Its been a long time coming, but a change gon’ come. The “next great copyright act” is the change that Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallante, is calling on Congress to make (perhaps taking a cue from our neighbors up north, eh?) Among the list of changes called for by the Register is reformation in [...]

  Buyer beware! No, not really.  But maybe… On March 19th, the Supreme Court decided in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. that the first sale doctrine of the U.S. Copyright Act applies to copies of a copyrighted work made abroad, so long as the copies are made in accordance with the Copyright Act. [...]

Last week, I went on Ticketmaster to purchase a ticket to see one of my favorite artists, The Weeknd, in concert. Tickets went on sale on Thursday at 10 am. There I was on my iPad at 10am, trying unsuccessfully to process my order.  I tried for thirty minutes – on my iPad, my Blackberry, and [...]

The “world’s largest funding platform,” Kickstarter raised $20 million for musicians in 2011. The Kickstarter-crowdfunding model demonstrates that musicians can successfully (and directly) obtain funding for their creative projects from their fans, without record label backing- either major or independent. This all begs the question, what does Kickstarter’s $20 million mean for the future of [...]

The 2011 end of the year numbers are in! Was 2011 the year when the music industry went back to black? Well that depends on what numbers you compare and who you ask. The Nielson-Billboard 2011 Music Industry Report indicates that music sales for 2011 are up for the first time in seven years (thanks [...]

  The proposed legislation goes by many names— COICA, PIPA, SOPA—but the goal is clear: protect intellectual property and prevent online piracy. Congress has made big moves this year to push its anti-piracy agenda. Both the House and Senate have introduced bills that purport to regulate the Internet, while modernizing our criminal and civil laws [...]

Welcome to ReDigi: “The World’s First Online Marketplace For Used Digital Music.” Yes, you read that sentence correctly. Launched in beta version last October, ReDigi markets itself as a “recycled music market place.” In reality, it’s an online digital music store that allows users to buy/sell used digital music files.

By now everyone has heard of Spotify, the Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered music streaming service launched in 2008. This past summer, Spotify joined a long (and growing list) of music subscription services available in the United States, including Rhapsody, Mog, and Rdio.  Already established in Europe (including Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and [...]

Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the fall 2011 release of the company’s new iCloud service. iCloud, a “Web-based locker” where users can store and access content from any Internet-connected device, will offer a seamless integration of content across select Apple products, including iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and iTunes. Although iCloud isn’t being pitched [...]

Wire-tapping, increased sentencing for copyright and trademark infringement, and increased sentencing for repeat IP infringers are among the legislative recommendations made by the Obama Administration in its latest white paper publication, Administration’s White Paper on Intellectual Property Enforcement Legislative Recommendations. The March 2011 publication is a follow-up to its June 2010 Joint Strategic Plan on [...]