Help Us Spotify; You’re Our Only Hope! (Part 14 of our Online Music Services Series)
The Planets Align for the Music Industry. Will it Be Enough? In our last post, we examined the overlapping music-licensing regimes to explain, in part, why it took Spotify two years to get licensed in the U.S. We also looked at the music industry’s unhappy history...
Help Us Spotify; You're Our Only Hope! (Part 14 of our Online Music Services Series)
The Planets Align for the Music Industry. Will it Be Enough? In our last post, we examined the overlapping music-licensing regimes to explain, in part, why it took Spotify two years to get licensed in the U.S. We also looked at the music industry’s unhappy history...
Spotify: A New Hope (Part 13 of our Online Music Services Series)
Or, the Attractions (and Distractions) of Licensing Spotify has been available in the United States for a few months now. Until the recent kerfuffle involving its Facebook integration, the reviews have been positive. If you review the features list with which we...
I Know Fair Use When I See It: A Copyright Complex
Welcome to the Game We're Calling, "Is It Fair Use?" I’m starting a new occasional series called, “Is it Fair Use?” where I set out the facts from an actual copyright or trademark decision involving fair use, and you get to guess how the court ruled.* * This idea is...
Rick Is a "Best Lawyer": This Time with Proof!
Tara reported a couple of weeks ago that I had been selected as a "Best Lawyer" in the field of Intellectual Property Litigation. Upon hearing of this outlandish claim, some of you may reasonably have demanded proof. Heck, I demanded proof. Well, here it is. (I...
Rick Sanders' Online Music Blog Series Recognized by The Next Web.
As many of you know, Rick Sanders has been posting a series of blog entries on online music sources and their legal status (or lack thereof) under U.S. copyright law. Recently, Brad McCarty of The Next Web contacted Rick to discuss Apple's imminent iCloud, and what...
Hart v. EA: Are Publicity Rights in the Game?
Free Speech Sacks Publicity Rights (but Was it Offside?) A few weekends ago I blogged about publicity rights in connection with a Vampire Weekend album cover. One of my main points was that publicity rights are a lot like copyright, except that it’s a right held by...
Turntable.fm: Can Internet Radio Consist of Rotating Guest DJs? (Part 12 in our Online Music Service Series)
Is Turntable.fm Too Cool for the Webcasting Tribe? In our last two posts in this series, we saw how Pandora had to jump through about twelve hoops to come under the statutory webcaster license (just for the right to pay statutory royalties!), and even then, its...
Pandora Almost Wasn’t: the Definition of “Interactive” (Part 11 of our Online Music Services Series)
When "Unique" Doesn't Mean "Special" (and Why that Actually Makes Sense) Last time, we looked at how venerable Pandora fits into the legal ecosystem of online music services. It’s a webcaster, which means that, if it plays its cards exactly right, it can avail itself...
Pandora Almost Wasn't: the Definition of "Interactive" (Part 11 of our Online Music Services Series)
When "Unique" Doesn't Mean "Special" (and Why that Actually Makes Sense) Last time, we looked at how venerable Pandora fits into the legal ecosystem of online music services. It’s a webcaster, which means that, if it plays its cards exactly right, it can avail itself...
Pandora Almost Wasn't: the Definition of "Interactive" (Part 11 of our Online Music Services Series)
When "Unique" Doesn't Mean "Special" (and Why that Actually Makes Sense) Last time, we looked at how venerable Pandora fits into the legal ecosystem of online music services. It’s a webcaster, which means that, if it plays its cards exactly right, it can avail itself...
BarCamp Nashville Blog Tour Post: From Camp Novice to Speaker Alum in 20 Minutes
Going from a no-clue, totally novice rookie Podcamper to a seasoned veteran Camp alum took literally twenty minutes on a Saturday morning this past March. By the time it was done, I was such an expert I even got called to speak at SpeakerUp because of my vast...
