Another vendor of online music is selling sound recordings
without the traditional DRM that blocks transmission of the work among devices;
these are of course sound recordings that have been released by their label
with these fewer restrictions. Several thoughts on this:

1. It's amusing to see the Digital Freedom campaign put out hyperbolic
statements praising these actions by online retailers because, after all,
it is the producers of those works agreeing to sell them this way.

Pike & Fischer was kind enough to have me speak
on a panel on Digital Rights Management and Web 2.0 this morning. It was a
broad discussion, involving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, liability,
etc. I focused my remarks on the importance of remembering the creator. When we
hear about a spiffy new online service whose business model is based on using
someone else's content, and then copyright is raised, people say "How can we
ensure that people continue to enjoy this popular new service?" The thing is,
it's not the service that's popular, it's the creative works found on the
service. People have a strong personal connection with creative works, and
that's what we need to preserve online.

William Patry, who usually is a bit more mature
about such things, has chosen twice
in the last
week to dedicate a lengthy blog entry criticizing the Copyright Alliance,
once comparing me to Joe McCarthy (he has since deleted that reference). It's
hard to know with him where his commentary ends and Google's begins, given he
is their senior copyright counsel. I'm choosing to believe he doesn't speak for
the whole organization, because his commentary doesn't reflect other, more
positive feedback I've heard privately from Google executives.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a reliable study pointing
out how fair use benefits the U.S.
economy? I say it would be great, because copyrighted works are the source of
fair use, so fair use is enabled by the copyright industries. Unfortunately,
the Computer & Communications Industry Association today published a study
that is anything but reliable. We had a statement here, but
Nick Carr really
called it out for what it is. Way to go, Nick.

Well, it's been almost four months since we launched the Copyright Alliance. We've added new members, seen our grassroots list grow, and felt the buzz that comes with being recognized as a constructive part of the debate. But let's face it, a big part of the copyright debate today is held online. Let's also admit that most of those voices — reflecting their lack of background in the creation of valued copyrighted works and viewing technology as a tool to enable them to do anything they want — have not been very friendly to copyright or the creators who benefit from them.