Rapid advances in technology have been occurring since the Renaissance, and yet sometimes the greatest advocates of advancement fail to predict where science will go. In the 19th Century Lord Kelvin was a father of modern physics, identifying absolute zero, naming kinetic energy, and setting in motion the identification of the second law of thermodynamics. [...]

Today the Senate Commerce Committee voted 24-1 to approve Julius Genachowski as the next Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission; recently Mr. Genachowski gave a very strong statement to that Committee on the importance of copyright enforcement and how he at the FCC would respect the rights of creators. The full US Senate is expected [...]

WASHINGTON – I spoke on the opening panel here at CISAC’s 2nd World Copyright Summit at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, which puts the Minoan labyrinth to shame. I had the pleasure of following the opening keynote of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), whose moving address I will highlight in a separate post. Responding to [...]

In today’s 24-hour news cycle, it’s easy for misinformation to spread, particularly when reporters rely on dispatches from other reporters in writing their own copy. We saw a wildfire like that last week, when officials from the creative and ISP industries spoke at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville. Numerous — and erroneous — [...]

Here’s a recent piece of prose from an accomplished writer, Cory Doctorow: The Internet’s a single wire that delivers freedom of speech, of assembly and of the press — it’s a conduit for civic engagement, health care, employment, education, distant family, love and life. Disconnecting people from the Internet on the basis of an unsubstantiated [...]

Numbers. We encounter them every day. How much investors lost on Wall Street in 2008. How many billions the U.S. government will spend to stimulate the economy. How many trillions our national debt will reach. And yes, how many legal vs. illegal music downloads occur online. The latest entry in the numbers race comes from [...]

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA –A warning, fair readers, this entry will address the issue of network neutrality. Those who think too much digital ink has been spilled on that topic are free to move on. For the rest of you, before we get to the main course let me serve up an appetizer involving artists. It [...]

How many times have we seen this before? A federal policymaker speaks on copyright and makes several cogent and reasonable remarks about the cost of piracy and steps by the private sector to reduce that threat and provide more legal alternatives to consumers. An online critic of copyright generates hits by providing his like-minded readers [...]

HOLLYWOOD, CA:  I've been speaking for several years now on the fact
that the creative industries continue to show more flexibility in terms of
licensing their works to platforms and distributors. What's nice is, every time
I speak at a conference like Digital
Hollywood, there is still more evidence to support that, and more panelists
and attendees who not only agree with it but are living it.

HOLLYWOOD, Cal. — Two keynoters at the Tech Policy Summit here are familiar faces in Washington, and both had positive things to say about copyright and artists' rights.