COPYCENSE

Editor’s note: Copycense writers and editors compiled this version of Clippings during our annual holiday break. It was published in mid-January.

Article of the Week

The Patry Copyright Blog. What RIAA Has Said About Home Taping. Jan. 7, 2007. Yes, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher got the “RIAA says ripping to CD is illegal” story so very wrong. Unfortunately, what the RIAA has said about its stance on home taping (or ripping to CD) is clear as mud. Patry sifts through the RIAA’s stance on these issues, and gives credence to the contention that fuzziness in this area does consumers no good, especially since the RIAA has shown it will sue even if a rightful owner does anything that does not involve a paid license. Categories: Bundle of Rights; Fair Use & Other Exceptions; Music.

Quote of the Week

“[A] good sign of a dying industry that investors might want to avoid is when it would rather litigate than innovate, signaling a potential destroyer of value. If it starts to pursue paying customers — which doesn’t seem that outlandish at this point — then I guess we’ll all know the extent of the desperation. Investor, beware.” — The Motley Fool.

Alyce Lomax. We’re All Thieves to the RIAA. The Motley Fool. Jan. 2, 2008. The Fool, along with several other news outlets, reported the erroneous information that the RIAA argued ripping to CD is copyright infringement, an error we caught and explained in our Dec. 11 edition of Clippings. The key portion of this post is an investment Web site’s advice to readers to divest themselves of stock holdings in the four multinationals that include record companies among their holdings. If investment industry officials no longer have faith in your business model, that’s fatal. Categories: Business & Commerce; Music.

CommuniK. Clippings

TorrentFreak. Oscars Veteran Resigns Over DVD Screener Piracy Threat. Jan. 5, 2008. The film award season always is a special time of year for those that think such things have life significance. It also means bucket loads of DVDs will criss-cross the country, as members of the Academy screen the films and are feted “for [their] consideration” of an Oscar nomination. Until recently, Oscar nominations or wins never factored into any sort of movie marketing. (We first recall a notable push to market a film’s quality based upon the number of Oscar winners when we saw trailers for the 2002 film Insomnia.) Now, every two-bit film that has a single nominee makes sure the audience knows that factoid. It’s as if the producers imply with this sort of marketing that “because we have this Academy Award winner and that Academy Award nominee, this film won’t be an utter and complete waste of $100 million (or more).”

But we digress.

Film distribution season also means that the films will get copied and, as always happens, find their way onto the Web. This is the first year we’ve heard about the Academy taking strong steps to halt the copying, and also the first time we’ve heard that an Academy member resigned in protest. We presume all the brouhaha is about protecting the nominated films’ lucrative downstream DVD market, but we’re sure screeners don’t like being made out to be criminals. Categories: DRM & Copy Restrictions; Film & Video.

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The editorial staff from Copycense wishes the best to our readers and their friends and families. We will resume our regularly scheduled coverage beginning Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008.

Chloe Albanesius. DOJ Blasts New ‘Copyright Czar’ Bill. PCMag.com. Dec. 13, 2007. In last week’s edition of Clippings, we focused on the proposal in the PRO IP bill that would create a Cabinet-level copyright czar. Apparently, so has the Department of Justice, the agency most likely to be affected by such a proposal, calling this idea “ill-advised.” The more the entertainment and content lobbies wish to get DoJ involved in copyright enforcement, the more the agency seems to resist. And after all, why would the White House need another position to promote these industries’ copyright agenda? The U.S. Trade Representative already does this quite nicely, courtesy of its annual Special 301 review.

(Editor’s Note: Copycense editors originally commented on this article in the Dec. 18, 2007, edition of Copycense Clippings.)

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