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‘Dear Fred’, from Dick Huey
“I had a problem with part of your last post, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until about 4 AM, when the realization finally struck me,” says Nashville entertainment lawyer Fred Wilhelms who, on behalf of his clients and unpaid artists everywhere, has been doing battle with the SoundExhange (SX), the now independent collection agency which was once part and parcel of the RIAA, with all that implies. Do former connections just fade away? In July, 2007, “an unsigned Reader’s Write accused Fred Wilhelms of having a vested interest in criticizing SoundExchange for not paying artists,” said p2pnet last month, continuing »»» The author later proved to be Dick Huey (right), one of the RIAA-appointed ‘label representatives’ on the SoundExchange board of directors.
Continue reading »‘Grave concerns’ over ACTA
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Last week, “the United States met behind closed doors with dozens of other countries in Seoul, South Korea to consider a global agreement on the enforcement of intellectual property rights,” say KEI and Public Knowledge in a joint statement. “This agreement, though named the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), implicates changes to international intellectual property norms far broader than its name suggests,” they say to the US Senate Judiciary Committee; Senate Finance Committee; House Committee on the Judiciary; House Committee on Energy and Commerce; and, House Committee on Ways and Means. “We write today to register our grave concerns with the provisions purportedly contained within ACTA, and their effects upon the public,” say the two public interest organisations, going on »»» We have often expressed our concerns about the need for transparency of this negotiation, and have joined others in asking the Congress and the Administration to open this negotiation to public oversight and input, as is customary in other areas of global norm setting for intellectual property rules.
Continue reading »Will Facebook thumb its nose at Canada?
p2pnet news view Advertising | Politics:- Fa$ebook is no different from any other company which pulls its money from online advertising. If it’s told to straighten up its act for any reason, it’ll endlessly delay and prevaricate, dragging things out to the absolute last moment before it complies, and even then, it’ll beg for more time. And it’ll get it.
Continue reading »UK Musicians Denounce “Three-Strikes” Proposal
Cites US music industry’s failure despite more than 30,000 lawsuits against illegal file-sharers as proof that it won’t succeed. It was about 3 weeks ago now that UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, head of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , and whom ultimately is tasked with implementing the recommendations for dealing with illegal file-sharing as outlined in the Digital Britain report , reportedly ordered his staff to come up with plans for a crackdown on illegal file-sharers that includes giving ISPs the power to disconnect repeat offenders ala a “three-strikes” graduated response system. After first denying the proposal, the BIS later confirmed it, saying that its “ thinking has evolved ” on the use of “further technical measures” that includes “as a last resort” the power “to suspend a subscriber’s account.” It feels that the current timetable , which stands at 2-3 yrs for a 70% reduction using a combination of notifications and technical measures, would take an “unacceptable amount of time to complete in a situation that calls for urgent action.” UK ISPs have already blasted the proposal , saying that it will “likely breach fundamental human rights and result in innocent people being disconnected or, worse, prosecuted.” Now a number of music artists represented by the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca), and the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have all united to publicly denounce the “three-strikes” plan as well.
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