Copyright Blog | Arguments, debates and ideas about copyright — Dominic Young has started a new blog, bringing his extensive experience working with copyrights from a business (rather than legal) perspective. Young hopes to counter the many voices critical of copyright, believing it instead to be “a hugely positive driver of many of the things it stands accused of inhibiting.” He already has a number of excellent and thought-provoking posts, like Mish-mashing-up (on mash-ups), How do we know copyright is working?, and Perfect economies (on “freemium” business models).
How I learned to stop worrying and love the copy — Many of the arguments made in favor of copying music and video are just as applicable to copying money, as James Gannon humorously points out. “Gutenberg did not invent the printing press so that it would be controlled in the hands a few rich and powerful central bankers who desperately cling to outdated business models. With the advent of digital technologies, everyone can and should be free to copy their own money.”
Innovation and the Creative Community — The Copyright Alliance’s Sandra Aistars refutes the oft-repeated notion that copyright somehow stifles innovation. It instead promotes innovation, in sometimes striking ways. Just one example provided by Aistars: “A lighting system created by Luminys Systems for film sets now is in use by car companies for crash test videos that help make cars safer.”
Raising Movie Funds on Kickstarter — Screenwriter John August (credits include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Go) has notes from a talk by  Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler during Sundance. Some numbers specifically related to film funding through the site as well as useful tips for indie filmmakers looking at fan funding. $15 mil raised in 2 years for film projects is heartening news for new and emerging film-makers, though still a far bit away from what established studios invest in making movies.
Losing Independence — Andrew Keen, writing for the DGA Quarterly, points out that piracy hurts low- and mid-budget films the most. Keen says, “[Jason] Reitman [director of Up in the Air and Juno] has a term for the type of motion picture facing extinction because of piracy. He calls them ‘tweeners’—the movies between the $10,000 YouTube home videos and the large-budget studio productions. Reitman sees the ‘tweener’ as the lifeblood of the creative industry—producing movies as culturally significant and economically successful as Lost in Translation, American Beauty, and Pulp Fiction. It’s these movies, he believes which ‘push cinema forward,’ producing the Sofia Coppolas and Quentin Tarantinos who then go on to make bigger budget and more lucrative movies.”
The truth about TV ratings, online viewing, and sci-fi shows — Craig Engler, GM and SVP of Syfy Digital, does a tremendous job explaining the complex and sometimes confusing inner workings of the television biz to the general public. This is an older article, but well worth a read. Engler is also on Twitter (@Syfy), where he often takes biz-related questions from his followers.
The IP and Entertainment Law Ledger— the online-only newcomer to law journals from NYU School of Law has just “published” its Spring 2011 issue. I highlighted Andrew Berger’s article on statutory damages in yesterday’s article about the Tenenbaum case. Also worth checking out, Graham Ballou’s Substantial Disparity: Copyright Chaos in the Second Circuit.
Working as a Musician — Cynical Musician Viridian Faza has some advice for making money as an indie artist. Hint: it doesn’t involve giving it away and making up for it in volume.
The Wrecking Crew — “From the start of rock ‘n’ roll through the nineteen eighties, there were about two dozen people who played on seemingly every hit record produced in Los Angeles.” Collectively known as “The Wrecking Crew”, Music Industry Newswire takes a look at the amazing group of session players and the forthcoming documentary based on them.