If you’ve ever looked at who gets paid (and how) in the digital music space, you may have walked away dizzy. The two copyrights in music — sound recording and composition — wend their way through the marketplace in lots of curious ways. For us, the most important thing is how money gets back to the actual muscians and songwriters. read more

[This post is by FMC Supreme Court Correspondent, Chhaya Kapadia]

Last week, the Supreme Court handed down on a ruling on Golan v. Holder, a case that ultimately pitted an international trade agreement against the rights of those who use works in the public domain.

The case is pretty complicated, but here’s a recap that’s as brief as we could make it: read more

In the aftermath of Congress delaying further action on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA), there’s been a rush to summarize what the debate might mean for the future of technology and copyright policy. Naturally, we have a few thoughts.

One thing that is clear from the massive blowback is that the “business-as-usual” approach to policymaking is unlikely to produce results (at least not the results desired and expected by major industry trade groups). Unfortunately, some folks seem to be missing that point entirely, and are clinging to the idea that the SOPA/PIPA kerfluffle was simply Big Content vs. Silicon Valley.

We beg to differ. read more

The following statement is attributed to Casey Rae-Hunter, Deputy Director for Future of Music Coalition:

“Future of Music Coalition is pleased that Congress has hit pause on controversial policy proposals to address the issue of intellectual property (IP) infringement. It is crucial that lawmakers recognize and understand the legitimate concerns of a broad array of stakeholders — including thousands of copyright owners — who have reservations about certain provisions in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP (PIPA). read more