I’ve waited two days to write about President-Elect Barack Obama because it seemed, well, rather silly to localize this tremendously historic, emotional and moving event with an examination of copyright policy. I still feel silly, but Obama started working on his transition first thing Wednesday morning (well, actually news reports said he started with breakfast [...]

More scholarship out today on the role of performing rights organizations (PROs) in the digital marketplace, and it’s worth reading. “Creative Industries in Transition: New Directions for the Digital Era — The Songwriters’ Performing Rights Organization Imperative and Copyright Law for the Electronic Media Marketplace” debuted today at a symposium sponsored by the George Washington [...]

As readers of this blog likely know already, yesterday President Bush signed into law the PRO-IP Act of 2008. We were quick to praise the President and the White House, who joined with an overwhelmingly bipartisan coalition in Congress in support of this important legislation.
Early next year the new president should be appointing an [...]

Passage of PRO-IP in the House and Senate wasn’t the only major congressional development this week. This development involves free-market negotiations. Longtime readers will know I’ve written for years about the merits of market-negotiated agreements over statutory rate decisions, and nowhere is a fresh does of market reality more needed than in the music business. [...]

The intellectual property rights enforcement bill, S. 3325, passed the US Senate Friday and the US House on Sunday. This legislation, once signed by the President, will give new tools to federal, state and local officials to enforce existing copyright laws and thus defend the rights of creators and copyright owners.
After moving to the House, [...]

There was a lot of talent and a lot of political firepower yesterday in the Russell Senate Caucus Room, a room where a former senator told me various Kennedys have announced whether or not they would run for President over the years. We heard no such announcement yesterday at the 2nd Annual Copyright EXPOnential, but [...]

My sympathies to anyone who didn’t make it over to the Russell Senate Caucus Room yesterday for our 2nd annual Copyright Alliance EXPOnential. Once again, Copyright Alliance members outdid themselves demonstrating the wide range of copyright industries and how those industries are innovating to bring consumers ever-more imaginative ways to enjoy creative works.
First, let me [...]

We’re at a critical economic moment right now. Obviously the eye-opening upheaval on Wall Street should be of immediate attention to policymakers, but that’s not the crossroads of which I’m thinking.
The critical moment I’m thinking of is very real and can have long-term economic ramifications. If we act, it will mean saving potentially hundreds of [...]

NASHVILLE — This is my second year speaking here, and I’m actually having more fun here than the year before. Great music, great people, great town.
Once again I served on the only policy-related panel. Despite the fact that this is not a policy conference, every seat was taken in our panel, which was moderated by [...]

It is in my humble opinion a no-brainer that everybody wins when copyright laws are better enforced. Creators see their rights upheld. Both creators and their partners in distribution earn more due to a decrease in lost sales. Federal, state and local governments see tax revenue increases as goods that are taxed (legitimate creative works) [...]