Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
Amazon Prime may roll out in India: According to a report from The Economic Times, Amazon may be working to bring its streaming features to India. Amazon India reportedly hired Nitesh Kripalani as head of digital content; Kripalani previously served as an EVP at Multi Screen Media. A representative from Amazon India said the company would not comment on future plans, so we’ll have to wait for a formal announcement to get more details.
Assessing Azoff’s ammo against YouTube: With the launch of his new PRO, Irving Azoff has been talking about a potential lawsuit against YouTube. He and his team claim that YouTube needs permission from Global Music Rights to play music by its stable of songwriters, but according to a post on Digital Music News, there may not be much legal backing for those claims.
In-car listening as public performance? STIM, a Swedish collecting agency, has launched a lawsuit against car rental company Fleetmanager on charges that it should pay public performance royalties for music played in vehicles. Fleetmanager’s response is that a car only has a few passengers at a time, and thus is not a venue for public performance. But STIM has successfully inked a licensing agreement with a trade association of car rental companies that could set a precedent for this case. [Music Week]