On Piracy Culture — A must-read article from Siddhant Adlakha at Birth.Movies.Death that takes a look at what piracy means for art from the consumer’s perspective. Adlakha writes, “In the case of cinema and all visual art forms, the things people download involve labour. While it’s easy to see blockbusters as calculated products of evil, self-perpetuating conglomerates, we often forget they still depend on hundreds and thousands of below-the-line-artists, with even folks in key positions making far less than your average A-list actor. This is of course to say nothing of independent films, which also fall victim to rampant piracy if they don’t get widespread distribution (Hell, even if they do), and even the workers and artists who don’t benefit directly from ticket sales often find their future employment depending on the success of each project.”
Statement of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte Markup of H.R. 1695, the “Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act†— Chairman Goodlatte notes in his statement, “The current vacancy within the Register’s Office is a timely one as we consider the Copyright Office of the future. But we should not hold up replacement of the Register to resolve the other issues that will take more time to address. So I and 29 of my colleagues introduced this legislation as a way to speed up consideration of this key component before other changes to the Copyright Office are made.” H.R. 1695 was reported out of the Committee on Wednesday by an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 27-1.
first person: royalties from soundexchange kept our band together — The Rocketboys keyboardist Justin Wiseman shares the band’s story about how much hustle they had been putting into performing and recording, and just how critical royalty checks from SoundExchange for digital performances were to enabling them to continue doing those things.
New Phoenix Center Study Demonstrates that DMCA “Safe Harbor” Provisions Cost U.S. Music Industry Nearly $1 Billion Annually in Lost Revenue [PDF] — “The source of the distortion in licensing negotiation appears to be that at any one time, there may be multiple unauthorized copies of a particular song available notwithstanding compliance with the safe harbors, suggesting that services may essentially be able to offer access to music without paying royalties and still claim safe harbor protection for infringement. The evidence appears to confirm the claim: market-based royalties for subscription-based services are about eight-times larger than that paid by YouTube.”
Study – Creators Frustrated with DMCA (with Pandas!) — Rebecca Cusey reports on the results of a survey of individual creators about their experience finding and addressing infringement of their own works and the extent to which they make use of the DMCA’s notice and takedown provisions. And, yes, there are pandas.