Since the RIAA lawsuits, the New York Times has covered digital copyright issues nearly every day. Here are some of the latest, plus some other articles.
NYT: Think Debate on Music Property Rights Began With Napster? Hardly. Sheet music, wax cylinders, records, radio and audio tape have all been in the forefront of the struggle for control over ownership, copyrights and distribution.
NYT: Music’s Struggle With Technology
Long before girding against the Internet, for example, the entertainment industry objected to cassettes and videotapes because they would allow people to copy music and programming without making additional payments. Even FM radio was opposed by the record companies at the outset because the high fidelity broadcasts were free. The early defenders of the industry did not understand the ways that the power of the new communications tool would help them market their goods to a broader audience.
NYT: Students Shall Not Download. Yeah, Sure.
NYT: Turn On. Tune In. Download.
Pretty much from the moment that music ”file swapping” made its way into the public consciousness by way of Napster, there has been a vaguely ”Reefer Madness” quality to the discussion of what the practice has meant to its college-age-and-younger participants. We have heard again and again that this new generation is coming to believe that music is something you don’t pay for but rather simply take. That idea is in the air again since the major recording labels recently started filing what they say will be thousands of lawsuits against people who have used file-sharing software like KaZaA to download songs they have not paid for.
Venture capitalist Tim Oren looks at different ways to create hits in the music industry, outside of the major label system.
Time: Playing in the DarkNet. Music swappers go back to the digital underground.
