Court’s docket shuns bankruptcy and IP cases — The US Supreme Court has started its new Term, but, as SCOTUSBlog reports, with 65% of its docket already filled, there is not a single IP case to look forward to.
Copyright Doesn’t Restrain Culture – Part II — Newhoff: “…because building upon what has come before is a well-established part of the creative process—because artists themselves throughout history admit to knowing how to steal—the argument is often made that modern copyright tips the scale too far toward a presumption of ‘originality,’ supposedly resulting in a kind of intellectual land grab whereby a minority of creators and corporations now own and charge rents for too much of the fertile ground necessary for creative endeavor. Nevertheless, by some miracle, literally millions of creators can simultaneously and independently produce new works while only very occasionally create conflicts of copyright.”
Rothman’s Roadmap to the Right of Publicity (via Rebecca Tushnet’s 43(B)log) — An incredibly useful guide to laws protecting the right of publicity in each of the fifty states.
Does Piracy Cost Content Creators a Fistful of Dollars? — “Copious research has countered claims that piracy is de facto publicity that spurs sales for individual recording artists or that increases in merchandising opportunities offsets the lost revenue from pirated films. While the literature is still open to new contributions, current research and analysis is demonstrating more and more that piracy has a measurable, negative impact on content creation and profits, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.”
The problem is the music-streaming companies — Paul Williams: “Bottom line: the problem is neither transparency nor what is being paid out to songwriters and other copyright holders by PROs… the real problem is how little is being paid into the system by streaming companies”