We’ve been able to pay to digitally download sound recordings through legitimate services for over a decade now, and these services have grown pretty rapidly in terms of both scale and profitability. So much so, that iTunes (so far the most successful of the digital distribution platforms) has sold more than 10 billion songs [...]

  Let’s start by taking a look at Grooveshark. Universal Music Group (UMG) filed a complaint in Manhattan District Court on November 18, 2011 against Escape Media and five of its executives alleging that Grooveshark engaged in a plethora of infringing conduct. According to the complaint, “Escape publically touts the fact that it has a [...]

On January 27, 2012 the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York approved a settlement reached after a nearly two year debate over the fees the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC) would pay for the privilege to air the approximately 8.5 million songs in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers [...]

On January 18, 2012 in Golan v. Holder the Supreme Court upheld amendments made to the “Copyright in Restored Works” section of the U.S. Code in response to the Uruguay Round Agreements Act § 514 as per the U.S. membership in the Berne Convention. Article 18 of Berne requires countries to protect the works of other member [...]

  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 [...]

For those who don’t know, the simplest way to describe Baidu in a soundbite is “the Google of China.”  Although somewhat of a misnomer (afterall Google does operate in China), it is a fitting place to begin. Baidu is free music download service in China. The name for Baidu is inspired by a poem written more [...]

By: Darren Shield Music in the public domain is rich with culture and inspiration, with a great deal of modern work knowingly or unknowingly inspired by the past. Many artists have rocked out to Pachebel’s Canon in D, royalty free courtesy of the public domain (Green Day – Basket Case, Akon – Don’t Matter, Rob [...]

  Whether you agree or disagree with the district court’s holding in Viacom v. YouTube, everyone acknowledges that the decision has far reaching implications for copyright owners, internet service providers, and the music industry as a whole. YouTube has developed into perhaps the easiest and fastest way to access copyrighted music content for free while [...]

  Last December, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) announced the new web-casting rates for 2011-2015. The CRB, which consists of three permanent Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJs) appointed by the U.S. Library of Congress (currently, Stanley Wisniewski, James S. Sledge, and William J. Roberts) increased the fees after finding evidence suggesting growth in the web-casting industry. [...]

Two recent cases have called into question whether the fees assessed for copyright infringement damages are excessive. In Harper v. Maverick, sixteen-year-old Whitney Harper was found guilty of copyright infringement after downloading 37 audio files from peer-to-peer service Kazaa. Harper claimed that she did not know her conduct was illegal and therefore, that she was [...]