Is Legislation Keeping Up With The Times?

With the internet continuously growing, the music and concert industries have had a tough time keeping up with the pace of changes. With issues such as piracy, scalping, and other intellectual property theft, the industry has taken a big blow. Here are a few developments in the legislation of these issues:

PROTECT IP Act:

The PROTECT IP Act, a renamed and newer version of COICA, has been in the works for a while now, but has been put on hold since May 2011. TechDirt reports that the bill restricts the ‘definition’ of what is considered an infringing activity by a competing site, and not only will it focus on removing the sites involved in these activities, but also bring lawsuits to the people responsible. Mike Masnick of TechDirt reports that the act is not all what it seems; though these issues seem like a step in the right direction, if you read further they are either not true or limited greatly. An example is the definition of a qualifying infringing site:

The term "Internet site dedicated to infringing activities" means an Internet site accessed through a specific domain name that has no [substantial/ significant] use other than, or is designed, operated, or marketed by its operator persons operating in concert with the operator, [and is in fact,] primarily as a means for --

1.    enabling or facilitating the reproduction, distribution, or performance of copyright works, in complete or substantially complete form, in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement under section 501 of title 17, or offering goods or services in violation of section 1201 of title 17; or

2.    enabling or facilitating sale, distribution, or promotion of goods, services or materials bearing a counterfeit market, as that term is defined in section 34(d) of the Lanham Act;

[provided that there is no objectively reasonable interpretation of an express license between the owner or operator of such Internet site and the copyright owner or trademark owner or an agent thereof that authorizes the activities;], (Masnick, 2011).

Though this definition seems to be a bit more specific than COICA’s, it is still pretty broad allowing many sites to slip through. While this is only one of the many issues, many are still pushing for it to be passed. Hopefully they will take advantage of this time while the bill is on hold and fix a few problem areas.

Ticket Resale Laws:

This week, July 13^th – 15^th, is the annual Ticket Summit being held in Las Vegas, NV. This live entertainment industry conference is a huge event and features many industry leaders in its panel roster. During the ‘Legal Issues & Ticketing Trends’ panel, speakers are likely to discuss the Ticket Resale Laws that affect all second hand ticket resellers.

Reselling tickets for a profit, or scalping, is illegal in most states, but with the internet it has become more of an issue. The legal department of TicketNews will be offering the updated version of “Ticket Resale Laws” for purchase at the conference. These documents help companies to navigate through the legal jargon of reselling event tickets and avoid getting themselves into trouble. These documents can be purchased here, as well.

Cloud Technology:

With the rise of cloud technology, many people are getting their music for free online. SoundCloud is just one of those hubs that offer users to upload and download music. It is a great tool for those who are promoting their own music, but it is also used to distribute popular tracks.

SoundCloud recently put into place a copyright filter that allows user to designate what music is theirs. This filter will automatically recognize the artist’s content and block it on other users’ profiles. This filter was put into effect to help dodge lawsuits and also to keep the music industry happy.

If you happen to have a copyrighted song on your SoundCloud, you may have received a warning like this…

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References:

http://i.imgur.com/Dk4Si.png

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/ticket-summitr-to-shed-light-on-state-of-the-entertainment-industry-1534439.htm

http://www.quora.com/Why-has-SoundCloud-not-been-shut-down-by-the-RIAA-for-promoting-piracy

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110511/00115314234/full-text-protect-ip-act-released-good-bad-horribly-ugly.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110526/10364214443/ron-wyden-puts-hold-protect-ip-temporarily-withdraws-amendment-patriot-act.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110705/02174514963/smear-campaign-ramps-up-against-those-who-believe-free-speech-is-more-important-than-hollywoods-obsolete-business-model.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/?company=soundcloud

http://www.ticketnews.com/news/New-ticket-industry-legal-documents-to-debut-at-Ticket-Summit7101239%20

http://www.ticketnews.com/news/New-York-ticket-resale-law-could-impact-similar-laws-in-other-states7106981