Category Music
For Digital First Sale, It’s Still 2001
Seventeen years ago, the U.S. Copyright Office — Congress’s official advisor on copyright issues — published an opinion for Congress on whether there should be a first sale right for digital content: a right for consumers to alienate (sell, lend, rent, or give away) digital files, like the one that exists for physical items like […]
Smart Speakers Are Table Radios for the Digital Age
One of the big holiday gift choices this year is likely to be smart speakers, such as Amazon Echos and Google Homes. Here’s the funny thing about smart speakers: while everyone was getting excited — or worried — about them as home shopping devices or yet another way for tech companies to spy on users, […]
Music Modernization Act Loses Opportunity to Clean Up Music Industry Data
Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to adopt the Senate’s modified version of the Music Modernization Act (MMA). It’s expected to become law with the President’s signature imminently. The bill’s trip from the House to the Senate had several twists and turns, with parties such as Blackstone Group (controlling owners of the […]
Music Modernization Act Draws Concerns About Mechanical Licensing Agency
The Copyright Society of the USA’s Annual Meeting took place over the past couple of days in Toronto. One of the many interesting sessions was one on music licensing, where we from the U.S. got to learn that Canada has just as much of a “sausage factory” as we do when it comes to the […]
The Fifth Era of Recorded Music
The RIAA released its aggregated annual recorded music revenue numbers for the United States last month. They show that the industry has completed its transition to streaming — and more particularly, to interactive or on-demand streaming. Last year interactive streaming — a la Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Napster, Deezer, Tidal, etc. — turned in […]
March 20 Panel on Music Copyright Reform
I’ll be speaking on a panel on music copyright reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 20, from noon-2pm, hosted by the Technology Policy Institute. The primary topic of conversation will be the Music Modernization Act (MMA), the bill that would establish a blanket mechanical license on musical compositions for streaming music services […]
Improving the Music Modernization Act
The Music Modernization Act (MMA) has been getting traction in the United States. It was introduced into the Senate two weeks ago, and it has become part of a larger package of music copyright legislation which has become known as the “Music Bus” bill. More and more organizations have announced their support for the MMA. Many […]
Dot Blockchain Media Makes Blockchain Plus Watermarking a Reality
An announcement from the startup Dot Blockchain Media a couple of weeks ago heralds an exciting new development in the potential for blockchain technology in the media industry. Dot Blockchain has partnerships with the New York-based recording artist STOLAR and the indie distributor FUGA. These partnerships enabled Dot Blockchain to take STOLAR’s track “Forget And Feel” and […]
Music Modernization Act Proposes Single Solution to Mechanical Licensing Problem
The music industry’s licensing problems just got another proposed governmental solution, with last week’s introduction in Congress of the Music Modernization Act (MMA). The MMA is a bipartisan bill that would provide a blanket mechanical license and set up a collecting society to manage payments to composers and publishers. It aims to solve a particular […]
Could Lawsuit Settlements Be the Best Way to Solve Rights Data Problems?
Copyright owners have long been at odds with tech companies and service providers over copyright-related issues. We’ve seen various different attempts to solve these problems across industries since the start of the “copyright wars” in the late 1990s, enough to have some idea of what works and what doesn’t. In rough terms, there are four types […]
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