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Full-Text Articles in Law
Why The Copyright Act Expressly Preempts State-Level Public Performance Rights In Pre-1972 Recordings, James Fahringer
Why The Copyright Act Expressly Preempts State-Level Public Performance Rights In Pre-1972 Recordings, James Fahringer
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
Over the past several years, two former bandmates in the 1960s rock group, The Turtles, have initiated several lawsuits against the popular music streaming services, Pandora and Sirius XM, arguing that the band owns common law copyrights in the sound recordings of its songs, and that these state-level copyrights grant the band an exclusive public performance right in its sound recordings. If accepted, this argument has the potential to significantly distort federal copyright policy because states would not be constrained by any of the balancing features of the Copyright Act, including Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors for Internet …
Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García
Private Copyright Reform, Kristelia A. García
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The government is not the only player in copyright reform, and perhaps not even the most important. Left to free market negotiation, risk averse licensors and licensees are contracting around the statutory license for certain types of copyright-protected content, and achieving greater efficiency via private ordering. This emerging phenomenon, herein termed “private copyright reform,” presents both adverse selection and distributive justice concerns: first, circumvention of the statutory license goes against legislative intent by allowing for the reduction, and even elimination, of statutorily mandated royalties owed to non-parties. In addition, when presented without full term disclosure, privately determined royalty rates can …
Public Performance Rights In The Digital Age: Fixing The Licensing Problem, G. S. Hans
Public Performance Rights In The Digital Age: Fixing The Licensing Problem, G. S. Hans
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
Recent technological advances have allowed consumers to reinvent the mixtape. Instead of being confined to two sides of an audiocassette, people can now create playlists that stretch for hours and days on their computers, tablets, mobile devices, and MP3 players. This, in turn, has affected how people consume and listen to music, both in isolation and in groups. As individuals and business owners in the United States use devices to store, organize, and listen to music, they inevitably run up against the boundaries of U.S. copyright law. In general, these laws affect businesses more often than private individuals, who can …
Everything In Its Right Place: Social Cooperation And Artist Compensation, Leah Belsky, Byron Kahr, Max Berkelhammer, Yochai Benkler
Everything In Its Right Place: Social Cooperation And Artist Compensation, Leah Belsky, Byron Kahr, Max Berkelhammer, Yochai Benkler
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The music industry's crisis response to the Internet has been the primary driver of U.S. copyright policy for over a decade. The core institutional response has been to increase the scope of copyright and the use of litigation, prosecution, and technical control mechanisms for its enforcement. The assumption driving these efforts has been that without heavily-enforced copyright, artists will not be able to make a living from their art. Throughout this period artists have been experimenting with approaches that do not rely on technological or legal enforcement, but on constructing web-based business models that engage fans and rely on voluntary …
The Super Brawl: The History And Future Of The Sound Recording Performance Right, Brian Day
The Super Brawl: The History And Future Of The Sound Recording Performance Right, Brian Day
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
On February 4, 2009, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Performance Rights Act ("PRA") to the Senate, joined by Representative John Conyers in the House of Representatives. Thirty-eight years after sound recordings were first granted federal copyright protection against unauthorized reproduction and distribution--and more than ten years after gaining a limited digital performance right--legislation is pending that would once again expand the scope of sound recording copyright to encompass terrestrial radio broadcasts. Historically, such broadcasts have been exempt from sound recording performance royalties.[...] Instead of (or in addition to) seeking remuneration from terrestrial radio stations, this Note suggests that sound recording …
Royalty Rate-Setting For Webcasters: A Royal(Ty) Mess, Amy Duvall
Royalty Rate-Setting For Webcasters: A Royal(Ty) Mess, Amy Duvall
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Internet is a haven for free expression. Not only are content-based restrictions disfavored, but "[the internet] provides relatively unlimited, low-cost capacity for communication of all kinds." Almost half of all Americans have listened to music online, whether rebroadcasts of terrestrial radio or to find niche music that terrestrial radio simply does not play, and 13 percent tune in regularly. Webcasters provide a unique outlet for new artists; however, if royalty rates are set too high for all but the largest webcasters to stay in business, the variety of music available will be severely restricted. Musical diversity stimulates the generation …
From Habermas To "Get Rich Or Die Tryin": Hip Hop, The Telecommunications Act Of 1996, And The Black Public Sphere, Akilah N. Folami
From Habermas To "Get Rich Or Die Tryin": Hip Hop, The Telecommunications Act Of 1996, And The Black Public Sphere, Akilah N. Folami
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article explores the manner in which gangsta rappers, who are primarily young urban Black men, navigate the mass media and rap's commercialization of the gangsta image to continue to provide seeds of political expression and resistance to that image. While other scholars have considered the political nature of rap in the context of the First Amendment, this Article's approach is unique in that it is the first to explore such concepts through the lenses of Habermas' ideal public sphere and those of his critics. While many have written gangsta rap off as being commercially co-opted or useless given its …
Three Reactions To Mgm V. Grokster, Pamela Samuelson
Three Reactions To Mgm V. Grokster, Pamela Samuelson
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
It was prescient of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review to have organized a conference to discuss the Supreme Court's decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. v. Grokster, Inc. As the articles in this issue reveal, commentators have had somewhat mixed reactions to the Grokster decision. Perhaps I am the most mixed (or mixed up) about Grokster among its commentators, for I have had not just one but three reactions to the Grokster decision. My first reaction was to question whether MGM and its co-plaintiffs really won the Grokster case, or at least won it in the way they had hoped. …
Black Musical Traditions And Copyright Law: Historical Tensions, Candace G. Hines
Black Musical Traditions And Copyright Law: Historical Tensions, Candace G. Hines
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Note begins with a discussion of copyright law and then examines Black musical traditions and how they have conflicted with American copyright law through the years. Part I explains the history of American copyright law and its theoretical underpinnings. Part II relates common Black musical traditions in more detail. Part III illustrates how the foundations of Black musical traditions can be found in Negro Spirituals. Part IV outlines the notion of Black music as it evolved in ragtime. Part V describes how copyright undermined the traditions of blues, jazz, and R&B. Part VI explains how rock 'n' roll's prominence …
Musical Musings: The Case For Rethinking Music Copyright Protection, J. Michael Keyes
Musical Musings: The Case For Rethinking Music Copyright Protection, J. Michael Keyes
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
This Article focuses on the topic of music copyright, but addresses this legal issue from a different vantage point than that of the industry insiders, insightful scholars, and policy makers that have weighed in on the debate. Instead of focusing on the issues regarding wholesale digital reproduction and dissemination of music protected by copyright, this Article focuses on music copyright infringement when the claim is that a given piece of music is "substantially similar" to another piece of music protected by copyright. Part I of this Article touches on the history of the music industry and copyright in this country, …
Strings Attached--Violin Fraud And Other Deceptions, Carla J. Shapreau
Strings Attached--Violin Fraud And Other Deceptions, Carla J. Shapreau
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Violin Fraud: Deception, Forgery, Theft, and the Law by Brian W. Harvey