IP

Skinny Puppy demands compensation after learning music used for Guantanamo Bay torture

Vancouver band demands compensation after learning music used for Guantanamo Bay torture. Cevin Key, the band’s keyboardist, says the band at first planned to design an album cover based on an invoice for the U.S. government, rather than sending a physical invoice. But after learning that the government had allegedly used their music without permission, Key says the band was told it could bring a suit against the Department of Defense. Amount of damages sought? $666,000


The Full Story Behind the ‘Chinese Democracy’ Leak (Or: How the FBI & RIAA spent millions pursuing a guy for promoting a record for them)

The Full Story Behind the ‘Chinese Democracy’ Leak (via Antiquiet). A good long read about how the FBI and the RIAA spent millions and millions dollars pursuing the guy who leaked parts of Chinese Democracy. By the actual, real, leaker. (Who had the track up for less than an hour, and didn’t allow downloads) Dog, meet tail… Now get ready to be wagged.


Long Reads: The Global Songwriter Shell Game: Why The Major Music Companies Are Getting Your Royalties

Major music labels tell us that it is bad that people “steal content”, so they’ve come up with another revenue stream, accepting royalty payments which thay are not due, from people who are not authorised to collect them and then not giving it to the people for whom it was collected…. The Global Songwriter Shell Game: Why The Major Music Companies Are Getting Your Royalties | TuneCorner Music Blog.


Do You Sell Used Items? – Trans-Pacific Partnership Proposes the End of the Doctrine of First Sale

IANAL, but I was fascinated by this in-depth history of the Doctrine of First Sale (which allows me to sell used records to anyone willing to pay) and analysis of the most recent attempt to blow it up. It’s slightly heavy going, with quite a bit of law jargon, but the thrust of the piece leads to the remarkable conclusion that the TPP proposal, in an attempt to protect US industries which rely largely on copyrighted works, will actually drive then to make all copies abroad. At the same time it will finally kill the market for used books, records,…



PoOPlist will go dark for 12 hours Wednesday January 18th

Internet strike day is Wednesday January 18th. In a protest against the SOPA and PIPA legislation moving through the US Congress, many major sites (Wikipedia, Reddit, Internet Archive) will go dark for 12 hours. Of course, PoOPlist does not have the reach of these sites, but we want to do our small part to help. Both of these pieces of legislation are harmful to the internet itself, to innovative business and will not achieve what their sponsors say they will. There are precise ways to prevent foreign websites from pirating US content and they are already written into law. There…


Recording industry and SOPA/PIPA supporters: are you paying attention? Louis CK: Over $1 Million In Sales In Just 12 Days For DRM-Free Download

  Techdirt and the NY Times both report: Louis CK: Over $1 Million In Sales In Just 12 Days For DRM-Free Download. This should be reported as yet another in the long list of projects which work because artists have used the CwF + RtB (“Connect with Fans and Reason to Buy”) model. Yup, Connect with your Fans and give them a Reason to Buy seems so obvious to us, but we still have to endure the content industry telling us that we should pass SOPA/PIPA because it protects artists. Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy.


ISPs to Disrupt Internet Access of Copyright Scofflaws

ISPs to Disrupt Internet Access of Copyright Scofflaws  (Threat Level Blog, wired.com) And all on the say so of the content industry. ISPs have said that they will not cut people off, and we are talking about a “six-strikes and you’re throttled-or-something” regime… but even the French 3 strikes law eventually involved the judiciary. More coverage on ArsTechnica: Major ISPs agree to “six strikes” copyright enforcement plan. Ars also has a breakdown of The six ways you can appeal new copyright “mitigation measures”


The best report ever on media piracy (now with video)

Joe Karaganis, program director at the Social Science Research Council and vice president at the American Assembly discusses their report “Media Piracy in Emerging Economies.” And another good write up about it here http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/29/the-best-report-ever-on-media-piracy/



Shock! Major record label does the right thing! (.. or does it?)

From the press release: The American people, through the nation’s library, will receive a post-holiday gift of vintage sound recordings from one of the world’s largest recording companies. The Library of Congress and the Universal Music Group (UMG) announced today the donation of more than 200,000 historic master recordings—many long out-of-print or never released—to the Library’s Recorded Sound Section, which has more than 3 million sound recordings in its collections.    Universal Music Group Donates Recordings to Library – The Library Today Library of Congress. Note, though, that Universal retains the commercial rights and the copyright.  So it seems as though…


Bono equates file-sharing with child porn. Idiot.

Quoting: But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Op-Ed Guest Columnist – Ten for the Next Ten – NYTimes.com


Secret negotiations will kill the internet.

Here’s a really informative timeline put together by Micheal Geist about the ACTA Treaty. The ACTA Timeline on Dipity. This treaty is supposed to deal with anti counterfeiting (starting with things like handbags) but has expanded to include a chapter on the internet. Looks like they are trying to get the hated DMCA rolled out around the world. It also looks like they are trying to insert a “three strikes and you’re out” provision for alleged file sharers. Of course, most file sharers are “caught” by extremely suspect technological means. And this is all being done in complete secret. You…



Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret

SO, get ready to have you ISP monitor your traffic on behalf of the RIAA and to have your iPod checked at the border… (Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a National Security Secret | Threat Level from Wired.com.) Perhaps we should start a service where people can upload pictures of their record collections so that you could show the border guard a picture of some collection and say “See, I really do own all of the items on my mp3 player.”