rss

Tag: "intellectual property"

5

Musicians versus labels

Who would have thought that intellectual property issues would maintain such a high-profile position in the daily news. Here’s another item. Just imagine how much things have changed in the music recording industry. Consider this excerpt by Trent Reznor (of the band Nine Inch Nails), appearing in contactmusic.com:

“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they’ll sign anything’ - like I did.

1

The Associated Press argues for a no-tolerance prohibition regarding its work product

The Associated Press is going to war against all websites and bloggers who use any part of its work, even small snippets, and it is publicly threatening a barrage of lawsuits. The AP’s threats are even aimed at search engines.

If the AP is successful, and they clearly believe they will be, then the Internet will be changed as we know it. Linking (with snippets or not) to the content of others could become a permission based concept where one only links (and quotes) after they have received the appropriate approval.

This battle is starting to remind me of the plague of RIAA suits against music downloaders. It seems to me that the AP is going to need to live with the legitimate exception of “fair use.” I realize that there are many abuses out there–I’ve seen blogs cutting and pasting entire news articles without any attempt at meaningful comment. On the other hand, I’ve seen many sites making legitimate comment on news articles that really do fall within the fair use exception.

We’ll be keeping an eye on this issue as it develops.

4

Youtube and copyright

Word is getting around the Internet that Youtube is no longer the wild west. Youtube is pulling down numerous video due to copyright violations. What is a copyright violation? Youtube has published this succinct set of guidelines, including various links for further understanding. It’s a good starting place for anyone tempted to make use of the creative works of others without their explicit permission.

Here’s a hint: “Fair use” doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want.