HLS EdX Course on Copyright

(Yes my holidays are going well ;) but...)

I just found out that EdX (Harvard and MIT) are running a course in Copyright Law from 28 January 2013 which goes for 12 weeks and requires a minimum of 8 hrs per week study. Applications are open until January 3rd 2013. No legal background is required but there will be a limit of 500 applications accepted. The course instructor is William Fisher III. Applicants must be 13 yrs or older and have a good grasp of English. Certificates of completion and written assessments will be given to those who pass. The course material will be made available publicly, so even if you don't wish to do the course, perhaps you might still want to take a look at that, when it becomes available.

Further Information
EdX, HLS1x Copyright <https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/HLS1x/2013_Spring/about> at 27 December 2012

Merry Christmas

Off The Web

I'm taking a break for the next few weeks to enjoy the beach and the summer sun. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog this year - it has been a lot of fun writing it - so thanks for being a great audience. I think what I write about is a little obscure so its great to know that over 1,000 people a month read my blog. Have a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I hope to be back around the end of January 2013 but it depends a little on whats happening with events in cyberspace - I'll try to keep you uptodate if anything big happens.

Sal

IASPM ANZ: Photos

What a great conference! Thanks Hobart!

IASPM: Music Festivals and the State of our Planet: An Eco-Musicological Perspective

Donna Weston gave a fantastic paper this afternoon. She talked about ecomusicology and in particular WOMADelaide and Woodford Folk Festival and the connection between music and the environment. Donna stated that at music festivals there is commonly a sense of community, a common purpose and often a degree of environmental awareness.

The aim of her study was to consider ways in which festivals could be forums where environmental responsibility is raised with a particular view to inspiring people to take action to help the environment after the festival is over.

By way of an introduction to the ideas of ecomusicolgy, Donna explained that the field concerns itself with the relationship between society and the natural environment. It questions the role that musicology plays in the welfare and survival of humanity. Furthermore it asks whether the environmental crisis is relevant to music and whether musicology is relevant to solving it.

Donna was particularly interested in finding out how festivals incorporate environmental issues into their programs and reduce their environmental impact. Solidarity concerts, calls to action, raising awareness both from artists speaking out and displays, stalls and speakers, making financial donations to NGOs, merchandising, and showing audiences proof of environmentally friendly technology in action were all ways that these festivals had sought to promote environmental awareness.

Donna suggested that it would be best to adopt a deep ecology approach to the organisation of music festivals in the future to produce deep thinking and wisdom from audience members to ensure that individual responsibility and action emerges.

Donna mentioned a book I am hoping to get my hands on soon - Juke Box In The Garden - sounds like a fabulous read.

IASPM ANZ: Flows of Relevance: still fighting the power 23 years on?

I saw a very interesting paper at IASPM this morning by Sarah Attfield. Sarah spoke about Public Enemy and The Specials and the relevance of their music more than two decades after its release. Sarah noted that while Billy Bragg says that music cannot change the world, it can bring people together. Sarah suggested that listening to Public Enemy's Fight the Power and going to their concert could be a catalyst for a listeners entry into activism. She noted John Street's view that music has been the site of political expression for centuries with some songs explicitly referring to political issues and events, some reflecting on society and other songs being adopted for occasions or causes. Sarah suggested that while political music is often grounded in the lyrical content and the music can be from any genre, the sound of the music is still a very important component to the potential impact of the song and its reception. She also suggests that who performs it is very important with Taylor Swift, for example, being unable to carry a song such as Fight the Power. Sarah reflected on her experience of going to a Public Enemy concert in recent years and suggested that they now attract a very broad audience of both young and old people. Sarah also noted the sadness in the continued relevance of their music to the socio economic circumstances and incarceration rates of African Americans. A very interesting paper, I really enjoyed it.

IASPM ANZ: The #RockStar in Social Media

I am at the conference for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music in Hobart, Tasmania. I just saw a fantastic paper by Penny Spirou on the functions of social media for rock stars. Penny spent a lot of time talking about NikkiSixx and his use of facebook and twitter. Penny identified the three central functions of social media for rock stars as being; 1. Autobiography 2. Intimacy and 3. Self branding and promotion. It was a very interesting paper and these three qualities are easily identifiable in the posts made by the artists that I myself follow. Most of the artists I follow (being more of the political musician type) also post a lot about causes they are interested in. Perhaps for those artists there is a fourth function of social activism.

Artsfex

I was just reading a press release on Freemuse from October this year about a new organisation called artsfex.org - they write:

Today 14 international arts and human rights organisations and networks – representing more than 1,200 national organisations globally – launched Artsfex, the first international civil society network actively concerned with the right of artists to freedom of expression as well as with issues relating to human rights and freedoms generally. Artsfex aims to promote, protect and defend artistic freedom of expression, as well as freedom of assembly, thought, and opinion in and across all art disciplines, globally.. Recent censorship incidents, the suppression of creative voices, and threats against the lives of artists have made it clear that we have arrived at the moment when creative workers and free speech activists need to work together against repression and for an open cultural space both locally, regionally and globally.”

The organisations involved are:

• Arterial Network
• ECA – European Council of Artists
• ECSA – European Composer and Songwriter Alliance
• FERA – FEDERATION OF European Film directors
• FIA – The International Federation of Actors
• freeDimensional
• Freemuse – The World Forum on Music & Censorship   
• ICAF – International Committee for Artists’ Freedom
• IETM – International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts
• IFCCD – International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity
• Index on Censorship  
• PEN International    
• NCAC – National Coalition Against Censorship, USA

They passed the following resolution at the Copenhagen Summit on Artistic Freedom of Expression:

There is an urgent necessity to launch an international initiative to protect and promote freedom of artistic and creative expression (in the visual arts, music, dance, film, writers, theatre etc.) with the goal of increasing awareness about violations of freedom of expression in the arts among artists and the arts sector, in the media, among political bodies, human rights and free speech organizations, as well as among the general public.

This initiative will:

• serve as an  information exchange
• monitor and analyse censorship in the arts worldwide with the goal of identifying trends and creating an understanding of the various mechanisms of censorship and persecution of artists for their creative work
• publicly expose the persecution and censorship of artists
• advocate in support of artistic and creative freedom worldwide
• hold governments accountable to their obligations under the relevant international conventions and national laws
• direct artists in distress to existing information, funding and other resources for emergency and ongoing support  and facilitate their relationship with  relevant funders and defenders of human rights

A vision paper has also been drafted which details the organisation's vision, aims and activities and is available on its website.
 
Further Information 
Arstfex: http://artsfex.org/

DIY MySpam

Got the link of this YouTube clip from a Digital Music News article its a song by an artist called Jayme Gutierrez who sings about D I Y in the music industry and how to gain a fan base. It is a fantastic song with an equally fantastic animated clip - take a look!

International Association of Popular Music Au/NZ

Just a quick note to let you know I am presenting a paper at the International Association of Popular Music Conference (Australia New Zealand) in Hobart soon. The conference is being held in Hobart Tasmania from 5 December 2012 to 7 December 2012. I am presenting a paper on the flow of political music on the Internet and will be comparing the regulatory states (commerce, law, architecture, and social norms) that were in place for the release of two songs -The GetUp Mob version of From Little Things Big Things Grow and the song George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People by The Legendary K.O. I am presenting on Thursday 6 December 2012. If you happen to be in the area perhaps have a look at the conference program and details on the IASPM A/NZ website. I have presented at this associations conference 3 times before and I am really looking forward to it. I plan to blog a little bit about it while I am there. Some of the papers look really interesting.

Why Doesn't MTV Play Music Videos Anymore?

A funny look at why MTV doesn't play music videos anymore... MTV was cool in its day but the internet is waaaayyyyy  cooler!

Australian Government Abandons Web Filter

Fantastic news this week! The Australian Government has finally stated it is officially abandoning its plan for mandatory ISP filtering. The policy, that was flawed from the start, and absolutely out of line especially for a so called left-wing political party, bites the dust at last.

The Government hasnt acknowledged the policy was flawed or that there were technical limitations that would have made it ineffective... but they have confirmed that they no longer intend to introduce the proposed legislation.

What they have done instead is to require ISPs to block child abuse websites based on the Interpol list of the worst sites on the internet. Sites are reviewed by the authorities in two countries before they are added to the list. It appears that around 1,400 sites are currently required to be blocked and that some Austalian ISPs were already voluntarily doing this.

What was to potentially be a broad and secretive mandatory filter has quite rightly been reduced to a targeted black list. This is great news for freedom of speech and a huge relief for many.

Further Reading
ABC News, Government abandons plans for internet filter (9 November 2012) < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-09/government-abandons-plans-for-internet-filter/4362354 >  at 10 November 2012

The IT Law Wiki

Perhaps some of you have heard of this already and I am late to the game? Early today I came across a fabulous wiki called The IT Law wiki. It is available here and has 20,391 pages on Information Technology Law. In the welcome section, they write:

This wiki is an encyclopedia of the legal issues, cases, statutes, events, policies, people, organizations and publications that make up the global fields of information law, information technology law (often referred to as "computer law," "cyberlaw" or "Internet law") and telecommunications law. The wiki focuses on the laws, regulations and policy issues that impact the information, IT and telecommunications industries and those government entities, industries, organizations and people that control or use information, IT and telecommunications. It also contains an authoritative set of definitions for those legal, technical, economic, political and policy terms used in the wiki. 

I've had a quick look around it and so far it appears thorough and accurate (but I dont vouch for that - check it out for yourself!) It appears to be a little US centric with a very limited reference to Fair Dealing given the global nature of the laws and issues we are dealing with, is still likely to be a very useful tool. It is also licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (3.0).

Bob Dylan - Death Of Emmett Till

The folk tradition of borrowing from others....

Nosey Nicola's November Nightmare

In case you havent heard Australia is having something of a data retention debate at the moment with the Australian Government, and in particular, Attorney General Nicola Roxon, looking to change the law to require ISPs to retain all user metadata for a period of 2 years. The explanatory YouTube clip from Nicola Roxon (embedding has been disabled) is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8_VHR_mtCQ

Electronic Frontiers Australia have commented on the proposal on their website here and here and in short, criticise the discussion paper that was released by the Government for not containing the information required to inform the public about the details of the proposal, and suggest that metadata retention creates serious privacy concerns for the general public. Jon Lawrence was interviewed by Triple J's Hack program earlier this week (Tuesday 30th October 2012) - you can listen to it here.

So. A campaign has been started in response to this. GenerationAlpha are asking people to CC Nicola Roxon on all of their emails so that she gets a fair idea of what kind of stuff the general public are actually doing on the internet. The bombardment of emails is to be a form of protest against the proposed changes to the law. The campaign is called Nosey Nicola's November Nightmare. Check out the YouTube clip:



I will make an effort to CC her on some of my emails this month - I hope you do too!

Q&A: Protest Singers in Australia

Just caught up on last nights Q & A which is on ABC TV1 in Australia on Monday nights. Two of the panelists were Billy Bragg and Peter Garrett (former lead singer of Midnight Oil and current Minister for Education). At 11:38 seconds into the show Michelle Slater from Macclesfield, VIC asked via video:

There appears to be a lack of young political singer-song writers in the Australian music scene. Music, especially folk music, is the voice of the people and provides an avenue for dissent. While we can name current musos like John Butler providing that voice, where are the young Gen Y protest singers? And why aren't they out there?

Here's some of the answer/discussion:

PETER GARRETT: Well, I think they probably are. I'm not sure that Michelle's had a chance to catch up with them. Earth Boy, The Herd. I mean I can think of people who writing songs now and I don’t get as much of a chance to listen...

TONY JONES: So hip-hop is where it's at these days, is that what you're saying?

PETER GARRETT: No, hip-hop and is a great, powerful, musical verbal form and quite a lot of hip-hop has got a political edge to it, both local and overseas. And I mean, you know, you can go to listen to somebody who's busking and you will hear them, they might be playing a Billy Bragg song. They might be putting a point of view about a particular issue. So I'm not sure that it’s not there. They may not be on the charts. You may not be able to easily access through mainstream media but I think, if you go looking, you'll find them.

TONY JONES: Billy Bragg?

BILLY BRAGG: Well, I think something has changed undoubtedly. When I was 19 years old and wanted to make my voice heard, I really only had one medium open to me. Working class background, we're talking in the late 1970s. Really the only choice I had if I wanted to speak to my peers, if I wanted to speak to my parent's generation, was to pick up a guitar, learn to play, do gigs and make records. Now, if you have an opinion, you have the internet, you have the opportunity to blog, you can make a short film about something you feel passionate about, put it on YouTube. You go and Facebook...

BILLY BRAGG: The point is that everybody now can engage in the debate and I think that’s very positive and I do think young people are engaging in the debate but it's tough to learn to play guitar. Not everybody can stand up and sing in front of an audience so I can understand why people put, you know, their time into the social media. But let me tell you this: nobody ever wrote a tweet that could make you cry. Nobody ever toured Australia reading out their Facebook comments. If you want to see the world - if you want to see the world and get paid for it learn an instrument, get out there, step up, let's hear your voices. There’s always going to be and audience for (indistinct)...

JULIA BAIRD: I think it would be great if you had a Q&A competition and had someone play at the end that had the best song. I think it's an indictment on us that we don't actually know enough, as Peter is saying and maybe it's kind of a niche music thing. Maybe we're not spending enough time listening to Triple J but, yeah, when I was listening to Billy's album during the week and the great album you did with Wilco about Woody Guthrie and I spent a lot of time thinking about what it meant to have that kind of music during the dust bowl and a time of great dispossession and it went on to the time of the Great Depression and there was someone saying you have a dignity and this is your land and you have because it's your land you have the right to ask policy makers that it be recognised as your land and at that time, of course, a lot of people in the banking industry had made a lot of risks with other people's money. And people were grappling with it. So I think it's hugely important...

AMANDA VANSTONE: Music in the civil rights movement over that time in the United States was very, very powerful. In fact I think even the ABC might have done a documentary on this matter and I watched - whoever made it, I don't know - but it's a very interesting piece of work showing the role that music played in getting in touch with what people really felt and sharing that message...

BILLY BRAGG: And that’s the crucial thing. I mean the real definition of success in the music industry or in any industry really is if you can do the thing you always wanted to do and get paid to do. Everything else is cherry on the cake. The hardest leap you ever make as a musician is where you give up that job you really can't stand and you finally manage to start to make a living. If you can do that, if you can achieve that, and that is becoming harder because of the change in the music industry because of recording music, the bottom's dropped out of recorded music. The industry helping young artists to make that leap is difficult. It's not so difficult for older-ites like myself and Peter, who have got a large audience back home but young artists are finding it tough. Fortunately though the live music scene is thriving because we have it's a bit of a cliché but it is true. You can experience a download but you can't download an experience. Going to a gig and having that wonderful experience of being in an audience.

PETER GARRETT: Nothing will ever beat, I don't think, being in front of people, whether you're in the audience or on stage. But just to go back to that earlier question, I think there is some really powerful political music that Australian musicians have created over time. I think a lot of it has been driven by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musician and other musicians who have been sympathetic and identified with the kind of issues that are important for them. If you listen to any person making music from an Aboriginal community, you're going to hear songs about land, you’re going to hear songs about country and I think there's many acts, too many to mention. They're not well known necessarily. I mean some like Yothu Yindi are quite well known.

TONY JONES: Well, Archie Roach will be on this program next week.

PETER GARRETT: And Archie Roach. Fantastic, yeah. So I think it's there but we haven't had a folk tradition that's become mainstream that's reflected, say, things like the Depression, what we went through during the war periods or economic hardship and we probably haven't had hardship generally as a country on the sort of scale that perhaps they had during the period of the dust bowl when (indistinct)...

JULIA BAIRD: You know, a lot of people in Australia listened to Bruce Springsteen. It wasn't really until I went to a series of his concerts in the States and, you know, in New Jersey...

JULIA BAIRD: But, no, I got it when I went to the giant stadium where he’d done his first ever gig and it was going to be knocked down the next day. It was his last concert there and it was the middle of the recession. Young, old, people of kind of all kinds of descriptions, crying, hugging each other, jumping up and down whatever he sang. You know, Jersey Girls and so on and that defiance, that: bring on your wrecking ball. And he was a man who is still singing about the Iraq war, he’s still singing Woody Guthrie songs and I got how resonant that was and I think we import some of that music without, you know, necessarily understanding a lot of that context.


More Information
ABC, Folk Music, Five Years & Funding (22 October 2012) < http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3610729.htm >  at 23 October 2012

Luke Vassella - The word is out

Here is another anti coal seam gas mining song from Luke Vassella, a local to Northern NSW and a regular performer at CSG rallys that have been happening lately in the region. I wrote about the issue back in June this year. I've been playing him a lot on my radio show - you can find all his CSG songs on my Music With A message blog here, hope you like this one:

CSIRO: Air Guitar T Shirt

A few years back I heard about the CSIRO developing an Air Guitar T-Shirt. The fabric of the shirt has fine conductive fibers woven into it allowing arm movements to be detected and fed back to a computer through a wireless receiver. Tonight I have been searching the web to find out if the product ever made it to market... so far I havent been able to find it. Please let me know if you know where I can get one! There is also a tambourine t-shirt.

Check out the YouTube video demonstration of the guitar t-shirt:



Further Information
CSIRO Solve, TEXTILES: Shirts Fashioned for Rockin’ Science (November 2006) < http://www.solve.csiro.au/1106/article3.htm >  at 18 October 2012

The Sydney Morning Herald, Hi tech T-shirt really rocks (13 November 2012) < http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/air-guitar-down-to-a-t-shirt/2006/11/13/1163266457568.html > at 18 October 2012

New Book: The Digital Rights Movement: The Role of Technology in Subverting Digital Copyright

I just read a post on the Associantion of Internet Researchers mailing list about a new book that looks interesting:

The Digital Rights Movement: The Role of Technology in Subverting Digital Copyright 

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12996 

by Hector Postigo 

The movement against restrictive digital copyright protection arose largely in response to the excesses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. In The Digital Rights Movement, Hector Postigo shows that what began as an assertion of consumer rights to digital content has become something broader: a movement concerned not just with consumers and gadgets but with cultural ownership. Increasingly stringent laws and technological measures are more than incoveniences; they lock up access to our “cultural commons.” 

Postigo describes the legislative history of the DMCA and how policy “blind spots” produced a law at odds with existing and emerging consumer practices. Yet the DMCA established a political and legal rationale brought to bear on digital media, the Internet, and other new technologies. 

Drawing on social movement theory and science and technology studies, Postigo presents case studies of resistance to increased control over digital media, describing a host of tactics that range from hacking to lobbying. Postigo discusses the movement’s new, user-centered conception of “fair use” that seeks to legitimize noncommercial personal and creative uses such as copying legitimately purchased content and remixing music and video tracks. He introduces the concept of technological resistance--when hackers and users design and deploy technologies that allows access to digital content despite technological protection mechanisms--as the flip side to the technological enforcement represented by digital copy protection and a crucial tactic for the movement.

I would be particularly interested to read about social movement theory and the concept of technological resistance... this book has been added to my wish list - if you happen to get a copy feel free to leave a comment on what you thought of it.

Australian Digital Alliance

I have never really taken much notice of the Australian Digital Alliance, for some reason I thought they were just another Record Label/Movie Studio lobby group with vested interests. Turns out I might have been wrong.

I have been reading articles recently about two new reports they have released in which they indicate that wider exceptions to Copyright Law in Australia, along with stronger safe harbour provisions, would actually increase the Australian economy by $600 million. They write:

Australia needs a more flexible and technology neutral copyright regime to meet the digital reality of the 21st century and the evolving needs of society. Currently Australia's outdated copyright laws condemn online services such as web hosts, search engines and social media to a less conducive innovation and investment environment than in comparable countries, and restricts uptake of innovative online activities.

In the snap-shot of the reports, they suggest that there are three things holding Australia back;
1. The risks and costs associated with legal challenges
2. The impacts of these risks on investments
3. Potential impacts on innovation.

With respect to the later of these in particular, they write:

With inadequate and inflexible copyright ‘exceptions’ and with safe harbour protections extending only to carriage providers there is substantially more risk to online services in Australia than in comparable countries. The economic contribution possible under a more flexible regime is shown by the success of companies such as Apple, Facebook and YouTube. However in Australia, as the Lateral Economics reports demonstrate, these businesses are exposed to greater risk of liability for copyright violations. This means that Australia is not a natural home for innovation and it reduces our ability to compete globally.

I highly recommend taking a look at these reports and reading the reasons why Australia needs Copyright Law reform - indeed it is fascinating to consider the wealth that can be derived from exceptions to infringement.

While you are there, I also suggest you take a look at the website of the Australian Digital Alliance. It turns out it was started by former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Sir Anthony Mason, in 1998. It was great to read their Positions on Key Copyright Issues. They have formal positions on:

1. Orphan works - for fair and reasonable use, a wide definition, an exception not a licensing mechanism
2. TPP - against secret negotiations outside WIPO and the WTO and for transparency and participation
3. TPMs - for exceptions to allow for fair dealing/fair use
4. Safe Harbours - support amending the law to protect all online services providers including universities, libraries, schools and cultural institutions, as well as IT companies
5. Fair Use - support a broad doctrine as per that in the USA
6. Contract Law - support a change to the law to ensure copyright exceptions are preserved
7. SCCR exceptions - for education, archives and libraries, visually impaired enshrined in treaties
8. Neutral language and consumer copying - support technologically neutral language in the Copyright Act and broad time shifting exceptions, particularly for cloud computing and services such as Optus "TV Now"
9. Unauthorised file sharing - do not support unauthorised file sharing but nor do they support policies that result in the disconnection of a users internet access or holding intermediaries liable. 

It is without a doubt enlightening and very refreshing to see an organisation in this country that is specificially dedicated to reform of Copyright Law that also has strong policy positions. I agree with all of these except the last one - as you know I am in support of voluntary collective licensing for file sharing. However all of these policy positions are well reasoned and supportive of innovation, creativity and freedom of speech. I for one have signed up to their mailing list and I recommend you do to. Great Scott!

Further Reading
Australian Digital Alliance, Potential $600m annual economic boost from copyright reform (September 2012) < http://digital.org.au/content/LateralEconomicsReports > at 11 October 2012

Australian Digital Alliance, Snapshot - Lateral Economics Copyright Research (September 2012) < http://digital.org.au/sites/digital.org.au/files/ADA%20-%20Snapshot%20-%20Lateral%20Economics%20Copyright%20Research%20%28Sept%202012%29.pdf >  at 11 October 2012

EFF Deeplinks, New Study Affirms Less Copyright Restrictions Benefit the Economy, Amid Renewed Calls for SOPA 2.0 (21 September 2012) < https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/copyright-and-campaign-misinformation-new-study-affirms-less-copyright > at 11 October 2012

Off The Grid

Just a note to say its unlikely I will blog over the next 2 weeks - too much going on - including my 40th birthday,

Peace xx
Sal

Avaaz: TPP

Please take a minute to sign the Avaaz campaign against TPP. They state that there are only four days left to make an impact on the drafting of the agreement in this round of the negotiations and are urging everyone to get involved, they write:

To all the governments negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement:

As concerned global citizens, we call on you to make the TPP process transparent and accountable to all, and to reject any plans that limit our governments' power to regulate in the public interest. The TPP is a threat to democracy, undermining national sovereignty, workers' rights, environmental protections and Internet freedom. We urge you to reject this corporate takeover.

You can access the campaign here:
Avaaz, 4 Days to Stop the Corporate Death Star (12 September 2012) < http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_corporate_death_star/?bTXNdcb&v=17858 >  at 13 September 2012

NPR: The Composer of 'Strange Fruit'

Check out this great article/podcast on the composer of the Billie Holiday song 'Strange Fruit' from NPR. A very interesting man with an interesting background.

NPR, The Strange Story Of The Man Behind 'Strange Fruit' (6 September 2012) < http://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit > at 12 September 2012

Audio: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=158933012&m=160588917  at 12 September 2012

Streaming Music: Hard to Make a Profit

Just came across this interesting post from Statista and a story that covers the same topic from Digital Music News. The chart below demonstrates that streaming services are making a net loss and that overall, despite their revenue, there remains significant financial pressure that could threaten their viability long term. This does not look like a good picture, especially for Spotify, who has incurred an increasing loss over the past few years:



You will find more statistics at Statista

Further Reading
Statista, Will Music Streaming Ever Be Profitable? (29 August 2012) < http://www.statista.com/markets/14/topic/111/music-audio/chart/577/will-music-streaming-ever-be-profitable/ > at 10 September 2012

Digital Music News, I Took One Look at This Graph. And Suddenly Lost Hope for Streaming Music... (5 September 2012) < http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120905streaming > at 10 September 2012   

Mimi and Eunice

Mimi and Eunice: http://www.mimiandeunice.com

Freemuse: World Conference on Artistic Freedom of Expression

Freemuse write on their blog that they are hosting a conference coming up later in the year called ‘All That is Banned is Desired’ – the World Conference on Artistic Freedom of Expression at the Oslo Opera House on 25-26 October 2012. The conference is also being organised by the Fritt Ord Foundation. It concerns creative people who have faced censorship, imprisonment or even abduction. Artists including Burmese comedian and film maker, Zarganar, visual artist Larissa Sansour and playwright Gurpreet Kaur and others that will talk about their experiences and struggle for freedom of artistic expression.

You can find out more about the conference on the Freemuse website.

Further Reading
Freemuse, Adam Fischer joins the World Conference in Oslo (29 August 2012) < http://artsfreedom.org/?p=2598 >  at 4 September 2012

CDs

Statistics I discussed recently from the Australian Council for the Arts note that digital sales in Australia are set to out do CD sales this year. Interestingly I have been reading a book by an Australian scientist this week (just for a bit of fun) called Great Myth Conceptions in which Dr Karl Kruszelnicki talks about the myth that emerged when CDs were first released, that CDs they were indestructible. Of course we all know that they are sensitive to heat, dust and scratches and that indeed they are far from indestructible.

He does, however, give a very informative run down on how CDs work:

"A compact disc is a 1.2mm-thick disc of transparent polycarbonate (as used in bullet proof glass), with a diameter of about 12 cm. It stores the information in a five-kilometer-long spiral of raised rectangular bumps on the surface. These bumps are about 0.5 microns wide (about 100 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair) and one-eight of a micron high... Because it is virtually impossible to see tiny transparent bumps on a transparent disc a thin layer of metal (usually aluminum, although gold and silver have been used) is laid on top of the polycarbonate. This shiny metal reflects the laser beam, so that it can read the little bumps."

Further Reading
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Great Myth Conceptions (2008) http://www.amazon.com/Great-Myth-Conceptions-Temptations-Series/dp/8172237308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346751440&sr=8-1&keywords=great+myth+conceptions

Artfacts: Australia Council for the Arts

Take a look at the new web page of the Australia Council for the Arts called Artfacts here. They are collecting and presenting statistical information on musicians and music in Australia. There are some cool graphics you can share on facebook and twitter and the site enables you to explore the ecosystem of music through statistics. Here are some interesting facts:

1. 9 out of 10 Australians listen to music each week; 4 out of 10 exercise
2. 20% of kids learn to play music; 70% of adults wish they had
3. Australians continue to spend $2 billion on music each year
4. Australian's buy 3 recordings per second, that's 100,000,000 a year
5. Live music brings over 42 million fans into Australia's pubs and clubs
6. Digital music revenues set to take over CD sales in 2012
7. In the multi billion dollar music industry, musicians earn $7,200 a year
8. 9 of Australia's top 100 chart singles last year were Australian
9. Just 7,800 people work as musicians as their main job
10. 80% of songwriters are men; 70% of music teachers are women

A very interesting and well presented site - check it out!

Spotify blog embeded button

Just trying out the Spotify embeded button for blogs... one of my favourite songs from Blue King Brown - Say Peace.

Rock for Recognition

Today the musician Dan Sultan announced a series of concerts to raise awareness of the need to include Australia's Indigenous people in the preamble of the Australian Constitution.

As ANTaR point out, the Australian Constitution still allows for laws that stop people voting, owning property or working in certain professions based on race.

ANTaR presented a report to the Australian Government in January 2012 supporting changes to the Constitution, to specifically: 'recognise the prior occupation and continuing cultures, languages and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples; acknowledge the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to these lands and waters; remove the ability of States and Territories to bar certain races from voting [section 25]; remove the capacity of governments to make laws to the detriment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples or the people of any race [section 51(xxvi)]; and insert a protection against discrimination on the basis of race, colour or ethnicity.'

ANTaR have a fact sheet and community participation program you can access here if you are interested in more information on the issue.

Dan Sultan, a member of the Gurindji Nation, is putting on a series of shows to help raise awareness of these issues for the Indigenous community called Rock For Recognition, as helping promote the need for recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples in the Australian Constitution. Bands such as Yabu Band, Leah Flanagan and DJ Ken Eval will be playing.

The shows will be held as follows:
 
Thursday November 8: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Friday November 9: Factory Theatre, Sydney
Saturday November 10: Bakery Artrage, Perth
Sunday November 11: Fly By Night, Fremantle





Further Reading
ANTaR, Constitutional Recognition < http://www.antar.org.au/constitutional_recognition > at 22 August 2012

Tone Deaf, Dan Sultan Announces Indigenous Rights Concert Tour (22 August 2012) < http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/news/tournews/191430/dan-sultan-announces-indigenous-rights-concert-tour.htm > at 22 August 2012

The Music Network, Dan Sultan to head Rock for Recognition concerts (22 August 2012) < http://www.themusicnetwork.com/music-news/artists/2012/08/22/dan-sultan-to-head-rock-for-recognition-concerts/ > at 22 August 2012

ALRC seeks input into Copyright law reform

This week the Australian Law Reform Commission released the first consultation paper for the Inquiry about Copyright law—Copyright and the Digital Economy (ALRC IP 42, 2012). In their press release from 20 August 2012 they write:

"Under the Terms of Reference for this Inquiry, the ALRC is to consider whether exceptions and statutory licences in the Copyright Act 1968 are adequate and appropriate in the digital environment and whether further exceptions should be recommended. The Inquiry recognises the emerging digital economy and the need to ensure copyright law provides incentives for investment in innovation and content while also allowing appropriate access to that content so that Australia’s needs in the internet age are met, both domestically and internationally... The Issues Paper forms a basis for consultation and asks more than 50 questions relevant to how the current copyright framework is affecting both commercial and creative enterprise and how current exceptions and statutory licences are working in the digital environment. The Issues Paper provides background information, highlights the issues so far identified in research and consultations, and outlines the principles that will shape the ALRC’s proposals for reform. The ALRC invites individuals and organisations to make submissions in response to the questions contained in the Issues Paper, or to any of the background material and analysis provided.  This community input will help inform the development of draft recommendations for reform to be released in a Discussion Paper due in mid 2013."

The Issues Paper is available free of charge from the ALRC website. The ALRC prefers submissions via the ALRC online submission form: www.alrc.gov.au/content/copyright-and-digital-economy-online-submission. Written submissions can also be posted, faxed or emailed to the ALRC.

Postal address GPO Box 3708 Sydney NSW 2001.
Closing date for submissions is Friday 16 November 2012.
For more information about the ALRC inquiry or to subscribe to the Copyright Inquiry e-newsletter please go to www.alrc.gov.au/inquiries/copyright.
The Final Report is due to be delivered by 30 November 2013.


Further Reading
ALRC, ALRC seeks input into Copyright law reform (20 August 2012) < http://www.alrc.gov.au/news-media/media-release/alrc-seeks-input-copyright-law-reform  > at 22 August 2012

Pussy Riot: guilty

As you may have heard Pussy Riot were found guilty of hooliganism in the trial against them in Russia this week  - see my earlier post on this here. Today I found this note on facebook from Billy Bragg and thought to share it with you:

Traffic Shaping in Australia

Torrent Freak recently published an article indicating the extent of BitTorrent traffic shaping across the globe and I thought it interesting to note the extent and possible reasons for traffic shaping in Australia.

Interestingly enough throttling in Australia has reduced over the last 12 months. The most heavily throttled network is iiNet at 11% of BitTorrent traffic with the best being Dodo at 0%. iiNet throttled 32% of BitTorrent traffic last year where as Dodo was shaping 14% of BitTorrent traffic last year.

There is reason to suggest that iiNet are the heaviest throttlers because of the litigation against them in recent years in which they were accused of secondary copyright liability for not responding to private notices about their customers downloading music. AFACT lost the case in the High Court in the end but the litigation most likely led iiNet to an increased awareness and concern for their liability. Alternative or contributory factors may be the need to prioritise other forms of traffic on the network.

This compares badly to the United States of America where Comcast, as the worst ISP only shapes 6% of BitTorrent traffic the best ISPs are Comcast, Verizon, AT&T (and others) that shape a mere 3% of BitTorrent traffic.

Torrent Freak note: "BitTorrent throttling in the US is not as prevalent as it used to be. The main reason for this is the Comcast BitTorrent blocking controversy which started in 2007. The FCC eventually ruled that Comcast had to stop its targeted interference of customers’ BitTorrent traffic. As a result of this ruling, the throttling percentage took a dive from nearly 50 percent to only 3 percent in 2010. In the first quarter of 2012, Comcast’s throttling level was still at 3 percent, which puts the provider among the best behaving ISPs."

Of course there are reasonable arguments to be made about these statistics as indicators of the need for network neutrality legislation in this country. It is a slippery slope towards disaster to allow private corporations the ability and freedom to determine what information users are able to access, a potentially dangerous loss of free speech and a step more than needed toward censorship. However, it is positive to note that the prevalence of traffic shaping has reduced in the past year.

Further Reading
ArsTechnica, Australian High Court rules ISPs need not act on private infringement notices (20 April 2012) < http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/australian-high-court-rules-isps-need-not-act-on-private-infringement-notices.ars > at 26 April 2012 

TechDirt, Hollywood Loses Its Big Copyright Lawsuit Against ISP iiNet Down Under (20 April 2012) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120420/02110118571/hollywood-loses-its-big-copyright-lawsuit-against-isp-iinet-down-under.shtml > at 26 April 2012

TorrentFreak, New Data Exposes BitTorrent Throttling ISPs (9 August 2012) < http://torrentfreak.com/new-data-exposes-bittorrent-throttling-isps-120809/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter > at 15 August 2012
 

Digital Music News: The Most Infamous Music Infographic, Updated for 2012..

I have been given permission from Digital Music News to publish this graphic - it is an updated version of a graphic by Information Is Beautiful from 2010. The sources data is available from the DMN article - 'The Most Infamous Music Infographic, Updated for 2012...'. As you can see from the graphic, for a solo artist to earn the US monthly minimum wage they must sell 1,706 copies of an MP3 on iTunes, 2,320 CDs (major label) or there must be 232,000 streams on Spotify (independents). This presents a very interesting picture of the comparative revenue sources.

 

Free Pussy Riot!

The trial of the members of Pussy Riot in Russia has been reported on recently in Australian news. For those that are unaware of the case, three Russian women Maria Alekhina (24), Nadezhda Tolokonikova (23) and Ekaterina Samucevich (29) formed an anonymous feminist performance art group in October 2011. The group sought to draw attention to "the values and principles of gender equality, democracy and freedom of expression contained in the Russian constitution and other international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the CEDAW Convention."

They were arrested and charged with hooliganism - a charge that carries a prison term of 7 years imprisonment - after they performed and filmed a 1 minute piece highlighting the association between President Putin and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and uploaded it to YouTube. They have now been in jail for 10 months with the matter yet to be heard. There is a website set up to document the trial here. 

On the 20th July at Moscow's Khamovinchesky District Court an application for the women's release was rejected and they were ordered to stay in jail pending an appeal. Their lawyer has asked to summon Mr Putin as a witness.

This is a very interesting example of political musicians being persecuted for freedom of speech and well worth reading about. In addition to the website you can also check out a recent article from Freemuse here. 

Further Reading
Free Pussy Riot < http://freepussyriot.org/ > at 2 August 2012


Freemuse, Freemuse calls for free and fair trial for Pussy Riot (30 July 2012) < http://www.freemuse.org/sw48226.asp > at 2 August 2012

Wayne Swan on Springsteen and political music

Just read an interesting article from the (Australian) ABC News site - here - on Acting Prime Minister/Treasurer Wayne Swan's musical preferences. The article states that Swannie has a particular interest in the music of Bruce Springsteen - he states:


"It's often the case that great artists - people like Bruce Springsteen - tend to pick up the subterranean rumblings of profound social change long before the economic statisticians notice them. Changes start long before they become statistics... If you listen to the albums that came out after Born to Run - albums like Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the USA and Nebraska - you can hear Springsteen singing about the shifting foundations of the US economy which the economists took much longer to detect, and which of course everyone is talking about now."

Take a quick look at the article if you can because it highlights the connection between music and politics very well - its only short. Swannie also lists Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and the Hilltop Hoods as being inspirational - who'd of thunk it? A tresurer that likes the Hilltop Hoods - ace man!

Further Reading 
ABC News, Swan enlists Springsteen to bash the bosses (1 August 2012) < http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-01/wayne-swan-channels-springsteen-in-attack-on-miners/4168174 > at 1 August 2012

 

TPP and Secrecy

Take a look at this article on TPP negotiations and the secrecy around the drafting of the agreement. The article is titled: "The Most Important Trade Agreement That We Know Nothing About" and is written by  David S. Levine. It is available here.

David states:


"Here’s what we think we know. Based upon the leaks that have occurred, it seems that an enacted TPP would require significant changes in U.S. and/or other signatory countries’ laws.  It would curb public access to vast amounts of information in the name of combating intellectual property infringement (or piracy, depending on your choice of words). The owner of the copyright in a song or movie could use a “technological protection measure”—what are often called “digital locks”—to prevent your access to it, even for educational purposes, and regardless of whether the owner had the legal right to do so. Your very ability to read this article, with hyperlinks in it, could be affected by TPP. So, too, might your access to works currently in the public domain and available free of charge. And these concerns are only related to the intellectual property rights chapter of TPP. There are apparently more than 20 chapters under negotiation, including “customs, cross-border services, telecommunications, government procurement, competition policy, and cooperation and capacity building,” as well as investment and financial services. Technically, TPP would only take effect in the 10 negotiating countries: Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam. Mexico joined recently, and Canada and Japan may soon follow. But in reality, it would also affect citizens of any nations that interact with at least one of those 10—which means even the shut-off North Korea might feel its influence."

TechDirt reported in March this year that the Intellectual Property chapter of the agreement is also likely to introduce ISP liability and in effect censorship and surveillance.


Further Reading
TechDirt, TPP Talks Deadlocked; Still No Transparency (15 March 2012) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120314/09065218105/tpp-talks-deadlocked-still-no-transparency.shtml > at 22 March 2012


David S. Levine, The Most Important Trade Agreement That We Know Nothing About (30 July 2012) < http://mobile.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/07/trans_pacific_partnership_agreement_tpp_could_radically_alter_intellectual_property_law.html  > at 1 August 2012

Creative Commons Social Media Posting Guide for Non Profits

Internet Censorship Map

   Pervasive censorship

   Substantial censorship

   Selective censorship

   Under surveillance

   No evidence of censorship

   Not classified / No dat
Take a look at the latest Internet Censorship map on wikipedia. Data has been collected from the OpenNet Initiative, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, and in the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's Human Rights Reports. Originally published on 26 September 2011 and updated on 22 April 2012, the map shows that Australia is still under surveillance because there has been no formal move to abandon proposed mandatory ISP filtering. Under pressure from the Government, in June 2011 two Australian ISPs, Telstra and Optus, agreed to voluntarily filter sites identified by the AMCA as well as those identified by unknown international organisatons. Those wanting to know more and do something about internet censorship should check out Reporters Without Boarders here. It is interesting to note that copyright law does not appear to be included in the conceptualisation of censorship despite the fact that Graduated Response/Three Strikes schemes, whether introduced through legislation as is the case in France, New Zealand and South Korea or voluntarily as is soon to be the case in the United States of America (although there seems to be some delay at the moment) and perhaps in the near future in Australia, clearly restrict access to information.

Further Reading
Wikipedia, Internet censorship by country (20 July 2012) < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country > at 22 July 2012

ZeroPaid, US 6 Strike Rule Delayed (14 July 2012) < http://www.zeropaid.com/news/101600/us-6-strike-rule-delayed/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zeropaid+%28Zeropaid.com%29  > at 17 July 2012

TechDirt, Is The Six Strikes Plan Being Delayed Because ISPs Are Pushing Back Against Hollywood Demands? (13 July 2012) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120713/14591019696/is-six-strikes-plan-being-delayed-because-isps-are-pushing-back-against-hollywood-demands.shtml > at 17 July 2012

TechDirt, Australian Gov't Chooses 'Consumer Advocate' For Secret Anti-Piracy Meetings: The Chairman Of The Copyright Council (8 June 2012) < http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120605/18331419214/australian-govt-chooses-consumer-advocate-secret-anti-piracy-meetings-chairman-copyright-council.shtml > at 18 June 2012