"However, as a practicing attorney in the music business..."
I'm curious to know if you represent record labels or artists. Because these two groups have very different goals and desires when it comes to how music revenue gets distributed.
"But the license and royalties these services provide are simply inadequate to assure that composers and artists can be fairly compensated for their work."
BS. The money these services generate could fairly compensate composers and artists for their work if a massive percentage of it wasn't kept by the record labels.
"Of course, if we required Spotify and other services to pay adequate royalties to compensate artist and composers in a manner comparable to amounts paid in the old system, these services would fail financially."
Again, the problem is not the amount of money the services pay, it's how much the labels keep.
"Sure they pay billions but it is not even a fraction of what they should be paying if artists are to be compensated fairly."
See above.
"The only solution is a revision to copyright laws that requires that these services generate sufficient funds through subscriptions and otherwise to fairly compensate artists."
At the risk of repeating myself, how about instead a revision to copyright laws that requires that record labels pay enough to fairly compensate artists.
From all the points you've made, I suspect I know the answer to my first question.
"This is where you twist things and act like the complete tech douche you are."
Sounds more like this is where you can't come up with a compelling argument so you resort to childish insults. Again...
"I'm betting with the next legal action they will."
Betting against a strong losing streak may get you a fluke win in sports, not legal precedents don't quite work that way.
"Everyone knows you and Google's game, Masnick: try to destroy what little protections creators have and then exploit their work for profit."
You've just described the MO of most of the big content industries (not the creators). Trying to gain sympathy by accusing the tech industry of mistreating artists is galling in its abject hypocrisy. Even if there was truth in it, you're certainly not the ones who get you say it out loud.
See, this is why people call you a troll. We do know that the current copyright terms are detrimental, the evidence is overwhelming. We also know the only people claiming otherwise are large corps who are only interested in protecting their cash cow. It's not artists who benefit, its the companies that hold their copyrights. Why else would they argue an artist's work needs protection decades after their death?
"But, you guys keep forgetting that you can't argue fair use while taking a property like Star Trek, making a professional film and making money from it."
Of course you can. That's exactly what they're doing. They are arguing that very fact.
"Axanar Productions using Kickstarter to generate funds and providing a digital copy or a copy for home use is "making money" from the "Star Trek" property without getting permission from the copyright owners."
There is a long established legal history of commercial operations being found to be fair use. Making money off it does not discount fair use, no matter how manner times you say it does.
"What many forget is that "Star Trek: Axanar" is not fair use, no matter how much people claim it is."
Fair use is not something you remember or forget, it's something that's determined in a court of law.
"Star Trek: Axanar is NOT transformative."
So a completely original story, dialogue and characters is not transformative? I think you might not understand what the word means.
"This film is different than the other 'cheaply' made Star Trek fan movies that are available through youtube."
Can you point to the section of copyright law that establishes "different to other fan movies on YouTube" as some sort of demarcation?
All these claims of yours have little legal weight, and instead come off as "I really don't like this so it must be copyright infringement!" You'll need to try a lot harder. You might end up being correct when you say that they'll lose, as fair use cases can be pretty hard to call beforehand, but it's just as well you're not arguing Paramount's case for them...
Can't argue the message so you just try lamely to dis the messanger instead. Not surprising.
Also, are you suggesting that using a VPN to circumvent geoblocking does "break copyright" (whatever that means)? Can you point to the section of copyright law that outlaws this?
It's pretty clear from your attitude that you just want him in jail for the CP he hasn't even been changed for, not contempt of court. At least be honest about that.
"Wow. Never thought I'd see the techdirt community defending someone who traffics in child porn."
That's because, as I said above, you've lost the ability to think rationally about anything CP-related. Nothing in the article defends CP in any way, shape or form. Feel free to point out specifics if you think I'm wrong.
It is vital to vigorously protect the rights and laws put in place to protect the people from governmental or law enforcement overreach. They were put there for good reason, usually as a result of decades or centuries of suffering by ALL people, not just people you happen to despise. If you choose to ignore these protections for bad people, you effectively give permission to ignore them for everyone else too.
You sound very much like your understandable hatred of child porn has fried your brain to the point of not understanding the terrible precedent you'd like the courts to set. Don't worry, your affliction is sadly common.
"You won't even consider a valid issue, and instead dismiss it out of hand."
Probably because most of the concerns you raise should not be as big a deal as you make out and quite frankly are worth it. Some cops need to be watched, and so do plenty of the citizens cops interact with. All these "problems" need to be dealt with intelligently instead of being used as excuses.
How would you make an anti-trust case against Apple? In what way are they blocking their competitors? There are perfectly viable (even superior) options to everything Apple offers.
It's not a good point at all, because the people did not have the power to remove a monarchy once they realized they had a problem. You only have to look at the likes of IBM, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Yahoo, MySpace, etc to see that companies in a dominant market position have no guarantee of holding that position any longer than their customers want.
"I appreciate the point the article is trying to make, but I think it's a bit unfair to paint any opposition as strictly trying to keep a captive market."
It's up to optometrists to convince the paying public that it's worth paying more to get the benefits you describe. That's called competition. Running to the government for a law change that kills off your competitors instead of competing on merit is the very definition of a captive market.
It would take an extraordinary amount of willful ignorance to believe that the FBI's message has been anything other than "This is critical!" the whole way along.
"Google creates many of their own problems, so they deserve to stand in what the made."
An unsurprisingly simplistic view. The problem at hand is not of Google's making, and the behavior of Hood and the MPAA should not be tolerated no matter who the target is.
On the post: You're Entitled To Your Own Opinions, But Not Your Own Facts About Copyright, NY Times Edition
Re: Music Industry
I'm curious to know if you represent record labels or artists. Because these two groups have very different goals and desires when it comes to how music revenue gets distributed.
"But the license and royalties these services provide are simply inadequate to assure that composers and artists can be fairly compensated for their work."
BS. The money these services generate could fairly compensate composers and artists for their work if a massive percentage of it wasn't kept by the record labels.
"Of course, if we required Spotify and other services to pay adequate royalties to compensate artist and composers in a manner comparable to amounts paid in the old system, these services would fail financially."
Again, the problem is not the amount of money the services pay, it's how much the labels keep.
"Sure they pay billions but it is not even a fraction of what they should be paying if artists are to be compensated fairly."
See above.
"The only solution is a revision to copyright laws that requires that these services generate sufficient funds through subscriptions and otherwise to fairly compensate artists."
At the risk of repeating myself, how about instead a revision to copyright laws that requires that record labels pay enough to fairly compensate artists.
From all the points you've made, I suspect I know the answer to my first question.
On the post: A Dozen Bad Ideas That Were Raised At The Copyright Office's DMCA Roundtables
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Sounds more like this is where you can't come up with a compelling argument so you resort to childish insults. Again...
"I'm betting with the next legal action they will."
Betting against a strong losing streak may get you a fluke win in sports, not legal precedents don't quite work that way.
"Everyone knows you and Google's game, Masnick: try to destroy what little protections creators have and then exploit their work for profit."
You've just described the MO of most of the big content industries (not the creators). Trying to gain sympathy by accusing the tech industry of mistreating artists is galling in its abject hypocrisy. Even if there was truth in it, you're certainly not the ones who get you say it out loud.
On the post: UK Gov't Pushing For 10-Year Jail Sentences For Copyright Infringement Based On ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re:
See, this is why people call you a troll. We do know that the current copyright terms are detrimental, the evidence is overwhelming. We also know the only people claiming otherwise are large corps who are only interested in protecting their cash cow. It's not artists who benefit, its the companies that hold their copyrights. Why else would they argue an artist's work needs protection decades after their death?
On the post: The Fight Over Copyrighting Klingon Heats Up, And Gets More Ridiculous
Re:
Of course you can. That's exactly what they're doing. They are arguing that very fact.
"Axanar Productions using Kickstarter to generate funds and providing a digital copy or a copy for home use is "making money" from the "Star Trek" property without getting permission from the copyright owners."
There is a long established legal history of commercial operations being found to be fair use. Making money off it does not discount fair use, no matter how manner times you say it does.
"What many forget is that "Star Trek: Axanar" is not fair use, no matter how much people claim it is."
Fair use is not something you remember or forget, it's something that's determined in a court of law.
"Star Trek: Axanar is NOT transformative."
So a completely original story, dialogue and characters is not transformative? I think you might not understand what the word means.
"This film is different than the other 'cheaply' made Star Trek fan movies that are available through youtube."
Can you point to the section of copyright law that establishes "different to other fan movies on YouTube" as some sort of demarcation?
All these claims of yours have little legal weight, and instead come off as "I really don't like this so it must be copyright infringement!" You'll need to try a lot harder. You might end up being correct when you say that they'll lose, as fair use cases can be pretty hard to call beforehand, but it's just as well you're not arguing Paramount's case for them...
On the post: Australian Gov't Commission: Copyright Is Copywrong; Hurting The Public And Needs To Be Fixed
Re:
Also, are you suggesting that using a VPN to circumvent geoblocking does "break copyright" (whatever that means)? Can you point to the section of copyright law that outlaws this?
On the post: So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password
Re:
It's pretty clear from your attitude that you just want him in jail for the CP he hasn't even been changed for, not contempt of court. At least be honest about that.
On the post: So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password
Re:
That's because, as I said above, you've lost the ability to think rationally about anything CP-related. Nothing in the article defends CP in any way, shape or form. Feel free to point out specifics if you think I'm wrong.
It is vital to vigorously protect the rights and laws put in place to protect the people from governmental or law enforcement overreach. They were put there for good reason, usually as a result of decades or centuries of suffering by ALL people, not just people you happen to despise. If you choose to ignore these protections for bad people, you effectively give permission to ignore them for everyone else too.
On the post: So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password
Re:
On the post: Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood Withdraws Google Subpoena As Google Appeals Court Ruling
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: FBI Says It Will Ignore Court Order If Told To Reveal Its Tor Browser Exploit, Because It Feels It's Above The Law...
Re: Re:
On the post: Illinois Police Department Pulls Plug On Body Cameras Because Accountability Is 'A Bit Burdensome'
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Missed it
Probably because most of the concerns you raise should not be as big a deal as you make out and quite frankly are worth it. Some cops need to be watched, and so do plenty of the citizens cops interact with. All these "problems" need to be dealt with intelligently instead of being used as excuses.
On the post: Netflix CEO Says Annoyed VPN Users Are 'Inconsequential'
Re:
On the post: EU Officially Goes After Google's Android On Antitrust Grounds
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: EU Officially Goes After Google's Android On Antitrust Grounds
Re:
On the post: EU Officially Goes After Google's Android On Antitrust Grounds
Re: Re:
On the post: Optometrists Push For State Laws Blocking Online Eye Exams
Re:
It's up to optometrists to convince the paying public that it's worth paying more to get the benefits you describe. That's called competition. Running to the government for a law change that kills off your competitors instead of competing on merit is the very definition of a captive market.
On the post: Court Shoots Down Cops Attempting To Prop Up Two Warrantless Searches With A Stack Of Lies
Re: [citation required]
On the post: Apparently Hacking Syed Farook's iPhone Accomplished Nothing (Other Than Making Everyone Less Safe)
Re:
On the post: Appeals Court Says Google Must Take Further Abuse From AG Jim Hood Before It Can Challenge Hood's Abusive Behavior
Re:
On the post: Appeals Court Says Google Must Take Further Abuse From AG Jim Hood Before It Can Challenge Hood's Abusive Behavior
Re: Re: Re: google smoogle
An unsurprisingly simplistic view. The problem at hand is not of Google's making, and the behavior of Hood and the MPAA should not be tolerated no matter who the target is.
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