Category Economics
Copyright and Technology 2022 Conference Panel Lineup
As I announced a couple of weeks ago, the Copyright and Technology Conference will be back at Fordham Law School in New York City on Tuesday, September 13, 2022. The conference will be hybrid, with both in-person and virtual attendance possible. (Stay tuned for info on social activities for those who attend in person.) Here are […]
Hoopla Digital and HarperCollins Disrupt Library E-Lending
An announcement this week by hoopla digital and HarperCollins augurs big changes in the ways that public libraries make e-books available. It sets the stage for realignment of the relationships between publishers and libraries, and it could have longer-term ripple effects on the entire e-book market. For more than a decade, public libraries have been […]
In Music, DRM Is Back While Ownership Is Going Away
The RIAA’s annual revenue figures for recorded music are a goldmine of information about the state, health, and direction of the music industry. The 2016 figures that the RIAA published at the end of March generated a few common headlines in the trade and business press: Recorded music revenue in the United States is finally […]
Ad Networks’ Smokescreens Against Objectionable Websites
This may seem like a side issue from our usual subject matter here, but the current furor over programmatic Internet advertising is worth talking about anyway. To me it’s a prime example of the lengths that industries will go to make it look like they are doing the right thing but actually aren’t. For those […]
New Research on Impact of Copyright Monitoring on E-Book Sales to Be Presented at Conference
In what I think is becoming an annual tradition, I’m pleased to announce that we will be adding a new academic research presentation to the agenda at Copyright and Technology NYC 2017. Prof. Imke Reimers of Northeastern University in Boston will present a paper called “Can Private Copyright Protection Be Effective? Evidence from Book Publishing,” […]
Forbes: Music Revenue Figures Show Industry Running In Place
My latest column in Forbes is an analysis of the U.S. recorded music revenue figures for 2015 that the RIAA released last week. Total revenues are $7 Billion – a figure that has remained almost exactly the same for six years now. This would suggest that $7 Billion is the amount that the American public […]
Forbes: Is Ad Blocking the New Piracy?
My latest column in Forbes takes the Apple’s decision to add ad-blocking primitives to iOS 9 as an occasion to look at the fast-growing phenomenon blocking ads in web browsers, and specifically to compare it to online copyright infringement. Both developments lead to revenue losses for content publishers. Both are occasioned by technological tools that […]
That Old Question Again: Did Going DRM-Free Help or Hinder Sales of Music Downloads?
So, did going DRM-free help or hinder sales of music downloads? Here’s what the actual numbers show.
Dispatches from IDPF Digital Book 2014, Pt. 2: Public Libraries
Some hints about libraries’ actual value to publishers in driving e-book sales.
National Academies Calls for Hard Data on Digital Copyright
The new booklet Copyright in the Digital Era should be required reading for everyone involved in copyright policy.
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