As the European Commission returns from the August break, Joaquín Almunia will be getting back to work. Top of his agenda as the Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy has got to be the Commission’s Statement of Objections against Google that seems to grow by the day. This week, we saw […]
[This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post] House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is holding hearings on a potential revision to the Copyright Act. One area he might want to take a fresh look at is whether we still need a compulsory license to protect the public from the antitrust ambitions…of songwriters. A […]
Here’s a little free advice to the power mad rich kids at YouTube: Always anticipate the “cocktail party conversation” between your artists. Except now the cocktail party occurs in social media. You know, “transparency.” The idea that Google is an open and transparent company is simply laughable to anyone who has actually dealt with the […]
Americans are freedom loving people, and nothing says freedom like getting away with it. From “Long, Long Time” by Guy Forsyth. (Continued from Part 1) _______________________________________________ As we have seen time and again, Google will sell advertising against everything from jihadi war porn, to ads for illegal drug sites, sex tourism and pirate sites of […]
As anyone knows who has dealt with YouTube, the much ballyhooed Content ID database really is horrendous. This is particularly true on the music publishing side. And of course, Google uses its market power to refuse the industry standard audit right to independent songwriters–you know, those songwriters who are subject to compulsory mechanical licenses and […]
Is your band registered to vote? You ride in the van with these people, you probably know way more about them than you ever wanted to know, but do you know whether they are registered to vote? You can find out what the rules are in your area on this website “Can I Vote?” (click […]
According to the Copenhagen Post, recruitment for the jihad in Syria has come to Denmark. And the recruiting “poster” of choice for al Queda? While the internet is awash with Islamists advocating jihad in the Middle East, this week marked the first emergence of video targeting a Danish-speaking audience. Danish-speaking jihadist Abu Khattab has uploaded […]
DEBBIE SLOAN This is an honest house. WOODWARD That’s why we’d like to see your husband. BERNSTEIN Facing certain criminal charges that might be brought against some people that are innocent, we just feel that it would be… WOODWARD It’s really for his benefit. DEBBIE SLOAN No, it’s not. WOODWARD No, it’s not. HUGH […]
We’ve heard rumors for years of just how inconsistent the Rightsflow accounting data really is–“downright skanky” one might say. The bad news for songwriters is that really horrendously bad song data is not that unusual. As emphasized in the recent Amy Mann litigation against Medianet, some estimates are that 23% of songs on that service […]
[This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post] In this and future posts, I will be addressing five things the Congress could do for music creators that are easy to do and that would help develop an online market for music. First up is a slightly esoteric, but important area: royalties paid by companies like […]
Music Technology Policy 
You must be logged in to post a comment.