Copyhype

What If the Great Wikipedia ‘Revolution’ Was Actually a Reversion? — An interesting piece from the Atlantic. Wikipedia may seem different from the Encyclopedia Britannica, but it does not seem so different from EB‘s precursors. “In fact, this seems to be true of so many of the Internet’s innovations’: Blogs look like 18th- and 19th-century publishers more than they do The New York Times or The Washington Post; small crafters selling their wares on Etsy look more like earlier markets than the 20th century’s big chains. We have a tendency to reach for the most recent historical examples as our benchmarks, but when you take a longer view, you see that we haven’t so much as broken with the past as repeated it.”

Over 50 Major Brands Supporting Music Piracy, It’s Big Business! — The Trichordist has a master list of over 50 major brands whose advertisements have ended up on illicit filesharing sites, along with a list of Twitter handles for the companies for artists and creators to call this to the brands’ attention.

Think File Sharing is Sticking it to the Man? Really? — David Newhoff uses the above Trichordist piece as a starting point for a larger conversation. Says Newhoff, “I would challenge the defender of ‘file sharing’ to read the list on The Trichordist site and convince himself that by downloading unlicensed media he’s ‘sticking it to The Man.’ The truth is the ardent file sharer is a corporate puppet that has no idea which companies are pulling its strings.”

Blink 182’S Mark Hoppus: Artists Should Be Paid For Their Creativity — CreativeAmerica points to a video of remarks by Blink 182 bassist Mark Hoppus made recently during Midem. In part, Hoppus said, “I believe that artists should be paid for their creativity. There’s no other industry where people can come in and take what you create for free and give it away for free and that’s acceptable.”

The US Supreme Court Is NOT Going To Revoke Your Right To Sell Stuff On eBay — A rational take on Kirtsaeng from Business Insider: “A group called Owners Rights Initiative – a coalition including eBay, Etsy, and Overstock, among others – claims the case could have ‘far-reaching impacts on all Americans.’ That group even released a video showing ordinary Americans on the street speaking out for their right to be able to resell whatever they buy. The thing is, a victory for John Wiley probably won’t impact the average person who sells a couple of foreign-made items on eBay.”

CAS Will Not Harm Public Wi-Fi — Jill Lesser, Executive Director of the Copyright Alert System, responds to concerns that the educational graduated response program will negatively impact public wi-fi networks. In part, Lesser notes that “The vast majority of businesses, including those like Starbucks that provide legitimate open Wi-Fi connections, will have an Internet connection that is tailored to a business operation and these business networks are not part of the CAS and will never be sent a Copyright Alert.”

Study: Megaupload Shutdown Caused a ‘Significant Increase In Digital Sales…’ — Digital Music News reports on a talk by Carnegie Mellon professor Michael Smith last week at the Digital Book World conference in New York, where Smith presented evidence that digital sales received a bump after Megaupload was taken offline last year. Smith released a paper last year, Assessing the Academic Literature Regarding the Impact of Media Piracy on Sales, that concluded “while some papers in the literature find no evidence of harm, the vast majority of the literature (particularly the literature published in top peer reviewed journals) finds evidence that piracy harms media sales.”

Difficult music — The Futility Closet presents several compositions that fall into the “advanced” category. The sheet music for Faerie’s Aire and Death Waltz is a sheer delight., including directions such as “insert peanuts” and “if there is a 3rd clarinet some violins may go.”

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