Aug 26, 2009
The music industry's next bone to pick with content users and downloaders seems to be online lyrics, published on sites that aggregate this content for users. The National Music Publishers Association has filed a copyright infringement suit against two companies that publish lyrics online for profit. One of the companies is owned by MySpace co-founder Brad Greenspan.
To be honest, I didn't really see this one coming. There are plenty of sites that publish lyrics for free, and so maybe I underestimated the ... Read More
Aug 13, 2009
Proof that our economy continues to evolve into a knowledge economy.
In the most recent report in a series of 12 released by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), it is confirmed that U.S. Copyright Industries continue to add value to the U.S. Economy and GDP, outperforming many other industries. According to the report:
" . . . in 2007 the gross consumption expenditures and investments of the entire U.S. federal government (a much broader measure than value added) were $979.3 billion. This figure is only ... Read More
Jul 9, 2009
At a time when Michael Jackson was at the height of his entertainment career, and therefore his bargaining power with his record label, entertainment attorney John Branca negotiated a deal for Jackson that only acts like Ray Charles and Madonna have been able to duplicate: Jackson receives half of all profits from U.S. music sales (most artists get none) and a whopping 25% royalty rate on all sales (many artists get none, the best get 3% to 10%). These, however, are not ... Read More
Jul 2, 2009
Recently I had a conversation with two other attorneys that reinvigorated an interest in this topic: Whether the government could take intellectual property whenever it deemed appropriate, use it for a public purpose, and pay the previous owner just compensation. In other words, could IP become subject to the government's eminent domain powers (or limitation on its powers, however you decide to view the 5th Amendment), similar to real and other personal property? I had spent a long time mulling over this ... Read More
Jun 29, 2009
This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to review a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision which may allow lower-cost use of DVR services without cable boxes. Cablevision Systems Corporation allows users to record television shows on Cablevision's central computer servers, instead of on cable boxes in the user's home. This allows more space for recordings, and eliminates the cost of installing cable boxes to store the recordings. Cablevisions system was challenged by a number of television networks, who allege that the ... Read More
Jun 17, 2009
IP Finance posted a great informational blog today explaining the inherent characteristics of a copyright in the hands of a business, specifically during insolvency. Some of the references to particular statutes should be disregarded if you are a U.S. reader, but the gist is the same under any copyright law system. Of interest is the section on Assignment and Sale of copyright licenses. Read the entire post HERE Read More
Jun 5, 2009
A while back I had a few discussions with attorneys regarding whether you could copyright a tweet on Twitter. The discussion was sparked when it was announced that start-ups were trying to capitalize on Twitter by creating ways to monetize the 140-character "tweets" created by millions of users worldwide. This was inevitable, because when money is involved, property ownership becomes more important. If ownership of subject matter determines who gets paid a portion of any proceeds produced by that subject matter, of ... Read More
May 29, 2009
Every appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court elicits a whirlwind of scrutiny. While the current nomination of the 2nd Circuit's Judge Sonia Sotomayor has proved to be just another high school debate competition on civil rights issues for political activists and politicians, it has also proved to be unique in the fact that it brings, for the first time in a long time, considerable experience in intellectual property law to the highest court in the U.S. The 2nd Circuit is no stranger ... Read More
Apr 29, 2009
A NYT article broke the news that lawyers for the Justice Department have begun discussions with groups that oppose the book deal that Google struck with publishers and authors to place their books on Google's massive online library. The license agreements, says its opposition, would lend Google the exclusive right to exploit this literature online. According to the article, conversations have begun between the Justice Department and groups such as the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, but the Department has not ... Read More
Apr 20, 2009
I'm a little late on this one, but in case you missed it:
This documentary film was forwarded to me by my father, a professor/academician/scholar/ and self-pronounced egghead who specializes in the relationships between philosophy, theology, ethics, popular culture and preaching. The film, a product of Open Source Cinema, is called "RiP: A remix Manifesto", and touts itself as
. . . an open source documentary about copyright and remix culture. Created over a period of six years, the film features the collaborative remix work ... Read More
Ian McClure is a former corporate & securities and intellectual property law attorney with 
Trevor M. Blum is a former Associate in the Chicago-based, valuation practice group of Ocean Tomo, LLC., an intellectual property (IP) consultancy. Additionally, he provided instrumental research support to Intellectual Property Exchange International, Inc., an IP exchange start-up. Trevor holds a B.S. from Indiana University and is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on international business and finance. His interests also include entrepreneurship, economics, and informational visualization. He enjoys running and cycling in his free time. Trevor seeks to bring a transnational business perspective to the blog. 