Well, at least bipartisanship still exists when it comes to protecting America’s music creators. Late yesterday, the omnibus bill known as the Music Modernization Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent. On Monday, the chamber initiated a hotline process, which may be implemented when a bill is presumed to be uncontroversial. Once triggered, Senators have 24 hours to raise any ...
As the world mourns the passing of Aretha Franklin, we need no further discussion about the value of recording artists. The anthem of a generation, Franklin’s first hit, “Respect” was not written by her but by Otis Redding, who first recorded the song in 1965. But in 1967, Aretha made that song what it is—“owned it” as we say today—along ...
My colleague Stephen Carlisle at Nova Southeastern University already made short work of the aberration of copyright law and fair use analysis that occurred recently in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. But I wanted to expand on a few elements that caught my attention. In the case Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions, LLC, the court’s deference ...
Because I opened my big maw in December when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, I feel compelled to follow up now that the Court has ruled. In a 7-2 decision, SCOTUS held that the Colorado Commission failed to meet the standard of “neutrality” when considering baker, Jack Phillips’s appeal to his ...
Last week, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) suddenly—and I do mean suddenly—introduced a bill in the Senate that many of the usual copyright-haters are applauding as an “alternative” to the CLASSICS Act. It’s hard to decide whether Wyden and whatever narrow constituency he’s serving are using this bill as a political stunt aimed at killing CLASSICS, or if they’re really arrogant ...
