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Big Music: damn the numbers, give us antipiracy laws anyway
,----[ Quote ]
| If P2P use is declining or holding steady
| without new "antipiracy" laws, are those
| laws still needed? Music trade groups say
| yes.
|
| The UK has just started to consider a new
| Digital Economy bill that could eventually
| usher in sanctions for illegal P2P use.
| From a rightsholder perspective, this makes
| it an inconvenient time for studies showing
| that P2P use is actually dropping, so the
| music industry commissioned a new study of
| its own which shows that other techniques
| for infringing copyright are picking up the
| slack. Would you believe that newsgroup
| usage is soaring?
`----
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/music-damn-the-numbers-we-need-laws.ars
Argentina Extends Copyright Term
,----[ Quote ]
| Argentina has extended the term of
| protection on sound recordings from 50 to
| 70 years.
`----
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i35216ec6c2433321c54b63d4cc30bb31
Alternative 2009 Copyright Expirations
,----[ Quote ]
| "It's nearly the end of 2009. If the 1790
| copyright maximum term of 28 years was
| still in effect, everything that had been
| published by 1981 would be now be in the
| public domain â so the original Ultima and
| God Emperor of Dune and would be available
| for remixing and mashing up. If the 1909
| copyright maximum term of 56 years (if
| renewed) were still in force, everything
| published by 1953 would now be in the
| public domain, freeing The City and the
| Stars and Forbidden Planet. If the 1976
| copyright act term of 75* years (* it's
| complicated) still applied, everything
| published by 1934 would now be in the
| public domain, including Murder on the
| Orient Express. But thanks to the Sonny
| Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, nothing
| in the US will go free until 2018, when
| 1923 works expire."
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/12/21/2352241/Alternative-2009-Copyright-Expirations
Are Music Artists Profiting From iTunesâ Price Increases?
,----[ Quote ]
| Most companies realize that lowering prices
| is their only ploy to stay in business.
| Some companies are unaware, or simply donât
| care - that financial times are tough. As
| an example, Apple Inc. has recently
| increased the cost of music downloads on
| their iTunes music site from $0.99 to a
| staggering $1.29.
`----
http://musicindustryreport.org/?p=14721
Oh Look, People Are Already Looking At Expanding How Selectable Output Control Will Be Abused
,----[ Quote ]
| For quite some time we've been covering how
| the MPAA has been pushing to get the FCC to
| allow them to use "Selectable Output
| Control" (SOC) to stop you from being able
| to record certain movies. In theory, the
| Hollywood studios claim that this will let
| them put movies out on video-on-demand
| offerings earlier than they do now. In
| actuality, there's nothing stopping them
| from putting these VoD offerings out now
| (and some do already).
`----
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091221/0226557444.shtml
Recent:
Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU - Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks
,----[ Quote ]
| Canada's participation in the Anti-
| Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations has
| understandably generated enormous public
| concern as leaked documents indicate that ACTA
| would have a dramatic impact on Canadian
| copyright law. The U.S. has proposed
| provisions that would mandate a DMCA-style
| implementation for the WIPO Internet treaties
| and encourage the adoption of a three-strikes
| and you're out system to cut off access where
| there are repeated allegations of infringement.
|
| Yet it would appear that ACTA is actually only
| part of the story. Canada is also currently
| negotiating a Comprehensive Economic and Trade
| Agreement with the European Union. The
| negotiations have been largely off the radar
| screen (and similarly secretive) with the first
| round of talks concluding in October in Ottawa.
| Intellectual property figures prominently in
| the agreement. In fact, the EU proposal for
| the IP chapter has just leaked online and the
| document is incredibly troubling. When
| combined with ACTA, the two agreements would
| render Canadian copyright law virtually
| unrecognizable as Canada would be required to
| undertake a significant rewrite of its law.
| The notion of a "made-in-Canada" approach -
| already under threat from ACTA - would be lost
| entirely, replaced by a made-in-Washington-and-
| Brussels law.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4627/125/
Ambassador Kirk: People would be âwalking away from the
tableâ if the ACTA text is made public
,----[ Quote ]
| I said that it was untrue that IPR
| negotiations are normally secret, mentioning
| as examples that drafts of the other IPR
| texts, including the proposed WIPO treaty
| for disabilities and the climate change
| agreement language on IPR, as well as
| several drafts of the FTAA text and the 1996
| WIPO copyright treaties had been public.
| Kirk said that ACTA âwas differentâ and the
| topics being negotiated in ACTA were âmore
| complex.â
|
| I brought up to Kirk that the USTR had shown
| ACTA text to dozens of corporate lobbyists
| and all of its trading partners in the ACTA
| negotiation, and the text was only secret
| from the public. Kirk did say USTR was
| discussing this issue with the White House
| and its trading partners, but that was about
| all he could say at that moment.
`----
http://keionline.org/node/706
Canadian Recording Industry Hit With $6 Billion Copyright Lawsuit
,----[ Quote ]
| Chet Baker was a leading jazz musician in
| the 1950s, playing trumpet and providing
| vocals. Baker died in 1988, yet he is about
| to add a new claim to fame as the lead
| plaintiff in possibly the largest copyright
| infringement case in Canadian history. His
| estate, which still owns the copyright in
| more than 50 of his works, is part of a
| massive class-action lawsuit that has been
| underway for the past year.
|
| The infringer has effectively already
| admitted owing at least $50 million and the
| full claim could exceed $6 billion. If the
| dollars donât shock, the target of the
| lawsuit undoubtedly will: The defendants in
| the case are Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG
| Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and
| Universal Music Canada, the four primary
| members of the Canadian Recording Industry
| Association.
`----
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4595/159/
French Government's Plan To Help Book Publishers Adapt: Have Them Embrace Three Strikes Plan
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091204/0029347201.shtml
MPAA Says Copyright-Treaty Critics Hate Hollywood
,----[ Quote ]
| Dan Glickman, the MPAAâs chairman, informs
| lawmakers that millions of film-related
| jobs are in peril because of internet
| piracy. Simply put, those who donât back
| the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade
| Agreement donât support intellectual
| property rights, he wrote.
`----
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/11/mpaa-acta-letter/
No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'
,----[ Quote ]
| A second point they make is that if the end
| result is really bad, countries can simply
| decide not to sign it and not to
| participate. Yes, stop laughing. It's as if
| they think that we're all idiots who
| haven't seen how lobbyists have
| historically relied on the line "but we
| must live up to our international
| obligations" to push through all sorts of
| laws the public does not support.
`----
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1904177017.shtml
Will secret copyright treaty restrict your digital rights?
,----[ Quote ]
| Most Americans expect that their laws are
| only passed after some period of public
| debate between Republicans and Democrats or
| their news-channel proxies. However, the
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| may be an exception to this rule, and if it
| is signed, many United States laws
| concerning the Internet and ownership of
| data may become substantively different.
`----
http://www.macworld.com/article/143986/2009/11/acta_treaty.html
No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not 'Normal' -- Nor Is It A 'Distraction'
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the last few weeks people who are
| actually concerned about individual rights
| have done a decent job sounding the alarm
| about the problems with what little we've
| seen of the ACTA negotiations. In the last
| week or so, those who work for the
| entertainment industry have suddenly started
| scrambling to respond, after realizing that
| more and more people are starting to pay
| attention and to worry about ACTA. However,
| it's been pretty funny to watch the
| desperate attempts by industry lawyers to
| try to paint this all as much ado about
| nothing (with gratuitous swipes at those of
| us who have called attention to what's going
| on).
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1904177017.shtml
Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut
,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA juggernaut continues to roll ahead,
| despite public indignation about an
| agreement supposedly about counterfeiting
| that has turned into a regime for global
| Internet regulation. The Office of the
| United States Trade Representative (USTR)
| has already announced that the next round of
| Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
| negotiations will take place in January â
| with the aim of concluding the deal "as soon
| as possible in 2010."
|
| For the rest of us, with access to only
| leaks and whispers of what ACTA is about,
| there are many troubling questions. How can
| such a radical proposal legally be kept so
| secret from the millions of Net users and
| companies whose rights and freedoms stand to
| be affected? Who decides what becomes the
| law of the land and by what influence? Where
| is the public oversight for an agreement
| that would set the legal rules for the
| knowledge economy? And what can be done to
| fix this runaway process?
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/stopping-acta-juggernaut
USA Treaty Priorities?
,----[ Quote ]
| Maybe the only explanation for the US being
| the last holdout from this worthy sounding
| treaty that even Somalia will ratify is that
| it is just too busy protecting the obsolete
| business models of the RIAA and MPAA through
| the secret ACTA treaty process and doesn't
| have enough time or resources to worry about
| lesser priorities, such as protecting
| children.
`----
http://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2009/11/usatreaty-priorities.html
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