The Register has a great article about a recent Google debacle, the Google Buzz class action settlement (see also Robert Levine’s piece in Bloomberg, “Google’s Spreading Tentacles of Infuence” and also see Music Rights Now to send a letter to your Members of Congress).  The article notes that the Google settlement involved “cy pres” payments to “independent” groups […]

As MTP readers will know, Sirius XM is in the middle of a land grab, what one might call reverse “payola”–Sirius wants to gut SoundExchange and subvert artist rights by a not so implied threat of no airplay if independent artists or independent labels don’t give them a direct deal.  Meaning that the artist’s share of webcasting […]

The enormity of Google’s breathtaking $500 million forfeiture for selling illegal drug advertising to consumers sinks in slowly.  For many in the creative community the second thought after “How could they?” is “How does Google treat our fans?” Google defends their dominant position in search by claiming that users are “one click away” from another […]

An example of optimistic cooperation between technology companies and creators, Arts+Labs is a coalition comprised of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers,  AT&T, Broadcast Music, Inc., Cisco, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Songwriters  Guild of America, Verizon and Viacom.  Arts+Labs released this statement on rogue sites legislation: The introduction in the House of  Representatives of legislation […]

The House is expected to introduce their version of the PROTECT IP Act in the next few weeks.  If there’s one thing that is clear about the debate on PROTECT IP it is this–on the one side, you have people who profit from piracy and those who invest in those companies.  Do not underestimate the influence […]

We don’t often visit trade association websites because most of them are deadly dull, bonechillingly boring and generally not the places you’d go online except to see if Anonymous had taken them down again.  Musiccanada.com is a striking 180 from the typical. First of all, the site is focused on Canadian artists.  The first thing […]