In today’s CMU Daily: In September, Apple kicked music app Musi out of its App Store following a complaint from YouTube. Musi then sued Apple. In response, Apple says that it also received numerous complaints about the app from the record industry, and that Musi knows what the issues are with its repurposing of YouTube content 

Also today: In a busy day for Diddy legal news, the musician has been accused of breaking prison rules by contacting witnesses in the criminal case against him; his lawyers have accused prosecutors of breaching attorney-client privilege; and a lawyer working on lawsuits against Diddy has been accused of extortion

Plus: Despite previously trying to ban TikTok when he was President, Donald Trump vowed to save the app during the recent election campaign by overturning the sell-or-be-banned law passed by US Congress earlier this year. But now Trump has nominated a very outspoken TikTok critic to chair the FCC

Approved: TYSON

Labels told Apple six times to kick Musi out of App Store, new legal filing reveals

Apple has told a court in California that it should dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by music streaming app Musi, which went legal last month after being kicked out of Apple’s App Store in September. 

Responding to the lawsuit, Apple says that - under its App Store terms - it’s allowed to remove the Musi app “at any time, with or without cause”. And even if it wasn’t, the decision to kick Musi out “followed numerous, credible complaints alleging that the Musi app violates the legal rights of third parties”, the tech giant’s new legal filing reveals. 

We knew that a complaint from YouTube in July prompted the axing of Musi from the App Store, but Apple says that it also received a complaint from the US National Music Publishers Association and at least seven complaints from the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry. 

Musi sources in its music from YouTube. As Apple describes in its new court filing, the app then “removes YouTube advertising content and replaces it with Musi’s own or allows ad-free streaming for a fee”. 

Apple adds that it “received many complaints from third parties alleging that Musi reproduces copyrighted content from YouTube without authorisation from the copyright holders and deprives artists and other rightsholders of royalty revenue”. 

In its lawsuit last month, Musi said that Apple had informed it in August about the complaint it received from YouTube, which accused the music app of infringing its intellectual property and violating its terms of service. But, Musi argued, no detail was provided regarding YouTube’s claims and, when it requested more information directly from the Google-owned video platform, those requests were ignored. 

In its new legal filing, Apple says that the record industry had already complained numerous times about Musi prior to YouTube’s intervention. The IFPI submitted a formal complaint to Apple in July 2023 “alleging that Musi violates YouTube’s terms of service and infringes its members’ copyrights”.

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Diddy accused of contacting witnesses from prison; while he accuses prosecutors of breaching attorney-client privilege 

Prosecutors have accused Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of breaking prison rules to contact potential witnesses in the criminal case against him, which is why - they argue - the musician’s latest bid for bail should be rejected. 

Combs, meanwhile, has claimed that prosecutors are in possession of confidential attorney-client documents which will prevent him from receiving a fair trial. And the lawyer leading on multiple civil lawsuits against Combs has been accused of extortion. It’s a busy day for Diddy legal news. 

Combs has been in prison ever since he was charged with sex-trafficking and racketeering back in September. Earlier this month his lawyers had another go at getting their client bail, proposing a $50 million bond and a plethora of restrictions that they said Combs would adhere to. 

However, the prosecution insists that previous concerns that Combs, if out of jail, will seek to influence witnesses remain valid, with his alleged conduct behind bars only adding to those concerns. 

In their response to Combs’ latest bail proposal, prosecutors claim that the musician has been running a “relentless” scheme to “contact potential witnesses, including victims of his abuse who could provide powerful testimony against him”. 

That scheme has involved using the phone accounts of at least eight other inmates at the prison where Combs is currently being held, as well as getting his employees and family members to reach out to witnesses on his behalf. This scheme would be escalated if Combs was on bail, prosecutors insist.

Trump nominates outspoken TikTok critic for top FCC position 

While there has been speculation that Donald Trump’s recent election win might result in the planned TikTok ban in the US being scrapped, Trump has now revealed his nominee for Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, outspoken TikTok critic Brendan Carr. 

Carr, already an FCC Commissioner, has repeatedly criticised TikTok, insisting that it poses a national security risk on the basis that the Chinese government has access to US user data via the social media app’s China-based owner Bytedance. 

In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, he stated, “for years, [TikTok] told US lawmakers, don’t worry, US user data isn’t even existing inside China. And then a blockbuster report came out in 2022 that showed, in fact, ‘everything is seen inside of China’”. And that includes “keystroke patterns, biometrics, search and browsing history, location”. 

TikTok, he continued, then said “Okay, you caught us red-handed. We’re going to wall off US user data”.  But “lo and behold, the Wall Street Journal report came out and found that personnel in Beijing are still getting access to that data, sensitive US user data, after agreeing to wall it off”. 

Those comments were made in March as US Congress considered the sell-or-be-banned law that was subsequently passed. Under that law, Bytedance must sell TikTok by next January or the app will be banned within the US. 

At the time Carr told Bloomberg this was “a smart approach”, because the desired outcome of the law is actually a change of ownership at TikTok rather than a ban, meaning it would remain in the marketplace as a competitor to other major players like Facebook and YouTube.

🎧 Approved: TYSON

TYSON redefines the landscape of modern soul. Balancing the introspection of new motherhood with a shedding of her late 20s uncertainties, the London artist has delivered an EP, ‘Chaos’, brimming with clarity and purpose.

The centerpiece, ‘Grunge’, is a jagged yet soulful departure that merges her signature vocal warmth with punk undertones, thanks in part to Wu-Lu’s raw instrumentation. 

Co-written and produced by Oscar Scheller (Shygirl, PinkPantheress), the track distills the bittersweet end of an unrequited love into something both urgent and expansive. “It’s about closing a chapter”, TYSON explains, and the catharsis is palpable.

The ten tracks that make up ‘Chaos’ are built on the telepathic connection between TYSON and Scheller, her childhood friend and musical counterpart. 

Born on the same day, their symbiotic songwriting expands on the dusky R&B and close-up modern soul of her previous releases, drilling deeper into homegrown bass culture – breakbeats, street soul and trip-hop – as well as reaching towards icy 1980s synthpop and spacious 2000s R&B.

🎧Listen to the new EP ‘CHAOS’ here

🎧 Watch the video for ‘Grunge’ her