I just became aware that The Future of Music Coalition is holding its fifth annual summit at my own GWU Lisner Hall. The summit is “a forum for musicians, lawyers, academics, policymakers and music industry executives to come together to discuss and debate some of the most contentious issues surrounding digital technology, artists’ rights […]

As I feared, guest “celebrity” writers don’t want to be corrected by their readers. The Huffington Post has removed all the comments savaging former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen for her poorly researched post criticizing the iPod’s “incompatiblity” with other music services. I guess you don’t get to be the head of one of the […]

Arianna Huffington’s new blog, The Huffington Post, went live today. It’s supposedly a liberal response to the Drudge Report, but it actually seems to have kicked it up a couple of notches in interactivity. The Main Page branches off into the News Wire (which is the most Drudge-like section), and the Blog. The Blog […]

From the EFF’s latest Action Alert:

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been wreaking havoc on consumers’ fair use rights for the past seven years. Now Congress is considering the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201), a bill that would reform part of the DMCA and formally protect the “Betamax defense” relied […]

From an EFF newsletter:
“The PIRATE Act (S.2237) is yet another attempt to make taxpayers fund the misguided war on file sharing, and it’s moving fast. The bill would allow the government to file civil copyright lawsuits in addition to criminal prosecutions, dramatically lowering the burden of proof and adding to the thousands of suits […]

Frank Field’s large collection of notes and commentary from last week’s Internet Law Program by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School:
http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/index.php?p=1882

As part of the 6th Annual Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival, Jack Valenti (Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America) gave a speech and took questions today at University of Illinois, where I attend school. Jack’s speech was part of his “Moral Imperative” speaking tour, and contained many of the elements of […]

Well, Grey Tuesday was quite an adventure. I got email-interviewed for this New York Times article, and received a cease-and-desist letter from EMI.
I complied, after doing some research and discovering that sampling w/o permission has been held to be copyright infringement by several courts. This seems to contradict my (admittedly limited) understanding of Fair […]

Grey Tuesday is here! At the behest of the people at GreyTuesday.org and Downhillbattle.com, I am hosting DJ Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album”, a unique blend of the Beatle’s “White Album” and Jay-Z’s “The Black Album”. EMI, owner of the rights to the “White Album”, delievered an obnoxious series of cease and desist letters […]