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The astounding arrogance of the Associated Press has managed to wake me from my blogslumber. They are suggesting that bloggers must pay for any quote of their work more than four words long. In other words, you could quote them saying “We’re clueless idiots” for free, but quoting them saying “We are idiots without a clue” would cost you $12.50.

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The music industry, bleeding profusely from largely self inflicted wounds, is proposing to volunteer your wallet to bind their wounds:

Edgar Bronfman Jr.‘s Warner Music Group has tapped industry veteran Jim Griffin to spearhead a controversial plan to bundle a monthly fee into consumers’ internet-service bills for unlimited access to music.

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The recent scandal involving Eliot “Ho No” Spitzer and a prostitute has brought a rather interesting aspect of copyright and our web personas to the legal forefront:

Since her identity was disclosed, newspapers and Web sites have splashed photos of Ashley Alexandra Dupre in suggestive poses on front and inside pages. Dupre was known as “Kristen” in court documents accusing Spitzer of paying thousands for prostitutes’ services.

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I suppose we should have seen this coming. The Blogosphere has been compared to the idea that if you put several million monkeys in front of keyboards, one or two of them will write something worthwhile. What we didn’t realize is that some Real World book author might then take that monkey’s words … and publish them as their own.

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Changing of the Guard – Two decades ago, the movie industry faced a Killer Demon sure to destroy it, or at least, that’s what Jack Valenti said in 1982: ”But now we are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape. And it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore. This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend, on which film people depend, on which television people depend and it is called copyright.”

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A Lawyer’s Question – While I wholeheartedly agree with the specific complaint Lawrence Lessig makes in this entry, I couldn’t help but note one pointed question of his: “Why should WIPO oppose a copyright or patent rights holder’s choice to do with his or her rights what he or she wants?”

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P2P Jihad – In a comment, Combustible Boy points me to a press release. You might think it’s just another answer to another lawsuit by the RIAA/MPAA, but this one has a unique twist: “Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE. [...] Earth Station 5 is located both in Gaza and in the Jenin Refugee Camp of Palestine. Ras Kabir’s warning to the RIAA and the MPAA, ’The next revolution in P2P file sharing is upon you. Resistance is futile and we are now in control’.”

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Suicide Subpoenas – Since I spent a fair amount of vitriol against one side in “It’s Official: Downloaders Don’t Care About Copyright,” it’s time to point out the idiocy on the other side (as if it isn’t plainly obvious to most already), as summarized in the New York Times.

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It’s Official: Downloaders Don’t Care About Copyright – I find this a particularly depressing bit of information. Though it shouldn’t surprise me.

“Two-thirds of Internet users who download music don’t care whether they’re violating copyright laws, according to a new survey that highlights the uphill enforcement battle facing the recording industry [...] The survey said younger Americans, ages 18 to 29, were least worried about copyrights, with 72 percent saying they weren’t concerned. It said 61 percent of Americans who were 30 to 49 years old were similarly unconcerned. Full-time students were the least concerned with violating copyright, with 82 percent saying they were not worried.”

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I Want My CD’s Free! – They’re jumping for joy over at Kuro5hin (among other places): “In a recent article on pbs.org, Robert Cringely, introduces Snapster, an idea that has the potential to revolutionize music distribution as we know it.”

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More from the Guinea Pigs – Last week I pointed you to the words of Ben and Frank (“Guinea Pigs in a Doomed Experiment”), and there’s since been some interesting commentary. Doctor Frank has some brief responses to a few of the more prevalent counterarguments, and Ben takes it a step or two further.

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Guinea Pigs in a Doomed Experiment – There’s a couple of articles you really ought to take the time to read, especially if you believe in the right to download music for free. Oh, I know, it may be easy to ignore the views of “names” like Courtney Love and Janis Ian, when they’ve made more money than you ever will. Well, that’s even more reason to read these two articles. Courtney and Janis are aberrations, even in their “middling” success, as they work in a business where 99% struggle just to pay the bills. Read about the real world (and since you might not, I’m excerpting healthy chunks of each).

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A New Day, A New Bozo – Talk about “saved by the bell.” The well deserved mocking of Bill O’Reilly will be cut short due to a shining new entrant in the Idiotic Emissions contest.

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Shouting Into the Wilderness … Again – Before you jump on Lawrence Lessig’s bandwagon, and sign his petition calling for a “Public Domain Enhancement Act” that would require a $1 tax/fee to retain a copyright after 50 years, take the time to read an opposing viewpoint.

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While I’ve complained about how some voices are not included in the copyright debate again and again and again, I’m now beginning to see … they just don’t work that way.

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Continued Copyright Consternation – Sometimes, you just have to let the anger and hyperbole flow off your fingertips, and hit “Save.” You have been warned.

“Fifty years after a work has been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1 maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee, then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain after just 50 years.”

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The New Jailbird Jingle – “If you’ve ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you’re guilty of a federal felony. It doesn’t matter if you’ve forsworn Napster, uninstalled Kazaa and now are eagerly padding the record industry’s bottom line by snapping up $15.99 CDs by the cartload. Be warned—you’re what prosecutors like to think of as an unindicted federal felon.”

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The Salaried Dictate to the Freelance – “THE ECONOMIST is calling for a fourteen-year copyright term, renewable once [...] It’s okay with me, and I have more copyrighted stuff than most people.”

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Authors and Inventors Ignored – More arguments about the Eldred case, the proposed Eldred Act, and accompanying cultural battle, here and and lots of links here.

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Taxing Creators – I really value the work that Lawrence Lessig has done, both in court and at Creative Commons. But every now and then, it seems to me he betrays a core principle of copyright because of the debate’s currently corporate nature. As I’ve said before, every single copyrighted work made is created by an individual (or a small group of them). However, if that individual creates the work while in the full time employ of a corporation, via ”work for hire” rules, the copyright is immediately transferred from the employed individual to the corporation that employs them.

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