Open Directory - Society: Issues: Intellectual Property: Music Freedom
See also: This category in other languages: - Details of the investigation and subsequent report by the UK Parliament's 'All Party Internet Group' into DRM systems in the music industry. Evidence was taken from campaigners and interested parties from all sides of the debate. - Featuring a dissertation by Anthony McCann focusing on Irish music, copyright, and performing rights. - Article discussing Canada's stand on file-sharing and the industry watchdogs. - Argues that P2P doesn't threaten music, musicmaking or musicians because sales are at all time highs. - Supports the Free Music Philosophy, the idea that all people should have the freedom to copy, distribute, and modify music for personal, noncommercial purposes. FAQ, articles, suggested further reading, links to related sites. - A manifesto for musicians who want to make money in the new economy. Asserts that piracy is a phony issue that record labels are hyping in order to rip off artists. - A professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas lists reasons why record industry experts failed to prove their assertion that Napster was gutting industry revenues. - Collects and shares information about the lawsuits brought against ordinary people by the RIAA and the majors. By Ray Beckermann, business lawyer in New York City. - Anti-copyright collective of musicians using samples from popular culture to create challenging and subversing audio collage. Information about fair use and copyright issues in music, along with free MP3 downloads. - Essay by Steve Albini discusses how the monopoly grants (copyrights) have made the music industry so bloated and unproductive. - Sharing copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks is legal in Canada, a federal judge ruled. (March 31, 2004) - Canadian article by an industry songwriter who examines both sides of the argument and sees file-trading as a consumer revolt and an explicit demand for change. (March 18, 2004) - DJ Dangermouse (Brian Burton) took vocals from rapper Jay-Z's "The Black Album," mixed them with instrumentals from The Beatles (known to all as The White Album), and came up with "The Grey Album." It wasn't made for commercial release, but the mixes got Internet play. EMI - the label controlling Beatles music - took legal action, and Web sites recently mounted a protest. Joel Rose reports. [7:42 streaming audio broadcast] (February 28, 2004) - The RIAA's newest aggressive tactics and legal assault on file swappers is pushing traders to encrypted networks, where file trading will mushroom as well as be untraceable. (January 27, 2004) - Surveys showing that lawsuits have greatly reduced file-sharing may be seriously flawed. By some measures, swaps are actually escalating. (January 16, 2004) - A new group criticizes the recording industry for blaming consumers instead of its own failures. (September 29, 2003)
