Blog
New Compulsory License & The USPTO Green Paper Roundtable at Vanderbilt Law School - May 21, 2014
A Compulsory License to Sample Master Recordings is a very good idea. A fair, respectful and business-happy aspect of this license would be that a recording MUST be at least ten (10) years old. That way, the recording has had ample time to be sold in its original form, sales of the original recording have greatly decreased (or stopped), a new version will draw attention to the original version, the public has more art and options, and money will be generated from the rebirth of a 10 year old recording.
In Phoenix Before The Dust Storm, the Birthday of EMichaelMusic.com & John Lennon & Listen to Moses
Today I am in Phoenix, Arizona to speak to NARIP about my work in music copyright/IP, publishing and advertising, and to spout and rant too. My 3-hour interactive lecture to NARIP will take place on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 at Paradise Valley Community College. I've been referring this college as Paradise. I like to abbreviate names sometimes especially when the abbreviated name seems appropriate - this area is really beautiful!I'll also discuss digital issues and possibly the fair and essential use of sampling as well. By essential use of sampling, I am referring to situations when one MUST sample without permission in order to create a PARODY.
Harvard Law School Lecture - December 5, 2012
I will be speaking at The Harvard University Law School today between noon and 1:15 PM in Wasserstein Hall 3036. The subject will be my work in, and take on, music copyright, intellectual property, tech and entertainment issues. This is a great honor and I am very happy to have been invited.This blog post will also double as my notes or at least a guide to the order of subjects. I'll be able to see this post on a monitor or my iPhone while my iPad plays the music. I'll also bring a DVD or two, unless I choose to access the same material on the Very Wide World Spider Web.
Copyright From A - Z, Crime Before Thanksgiving, my 19th Annual Berklee Lecture, Inna & The Farlanders
At some points today, I'll select some topics for my two-hour presentation. I'll choose from these questions and issues and more:Can One Copy A Bass Line?Can One Copy A Chord Progression?Can One Copy A Guitar Solo?How To Break The Law/How To Get Away With Crime (Crime? "Fair Use" or The Perfect Crime ?)What Is Fair Use?Fair Use Done Right/WrongWhat Is Satire?What Is Parody?What Is Right of Publicity?Can One Sample?What Is A Mashup And When Are Mashups Legal/Illegal?
Igor Got Game: A Musical and Legal Comparison of The Beastie Boys and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” (1918) drew heavily upon music composed by Giovanni Pergolesi and others in the early 18th century. The Beastie Boys, an extremely popular rap/hip hop music group since the mid-1980’s, in their best-selling CD, Hello Nasty (1999) drew upon the music of Stravinsky by means of the digital sampling of Stravinsky’s “Firebird.” Both of these “borrowings” share important similarities and differences. Furthermore, these borrowings shed light on several seemingly unrelated disciplines and fields of study. These include music composition and the nature of creativity and originality, the intellectual property law of different times and societies created to protect authors from appropriations of their original works, the means by which borrowed music may be used and transmitted (sampling, digital streaming, MP3, etc.), and the business (financial, licensing, retail, broadcast, etc.) considerations involved in such borrowings.