DecemberDec 10 Wednesday 08
TuneCore Looks to Monetize Website Traffic for Artists
At the Digital Freedom Campaign, we love TuneCore (totally platonic love, but love nonetheless). If you aren't familiar with the company, a short description of their current model, as described by Ars Technica, goes like this: "TuneCore is best known for its fee-based …
DecemberDec 6 Saturday 08
Change.gov Content Now Under Creative Commons License
By Richard Esguerra
Electronic Frontier Foundation
In the last few days, President-elect Obama's transition team took a significant stride towards a more open government by licensing the content of Change.gov under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Using that …
DecemberDec 5 Friday 08
Do 20 Million HDTV's Matter?
By Jef Pearlman
Public Knowledge
Remember Selectable Output Control? It's the issue where the MPAA petitioned the FCC for the right to turn off any and all of the outputs on your cable box -- especially those pesky high definition analog connections -- if they move up the …
NovemberNov 25 Tuesday 08
Can a Movie Be Highly Pirated and Still Top the Box Office?
The answer appears to be yes. In a great Techdirt article by Mike Masnick, it is revealed that The Dark Knight was simultaneously the highest grossing and most pirated film of the year. But how is this possible? After all, the movie industry is claiming that the reason …
NovemberNov 21 Friday 08
The Knights who say "Free"
It's a great day for Python fans -- Monty Python has posted vast collection of best content on their own YouTube channel. This simultaneously undercuts unauthorized sites and drives traffic to the Python site where fans can by books, cds, t-shirts etc. The strategy of …
NovemberNov 18 Tuesday 08
Content vs. Culture?
Wanted to point everyone in the direction of a thought-provoking article from Cory Doctorow, the founder of Craphound.com and co-editor of BoingBoing, titled "Why I Copyfight." The article makes the argument that "Content isn't king: culture is," and that "The existence …
NovemberNov 14 Friday 08
Check Out NYMusicCopyright.org
Our partners at Public Knowledge launched NYMusicCopyright.org yesterday, a site dedicated to copyright issues as they affect musicians. The site is funded by a grant from the New York State Music Fund. Gigi Sohn, the President and co-founder of Public Knowledge says …
NovemberNov 7 Friday 08
Election Puts Tech and Movies On Opposite Paths
By Art Brodsky
Public Knowledge
Two industries find themselves in different directions after yesterday's election. The Internet/tech industry is on the way up. The big content companies are at a crossroads, stuck in neutral while being buffeted by lots of competing …
OctoberOct 30 Thursday 08
Mark Hosler From Negativland Visits Capitol Hill
Mark Hosler of Negativland, known as the father of the mashup movement came to Washington today to discuss fair use and digital technology with Members of Congress. We want to thank Mark for sharing his thoughts with Congress, and wanted to share with our readers the …
OctoberOct 27 Monday 08
Digital Freedom Band Showcase Recap (With Pictures!)
On Saturday night the Digital Freedom Campaign, along with TwoSyllable and True Panther Records, hosted a band showcase at the Lower East Side hotspot Piano's during the CMJ Music Marathon featuring Continental Divide, The Inlets, New Villager, Glasser, That Ghost,
OctoberOct 24 Friday 08
Evidence of the Evolution of the Music Industry at CMJ
By Nancy Tarr Wager
Artist and Label Relations
Digital Freedom Campaign
The CMJ Music Marathon in NYC is all a buzz with new applications from some of the music industry's largest social networks. I moderated the panel, "The Evolution of Social Networks" and the panelists …
Live from New York .....
In the midst of the silly-season in Washington on Wednesday, I traveled back to my home-city, New York, to rap with some folks up at CMJ 2008. Before I get to the substance, though, let me tell you how wonderful it was to walk through Washington Square in the Fall. …
OctoberOct 21 Tuesday 08
Radiohead's "Its Up To You" Experiment Pays Off
Judgement Day has arrived: The data is in from Radiohead's "name your price" experiment, where the band allowed fans to download their album, "In Rainbows," at a price of their choosing. And just as we predicted, and have always known, most people aren't pirates. If …
OctoberOct 15 Wednesday 08
McCain - Palin Campaign Stands Up for Fair Use
In electoral commentary, this will go down as the year the amateurs thumped the pros. YouTube is buzzing with user generated videos offering a smart, irreverent take on the presidential election. Often these videos remix snippets of mainstream media and reveal new and …
OctoberOct 14 Tuesday 08
The Murder of an Exciting Tool for an Ailing Industry - The Muxtape Saga
Many of our readers have surely heard of Muxtape, a website that until last month allowed users to create "digital mixtapes" for their friends. Some of you have likely used it. Muxtape provided value for listeners and artists alike, and brought the wonderful mixtape …
OctoberOct 9 Thursday 08
Where do Piracy Figures Come From?
Where do the figures about the cost of piracy to the U.S. economy that are so often touted by the content industry and their supporters in Congress come from? Its a question many have asked, and few have answered. Ars Technica tried in a great investigative report …
OctoberOct 7 Tuesday 08
Senators Pressure Negotiators on ACTA
By Art Brodsky
Public Knowledge
October 2, 2008
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and the panel's senior Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, have asked trade negotiators not to make the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) …
SeptemberSep 30 Tuesday 08
Stacking Penalties Upon Penalties (PRO-IP Passes Senate)
By Sherwin Siy
Public Knowledge
Today, the Senate approved an amended version of its version of IP enforcement bill (now named the PRO-IP bill to parallel the enforcement bill in the House). PK's press release is here.
As amended, the bill retained its increased forfeiture …
SeptemberSep 25 Thursday 08
DF welcomes Arts + Labs initiative to "Encourage Development and Dissemination of Legal, Safe and Innovative Content on the Internet"
The following statement can be attributed to Maura Corbett, spokesperson for the Digital Freedom Campaign
"The Digital Freedom Campaign welcomes Arts + Labs to the discussion of critical issues involving artists, consumers, and new digital technologies. We are encouraged …
SeptemberSep 24 Wednesday 08
Music Publishers, but Not Performers, Strike Deal on Online Royalty Structure
The Digital Media Association (DiMA), the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), the RIAA, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), and the Songwriters Guild of America agreed on a mechanical royalty rate of 10.5% for interactive streaming and …