News

Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced the “Songwriter Equity Act.”

Economists aren’t the only ones who should be interested in the data from the new “Copyright Industries in the US Economy” report by Stephen Siwek, released earlier today and available here. Anyone who follows the music industry, or the broader media landscape, should find the report interesting, as it enumerates the large degree to which content creation helps drive the economy.

I respect David and his accomplishments in the music space, but his blog “The Artist’s Share” misses the mark. The piece wrongly assumed that labels pay royalties to artists and simply keep the rest. This is not the case. Let’s take a closer look at the value labels actually bring to the table.

The Recording Industry Association of America is very pleased that the Indian and U.S. governments appear to be moving forward on a path that recognizes our mutual interests in securing the effective protection of intellectual property. The respective U.S. and Indian music sectors have long recognized this commonality, and we have strongly supported the efforts of our colleagues in India to secure the kind of protection that would permit expanded investment in cultural production.

For a long time, we’ve been talking about the importance of intermediaries such as search engines, ISP’s, payment processors, and others who participate in the digital music economy (see here). As more and more music access and listening occurs online, those groups have a larger role in helping shape the digital music consumer’s experience. Perhaps that is self-evident in some ways, but recent research findings have more conclusively shown that those intermediaries, and search engines in particular, can have a strong influence on the choices consumers make.

On Capitol Hill today, the Congressional International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus (formerly known as the International Anti-Piracy Caucus) discussed the importance of taking the profit out of online content theft by developing more robust engagement on the part of advertisers and ad networks, and addressing the activities of rogue sites like Russia’s vKontakte – a long-standing IP violator that is repeatedly featured in USTR’s “notorious markets” report. The caucus highlighted the continuing problems in Switzerland, China, Russia and India, and praised developments in Italy and the Philippines that led to their removal from USTR’s Special 301 lists.

It’s 7am to the locals here in Manchester, Tennessee and the dashed white lines of I-55 East are splitting the windshield – perfectly in time with the kick drum from ‘Love Like a Sunset Part I.’ Each little farm we roll past leaves the soft ground of our temporary 10’x30’ Bonnaroo home fading in the rearview mirror. To my right, the morning sun still hasn’t caught the Western face of the mountains running parallel to us, revealing what appears to be a dark sound wave from a song that fits the mood of the valley below. When the windows are down you can sense an invisible energy in the shadows, a deep and lasting reverb that can only come from the warm resonation of a guitar’s last note.

If there’s one thing we know for certain about the music industry, it’s that licensing is uniquely complex. One example why? Two licenses are required for every track – the sound recording (the artist’s recorded performance of a song, usually owned by the label) and the underlying musical work (the songwriter’s music and lyrics, such as in sheet music, usually owned by the music publisher).

Last week witnessed a number of interesting and encouraging developments concerning the articulation of principles to guide decision-making in connection with Internet governance. For far too long, discussions of have been marked by extreme partisanship and hyperbole, but last week’s events in Brazil suggest that a more reasonable consensus may finally be emerging.

Google's Senior Copyright Policy Counsel Katherine Oyama testified today before the House Judiciary IP Subcommittee during a hearing on notice and takedown procedures. Now, we appreciate Katie and like her a lot. But with all due respect, we have a few quibbles with her testimony…