It's "Garden of Earthly Delights" Action figures! (you know, that weird Bosch thing).

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 8:59 AM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Art

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The Intellectual Property Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormons), have sent a cease and desist letter to the owner of a small coffee shop in Utah. It seems the shop has used an image of a statue of the angel Moroni in its rather clever advertising. The church's IP office claims that this is a violation of a registered trademark.

An opinion piece in the Daily Herald sums up one side the dispute nicely but I, not being an expert in trademark law, question whether the statue could actually be trademarked. It seems that the work of art itself, commissioned by the LDS, would be protected by copyright. Anyone?

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:09 PM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Art , Enforcement & Remedies

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I will post on the SXSW policy panel in which I participated in a following post. For now, I just wanted to convey a small hint of what is South by Southwest, and why every policymaker involved in copyright in Washington and every techie developing business models involving creative works in Silicon Valley has to come here at some point. This small downtown district of Austin, Texas (most of the key clubs are on one stretch of road, 6th Street) is host for four nights to more than 1,400 bands. There are "official" SXSW bands playing at night in "official" SXSW clubs every hour on the hour at night until 2 am. There are more bands playing at "private" parties that go on until 6 am or later. There are entrepreneurial bands who didn't get an invite to SXSW but are still here playing in clubs that aren't an official part of the festival. And there are the still more entrepreneurial artists playing on streetcorners, including a male/female duo playing plastic drums and a washboard, respectively.

What do all of these artists want? Do they just want acclaim, to be appreciated, the way someone who contributes to a piece of open-source software will be satisfiied merely by the contribution itself? Um, no. They want to be signed, they want to be paid. This is capitalism at its most raw.

Continue reading SXSW: Capitalism at its Most Raw . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 1:37 PM | Art

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Many thanks to RIAA, DiMA and USTA for sponsoring a fantastic reception last night on Capitol Hill featuring one of my blues idols, Buddy Guy. I've seen him perform a half-dozen times, twice (if I recall correctly) at Wolf Trap and several times with the headliners at his Chicago club, Buddy Guy's Legends, a South Side joint I stop at every single time I'm in Chicago. (One time I was there on Buddy's birthday and his staff gave him a huge sheet cake; imagine my surprise a few minutes later when a huge bouncer handed me a piece.) But last night I was close enough to him while he performed I could have reached over and put on his purple hat.

FYI, only click to the jump if any of the above is of any interest to you.

Continue reading Buddy Guy, Legend . . .

posted by Patrick Ross @ 11:06 AM | Art

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This recent case supporting artist Jeff Koons transformation of advertising photographs into artisitic commentary makes a fine cautionary tale. Reports that the right to create such works are under assault from DRM have been much exaggerated.

One aspect of the problem is the conflusion of the right to create transformative works, with the technical power to do so with the click of a mouse. The right (as defined in this case and others like it) cannot be eroded by a technology (though it might be waived by contract). Even images DRM'd to the teeth can be printed out and scanned in or recorded again, free of DRM and free to transform. Or copied freehand. But this takes a modicum of effort and perhaps even talent. God forbid that participation in artisitic creation should require either effort or talent. The result might even be... shudder.... worth paying for.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 8:56 AM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Art

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While I give the Washington Post props for their fabulous three page comics spread and pretty extensive international coverage, I've learned over the years not to expect much from their business section. Still, that didn't prevent an article this morning from adding to my usual morning grumpiness.

Continue reading The Post on YouTube . . .

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 3:10 PM | Art , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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Yes, another really funny post from entertainment lawyer Chris Castle:

The DMCA is not an Alibi: The Googlization of Art and Artists

A sample (but please read the whole thing):

YouTube have now established the new model in the Google Nation:

Step 1: You create the art;

Step 2: Google steals it from you;

Step 3: Google makes you chase them to take it down;

Step 4: If you can afford to chase Google to try to make Google take it down and Google does take it down, the work Google stole will suddenly reappear;

Step 5: See Step 3;

Step 6: See Step 4;

Step 7: See Step 3;

Step 8: See Step 4;

Step 9: See Step 3;

Step 10: See Step 4;

Step 11: See Step 3;

Step 12: See Step 4;

Step 13: Message from Google: Tired of this yet?

Step 14: See Step 3;

Step 15: See Step 4;

Step 16: Tired of this yet? Got any money left?

Step 17: See Step 3;

Step 18: See Step 4;

Step 19: Now if you’re tired of this, or you don’t have any money left (and since we are billionaires) what we could do little artist is give you a share of the advertising revenue we are/could be selling on the pages with your artistic works. Approval over advertisers? Oh, no, we don’t do that. And of course we will do whatever we want to try to commercialize your name, likeness, song titles, genres, and the clothes that you wear. And that revenue share? We’ll decide what’s fair because we are Google and we do no evil.

Now there’s no need for name calling, we certainly don’t think we’re philistine cretins with as much appreciation for art as a stuck pig. We’re Google and we do no evil.

We call this a shakedown where I come from.

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:02 PM | Art , DMCA

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This is very enjoyable.

On the other hand, I do not see making such efforts the basis of a theory of creativity or cultural vitality, simply because it is free.

posted by Solveig Singleton @ 8:26 AM | Art

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The band The Knack is suing Run DMC, Arista Records and a bevy of distributors for the sampling of the "My Sharona" guitar riff on the single "It's Tricky."

Please, follow the link to the videos - for research purposes, of course. (I 'd forgotten about the Run DMC helicopter!)

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:22 PM | Art

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Patrick Ross, reporting from Las Vegas:

When I'm back next week I'll write more about the Vegas Music Conference (lvmc.us) but let me note some quick first impressions, including explaining the meaning of the title of this blog..

First, no offense to many of the artists here, but I confirmed this week that I'm not a huge fan of electronica. I recognize the creativity behind it, but honestly, after awhile that loud, repetitive pounding was like a pneumatic drill. Perhaps Jim would have liked it more.

The panel was fantastic. I was on the dias with two solid IP attorneys and a music publisher (more on them next week). There were several dozen songwriters in the audience, a couple dozen producers, a handful of performance artists and a few remixer DJs.

After two hours of discussion, many attendees weren't ready for it to end, and swarmed the table. A bunch of us talked for another hour. One songwriter in particular made an impression on me.

Continue reading Why Do They Hate Us? . . .

posted by Amy Smorodin @ 11:00 AM | Art , DMCA , General

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posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:45 PM | Art , Aspen , Big Tent , DMCA , DRM & Watermarks, etc. , Patents

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posted by Solveig Singleton @ 1:59 PM | Art

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posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:23 PM | Art , Legislation and Legislators , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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posted by Patrick Ross @ 5:16 PM | Art , Free Culture Movement

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posted by Amy Smorodin @ 1:44 PM | Art , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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posted by Solveig Singleton @ 11:35 AM | Access: Commons, Fair Use, Orphan Works, Public Domain , Art , Legislation and Legislators

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posted by Solveig Singleton @ 1:43 PM | Art , Big Tent , Liberty and IP , Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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posted by James DeLong @ 8:42 AM | Art

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posted by Amy Smorodin @ 11:31 AM | Art

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posted by Solveig Singleton @ 10:00 AM | Art , Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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posted by @ 12:05 PM | Art

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