copyright

MEETUP: Bitcoin for Rockstars – a fireside chat with D.A. Wallach – Sunday Jan 25

Posted on by joly

Bitcoin for RockstarsOn Sunday 25 January 2015, at 4pm the Internet Society’s New York Chapter(ISOC-NY) will present “Bitcoin for Rockstars – a fireside chat with D.A. Wallach” at TurnToTech NYC. The traditional existing methods of registering works and distributing music royalties are archaic, arcane, inefficient, and unsuited to the global networked marketplace. D.A. Wallach recently proposed thata decentralized, open, global ledger, based on bitcoin style blockchain technology, as an optimal solution for credits and rights information about music. Then a system of “smart contracts” could facilitate the distribution of funds. Thus:

In the proposed music rights network, each song, recording, rights-holder, creator, and payor would have its own unique address on the ledger. And complimenting this ledger would be “smart contracts,” programmatic rules defining how the addresses relate to each other and automating their interactions. For example, Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” would have its own address, as would Katy Perry herself, each of her collaborators, and each of the companies entitled to royalties from the song. One set of “smart contracts” could connect all of these addresses to one another.

Spotify, YouTube and other services could then issue all-in royalty micro-payments (aggregating all negotiated fees) directly to the “Dark Horse” address every time the song is played. The smart contracts connected to the “Dark Horse” address would recognize the source of the payment—say, Spotify—and then instantly split and redirect royalties to all the addresses entitled to payments from the service for the song. Katy Perry, her label, her publisher, and her collaborators would all have total visibility into payments received by the “Dark Horse” address, and each would receive its shares instantly in its own wallet. This software-based relay station for royalty and licensing payments would put creators at the center of the action, allowing them to understand how much money their works were generating, and from which services or licensees. It would also give artists and songwriters instant access to the funds generated by their work, obviating the long waiting periods they currently endure.

We invite you, on a Sunday afternoon, to join D.A. Wallach and ISOC-NY to explore this fascinating concept! Our interlocutor will be Aram Sinnreich of Rutgers University. Please RSVP via ISOC-NY’s meetup.

What: Bitcoin for Rockstars – a fireside chat with D.A. Wallach
Where: TurnToTech, 184 5th Ave, 4th Floor, NYC (@22nd St)
When: Sunday January 25 2014 – 4pm-6pm | 2100-2300 UTC
Webcast: https://new.livestream.com/internetsociety/bitcoinforrockstars
Register: http://www.meetup.com/isoc-ny/events/219873421/
Twitter: #bitcoinforrockstars

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INET New York: An Open Forum on the Copyright Alert System – Nov 15 @ New York Law School

Posted on by joly

INET New YorkOn Thursday November 15 2012 the Internet Society’s North American Bureau in collaboration with its New York Chapter (ISOC-NY) will present INET New York: An Open Forum on The Copyright Alert System – a half-day conference at New York Law School. Public advocacy organizations and Internet users will have the opportunity to participate in a multistakeholder dialogue on key issues relating to the Copyright Alert System (CAS) – sometimes called the 6 strikes program, and due to kick off on November 28 2012 – with representatives and members of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) which is administering the system.

Registration is now open (free), and you can also ask questions in advance, via the links below. It is not necessary to register for the webcast, but you can via our meetup group.

What: INET New York: An Open Forum on The Copyright Alert System
When: November 15 2012 – 3-7pm
Program: http://www.internetsociety.org/events/inet-new-york/inet-new-york-agenda
Webcast: http://www.livestream.com/internetsocietychapters
Twitter: #inetny | #copyright | #6strikes
Registration: http://www.internetsociety.org/events/inet-new-york/ (free)
Questions: http://inetny2012.backchan.nl/
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Internet Society Joins Opposition to Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

Posted on by joly

Policies mandating DNS filtering undermine the open architecture of the Internet and raise human rights and freedom of expression concerns

[Washington, D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland – 12 December 2011] – The Internet Society Board of Trustees has expressed concern with a number of U.S. legislative proposals that would mandate DNS blocking and filtering by ISPs to protect the interests of copyright holders. While the Internet Society agrees that combating illicit online activity is an important public policy objective, these critical issues must be addressed in ways that do not undermine the viability of the Internet as a platform for innovation across all industries by compromising its global architecture. The Internet Society Board of Trustees does not believe that the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are consistent with these basic principles.
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Internet Society statement on DNS Filtering in the US

Posted on by joly

The Internet Society has noted with concern a number of U.S. legislative proposals that would mandate DNS blocking and filtering by ISPs in order to protect the interests of copyright holders. We agree with proponents of the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that combating illegal online activities is a very important public policy objective. However, policies that are enacted to achieve this goal must not undermine the viability of the Internet as a globally reachable platform. After close examination and consultation with the Internet community, we do not believe that the current U.S. legislative proposals are consistent with these basic principles.

In particular, we are concerned with provisions in both laws regarding DNS filtering. DNS filtering is often proposed as a way to block illegal content consumption by end users. Yet policies to mandate DNS filtering have not proven to be effective – these approaches interfere with cross-border data flows and services undermining innovation and social development across the globe. In addition, DNS blocking raises significant concerns with respect to human rights and freedom of expression and may curtail fundamental international principles of rule of law and due process.

The United States has an important leadership role when it comes to online Internet freedoms and should show the way when it comes to balancing local responsibilities and global impact, especially with respect to Internet policy.

In short, the negative impact of DNS filtering far outweighs any short-term, narrow, legal, and commercial benefits. The Internet Society believes that sustained, global collaboration amongst all parties is needed to find ways that protect the global architecture of the Internet while combating illegal online activities. We must all work to support the principles of innovation and freedom of expression upon which the Internet was founded.

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William Patry – Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars (video)

Posted on by joly

patry_bookThe Intellectual Property Law Society at Cardozo School of Law kicked off its annual program by inviting former faculty member William F. Patry, now Senior Copyright Counsel at Google, to give a lunchtime talk based on his new book – ‘Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars’ (Oxford University Press). Patry is one of the most prolific writers around on the copyright topic having authored the 7-volume “Patry on Copyright” – a definitive work. In the new book he argues that copyright is a utilitarian government program – not a property or moral right. As a government program, copyright must be regulated and held accountable to ensure it is effectively serving its public purpose. The talk was descriptive rather than prescriptive but served to delineate anomalous areas deserving of fixes. Patry also professed a fondness for the simpler schemas of the 1909 act.  Video/audio is available below.

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Video/Audio of Stallman @ Cardozo

Posted on by joly

Audio and video of Richard Stallman’s recent speech Community vs. Copyright at NYC’s Cardozo School of Law can be found here. Stallman argued that the current copyright regime is incongruous in the digital age, and no longer serves the public interest. He suggested solutions that included new classifications of works and massively reducing the protection period.
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Lawrence Lessig – “Remix” @NYU Sunday

Posted on by joly

ISOC-NY is a co-sponsor of Evan Korth’s Computers & Society speaker series at NYU this fall. The next talk is this Sunday. It will feature Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford University. His topic is “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.”

The content industry has convinced industry in general that extremism in copyright regulation is good for business and economic growth. In this talk, Professor Lessig describes the creative and profitable future that culture and industry could realize, if only we gave up IP extremism.

Date: Sun November 9 2008
Time: 6pm – 7pm
Location:
Warren Weaver Hall NYU
251 Mercer Street
Rm 109 New York, NY 10012

Members and public welcome. Enter via W. 4th St. Photo ID required.

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In Brief

Posted on by David Solomonoff
  • CircleID reports on Vint Cerf’s views regarding Government’s Role in Internet Broadband Access: “Perhaps the Internet should be treated more like the road system. You don’t have multiple roads going to your house for example. Instead, it is a common resource.”
  • ars technica discusses how bandwidth caps could lead to ISPs benefiting from piracy. But they predict that the profits to be made from charging high bandwidth users a premium will also create an incentive for ISP’s to filter content suspected of copyright infringement. They also cover the recent survey results by the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Internet and American Life project suggesting that the US broadband market is edging towards saturation. The study suggests that there are still significant untapped
    markets for broadband – but they would require significant investments in
    infrastructure or lowered prices. 14% of those surveyed said they simply couldn’t get broadband in their area. By contrast, British Telecommunications (BT) claims more than 99% of British households have access to broadband, although speeds remain an issue for those in rural areas.
  • Dan Brickley talks about how the recent court decision requiring Google to turn over YouTube user logs in the Viacomm infringement suit has broader privacy implications. With the Social Graph API, a new Google service, personal information from YouTube accounts that
    was already public is increasingly accessible to automated processing.