The Property Rights Alliance (PRA) has outdone itself with the 2010 International Property Rights Index (IPRI) Report, which once again highlights the close coordination of strong rule of law and physical and intellectual property rights in a nation’s economic success. The latest data shows those countries in the top quintile on those yardsticks have an [...]

More people are watching video over the Internet than ever before. It is becoming increasingly easy to stream online video on your television, bringing the lean-back and lean-forward technologies together in a pleasant way. We want this to continue, right?
There are two challenges facing the growth of a legal online video market. One is piracy. [...]

The national nonprofit dedicated to advancing the arts in the United States, Americans for the Arts, released today the National Arts Index by Roland J. Kushner and Randy Cohen, a report that analyzes the health and vitality of the arts and culture in the United States. It looks at 76 national-level indicators of artistic and [...]

Congrats to the coalition of self-described “consumer groups” that have sent letters to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission urging the federal government to step in, strip audiovisual content creators of their rights, and force all of their content online available to any distributor at prices set by someone other [...]

A friend made a comment to me, though somewhat in jest, that she thought I was too “organized” and “level-headed” to be an artist. I brushed off the remark; she has seen some of my paintings – and likes them – so I know it wasn’t a statement about the quality of my work. I [...]

“We’re returning to a prior age, one where the economics of music are about performances, not recordings. You know, copyright on recorded music is only about 100 years old.”
So said a professor at a dinner I attended the other night. I like this professor, he knows a fair amount about copyright (even if his area [...]

Like all creative industries, the photography industry is undergoing significant change. Technologies have been of benefit to professional photographers by easing legal distribution and creating new models for licensing, and have helped them to better express themselves in their art. But technologies have also enabled infringement of their works, and have created avenues for less [...]

Free. Friday night dinner in undergrad. My friends and I would hop from one art show opening to another and graze the complimentary cheese and wine table to make an evening dinner.
Today I only go to art show openings if I’m interested in the art. I wouldn’t dream of going out of my way to [...]

I remember seeing a Seinfeld episode where Kramer – who was always full of brilliant ideas – decided that he wanted to open a make-your-own-pizza restaurant. When he unveils his concept to Jerry, the look on Jerry’s face is one of awe. He says something to Kramer like, ‘the reason why people get pizza is [...]

Today history is in the making. Call me overzealous if you must, but I do believe that today marks a point in history that artists and creators will remember.
Over 7,000 artists (and counting) have signed a letter to President Obama and Vice President Biden that calls on the Administration to recognize the important social, cultural, [...]