COPYCENSE

“In 1998, U.S. entertainment companies persuaded Congress to make dramatic changes in its copyright code by passing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gave copyright holders new rights to control the way people use copyrighted material and new protection for technologies designed to restrict access or copying. The movie and record companies argued they needed these new restrictions to fight increased piracy threats in the digital era.

“In the eight years since the DMCA’s passage, however, piracy has not decreased, and hurdles to lawful uses of media have risen. The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), estimated worldwide losses because of piracy to be US $2.2 billion in 1997 and $3.5 billion annually in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

“Meanwhile, entire consumer electronics categories have been wiped from retail shelves. If three or four years ago you didn’t buy a digital video recorder that automatically skips commercials, you’re out of luck; that feature is not in such products today. Television executives brought litigation that bankrupted the company offering DVRs with these user-friendly features, because skipping commercials potentially undermines their ability to sell commercial time.”

Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer. Death by DMCA. IEEE Spectrum Online. June 2006.

CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Commenters on this site regularly accuse me of suing college students and other ‘innocents’ in my past role as Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. The lawsuits against individuals initiated by the RIAA was started after I left. When I was there, our litigation focus was on those who were building commercial businesses on the backs of the creative community without their agreement or participation.

“I don’t honestly know what I would have done about the individual lawsuits had I stayed. I certainly participated in multiple planning and debate sessions about them.

“But for the record, I do share a concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness and that the record companies need to work harder to implement a strategy that legitimizes more P2P sites and expands the download and subscription pool by working harder with the tech community to get devices and music services to work better together.”

Hilary Rosen. For the Record, for What It’s Worth. The Huffington Post. June 4, 2006.

CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“Alicia Sams’ ‘Wanderlust’, a 90-minute documentary about American road movies, to be broadcast Monday night on the Independent Film Channel (IFC), was a window into the frustrations of making a clip-intensive film dependent on copyright clearance, which has become hugely expensive in the past decade. Initial quotations for the necessary sequences came to more than $450,000, which would have raised by half the cost of the IFC film, directed by the Oscar-nominated team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

“‘Paramount wanted $20,000 for 119 seconds of ‘Paper Moon,’ ‘ Ms. Sams said. ‘The studios are so afraid of exploitation that they set boundaries no one will cross. Even after the prices were cut, we were $150,000 in the hole.’

“Unwilling to pay those fees, IFC’s general manager, Evan Shapiro, helped Ms. Sams pursue another, more aggressive, tack, which may point the way for documentarians who want to tap movie iconography without paying studio prices. Its strategy involved some negotiating hardball, backed up by a willingness to fall back on the tricky legal doctrine known as fair use.”

Elaine Dutka. No Free Samples for Documentaries: Seeking Film Clips With the Fair-Use Doctrine. The New York Times. May 28, 2006.

Related Stories & Documents:

K. Matthew Dames. Demystifying Fair Use. CopyCense. March 2, 2006.

CopyCense. Documentary FIlmmakers Release Fair Use Statement. Dec. 9, 2005.

CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.

“The major labels put aside their fight with Apple Computer over the pricing of digital music when they all signed new one-year licensing deals for the iTunes Music Store in April. But the industry debate over what a song should cost is anything but over.

“Even as 99 cents remains the most common price tag for tunes, efforts are afoot in the mobile music business and in other parts of the PC-based downloading market to test the limits of the iTunes-favored buck-a-track formula.

“To understand just how slippery music pricing has become, look at the smorgasbord of prices for a hit tune like “Check on It” by Beyonce. Among the cell phone carriers, Sprint is selling the track as an over-the-air download for $2.99, Verizon is selling it for $1.99, and upstart mobile virtual network operator Amp’d Mobile has it for 99 cents. Users of Russian sites like Allofmp3.com can download it for 10 cents. And, of course, it’s also widely available across leading peer-to-peer networks and a handful of blogs for nothing.

“So what’s the song actually worth?”

Reuters. Navigating Digital-Music Pricing Wars. News.com. June 5, 2006.

CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.