As noted several times on this blog, it takes a lot of highly skilled people to make a film or TV show, and these people generally do not own any copyright interest in the works they help make or any equity in the production companies.  Motion pictures and television production is a project-to-project business. Crew members and performers are not ...

The performing rights organization (PRO) called ASCAP was formed on February 13, 1914 when a group of about 100 American composers met at the Hotel Claridge in New York City to create a mechanism for collecting “public performance” royalties.  The 1909 Copyright Act had extended the performance right to this class of copyright holders, but it did not define exactly ...

There was no way I could not share this. I recommend watching all the way through to the end.  Is the message entirely on solid ground copyright-wise?  Not quite.  Is the sentiment in the right place?  I think so.  And it’s funny as hell and includes a nice shout out to one of my favorite bands, The Dropkick Murphys. Happy Monday. ...

“… last week a former Google lawyer at the DOJ anti-trust division against the recommendation of the US Copyright Office rammed through a 100% licensing rule that effectively brings the last of the “free” songwriters under the consent decree.”   — David Lowery at The Trichordist — “The Department of Justice’s position is arrogance at its worst. The decision fails ...

“R Street is a free-market think tank with a pragmatic approach to public policy challenges.”         — R Street About Page — If one is going to comment on public policy, then one ought to make an effort a) to understand the nature of a given topic; and b) to present facts instead of fiction.  In this ...

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