Artists Rights Watch – Monday April 15, 2013

VICE:
* Chris Ruen Is Taking the Anti-Piracy Argument Back from the Music Industry

… If we can agree that artists have legitimate rights to their own work, it follows that we have some duty as individuals and as a society to respect those rights”.

NEW YORK TIMES:
* The Slow Death of the American Author

The Constitution’s framers had it right. Soviet-style repression is not necessary to diminish authors’ output and influence. Just devalue their copyrights.

BILLBOARD:
* Martin Mills’ Call to Action: His Billboard MIDEM Speech In Full

I want to address the lack of support that governments, politicians and bureaucrats worldwide show to the creative industries. Many pay lip service to the value and importance of the creative economy, but most fail to match that with their actions.

Creative industries are built upon strong and defendable intellectual property rights, and without that they will inevitably wither and fail. It is impossible to make the investments to produce new creative goods without the security that ownership of them is protected.

BRISBANE TIMES:
* Why are you still stealing Game of Thrones?

Is there some sort of internet freetard math I’m unaware of that lets the producers of GoT spend millions of actual dollars making the show while you suck it down off the intertubes for free because somehow the ‘exposure’ will put enough money in their bank accounts to pay for all the writers and actors and camera guys and set designers and costume makers and caterers and editors and special effects dudes and CGI mavens and musicians and lighting and sound techs and drivers and so on whatever and ever amen?

SPIN:
* Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog Slam Free Culture on Art-Grinder ‘Masters of the Internet’

“We have a new business model / We’ll blow you for a nickel”

AD LAND:
* Artists to TBWA Chiat Day and American Eagle: Screw You

Artists vs. American Eagle. An edgy campaign asking people to take a stand on shoplifting and selling out. Wink wink. Artists Vs American Eagle recreates the Ghost Beach site right down to the color palette. But instead of asking you to pick a side on piracy, they’re asking you to pick a side on shoplifting from American Eagle. They even have hashtags at the read. #AGAINSTSHOPLIFTAEO and #FORSHOPLIFTAEO

BWHAHAHAHAHA.

VOX INDIE:
* Who Really Gets “Chilled” by Chilling Effects?

THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
* Copyright is Anti-Civil Liberties?

The truth is that the total volume of free expression produced by creative artists is one of the greatest buffers against social injustice within democratic societies.

In one hand the artist holds the right of free expression, and in the other, he holds copyright. Wielded together, these tools have done more social good than any politician could ever hope to achieve.

THE REGISTER:
* P2P badboys The Pirate Bay kicked out of Greenland: Took under 48 hours

TPB had hoped that when it registered itself in the tiny country – an autonomous constituent of Denmark with a population of just 57,000 people – it would finally have a safe home. Its new host had other plans, though.

“Tele-Post has today decided to block access to two domains operated by file-sharing network The Pirate Bay,” the company said in a statement.

ALL AFRICA:
* Namibia: Nascam Takes Action Against Piracy

DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
* A Reader Asks, ‘Why Do You Hate Spotify So Much?’
* 40 Years of Music Industry Change, In 40 Seconds or Less…
* Artist Group Asks: ‘Is Shoplifting from American Eagle Stealing, or Sharing?’

WIRED:
* Report: US government agencies’ adverts inadvertently support piracy

Along with corporate brand names appearing on the sites, from Adidas and Amazon to Walmart and World of Warcraft, the US Army found its way on to alleged pirate sites, the Verge first pointed out.

THE VERGE:
* US government agencies are advertising on accused pirate sites

LIMERICK LEADER:
* Priests and piracy: Retailers reel from illegal downloading

AHRAM ONLINE:
* Arab Publishers failing to fight book piracy, risking future

BERKLEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL:
* The Purpose of Copyright? Examining the Retracted Republican Study Committee Brief

Which are the relevant facts, figures, and considerations to the debates surrounding the extent and limitations of copyright? After comparing Khanna’s brief and Hart exegesis, what emerges seems to be a disagreement about not only the direction copyright reform should take, but also the philosophical precepts that determine source of law, historical interpretation, and, in essence, reality.

MUSIC ALLY:
* The challenge of connecting the streaming music silos
* US music sales fell 0.9% in 2012 as digital revenues topped $4bn

The $7.1bn is still above 2010′s low point of $7bn, but it’s not yet the sustained bounce-back that the industry was hoping for.

TORRENT FREAK:
* IMAGiNE Piracy Group Founder Jailed For 23 Months
* YouTube’s Deal With Universal Blocks DMCA Counter Notices

YouTube enters into agreements with certain music copyright owners to allow use of their sound recordings and musical compositions.

In exchange for this, some of these music copyright owners require us to handle videos containing their sound recordings and/or musical works in ways that differ from the usual processes on YouTube.

In some instances, this may mean the Content ID appeals and/or counter notification processes will not be available.

REASON:
* The Long, Fruitful History of Music Piracy

Rather the book is valuable because it shows how long, and how thoroughly, the history of recorded music has been the history of “pirated” music. It turns out that the Internet isn’t apocalyptically transformative. It’s just a new extension of an old dynamic. And that means that rather than creating apocalyptically transformative new legislative solutions, we could instead perhaps look to the past for ideas.