Whoever said copyright was dull?

It is unrealistic to demand new business models from the press without giving it the legal tools to succeed. Here are a few things Congress can do:

- Bring copyright laws into the age of the search engine. Taking a portion of a copyrighted work can be protected under the "fair use" doctrine. But the kind of fair use in news reports, academics and the arts -- republishing a quote to comment on it, for example -- is not what search engines practice when they crawl the Web and ingest everything in their path.

Publishers should not have to choose between protecting their copyrights and shunning the search-engine databases that map the Internet. Journalism therefore needs a bright line imposed by statute: that the taking of entire Web pages by search engines, which is what powers their search functions, is not fair use but infringement.

Such a rule would be no more bold a step than the one Congress took in 1996 rewriting centuries of traditional libel law for the benefit of tech start-ups. It would take away from search engines the "just opt out" mantra -- repeated by Google's witness during the Kerry hearings -- and force them to negotiate with copyright holders over the value of their content.

From the Washington Post. Lots here to read, copy and share...

A content maker talks launch dates in the digital age

It's time for staggered releases to end. Every day they continue, more people, tired of seeing adverts and reviews of shows and movies they won't be able to buy legitimately for months or years, call up a techie friend and say "that torrenting thing, how do you do that?"

Every day these shows and movies aren't available to buy, worldwide, on the same day, for a reasonably equivalent price, more people are finding out how to get them for nothing. And once they're used to doing it that way, it's going to be harder than ever to get them back.

Naomi Alderman on film downloading in The Guardian.

SABIP and the Digital Consumer

Today, after an intense three month research phase, which might justify the spotty posts on Around Robin recently, we're going to present our findings to a closed workshop organised by SABIP, the Strategic Advisory Board on Intellectual Property Policy, in the UK. We've looked at a lot of academic data, industry research; conducted interviews and gone and had a good look at the worlds of file sharing, downloading, copying and storage. Should be interesting. Our research will be published shortly.

Facebook: funnily enough this post generated some heat

...anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.* Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

From the Consumerist. Read here for some updates.

Creative Commons, six years in

December 13, 20008. Some of the top thinkers on copyright in a digital age come together to celebrate the sixth anniversary of Creative Commons. At the Berkman centre, Harvard. There's a lot here, over an hour.

Creative Commons held a special panel and fundraiser on Friday featuring Board Chairman James Boyle, Stanford professor and CC founder Larry Lessig, CEO Joichi Ito, and former Executive Director Molly S. Van Houweling. The event kicked off with HLS Dean Elena Kagan announcing Lessig’s return to Harvard (in fall 2009) and an introduction by Charlie Nesson. Jonathan Zittrain- moderating the session- then zoomed in with his first question: where did Creative Commons start?

From the Future of the Internet blog, by Yvette Wohn.

Music is the food of marketing, so play on

And as music becomes a means to an end — pushing a separate product, whether it’s a concert ticket or a clothing line, a movie scene or a Web ad — a tectonic shift is under way. Record sales channeled the taste of the broad, volatile public into a performer’s paycheck. As music sales dwindle, licensers become a far more influential target audience. Unlike nonprofessional music fans who might immerse themselves in a song or album they love, music licensers want a track that’s attractive but not too distracting — just a tease, not a revelation.

But does this model work for any other creative content? I fear this is going to be a bad year for books. From the NYT.

Robin’s, which says it is the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia, will close next month.

More book horror here. In the new year I'm looking for the positives: E-books in particular.

No, blog will after all eat itself and then repurpose the results

I just found...

...A site dedicated to the spam and scams sent to Madame Arcati (and everyone else) - no matter how ridiculous, fraudulent or outrageous the claims on Arcati's sympathy or greed, all spam received will be showcased here.

Spam2Aracti.

Here's the business model: they need your privacy

Increasingly, privacy not pipes are the front line in the battle for broadband Britain. Put simply, we expect most of our online entertainment and information free. The music industry has discovered this to its cost, as illegal downloads proliferate. If content is to be delivered free, but with revenue to intellectual property owners, it must be supported by advertisements. Advertisers will do this only in exchange for knowledge of who is receiving their promotional message and when.

Peter Bazalgette in the FT.

When ideas fail, words come in very handy

And whereas socialism was borne of the belief that the "bourgeoisie" exploited the working class, digital socialism is largely borne of the belief that the owners of intellectual property use their rights to exploit the consuming class.

From e-consultancy.com. What goes around...