Thom Yorke: ‘If I can’t enjoy this now, when do I start?’ — The Guardian has a great interview with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who offers some surprising reflections on the band’s pay-what-you-will experiment for their 2007 album, In Rainbows. “Having thought they were subverting the corporate music industry withIn Rainbows, he now fears they were inadvertently playing into the hands of Apple and Google and the rest. ‘They have to keep commodifying things to keep the share price up, but in doing so they have made all content, including music and newspapers, worthless, in order to make their billions. And this is what we want? I still think it will be undermined in some way. It doesn’t make sense to me. Anyway, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. The commodification of human relationships through social networks. Amazing!'”
An Open Letter to CEOs of Brands Advertising on Infringing Sites — Digital Music News picks up on the Copyright Alliance’s petition against brand-sponsored piracy. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign!
The Price of Nothing — Andrew Orlowski drops another insightful critique of copyright skepticism. “The error that characterises so much copyright rhetoric emanating from the utopian camp is one of wishing away value, or pretending it doesn’t exist. There are so many dubious, and at times outright bogus arguments here I won’t dwell on them. There is little disagreement that if we abolished intellectual property tomorrow there would be a huge party – resulting in a welfare benefit. But not for long. Then the trouble would start.”
On Empowering Artists — “Finally, copyright is about freedom. It is core to protecting freedom of expression. But it also gives authors the freedom to thrive. Copyright is a unique form of property because, unlike inherited wealth, it springs from an artist’s own imagination, hard work and talent. Under the right conditions a creator can use its protections to launch a career or build a business, regardless of the economic circumstances she came from. That fact should entitle copyright to more protection than other forms of property, not less.”
Where Has the “Author” Gone in Copyright? — Along a similar vein as the above article, IPKat asks this increasingly important question. “Why is the notion of the copyright “author” held in such low regard? And why is the notion of “users’ rights” so ascendant? At the risk of sounding banal, there is no work to consume, much less to protect, if there is no author to create it.” A good discussion that continues into the comments.
Celebrate The Other Oscar Nominees – You Know, The Ones Ryan Seacrest Likely Won’t Interview — The Oscar ceremonies are nearly a week old, but it’s still worth taking a look at The Credits tribute to the nominees for those who work backstage and out of the spotlight, and whose contributions are just as important to making films as those who walked the red carpet.