Today, Tuesday July 30 2019, at 11:00 EDT (15:00 UTC) theInternet Society Livestream Channel will webcast an edited version of yesterday’s In The Era Of Streaming, Who’s A Bigger Music Mogul, Jay-Z or Congress? panel that was organized by Congressional Internet Caucus Academy (CICA) in Washington DC. The purpose of the event was to – post Music Modernization Act – give Congressional staffers and others an overview of the role of our regulators in the distribution of music revenue streams, vs that of the creators themselves. Panel: Danielle Aguirre, EVP & General Counsel, National Music Publishers Association ; Kevin Erickson, Director, Future of Music Coalition; Curtis LeGeyt, Executive Vice President, Government Relations, National Association of Broadcasters; Julia Massimino, VP of Global Public Policy, SoundExchange; Ali Sternburg, Senior Policy Counsel, Computer & Communications Industry Association. Moderator: Tim Lordan, Executive Director / General Counsel, Internet Education Foundation.
On Monday March 11 2018,InternetNZ presents the 2018 NetHui Copyright conference in Wellington NZ. This NetHui is especially important as the NZ government is doing a review of the Copyright Act next year. Keynote speaker is Cory Doctorow. A multitrack livestreamis available. Since NZ is UTC+13, this starts at 4pm today Sunday NYC time.
On Friday December 9 2016 the US Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force will hold a meeting – Developing the Digital Marketplace for Copyrighted Works– at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The meeting is convened to facilitate constructive, cross-industry dialogue among stakeholders about ways to promote a more robust and collaborative digital marketplace for copyrighted works. The meeting will focus on initiatives in this space that relate to standards development, interoperability across digital registries, and cross-industry collaboration, to understand the current state of affairs, identify challenges, and discuss paths forward. It will also be an opportunity to explore potential approaches to the future adoption and integration into the online marketplace of relevant emerging technologies, such as blockchain technology and open-source platforms. The goal is to provide a platform for discussion, and to determine in what ways government can be of assistance. One outcome could be to establish working groups to tackle specific issues through a multi-stakeholder process. Plenary sessions will be webcast via the USPTO Livestream Channel with live text transcription.
On April 22 2015 the Copyright Society of the USA’s New York Chapter presented a luncheon panel – Old Agreements + New Media = Big Issues? Performing Rights Organizations, Rate Courts and the Department of Justice – at the Princeton Club in NYC. For decades, ASCAP and BMI have been subject to antitrust consent decrees with the Department of Justice, which include restrictions on the ways in which these Performing Rights Organizations can and can’t issue licenses and a framework on how disputes over royalty rates are to be resolved. Recent rulings in the “rate courts” have addressed the ability of publishers to withdraw their performing rights for certain digital uses, with different results coming out of the separate ASCAP and BMI proceedings. With these developments leading to headaches for licensors and licensees alike, everyone is starting to ask whether the consent decrees and rate court procedures themselves should be overhauled. Last year, the DOJ opened both consent decrees for review, asking important questions about their relevance and effectiveness. A panel of experts discussed the key considerations. Speakers: Richard Reimer, Senior Vice President, Legal Services, ASCAP; Stuart Rosen, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, BMI; Kenneth Steinthal, Partner, King & Spalding LLP. Moderator: Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights, the U.S. Copyright Office. Video/audio is below.
On April 1 2015 9am-4pm EDT, the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force, led by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), will hold a public meeting – Facilitating the Development of the Online Licensing Environment for Copyrighted Works – In Alexandria VA. In July 2013 the Task Force issued a green paper – Copyright Policy, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy that identified five separate copyright policy issues critical to economic growth, job creation, and cultural development on which the Task Force planned to conduct further work, including the issue of how the government can facilitate the further development of a robust online licensing environment. This public meeting will focus specifically on the development and use of standard identifiers for all types of works of authorship, interoperability among databases and systems used to identify owners of rights and terms of use, and a possible portal for linking to such databases and to licensing platforms. Remote participation will be available via webex. Transcripts and videos of the online environment licensing events will be available after the event at the copyright page of the USPTO website.
On Sunday 25 January 2015, at 4pm the Internet Society’s New York Chapter(ISOC-NY) presented “Bitcoin for Rockstars – a fireside chat with D.A. Wallach” at TurnToTech NYC. The traditional existing methods of registering works and distributing music royalties are archaic, arcane, inefficient, and unsuited to the global networked marketplace. D.A. Wallach recently proposed that a decentralized, open, global ledger, based on bitcoin style blockchain technology, as an optimal solution for credits and rights information about music. Then a system of “smart contracts” could facilitate the distribution of funds. Thus:
In the proposed music rights network, each song, recording, rights-holder, creator, and payor would have its own unique address on the ledger. And complimenting this ledger would be “smart contracts,” programmatic rules defining how the addresses relate to each other and automating their interactions. For example, Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” would have its own address, as would Katy Perry herself, each of her collaborators, and each of the companies entitled to royalties from the song. One set of “smart contracts” could connect all of these addresses to one another.
Spotify, YouTube and other services could then issue all-in royalty micro-payments (aggregating all negotiated fees) directly to the “Dark Horse” address every time the song is played. The smart contracts connected to the “Dark Horse” address would recognize the source of the payment—say, Spotify—and then instantly split and redirect royalties to all the addresses entitled to payments from the service for the song. Katy Perry, her label, her publisher, and her collaborators would all have total visibility into payments received by the “Dark Horse” address, and each would receive its shares instantly in its own wallet. This software-based relay station for royalty and licensing payments would put creators at the center of the action, allowing them to understand how much money their works were generating, and from which services or licensees. It would also give artists and songwriters instant access to the funds generated by their work, obviating the long waiting periods they currently endure.
We invite you,to join D.A. Wallach and ISOC-NY to explore this fascinating concept! Our interlocutor was Aram Sinnreich of Rutgers University. author of the Piracy Crusade.
On December 11 2014 the Copyright Society of the USA’s New York Chapter presented a luncheon panel – Fair Compensation or a Pandora’s Box? Pre-1972 Sound Recordings & Streaming Radio – at the Princeton Club in NYC. A panel looked at the legal framework and issues involved in the recent lawsuits involving royalties for webcasting of pre-1972 sound recordings. After providing a background of the key issues, the panel discussed the potential practical impacts of affirmance or reversal of the recent Flo & Eddie decision, as well as whether the state-based issue of common law copyright for pre-1972 recordings is a matter that should be resolved at the federal level. Panel: Tucker McCrady – Greenberg Traurig, LLP; Gianni Servodidio – Jenner & Block; Moderator: June M. Besek – Executive Director, Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School. Video/audio is below.
On October 27 2014 the Copyright Society of the USA’s New York Chapter presented a luncheon panel – Spiders and Scraping and Bots, Oh My! — Datanomics, Copyright, and Legal Liability – at the Princeton Club in NYC. A panel looked at the implications of the intersection of big data and data mining with copyright-related principles, including DMCA restrictions and fair use. The discussion covered the legal landscape and assessed whether certain ways of using data may have legal implications. Panel: Jonathan Askin – Professor,Brooklyn Law School; Joseph V. DeMarco – Partner, DeVore & DeMarco LLP; Dana Rosen – General Counsel, Wenner Media. Moderator: Robert Potter – Associate, Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP. Video/audio is below.
On September 24 2014 the Copyright Society of the USA’s New York Chapter presented a luncheon panel – If I Ran The Zoo: Probing The Contours Of “The Next Great Copyright Act” – at the Princeton Club in NYC. Katie Lachter, partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, ran through the ethical issues that arise when a lawyer is enforcing IP rights for a client, receiving a cease-and-desist letter in a client matter, and when she or he is aware that a client may be infringing a third party’s copyright. The program also touched on how social media plays a role in attorney conduct when representing copyright owners and users for enforcement matters. Also mentioned was abusive domain litigation. Video/audio is below.
Today, Friday March 27 2020, at 3pm ET (19:00 UTC) Jeff Price, founder of Audiam, will present a webinar “Untangling The Mess” for Songwriters, Music Publishers & Self Published Songwriters, going over differences between ASCAP/BMI, SoundExchange, Audiam and how it all ties into administrating music publishing. The webinar will be webcast live via a partnership with the Internet Society New York Chapter.
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