Chris Castle interviews Blake Morgan, head of ECR Music Group and the force behind the #irespectmusic campaign on Pandora, IRFA and the campaign for artist pay for radio play.
Theme music by Guy Forsyth.
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In an endorsement of the UK’s anti-piracy policy, the European Court of Justice has ruled that EU states do have the right to order ISPs to block copyright-infringing websites.
The decision, which confirms an opinion late last year, follows a dispute between two movie companies – Germany’s Constantin Film Verleih and Austria’s Wega-Filmproduktionsgesellschaft – and internet provider UPC Telekabel Wien.
READ THE FULL POST AT FORBES:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2014/03/27/isps-can-be-forced-to-block-piracy-sites-eu-court-rules/
The shape of things to come? This is one solution… Absolutely genius.
As the product’s official website indicates, the legendary rap team’s stealthy new record is called The Wu – Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. There’ll only be one copy of the album… like, ever. It’ll be grandly “presented in a hand carved nickel-silver box designed by the British Moroccan artist Yahya,” and yes, it looks as fancy as it sounds. Before that one copy is sold, though, civilians can listen to the album when it embarks on an ambitious tour of museums, galleries, festivals, and other such happenings around the world. Then after that, the item will go up for sale, with an expected price range somewhere in the multi-millions.
READ THE FULL STORY AT ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:
http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/03/27/wu-tang-clan-shaolin-single-album/
Michael Robertson, an entrepreneur who has been waging legal feuds against the music industry for more than a decade now, has been ordered to pay $41 million to a record label that sued him.
The record label EMI sued MP3tunes back in 2007, and the case finally went to a jury last week in New York federal court. The jury found MP3tunes, and Robertson personally, liable for copyright violations.
A separate damages trial ended yesterday, with the jury issuing a verdict of around $41 million. That’s an estimate, because the decision was a “complex, lengthy” verdict that will take the lawyers until next week to calculate precisely, according to a Reuters report on the outcome of the trial.
READ THE FULL STORY AT ARS TECHNICA:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/jury-mp3tunes-founder-must-pay-41-million-for-copyright-violations/
The Black Keys are a huge band.
Huge bands lose a lot of money on Spotify.
Which is why, once again, the Black Keys are withholding their latest album release from Spotify.
READ THE COMPLETE POST AT DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/03/24/blackkeysspotify
In case you missed it, a jury this week found that Michael Robertson, CEO of defunct music service MP3Tunes, was liable for copyright infringement. The jury concluded that Robertson, whose websites permitted users to upload songs and store them in “lockers,” had turned a blind eye to piracy — meaning that they forfeited the so-called “safe harbor” protections under copyright law that normally ensure that a website is not liable for the misdeeds of its users.
The significance of the case has little to do with MP3Tunes, which has long been closed, but instead stands as a strategic victory for copyright owners. That’s because the jury found Robertson liable on the basis of so-called “red flag” knowledge rather than “actual” knowledge. The distinction may sound arcane, but it’s one the studios have fought hard to establish as part of their strategy to change the level of proof needed to prove piracy.
READ THE FULL STORY AT GIGAOM:
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/21/copyright-safe-harbors-shrink-in-wake-of-mp3tunes-other-red-flag-rulings/
Food for thought, for today’s new artists.
Modern capitalism’s shell game means bands aren’t getting the support they need; corporations have found a way to get it instead.
Marx believed capitalism would ultimately fail when the shift to mechanism displaced so many workers there would be no one left with enough money to buy the goods produced. In other words, no buyers, no market, ballgame over. His timing was off. The Industrial Revolution didn’t bring his theory of collapse to fruition, but Internet piracy did, and it’s why the music business as we’ve known it continues to stumble toward its demise.
READ THE FULL POST HERE:
http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2014/03/21/download-nation-south-by-southwest-john-winters
The rationale by Silicon Valley that we already have the DMCA and it’s working just fine– seems positively Right Wing in its rabid belief system of law. Conservatives say much the same thing about guns. “We don’t need new laws, we need to enforce the existing ones.” It amusing to me that this backward sentiment is the same. Really though, it’s neither left nor right wing. It’s just pure cynicism by people who think we’re stupid.
To blame Hollywood copyright lobbyists for trying to influence law when google does the exact same thing is either ignorant or hypocritical. And to ignore the fact it isn’t just “Hollywood Copyright Lobbyists” but entire countries that are reacting to what they see is Big Tech run rampant, suggests once again the narrative is being controlled in Big Tech’s favor.
No surprise, really. The blog post was written by Marvin Ammori. He is a lawyer and Future Tense Fellow at New America. New America Foundation is a nonprofit and (ha-ha) nonpartisan public policy institute. Wanna guess who chairs the board of directors? Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of google.
READ THE FULL STORY:
http://adland.tv/adnews/slates-anti-copyright-rant-sounds-letter-your-psycho-ex/256965859#KdyGl5zIdACdgSvs.99
The Trichordist 
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