Copyhype

Giving a Wide Berth to Artists of Cable TV — David Carr takes a look at Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution a new book by Brett Martin coming out in July. The book details the recent shift in television storytelling toward darker and highly creative dramas, embodied by such shows as the Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad. It is an innovation driven not by algorithms and data centers, but by “men who typed for a living.”

MusicTank to focus on piracy site advertisers — Later this month, rock star David Lowery and Google’s UK Policy Manager Theo Bertram will discuss ad-sponsored piracy at a MusicTank Think Tank event in London. Should be very interesting.

Dear Congress: Please Consider These Points for Your Massive Copyright Overhaul… — Paul Resnikoff of Digital Music News presents what he considers are important points worthy of Congress’s attention. Though I may not necessarily agree with all of them, it is certainly a thoughtful and thought-provoking set of points.

Nigeria: Create Sound IP Policies in Nigeria, Microsoft Tells Govt — The software company chaired a discussion in Lagos last week as part of World IP Day. The article notes this remark from popular Nigerian artist Lanre Dabiri on one of the panels: “Piracy suppresses innovation! A lot goes into nurturing an idea or product to fruition. When this idea gets stolen, it means you cannot recoup the resources that went into putting your thoughts together and this is unfair to the artist or property owner.”

Second Circuit Rules Most Appropriation Art is Fair Use: Cariou v. Prince — Paul Fakler of Title 17 has a great write up on the recent appropriation art decision from the Second Circuit. Fakler does an especially good job pointing out some of the procedural corners cut by the court, a point that is concerning regardless of how you feel about the court’s ultimate outcome on the legal issues.