COPYCENSE

"Digital technologies are often said (1) to enable a qualitatively new engagement with already existing cultural materials (for example through sampling and adaptation); and, (2) to offer a new disintermediated distribution channel to the creator. A review of secondary data on music artists’ earnings and eight in-depth interviews conducted in 2003-04 in Britain and Germany indicate that both ambitions have remained largely unfulfilled. The article discusses to what extent the structure of copyright law is to blame, and sets out a research agenda."

Martin Kretschmer. Artists’ Earnings and Copyright: A Review of German and British Music Industry Data in the Context of Digital Technologies. First Monday. Jan. 2005.

See also:
Mary Madden. Artists, Musicians and the Internet. (.pdf). Pew Internet & American Life Project. Dec. 5, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Classic-rock fan George Petersen doesn’t need another copy of Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the Moon" or Cream’s "Disraeli Gears." He has spent the past four decades buying and re-buying his favorite music in a succession of new formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassette, compact disc, Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio.

Enough is enough. The basement is full.

"With tonight’s 47th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles drawing attention to the ever-shifting world of the recording arts, Petersen and many other music-biz insiders agree that, in the next decade or so, the CD will very likely be surpassed as the album format of choice.

"’The new format is no format,’ predicted Petersen, a 24-year industry veteran who also owns a record label, a recording studio and a music-publishing company. ‘What the consumer would buy is a data file, and you could create whatever you need. If you want to make an MP3, you make an MP3. If you want a DVD-Audio surround disc, you make that.’"

Sean Daly. 10 Million iPods, Previewing the CD’s End. WashingtonPost.com. Feb. 13, 2005.

See also:
Dinesh C. Sharma. Study: Fee-based Music Gains on Swapping. News.com. Feb. 10, 2005.

(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"The government on Friday proposed a new copyright law to make it illegal for Norwegians to copy songs from their own CDs onto MP3 players, but legal to do so for making a CD duplicate.

"The proposal, intended to bring Norway’s law in line with European Union rules, drew immediate praise from the music and film industry as well as criticism from opponents.

"The amendment, which requires parliament’s approval, would make it illegal to crack security codes on DVD and CDs or to provide software or hardware for doing so, a news release said. It would still be legal for a person to make a copy of their own CD or DVD for private use, even if that means cracking the code, as long as it was being copied onto the same digital medium and not onto another one."

Doug Mellgren. Norway Proposes New Digital Copyright Law. SeattlePI.com. Feb. 11, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Napster has revealed that it’s planning an aggressive marketing campaign against Apple’s iPod as part of its plans for a full launch of the Napster To Go portable subscription service later this quarter.

"The service, which soft-launched in the US in November, is likely to roll out in the UK in March. It’s one of the first services enabled by Microsoft’s Janus technology, which for the first time allows music files bought via subscription services to be transferred from a PC to a portable device."

New Media Age. Napster To Go Campaign Will Challenge Apple iTunes’ Lead. Forbes. Feb. 10, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"City officials in Los Angeles are considering switching to an open-source platform for their computer systems to potentially save millions of dollars that could be redirected to other services.

"Three council members – Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greul and Jack Weiss – introduced a motion last week asking the city’s Information Technology Agency to provide an initial report on potential savings in 30 days and a transition plan in 90 days. Although city officials already use some open-source software, they spent $5.8 million on proprietary software licenses for the fiscal year that ran from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004.

"With open-source programs, users can read, modify and redistribute the source code for free. The most widely known example is the Linux operating system, although some vendors charge for their Linux distributions."

Dibya Sarkar. L.A. Investigates Open Source to Cut Costs. FCW.com. Feb. 7, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"A collaboration tool launched on Monday is designed to ease the distribution of large files for enterprises.

"Ignite Technologies Inc. of Dallas introduced its Ignite Communicator service, which aims to deliver any type of digital content such as video, graphical presentations and software to users regardless of their networking or computer capacity.

"Ignite Communicator, for example, could help an enterprise reach mobile users connecting over less reliable networks or to partners or customers with varying levels of access, Ignite officials said."

Matt Hicks. Service Aims to Ease Digital Content Delivery. eWeek. Feb. 7, 2005.

See also:
Jason Meserve. Ignite Helps Deliver Big Files. NetworkWorldFusion. Feb. 7, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"A Dallas federal court has ordered file-swapping site LokiTorrent.com to shut down and provide Hollywood lawyers with access to its full server logs, including data that could expose hundreds of thousands of people to copyright lawsuits.

"The Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it had won a quick court victory against LokiTorrent, and was launching a new round of actions against other online piracy hubs. The data provided by the onetime file-swapping hub would provide ‘a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage in illegal activities,’ the trade group said.

"Hard numbers on the site’s traffic are hard to come by. However, according to researchers at the Delft University of Technology, LokiTorrent was responsible for more than 800,000 downloads in the month of October alone."

John Borland. Court: Hollywood Gets P2P Giant’s Server Logs. News.com. Feb. 10, 2005.

See also:
Ashlee Vance. MPAA Closes Loki. The Register. Feb. 10, 2005.

Elizabeth Millard. MPAA Wins File-Sharing Suit. CIO Today. Feb. 11, 2005.

John Borland. Movie Blackout for P2P Networks?. News.com. Feb. 10, 2005.

Motion Picture Association of America. MPAA Member Studios File Second Round of Lawsuits Against Major P2P Server Operators That Facilitate Global Movie Piracy. (Press Release.) Feb. 10, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.