Archive for April, 2007
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
In a letter to the DNC and RNC, Stanford Law Prof. Lawrence Lessig has urged party chiefs to release debate videos, either donating them to the public domain or releasing them under a Creative Commons license.
He has a broad range of heavy-hitting cosigners, and he describes the "initial reaction, from ...
Posted in Copyright | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Interesting article at the Independent about giving away free music downloads:
The record industry has reached a strange pass when it makes more economic sense to give away an entire album than to spend the money needed to persuade people to buy it. But, when it comes to the process of ...
Posted in Free Culture, Music industry | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
As mourned by the Consumerist, the Copyright Royalty Board has denied an appeal, backed by NPR and other webcasters, to rehear their recent rate increase. The decision nearly triples internet radio royalty rates by 2010--including a retroactive increase effective for 2006.
Last month, SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson recently confessed to ...
Posted in Copyright, Internet policy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
Via a friend, I recently chuckled at a proposed mockery of WIPO's World Intellectual Property Day.
With the permission of the author, Peter Maybarduk (a songwriter and musician who is a 3L at Boalt Hall), here is his proposal for "World Intellectual Mockery Day," as well as a fine mini-treatise on ...
Posted in Copyright | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
When Bob McChesney personally emails everyone in his personal email address book, you know something serious is afoot, and this is no exception. Low-volume periodicals--and not large-circulation magazines--are about to be hit with a postage rate increase of as much as 30%.
To help deal with rising costs, the USPS ...
Posted in Media consolidation | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Via Talking Points Memo, citing an AP story:
The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.
Congressional investigators looking into the administration's firing of eight federal ...
Posted in Internet policy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
Tim O'Reilly proposes a Bloggers Code of Conduct
The code of conduct comes in the wake of death threats sent to Kate Sierra, who as a result cancelled a public appearance and suspended her blog. Sending death threats to someone is obviously unacceptable behavior and measures should be taken against it. ...
Posted in Speech | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 9th, 2007
In the first chunk of an interview with Copycense that will be published in several parts, copyright uber-expert William Patry argues, inter alia, that the copyright term is too long.
Here's the relevant text:
From a policy standpoint, I think the duration of copyright is way too long. Whether “life plus 50 ...
Posted in Copyright | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
CNet columnist and attorney Eric J. Sinrod points out that legal precedents seem to say yes.
Posted in Internet policy | No Comments »
Monday, April 2nd, 2007
Customers of iTunes will soon be able to download DRM-free songs, EMI announced today.
The new DRM-free tracks will cost $1.29, instead of the $.99 standard fee for tracks encumbered by Apple's FairPlay DRM scheme. As an added bonus, the audio quality will double from 128 to 256 kilobits per second. ...
Posted in Copyright, DRM | No Comments »