On Wednesday the U.S. House passed H.R. 1417, legislation to replace the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel system with a more affordable and efficient system for setting rates for compulsory royalties and distributing same among copyright owners. This is particularly important for small Internet radio stations, noncommercial Internet radio stations and college radio stations, which could not afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to participate in the CARP. Read more about House Passes CARP Reform Bill
The U.S. House passed H.R. 1417, the CARP Reform bill, yesterday. 406 to zero. There is no companion bill in the Senate, but no doubt there soon will be. The bill replaces the expensive CARP system, which denies due process to all but the wealthiest copyright users, with administrative judges. Instead of half a million dollars, participants would pay a $150 filing fee to present evidence to the tribunal about what royalty rates should be. Read more about Half Dead CARP
Well, I spend some time these days looking for my next job, and a search for "copyright" on lawjobs.com brought up this one..
Entertainment Trade Assoc. in Los Angeles seeks two attorneys with 5-15 yrs. Litigation exp. Criminal prosecution, copyright and international a plus. Excellent analytical & writing skills and academic credentials required. Strong interpersonal and management skills a must. Qualified candidates should e-mail resume with salary requirements to melissa_valenzuela@mpaa.org.
No phone calls please! Read more about Travel, meet interesting people and sue them...
Today, February 12, we filed the Reply Brief in the small webcasters' and WCPE's appeal in the Internet Radio case. Much of the DOJ's brief defending the Librarian's order based on the webcasting CARP is devoted to reasons why the Court should not even consider our arguments. Once you get past those- which were pretty easy to demolish- you're almost home free. Now the Court will issue some orders setting oral argument. It's not clear whether non-CARP participants will get to present oral argument or not. Read more about Clinic files Reply Brief
Today we filed the Reply Brief in the small webcasters' and WCPE's appeal in the Internet Radio case. Much of the DOJ's brief defending the Librarian's order based on the webcasting CARP is devoted to reasons why the Court should not even consider our arguments. Once you get past those- which were pretty easy to demolish- you're almost home free. Now the Court will issue some orders setting oral argument. It's not clear whether non-CARP participants will get to present oral argument or not. Read more about The Last Word
On Friday, I was at a conference on digital copyright issues. At several points, speakers expressed the view that when wealthy content owners like Disney go to Congress to get copyright legislation that expands their rights, the public interest is represented by our Congress members themselves (as virtually no one lobbied on behalf of the public domain, until recently). I heard myself involuntarily let out a snort. Oy vey. Congress members, remember that they represent the public, when confronted with greedy special interests? Read more about Democracy
From the Houston Chronicle we learn that Judge Larry Standly ordered a man convicted of slapping his wife to take a yoga class as a condition of his probation, in the hopes it would help him with anger management. Talk about doing a long stretch...better the eight-limbed path than up the river! Yoga teacher Darla Magee, quoted in the article, is one of the directors of my client Open Source Yoga Unity. Read more about Flexibility in Sentencing?
