Warner Plans ‘E-Label’ Internet Download Service
"Warner Music Group is creating a new music-distribution mechanism that will rely on digital downloads instead of compact discs.
"Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and CEO, said Monday that
the new mechanism will be called an ‘e-label,’ in which artists will
release music in clusters of three songs every few months rather than a
CD every few years.
Declan McCullagh. Warner Music Readies CD-Free ‘E-Label’. News.com. Aug. 22, 2005.
See also:
Grant Gross. Life After Grokster: Music CEO Asks for Tech Help. InfoWorld. Aug. 22, 2005.
Edgar Bronfman, Jr. Remarks to the Progress & Freedom Foundation. (.pdf) Aug. 22, 2005.
LexisNexis Launches DRM Product
“LexisNexis and iParadigms have teamed up to create a product called CopyGuard to help detect plagiarism and copyright infringement and protect intellectual property. At a time where people and companies are having real problems with copyright protection, this may be a suitable solution for protecting their properties.
“The new product by LexisNexis enables users to verify content originality quickly and easily, searching billions of documents within minutes. LexisNexis says it has 6.1 billion searchable documents, including deep archives and four to five years of archived webpages from iParadigms.”
John Stith. LexisNexis Working On Copyright Protection. WebProNews.com. Aug. 22, 2005.
FedEx Overnights DMCA Notice
“Although Jose Avila has a good job as a software developer, he’s locked into two rents after moving to Arizona, and has no extra cash for an Ikea shopping spree. But Avila got creative and built an apartment full of surprisingly sturdy furniture — out of FedEx shipping boxes.
“FedEx is not amused. The shipping giant’s lawyers have sent Avila letters (.pdf) demanding he take down the site he created to document his project, invoking, among other things, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”
Kristen Philipkoski. Furniture Causes FedEx Fits. Wired News. Aug. 11, 2005.
Stanford Holds Conference on Harmonization & Trade
“Harmonization” is one of those terms that increasingly has crept into the copyright lexicon over the last few years. I first recall hearing the term in the late nineties, around the time the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was being debated and passed into law.
Simply put, harmonization is a concept whereby the intellectual property laws of different countries are made consistent, mostly to facilitate international trade and business. Ideally, each country’s IP laws will have similar weight and effect where harmonization occurs. Practically speaking, however, “harmonization” really means that the United States’ IP laws effectively become the world’s IP law because the U.S. holds a disproportionate trade negotiating advantage.
And we use that advantage by making other countries offers that they can’t — or won’t — refuse: as a result of doing business with the U.S., our trade representative demands that other countries’ IP laws become “harmonized” with our IP laws. In contrast, it is unusual that we would agree to agree to another country’s IP regimen.
Ultimately, harmonization is an important topic, and Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society (“CIS”) will hold a conference in September about this and related issues. The conference, entitled Standardization and the Law: Developing the Golden Mean for Global Trade, will focus on Full details are available from the CIS Web site.
Stanford Holds Conference on Harmonization & Trade
“Harmonization” is one of those terms that increasingly has crept into the copyright lexicon over the last few years. I first recall hearing the term in the late nineties, around the time the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was being debated and passed into law.
Simply put, harmonization is a concept whereby the intellectual property laws of different countries are made consistent, mostly to facilitate international trade and business. Ideally, each country’s IP laws will have similar weight and effect where harmonization occurs. Practically speaking, however, “harmonization” really means that the United States’ IP laws effectively become the world’s IP law because the U.S. holds a disproportionate trade negotiating advantage.
And we use that advantage by making other countries offers that they can’t — or won’t — refuse: as a result of doing business with the U.S., our trade representative demands that other countries’ IP laws become “harmonized” with our IP laws. In contrast, it is unusual that we would agree to agree to another country’s IP regimen.
Ultimately, harmonization is an important topic, and Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society (“CIS”) will hold a conference in September about this and related issues. The conference, entitled Standardization and the Law: Developing the Golden Mean for Global Trade, will focus on Full details are available from the CIS Web site.
ADV Films Test BitTorent Promos
"For most in the culture industry, the chance of the file-sharing
program BitTorrent serving a positive function is as likely as Darth
Vader joining Habitat for Humanity. The popular program is a well-known
tool for downloading pirated versions of films and television series.
"But ADV Films, the largest distributor of anime in the United States,
has decided to make the best of a bad situation. To publicize its new
series ‘Gilgamesh’ and ‘Goddanar,’ it is releasing promotional packages
– not in stores, but via the dreaded BitTorrent.
Charles Solomon. File Share and Share Alike. The New York Times. Aug 21, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
Yahoo! Launches New Music Service with Multichannel Campaign
“Yahoo! launched an integrated marketing campaign today to promote its new music subscription service, Yahoo! Music Unlimited.
“The brand-building campaign will include online media, television, radio, outdoor, wild postings, guerilla and influencer marketing. Creative features Minipops, miniature, pixelated versions of celebrities created by Berlin-based artist Craig Robinson.”
Kevin Newcomb. Yahoo! Launches New Music Service with Multichannel Campaign. ClickZ News. Aug. 18, 2005.
COPYCENSE 