Will Indie Film Survive? — Scott Timberg: “One of the casualties of our current cultural situation is the erosion of the middle — the middle class, the midlist author, the middlebrow, and the mid-budget film. Independent film, with its interest in boundary pushing and risk-taking, may not seem to belong in that company, but it’s vulnerable to all the same forces.”
The Copyright Office Releases Public Draft of Compendium III — The US Copyright Office this week released its long anticipated new version of the Copyright Compendium, a detailed and comprehensive guide for examiners, as well as the general public, concerning copyright registration. At over 1200 pages, it may not be the best bedtime read, but it should prove invaluable as a reference.
Copyright Review Process Will Continue Into 2015; Education and Circumvention Will Be Next Issues Examined — With just a few weeks remaining before Congress returns from recess, BNA’s Tamlin Bason sat down with Representative Goodlatte to discuss the ongoing copyright review process and what we can expect in the upcoming months.
Why Don’t Today’s Hits Reflect the Times — Interesting article from Billboard. “Why don’t today’s top 40 acts have anything to say? Donovan laments that ‘[The] artists of 1960s and ’70s were much more socially conscious of the feelings and mood of the nation than many of today’s artists.’ Zapoleon adds, ‘Outside of [the] standard themes of love, sex, party and everyday minor social happenings in life, there just aren’t a lot of songs that are relevant to challenges people are facing today, or that talk about contemporary major events in America or the world.'”
Delaware becomes first state to give executors broad digital assets access — The law would allow an estate access to a decedent’s online accounts. Interestingly, the article notes that tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Yahoo oppose the law.
Why Exactly Is There a ‘Jarhead 2’? Hollywood’s Secret-Sequel Economy — Why make a sequel to a movie like Jarhead? It’s still playing big where it matters. The numbers make sense. The EVP’s team looks at DVD rentals, iTunes downloads, streaming numbers, TV distribution, and international markets. When asked of his intel-gathering methods, Ross is transparent: “I got Google.†Online chatter is a vital metric, too. Ross could produce a wartime movie that doesn’t infringe on the legacy of Jarhead, but slapping it with a stagnant IP gives it automatic legs. “It does some marketing for you. You come to it with a built-in consumer. You go on Facebook and people are constantly having dialogue about it,†Ross says.
The Free and the Antifree — A thought-provoking article from n+1 that asserts there is an emerging “antifree” movement that serves as a counter and critique to the “free culture” position.