Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Two Different Takes on Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas

Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset (2009 WL 1664468 (D.Minn.)) is a hugely contested case about a mother who downloaded 24 songs on Kazaa. Jury awarded the plaintiffs over $80,000 per song downloaded. Below are two different takes on it. What's yours?

Rule of Law Prevails in Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas

Jammie Thomas-Rasset gets hammered

French Judiciary-- "Free Access" to Internet a Human Right

"The French judiciary has ridden to the rescue of the country's web users, striking down a controversial new law which would have allowed the state to cut off the internet connections of illegal filesharers for up to a year."

Read on; it's an interesting take on the music piracy situation. The court ruled that "free access" to the internet is a human right.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Elvis.

Last week, to my excitement, I found myself working on a copyright case for my summer job. I came across these short fact sheets that the Copyright Office puts out in order to introduce people to the law. Thought it was a nice introduction.

Take a look:
Basic Copyright
Musical Compositions
Sound Recordings
Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings
Fact sheet on Music

They have them on all different subjects.

Even more interestingly, the following question and answer are directly from the Copyright Office's FAQ page:

"How do I protect my sighting of Elvis?
Copyright law does not protect sightings. However, copyright law will protect your photo (or other depiction) of your sighting of Elvis. File your claim to copyright online by means of the electronic Copyright Office (eCO). Pay the fee online and attach a copy of your photo. Or, go to the Copyright Office website, fill in Form CO, print it, and mail it together with your photo and fee. For more information on registration a copyright, see SL-35. No one can lawfully use your photo of your sighting, although someone else may file his own photo of his sighting. Copyright law protects the original photograph, not the subject of the photograph. "

So glad I cleared that up.

Last Year's Speaker Schedule

Here is last year's schedule. Be sure to email us if you have any suggestions for this year.

Twitter Users Buy More Music

On Music Row: Twitter users buy more music

Purpose

Hey there, music lovers.

We hope that, on this blog, we will be able to provide you with information regarding the Music Law Conference, the Music Law Conference Showcase, and music law in general. Please feel free to comment or add this to your RSS feed. If you have any ideas for posts or articles to feature, please email them to musiclawconference@gmail.com.


Deuces.