Twitch and the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) are close to signing a music licensing agreement, multiple sources tell Billboard, potentially ending an arduous, year-long stalemate between the livestreaming platform and publishing organization.

The two parties have come to an agreement in principle, although nothing binding has been signed, according to a source familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Another source in the publishing industry says that a deal may be announced next week, but that it has not yet been signed.

Twitch has deals with performing rights organizations including ASCAP and BMI, but it does not have music licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group or any of their respective publishing companies. When Twitch users stream music in their videos, Twitch technically has no liability for any resulting copyright infringement as long as it responds to rights holders’ takedown requests, per the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and its “safe harbor” provision for platforms which host user-uploaded content.

Amazon-owned Twitch has operated under the DMCA for years without backlash, but ever since the pandemic turned the music industry’s attention to Twitch for livestreaming concerts, spurring huge growth for the platform, music trade organizations like the NMPA and RIAA have accused Twitch of taking advantage of the DMCA to avoid paying for music — similar to the way the organizations have pressured TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to sign licensing deals in the past. So the two organizations have flooded Twitch with tens of thousands of takedown requests over the past year, forcing Twitch to the negotiation table by frustrating its users.

In response, Twitch vp/head of music Tracy Chan has reiterated that Twitch does not tolerate copyright infringement, arguing that Twitch’s monetization system offers artists a more valuable business model than licensing payouts could. Last September, to help streamers navigate the situation, the company launched Soundtrack by Twitch, an in-platform service that lets users legally incorporate into their videos more than 1 million rights-cleared recordings from labels like Monstercat and Anjunabeats.

Platforms licensing music usually deal with the recording side first, then tackle the more complex publishing side, but it’s unclear where negotiations between Twitch and record labels stand. Behind the scenes, executives have been complaining about Twitch’s frequent promises that a deal is coming soon. “It’s been ‘next month’ for almost years now,” says a record label source.

More often than not, platforms licensing music need time to set up reporting mechanisms to identify song usage and figure out who to pay. When the NMPA and YouTube entered a music licensing agreement in 2011, settling the NMPA’s copyright infringement lawsuit against the video platform, YouTube acquired licensing and royalty service provider RightsFlow for help. In a more recent example, even after Facebook Gaming secured music licensing deals with the major label groups last September, the platform spent a year fine-tuning its content recognition system before granting only its top users the ability to incorporate popular music into their streams earlier this month.

That’s why lump sum payments are often offered and accepted. From there, the burden is on the publisher to decide how to allocate royalties to its artists and songwriters, which is sometimes done by market share. Those settlements can also have go-forward licenses, which are also based on a lump-sum pool and distributed accordingly.

Meanwhile, the NMPA is still fighting a separate battle over music licensing with gaming platform Roblox. In June, the NMPA filed a $200 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Roblox, alleging that the gaming platform is hosting a “massive” library of thousands of unlicensed songs for users to broadcast in games. Roblox has denied wrongdoing, vowing to defend itself “vigorously” against those claims.

Following his child endangerment conviction and his sentencing to two years probation, former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell is speaking out about his case.

In a video message posted to the 35-year-old musician-actor’s Instagram, Bell clarified two claims that have swirled around him over the last year before addressing his guilty plea. Bell said he hasn’t changed his last name despite an update to his social media handles and that he didn’t move to Mexico or become a resident or citizen of that country despite rumors he had. He then pivoted to his case, which he described as having “moved very quickly for you, but for me it’s been a three-year, thorough investigation into every false claim that has been made.”

“It’s not me telling you that the claims are false, but the state of Ohio has proven claims to be false,” he alleged. “If these claims were remotely true, my situation would be very different. I would not be here at home with my wife and my son.”

During his sentencing hearing in July, Cuyahoga County Judge Timothy McCormick stated that he had heard “a lot of serious and disturbing allegations” but added he “can’t lose focus on what was pled to,” The Associated Press reported.

“The fact of the matter is, your position and celebrity status let you nurture this relationship,” McCormick said. “You were able to gain access to this child.”

In July, Bell was sentenced to two years’ probation on child endangerment charges and 200 hours of community service for his conduct with a young fan, whom he met online and then in person, that spanned years. Authorities previously stated that in October 2018, the victim — who was 19 at the time of Bell’s 2021 sentencing — contacted Toronto police, who forwarded their findings to Cleveland police, which prompted an investigation.

According to the victim, the former Drake and Josh star began contact with her via online chats when she was 12, with those communications escalating to exchanges that were “blatantly sexual” by the time she was 15. The young woman, who called Bell a “pedophile” during his July hearing in Cleveland, said that the two had exchanged explicit photos and on several occasions — including at a concert venue in Cleveland and a hotel — engaged in sexual conduct.

In his video, Bell stated that “I’m not perfect, and I make mistakes” and called his behavior “reckless and irresponsible” but disputed that he maintained communication with the victim over a sustained period of time or that he knew who she was during in-person encounters.

“I responded to a fan whose age I didn’t know. When I became aware of their age, all conversation and communication stopped,” he said. “This individual continued to come to shows and pay for meet-and-greets, and although I was unaware that this was the same person I was communicating with online, that’s what I pled guilty to.”

Bell initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but ultimately reached a plea deal with prosecutors. He was convicted in June of felony attempted child endangerment, with a misdemeanor charge of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.

The attempted endangerment charge is related to the concert, where Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Tyler Sinclair stated Bell “violated his duty of care” and created a risk of harm to the victim. The disseminating matter charge was related to “inappropriate social media messages,” according to Sinclair.

In his video, Bell also addressed that misdemeanor charge and the text messages that were used as evidence in his case, denying that explicit images were exchanged and that anything “physical” had occurred between him and the victim.

“I want to make clear that there were no sexual images, nothing physical between me and this individual,” he said. “I was not charged with anything physical. I was not charged with the disseminating of photographs or images or anything like that. This is strictly over text messages.”

“When I was presented with a plea deal because of the messages, I felt that it was the best way to get this over quickly and for everybody involved to be able to move on and for me to get back to doing what I love,” he added.

Bell ended his message by thanking fans for doing their own research and sticking by him.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who saw through the lies and did their research and looked at my case and saw for what it was, instead of through all this media confusion,” he said. “Don’t believe the media right off the bat. It’s a lot of clickbait. Do your own research and come to conclusions.”

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Lady Gaga’s dog walker Ryan Fischer sat down for his first television interview to explain what happened that tragic night he was shot during a robbery when two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen and how he is recovering now.

Fischer, who had walked the musician’s French bulldogs for six years, spoke with CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King on Friday and admitted that since the shooting “some days are great, some weeks are not.” In the sit-down, Fischer and King returned to the Hollywood neighborhood where the attack occurred where Fisher chronicled the events of that night. “The car basically came in, at an angle,” he recalled. “There was no doubt in my head that they were stopping for me.”

He continued, “I was scared. I was in pain. I had a feeling when they came up, pulled the gun on me, that I was going to end up being shot. In my mind, I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m not going to fight for these dogs.’”

In the video captured by a doorbell camera from a home on the street, he can be heard screaming, “Oh my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me! I’m bleeding out from my chest!”

Fischer told King that he was shot once and the bullet entered above his clavicle and exited below his shoulder blade because he was reaching for the dogs at the time. “It pierced my lung,” he revealed.

He recalled being on the operating table at the hospital and seeing a team of eight or nine people working to help him. “When they put the chest tube in, all of a sudden all this blood just spurted out on the doctor next to me. Everyone’s faces just dropped. I heard my blood pressure drop. I looked at the machine. The people in the E.R. who I’d seen that night told me that they didn’t think I was going to survive that night.” He revealed that the doctors had to remove a top third and a bottom portion of Fischer’s lung.

While he does not know if he was targeted due to the expensive dog breed or because the animals belonged to the singer, Fischer said he would be “very surprised” if his attackers knew Lady Gaga was the owner. “The one thing I’ve noticed in L.A. while walking the dogs is people say out of the cars, ‘How much are those dogs worth?’ How much are they? Can I buy them?’ That part was always surprising–the viewing of a dog as a commodity,” he shared.

The two French bulldogs owned by Lady Gaga were eventually returned, with the singer having offered a $500,000 reward for the stolen dogs. Following Fischer’s attack, Lady Gaga posted a heartfelt message on Instagram writing, “I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family. You’re forever a hero.”

Speaking of Lady Gaga, Fischer praised the singer for how she has helped him since the incident. “She’s been a friend for me,” he said. “After I was attacked, my family was flown out and I had trauma therapists flown to me. I stayed at her house for months while friends comforted me and security was around me.”

King questioned why Fischer has a GoFundMe page instead of receiving financial help from the singer. He responded, “LG’s very supportive of my journey right now. I think it’s hard for people to understand why someone would go about healing this way. I grew up Catholic in the Jesuit faith and there’s something about giving up your resources, giving up belongings, and to contribute back to society. So, I know that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people, but she totally gets it.”

Commenting on how he is doing now, Fischer said, “I feel good about my life. I’m in a good space mentally as I’ve done the work to embrace this part of myself.” He added that he will soon attend a trauma retreat to hear other stories of grief and share his experience.

Multiple arrests were made in April after the robbery with police confirming that detectives do not believe the suspects were targeting the victim because the dogs were Gaga’s, but due to the great value of the breed.

Watch Fischer’s interview below.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.