Tracking Society’s Reaction to Digitization Trends
“With the MP3, recorded music no longer has a physical form, just as digital text no longer embodies the physical page. Music’s transition from the analogue to the digital is far from complete. Musicians, distributors, and listeners are still adapting to the changes that going digital is causing. Musicians have new methods of recording and are experimenting with new ways reaching their audiences. Distributors of music are struggling to develop new business models in the digital, online and networked world. Listeners have a new relationship with music, now that they can access their entire music collection from an iPod.
“Music’s pioneering shift to the digital shows what lies ahead for the digital book in many ways. For example, we are learning from initial applications of DRM, including Apple restrictions on songs bought in the iTunes Music Store, Sony’s disastrous attempt to deploy its DRM Rootkit and Sun’s Open DRM initiatives. Some ideas will work, and some will not. These early implementations of DRM will certainly inform how it is applied to digital texts.”
if:book. The Life and Afterlife of Vinyl Records. May 19, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
CleanFlicks Finally Gets Its Day In Court
“Should a fig leaf be strategically placed on Michelangelo’s statue of David to make it acceptable to those who find nudity offensive?
“U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch pondered this question Wednesday while considering whether to bar a CleanFlicks from distributing copies of films edited to remove profanity, sex and violence.”
Sue Lindsay. Copyright, Clean Flicks Collide in Federal Court. Rocky Mountain News. May 11, 2006.
See also:
Ray Richmond. CleanFlicks Update: The Battle Continues. DGA Magazine. March 2003.
Peter Rojas. The Blessed Version. The Village Voice. October 9, 2002.
Peter Rojas. Hollywood: The People’s Cut. The Guardian. July 25, 2002.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Microsoft Seeking to Challenge Apple’s iTunes Dominance
“It has been three years since iTunes burst on the scene and pushed the popularity of music downloads and the white iPod headset cords coming out of the ears of what seems like half the population.
“Now the MTV networks and Microsoft are sending out their own entry to challenge Apple in the music-downloading stakes. Their site, Urge.com, which went live on Wednesday, bills itself as offering everything from alt-rock to zydeco: two million tracks, available individually or to subscribers, all playable on Microsoft digital players in the Windows Media format.”
“That means you can’t play them on your iPod. You also can’t use it if you have a Mac, and PC users will find that they need up-to-date Windows software to run Urge.”
Anne Midgette. Urge.com and Online Classical (Whatever That Is). The New York Times. May 19, 2006.
Update:
Greg Sandoval. Microsoft Making Better Music? News.com. May 22, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
ICANN Retains Exclusive Control Over Internet
The Bush administration plans to renew its exclusive contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the U.S.-based nonprofit group that oversees key technical matters governing how computers communicate over the Internet.
The intention to give ICANN a sole-source contract, disclosed on a federal government contracting Web site Thursday, reflects the Commerce Department’s belief that the group, based in Marina del Rey, Calif., is the only entity capable of the unglamorous but necessary responsibility of managing the Internet’s basic plumbing.
The decision may revive international debate about the Commerce Department’s role overseeing ICANN’s work, a source of resentment among countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. Even the European Union has called for phasing out the department’s oversight in favor of some model that would increase international input.
Arshad Mohammed. U.S. Renews Contract for Oversight Of Internet. WashingtonPost.com. May 20, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
National Gallery of Art Settles Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
“The National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC, has admitted copyright infringement and agreed to pay two Edouard Vuillard scholars $37,500 for publishing a catalogue that uses their research without authorisation or acknowledgement.
“Annette Leduc Beaulieu and her husband Brooks Beaulieu filed a copyright infringement suit that year in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, charging unauthorised use of their material in the exhibition catalogue of the Vuillard retrospective co-published by the National Gallery of Art (NGA) and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in 2003.
“The 520-page catalogue includes essays by Guy Cogeval, the director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and lead curator of the exhibition, as well as by co-curators Kimberly Jones of the National Gallery. Ms. Beaulieu had earlier been contracted by the National Gallery when she was being considered to curate the retrospective. She maintained that research she and her husband submitted was appropriated without their consent for the exhibition catalogue.
“The federal judge sent the case — Beaulieu vs. United States — to mediation and a settlement was reached in March. Under the terms of the agreement, the director of the National Gallery of Art, Earl A. Powell III, sent a letter to the Beaulieus, dated 27 March 2006, acknowledging that portions of their work “were consulted and used.” The letter states: ‘As co-publisher of the exhibition catalogue, the National Gallery sincerely regrets the failure to cite your materials and any harm that this may have caused to your personal or professional reputations.'”
Jason Edward Kaufman. National Gallery Pays Out In Vuillard Plagiarism Suit. The Art Newspaper. May 17, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Australia Introduces New Copyright Exceptions
“For the past 12 months, Australia has been going through a major review of its copyright law, and in particular, its exceptions to copyright infringement, with a view to ‘updating’ this material for the digital environment. I note that we are not the only ones: Canada [is] having an ongoing debate, and the UK [is] having [its] Gower Review.
“The Attorney-General has issued a press release, announcing the results of the review. … In essence, the government has decided not to adopt the US ‘fair use’ system — where a broadly worded defence must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Instead, the government will expand, and amend, existing specific exceptions in Australian law. That makes the amendments complicated, but potentially more certain.”
Weatherall’s Law: IP in the Land of Oz. No Fair Use for Australia — But Some Expanded Exceptions … May 14, 2006.
See also:
The Attorney General (Australia), Philip Ruddock, MP. Major Copyright Reforms Strike Balance. May 14, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Of Skype, VoIP, & Net Neutrality
“The larger Skype’s user base grows, the less likely it is that telecom operators or regulators will successfully block the VoIP service, said the head of Skype’s European operations, during an interview at the VON Europe conference in Stockholm.
“An experience in Brazil makes a good example. About a year ago, one of the largest telecom operators in Brazil blocked Skype. The reaction from Skype users was so strong that after a week, the operator relented.
“Some operators, particularly the incumbents, may seek to block Skype because Skype’s low-cost voice service can steal market share from them and thus eat into their most significant source of revenue.”
Nancy Gohring. Skype Seeks Bulk to Avoid Blocks. PC Advisor. May 18, 2006.
See also:
Ars Technica. Skype’s Net Neutrality Gamble: We’ll Be So Big, They Can’t Stop Us. May 18, 2006.
Sara Kehaulani Goo. Skype Gives It Away. WashingtonPost.com. May 16, 2006.
CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
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