An open letter supporting intellectual property was sent today to the 114th Congress.  The majority of its signatories are conservative political organizations, which is reflective of the now-Republican majority in both houses; but the letter is also signed by several left-leaning organizations as well as academics representing non-partisan study groups and think tanks.  Titled Intellectual Property Guidelines, the letter briefly outlines ...

I have to direct readers’ attention to this blog post by composer and cellist Zoë Keating.  It is the clearest articulation I have yet read about the rock-and-hard-place terms demanded of artists who are considering participation in YouTube’s paid streaming service Music Key.  Keating outlines some of the non-negotiable terms she doesn’t like, for instance that her entire catalog becomes fair game ...

Ernesto (no last name) at TorrentFreak published a slightly sarcastic article about the fact that pre-release piracy did not do any apparent harm to the box office bonanza for the makers of American Sniper.  I have personally criticized pre-release piracy as a distinctly egregious form of theft and have stood by the principle that the behavior can cause harm to ...

We all know the common criticism that a film adaptation is never “as good as the book.”  There are a number of reasons, some of them very subtle, why fans of source materials are easily disappointed by films based on them.  Not only is it mandatory that a feature film script leave out a considerable amount of detail from a ...

Last year, the IIPA (International Intellectual Property Association) released a report revealing the landmark moment for the core copyright industries, which for the first time, had contributed over $1 trillion to the US economy.  And with this week’s release of the IIPA’s 2014 report, copyright has broken the trillion-dollar mark again and continues to outpace the growth rate (3.9%) of ...

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