https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGmnElFkeZo
Grooveshark Shuts Down to Settle Copyright Infringement Suit — The notorious service, beset by lawsuits, announced yesterday that it would be ceasing operations, along with this apology: “We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize.” Rather than license catalog, the site opportunistically hid behind the DMCA safe harbors and populated its service with user-uploaded content. And unlike good faith user-generated content sites, it jury-rigged its service to ensure that takedown notices would be ineffective and instructed its own employees to upload music to its servers.
Will the American Law Institute “Restate†or Try to Rewrite U.S. Copyright Law? — “The academics, lawyers, and others involved in the ALI copyright project have rather strongly held, but disparate views on the legal principles they have been tasked to restate. Restatement, therefore, could easily drift in the direction of rewriting. For instance, NYU School of Law Professor Christopher Sprigman, ALI’s appointed Reporter for the project, has signed several recent letters sent to federal policymakers that, among other notions, support broader interpretations of fair use, and has written books and articles that equate increased innovation with less protective intellectual property laws.”
Why the U.S. Copyright Office Wants to Run Away From Home — Copyright Office modernization, including the question of what legal structure is needed for the Office to operate most effectively, dominated this week’s final copyright review hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. The National Journal’s Kaveh Waddell takes a look at that discussion.
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index — Speaking of the Copyright Office, it released a fantastic new fair use index this week. It’s geared toward making fair use more understandable to the general public and should prove useful for individual artists and creators.
Innovation: Did Google Just Launch a New Astroturf Organization Made Out of Own Astroturf Orgs? — Says Lowery, “EFF? CCIA? CEA? CDT? MDF*? Public Knowledge? Are we getting the band back together? Is this a reunion tour?”
Get That Life: How I Co-Wrote the Music and Lyrics for “Frozen” — Great profile of Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who co-wrote “Let it Go,” from Disney’s Frozen.
How the ‘Average American’ Actually Consumes Media… — Radio and TV still top the charts.