|| Artists Rights Watch 2013 ||

For a Complete Archive of all Weekly News and Updates [CLICK HERE].

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Sunday Jan 27, 2013

Recent Posts:
* Two Simple Facts about Technology and Piracy : iTunes Vs. YouTube
* Kim Dotcom’s “End Of Piracy”, that was easy…
* Obama Inauguration and White House IP Policy via IPEC, Victoria Espinel
* UPDATED: The Real Gangnam Style: Was Google Off a Couple Magnitudes on Earnings Call?
* With Friends Like These: Amazon Advertising Against Illegal Camper Van Beethoven Links While Camper Van Beethoven Gives Amazon Exclusive Content.
* Grammy Award Nominated Black Keys Exploited by… American Express Delta Airlines Card, AT&T, Dish Network, M&M’s (Mars), Nissan and others…

From Around The Web…

COPYHYPE:
* Three Reasons Copyright is Not a Monopoly

THE CYNICAL MUSICIAN:
* Commodities, Monopolies, Remixes and Rights – A Symphony

Copyrighted works are not commodities, nor are the distributors and users of such works able to operate completely independently – they depend on the creators to provide them with works to distribute and use. Thus, the restrictions imposed by copyright are not a monopoly – a distributor or user can still ply his business with regards to other works, the only thing he cannot do is use someone’s work without their permission. This law is simply an extension of the natural control a creator enjoys when he is the sole possessor of his work.

STOP FILE LOCKERS:
* Mega Piracy: It’s just the beginning
* Hotfile terminated by Paypal.
* DigiWeb accepting Payments for Kim Dotcom via Paypal and Credit Card

ILLUSION OF MORE:
* What I’d tell my own kids about piracy. Why scarcity is a good thing.

VOX INDIE:
* Content Leeches-The Dark Underbelly of YouTube’s Content Monetization
* Chronic, Ill-Gotten Gains–Google’s Web of Piracy Profit

Over the past two and a half years I’ve written extensively about Google’s ongoing link to ad piracy profits. Earlier this month USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab released a report documenting the fact that search giant is at the head of the pack when it comes to monetizing (and subsidizing) online piracy via its ad networks. The relationship between Google and online piracy seems clear as day.

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
* Aimee Mann: “My Record Isn’t on Spotify. Artists Don’t Make Money on Spotify.”
* MEGA Declares War on Pirate-Based Google Advertising…
* In the Last Year, Google Takedown Demands Have Increased 1,300%…

BUZZ FEED:
* Why Does Google Still Reward Content Scraping?

THE INDEPENDENT UK:
* Stream-age kicks: Is Spotify a musician’s friend or foe?

POP UP PIRATES:
* YouTube (and Netflix) Monetize Online Piracy

Google/YouTube will, as always, claim that it’s the rights holder’s job to police YouTube and to request that infringing content be removed. Of course, in the interim, Google’s happy to make money and Netflix is happy to attract new customers (and make money).

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:
* We’re Kind of Terrified to Search After Sundance’s ‘Google and the World Brain’

NPD GROUP:
* Driving Under The Influence (Deconstructing the “Pirates Buy More Music” Myth)

DIGIDAY:
* 10 Bad Apples of Digital Media

The Thought Leader
They write articles that get published in AdExchanger, Digiday, etc. They sit on all the panels at OMMA, Adtech, etc. Here’s a thought: Stop talking, and do what you say. I’m tired of hearing pitch after pitch about how their company is changing the world with proprietary technology, but when it’s time to put their money where their mouth is, nothing works. Then their reply is, “Well, we’re still in the infancy of this business.” It’s all bullshit, and they know it. But if they can get enough clients on the line and generate enough buzz, some stupid company will acquire them with little to no due diligence.

IRISH TIMES:
* A middleman in the great internet copyright debate (Robert Levine)

PAID CONTENT:
* Amazon opens music store for Apple devices, songs start at 69 cents

GQ:
* Kim Dotcom and the decline of HMV are not unrelated

No matter what you think of Kim Dotcom, or upload sites, it’s impossible to deny that people using sites like Megavideo for illegal downloads is a major (though not the only) reason these people are about to be unemployed. Whether that is Dotcom’s fault or that of its users – half a million signed up for Mega in the first 24 hours – is up to the courts to decide. But Dotcom’s assertions that he is opposed to privacy ring false. He claimed that “because of the business model Hollywood has, they are forcing people into piracy,” before arguing that the answer is a flat fee subscription model like Netflix or Spotify. But that isn’t the site that he has launched. He could have done just that but instead, he has intentionally created a new version of Megaupload, the most intricately designed tool for stealing other people’s hard work for free ever made, and simply made it harder for people to blame him.

TORRENT FREAK:
* Hadopi Plans Large File-Sharing Warning Increase For 2013

JONATHAN TAPLIN:
* Aaron Swartz

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Sun Jan 20, 2013

Recent Posts:
* Well this is Embarrassing, a Tunecore Ad on 4Shared…
* Don’t Get IRFA’d: Westergren’s Fake “Tour Support”
* Golden Globe Winner Adele Exploited by American Express, AT&T, British Airways, Target and Nissan

From Around The Web:

ADLAND:
* Youtube and Google have money problems

GRAPHIC LEFT OVERS:
* Creatives Stunning Revolt Against Big Bad Business

As best I can determine, none of the creators of these images were asked to participate in a program that paid them peanuts (a one time payment of $12) and gives away their work hundreds of thousands of times. This is a great deal for Google and its users and a complete disaster for the photographers who participate against their will.

“D-Day” (Deactivation Day) is set for February 2nd and a growing number of contributors are pledging to deactivate their portfolios or pull large numbers of images until the one million image mark is met.

MICROSTOCK POSTS:
* Photographers plan to remove images from iStockphoto

THE CURTIS AGENCY:
* More Horror Stories from the Digital Book Bazaar

I have often written that piracy is the biggest threat to the e-book business. (visit Pirate Central). This is a good instance why. – Richard Curtis

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
* Study: A Majority of Americans Would Support Moderate Piracy Enforcement…

MEDIABISTRO:
* How to Stop Piracy: Carnegie Mellon Professor Michael Smith at DBW

“The shutdown of Megaupload caused a statistically significant increase in digital sales,” he said, comparing numbers between countries with high Megaupload usage to countries with low Megaupload usage.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL:
* At adult expo, fans hunt autographs while pros battle piracy

PHILSTAR.COM:
* TFC Japan all-out in its anti-piracy campaign

“We have an office here that provides em- ployment as it serves the community it is in. We are grateful that the new anti-piracy laws in Japan recognize the ‘sensur- round’ value of the busi- ness that we bring and the empowering impact of the content that we deliver to our target audience,” says Olives.

“There are naysayers who said that piracy is an unwinnable war,” narrates Lopez. “But we believed that piracy should be treated like a disease that needs to be eliminated. You always start effective disease preven- tion through mass information. People need to know what the disease is and what it does. And you need partners who share the same faith in the cause. We found one in OMB chairman Ronnie Ricketts.”

SE TIMES.COM:
* Balkans need better intellectual property protection

“Potential investors are not much interested to invest in a country where intellectual rights are not protected,” Blagojevic said, adding that infringement of these rights has caused substantial losses to Serbia’s economy.

Citing International Data Corporation statistics, Blagojevic said the value of pirated software in Serbia in 2011 was estimated at nearly 87 million euros.

“If the piracy rate would be dropped 10 percent, the state budget revenues could increase $20 million [14.9 million euros] and some 10,000 jobs could be opened, primarily in the IT industry,” Blagojevic said.

AD AGE:
* If Pandora Can’t Monetize Mobile, Can Anyone?

MUSIC TECH POLICY:
* What’s all this then? Google’s “Ad Cops” Are Missing the Point
* How the Rate Court Cottage Industry is Leading to the Destruction of Collective Licensing
* Brand Sponsored Piracy and Award Shows: British Airways Delivers the ultimate insult to Adele

TECH CRUNCH:
* Keen On… Incubus: Limousines, Feeling Dirty and Being Kicked In The Balls (TCTV)

HYPEBOT:
* Ted Cohen On Music Tech And The Music Industry [INTERVIEW]

Do you still favor subscription over advertising-based music services?

Yes, I do. I don’t think that the advertising model so far has proved to be sustainable. I think that we have undervalued subscription. I am paying $150 a month for cable. I watch 20 or 30 hours of TV a week. I probably listen to 50 to 60 hours of music a week. I’d argue with you that music is worth more than $10 a month subscription service.

The labels were so concerned about (piracy)—and I was there at the time—that we had to come up with a price that was just a little bit more than free to convince people that they should pay. So far, we have not been able to raise the price. I think that music is worth at least $20 or $25 a month.

THE PRECURSOR:
* The Google Lobby Defines Big Internet’s Policy Agenda

READ WRITE:
* Is Kim Dotcom’s New Site, Mega, The Wild West Of Piracy?

UPDATE FROM THE CES “PRO-ARTIST” PANEL:

CES Panel Moderator and CNET writer Declan McCullagh discloses artists and creators representatives were not actually invited despite CES claiming they were. As we reported, the panel was comprised of anti-artist and anti-copyright publicly acknowledged Google paid shills.

MARIA BUSTILLOS:
* Yes and No (Lessig, Swartz and Society)

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Sunday Jan 13, 2013

Recent Posts:
* The Copyright Policy Reality Gap
* Free Culture’s Epic Fail – If Free is Working, Why Fight Copyright?
* Reading Between The Lines Google Tells The Truth On Ad Supported Piracy
* “Maintain Choice For Everyone” Vint Cerf On Internet (and Google) Regulation #2013CES
* The Return of Orphan Works: Trojan Horse: Orphan Works and the War on Authors by Brad Holland, Part 5 (Conclusion)
* CES Fart Club aka The Slaptastic “Pro-Artist Copyright Policy Panel” features Anti-Copyright Advocates and Google Named Shills #2013CES

FROM AROUND THE WEB

THE HUFFINGTON POST:
* Verizon Copyright Alert System Would Throttle Internet Speeds Of Repeat Online Pirates
* Copyright Alert System: How ISPs Will ‘Break Your Internet’ If They Catch You Pirating

THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
* Paying Attention to the Echo Chamber at CES Copyright Panel Discussion

I think it’s safe to say that, before we were on the Internet, before everything could become sharable data, that nobody would rationally have argued that selling bootleg CDs out of a car trunk would be an act protected by free speech. That being the case, the philosophical/legal question is, “What’s really changed?”

POP UP PIRATES:
* Youtube Allows Pirate “Partners” to Profit From Illegal Movie Uploads
* R.I.P. myArtCinema2 (A.K.A. YouTube Pirate)

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY:
* Photography industry shows mass opposition to government copyright changes

More than 70 organisations representing photographers, agencies and picture libraries – from Associated Press, Getty Images, Magnum Photos to the Press Association, Reuters and Tate – have joined forces, urging Parliament to vote against proposed changes to UK copyright law, BJP can exclusively reveal

CURTIS AGENCY – PUBLISHING IN THE 21st CENTURY:
* Curtis Agency, E-Reads Deploy Program to Neutralize Pirates
* Long Before E-Book Revolution, War for Control of E-Rights Was Lost

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
* Levi’s Was First. Now, Several Major Brands Want to Pull Their Pirate Site Advertising…
* Spotify Is Now Deploying 6 Different Types of Cookies…
* It’s Official: Vinyl Sets Another Sales Record In 2012…

VOX INDIE:
* Consumer Electronics Show’s Copyright Panel – Certain Artists Need Not Apply

BILLBOARD
* Album Sales Down in 2012, But Digital Shows a Healthy Boost

Digital-track sales enjoyed 5.1% growth to 1.34 billion units and thanks to that robust performance, album sales plus TEA (track equivalent albums whereby 10 tracks equal one album), only declined 1.8% for the year.

TORRENT FREAK:
* RapidShare: Traffic and Piracy Dipped After New Business Model Kicked In
* Verizon’s “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Measures Unveiled

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Sunday Jan 6, 2013

Recent posts from The Trichordist:
* First USC-Annenberg Brand Supported Piracy Report and Google Response
* Trojan Horse: Orphan Works and the War on Authors by Brad Holland, Part 2
* Trojan Horse: Orphan Works and the War on Authors by Brad Holland, Part 3
* Trojan Horse: Orphan Works and the War on Authors by Brad Holland, Part 4
* What the FTC Should Know About Brand Sponsored Piracy and Google’s “Pinto Problem”

FROM AROUND THE WEB:

THE SMITHSONIAN :
* What Turned Jaron Lanier Against the Web?

“I’d had a career as a professional musician and what I started to see is that once we made information free, it wasn’t that we consigned all the big stars to the bread lines.” (They still had mega-concert tour profits.)

“Instead, it was the middle-class people who were consigned to the bread lines. And that was a very large body of people. And all of a sudden there was this weekly ritual, sometimes even daily: ‘Oh, we need to organize a benefit because so and so who’d been a manager of this big studio that closed its doors has cancer and doesn’t have insurance. We need to raise money so he can have his operation.’

“And I realized this was a hopeless, stupid design of society and that it was our fault. It really hit on a personal level—this isn’t working. And I think you can draw an analogy to what happened with communism, where at some point you just have to say there’s too much wrong with these experiments.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES:
* Copyright Rules and the Art They Inspire

PITCHFORK:
* The Year in News 2012

THE REGISTER UK:
* The ‘Digital Economy’ in 2012: A big noisy hole where money should be

“Privacy and copyright are two things nobody cares about,” Mark Bide told us, “unless it’s their own privacy, and their own copyright.” How true.”

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:
* Report links Google, Yahoo to Internet piracy sites

COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE:
* Instagram Still Has the Right to Commercialize Your Work (or Why You Should Read Terms of Service Carefully)

CNET:
* Google, Yahoo accused of funding piracy

TECHCRUNCH:
* Keen On… Piracy: How Online Ad Networks Are Supporting The Major Pirate Movie And Music Sites [TCTV]

Annenberg’s Advertising Transparency Report should be seen as a wake-up call to brands to invest their advertising dollars in legal networks like Spotify or YouTube rather than pirate sites. Pretty simple, eh? Let’s hope that Madison Avenue wakes up to the troubling implications of Taplin’s report and shifts all its online advertising dollars to movie and music sites which actually pay artists for their content.

VOX INDIE:
* More Evidence Ad Dollars Fuel Web Piracy

HUFFINGTON POST:
* Towards a Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers

THE MUSICAL DISCONNECT:
* The Takedown-Why the DMCA has failed

AD LAND:
* David Lowery makes list of people who changed the music industry.
* Collateral Damage: How Free Culture destroys advertising.

STOP FILE LOCKERS:
* Crocko.com lose Paypal. Resellers to follow.
* UltraMegaBit: A Crime Committed on American Soil
* Avangate forced to drop file sharing sites. More sites poised to lose Avangate payment processing.

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
* Abject Looting Continues at Pandora…
* In France, 92% of Pirates Never Receive a Second Warning Letter…
* Growth of Paid Downloads vs. Streaming, 2012 vs. 2011…

TORRENT FREAK:
* Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2013
* Music Biz Wants To Block Pirate Bay….Plus 260 Additional Sites
* IMAGiNE BitTorrent Group Leader Sentenced To Five Years in Prison
* Identifying Pirates Now Easier Following Swedish Supreme Court Decisions

COPYHYPE:
* A look ahead to 2013

BARRY SOOKMAN:
* Most popular intellectual property and technology law blogs