserve taking on this topic?” Kleiner asked at the Dec. 4 event hosted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Lansing. But the issue became much of his academic work and is an increasingly important one. Kleiner, now a professor at the University of Minnesota and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis, discussed why at an Issues & Ideas lecture entitled, “Our Guild-Ridden Labor Market:...