Copyright Law Blog

Music Matters – A Window Into The Asian Music Market

August 14th, 2009 at 06:35am Under copyright act

I’ve been a regular to several of the major worldwide music conferences over the years, from MIDEM (Cannes) and Popkomm (Berlin) to Canadian Music Week (Toronto). These have not only been a great opportunity to meet and do business with companies in major Western markets, but to also gain a true perspective on the challenges and opportunities specific to those markets. So, it was with quite some excitement that I made my way to Hong Kong for my first trip to Asia, and the 4th edition of Music Matters at the Grand Hyatt from June 2-4 ( http://www.musicmatters.asia ).From the start, it was clear that Music Matters has a distinctly different feel from most other conferences, more of what I’d call a ‘family affair’. Unlike other conferences that offer a plethora of simultaneous, often lightly attended, Music Matters sets a unified program followed by all delegates. The message is clear: If you want to understand the Asian market, here is the information you will need. And whereas the other conferences make participants available to facilitate scheduling meetings in advance, Music Matters takes a completely opposite approach. “We want a free-flowing networking event where everyone has access to everyone else in a open format,” explained Commercial Director Stan Ruza.While I was initially skeptical that this would work, it ended up being a nice and productive change, especially for someone looking to build up a broad base of contacts in Asia. I left with as many contacts as I do from other conferences, even though it was much smaller — composed mostly of decision makers from all the major Asian markets: from Tokyo to Mumbai, Sidney to Kuala Lumpur.Japanese NirvanaWhile I learned a lot about the Asian market in those 2 days, the most surprising “revelation” was actually a question: when will the Japanese music market surpass the US for the #1 position? More shocking were the estimates ranging from only 5-10 years.So what exactly is happening to justify this doomsday scenario (at least from the US perspective)? Simple: the Japanese love music, and are still more than willing to pay for it, whether old or young. Kei Ishizaka, CEO & Chairman of Universal Music LLC Japan and RIAJ (Recording Industry Association of Japan) Chairman presented some facts in his opening keynote “New Strategies & Opportunities in Japan” that might make some in the West red with envy:* Digital sales in Japan have increased from 7.5% in 2005 to 20% in 2008* Mobile is the driver, accounting for 89% digital sales in 2008* Note that this is a slight drop from 94% in 2005, credited to iTunes Japan which, accounts for 50% of online sales* Japan is the only music market where digital sales have made up for losses in physical sales – that is until 2008, when physical losses appear to be outpacing the growth of digital sales* Japanese music consumers appear relatively price inelastic, with a willingness to pay the highest prices of any country for music: up to $4/ringtone and $30+/CD album* The Japanese music industry is still a hit-driven onePerhaps most importantly, the Japanese music industry has not abandoned its most profitable customers: those over 40. The dirty little secret in the US is that according to Soundscan, CD sales have fallen faster amongst those over 40, largely out of neglect by labels focused on the youth market. The Japanese music companies on the other hand, have consciously developed products for the over 40 demographic, which (i) do not download music and (ii) are willing to pay big bucks ($30+) for a high-quality CD (ie music, packaging…).This is not to say that Japan is a complete musical nirvana: more music was acquired via illegal means (407 million tracks) than legal (329 million tracks) on mobile platforms. In 2006, the RIAJ sent over 220,000 takedown notices, and have since filed criminal charges against mobile BBS (Bulletin Board System) site operators. But despite these challenges, the Japanese market has been growing non- stop, with the exception of 2008 when it recorded a measly 3% drop in sales, which is not generally viewed as a trend for the coming years.Get Me A Piece Of That Pie!By this point, you’re probably trying to devise ways to grab of a piece of the Asian pie. Think again! You’re still more likely to make it in the US or Europe than earning any yens or yuans. Just like the Great Wall of China, the Asian market presents nearly insurmountable challenges for even the most savvy western artists.First, the Asian market is completely dominated by local repertoire. Japan is actually one of the more accessible markets, with international repertoire accounting for a little over 20%; though, this has been decreasing over recent years. Look outside of Japan and the numbers are downright depressing. Take the fastest growing markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India and China; and their local repertoires accounts for nearly 99% of total.Put simply, Asians want music that they are culturally/linguistically comfortable with and can relate too. Of course there is Hip Hop, Pop, and Rock throughout Asia, but it is all sung in their respective native language, with their cultural nuances. This is in complete contrast with the West where English is, for all intents and purposes, a necessity to become an international star, whether you’re called Shakira, Bjork or The Scorpions.In addition, Asia has no long-tail effect. It is still a hit-driven market, which tends to play against foreign acts. The general consensus among conference speakers and attendees appears to be that Asian consumers are just too busy working to go hunting for new music, to listen to podcasts, or to endlessly surf social media sites.As such, Asian consumers are much more ‘captive’ to recommendations and editorial leads than say the US, where we have a proud tradition of bin-diving for that rare LP – wasn’t the old Napster and today’s MySpace simply the digital shape of this art form? The fact that mobile drives music consumption as opposed to the net, has some part to play in this as well. For the same reason, all-you-can-eat subscription services competing with iTunes are not likely to gain a sufficient subscriber base despite the markets’ sizes.But let us say, for argument’s sake, that you do develop some recognition in an Asian market. How do you expect to generate money from it? You’ve all heard of the scourge of piracy in Asia, so I don’t want to rehash the topic. Let me just leave you with this fact from Google China’s Bin Lin: of the 7,000+ music services in China, only 0.1% of their offerings are legal downloads.Licensing isn’t much help either. Unlike North America and Europe, where Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) have a long history, collection agencies are relatively young in Asia and have yet to get a grip on the digital market. As a consequence, there is a lot of mistrust between publishers and PROs, which significantly hampers licensing opportunities. If one takes the Indian market for example, where 70% of music consists of soundtracks (courtesy of Bollywood), music labels have been collecting all relevant rights until recently.Even the mature Japanese market has its eccentricities, such as songs being available free of sync licensing for commercial purposes up to one year after its release. As a consequence, success in the Japanese market may well depend on a willingness to waive sync rights for commercial use, representing an important way to break a song, explained Kimitaka Kato, Universal International Managing Director.Are You Depressed Yet?Frankly, I’m not! My recommendation is too look at the Far East as the Wild West: full of opportunity for those with the patience and guts too tough it out. The first lesson is that you are nobody unless you are here. Thus I made the trip to Music Matters and then to Beijing, where I met a successful music pioneer, Kenny Bloom.Bloom, who was kindly referred to me by NARIP’s (National Association of Record Industry Professionals) Tess Taylor, came to China over 20 years ago to launch Warner Music. He now runs Mogo (www.mogo.com.cn), one of the coolest video sites in China serving the young, hip (undeserved) Chinese urban youth. So why is he still in China with everything I previously mentioned?(i) China has the largest internet population (around 300 million, ie, the entire US population)(ii) Around 80% of Chinese internet users are music consumers (240 million)(iii) Music was the #2 search term for the last 3 years(iv) At $50 billion annually, China is now the 2nd largest advertising market (It just recently surpassed Japan for the #2 position)He also has a different take on the Chinese consumer. According to Bloom, it’s not so much that the Chinese are busier or harder working, but that they are in an underdeveloped media market. Media in China (TV, radio and to some extent the internet) is directly or indirectly controlled by the Communist government.As The Economist recently noted “the proliferation of channels for media, information and entertainment offers unbounded scope for the [Chinese Communist] party to get its message across, abetted by commercial operators.” One consequence of this is the sanitizing of media in order to appeal to a national audience that includes rural peasants as well as urban dwellers. It’s a process not unlike our over-conglomeratized radio or broadcast TV markets, which is suffering from competition by more original and niche programming on cable, satellite and the internet.The upside is that this presents unique opportunities to serve the growing chique urban class, which the centralized media market is incapable of satisfying; a segment Bloom estimates to be 40 million and growing. By serving this high-value segment with high-quality, original video programming, Mogo is able to attract big-name brands such as Converse that place a premium on this demographic. To some extent, Mogo is trying to do for China today what MTV did for the U.S. in the 80’s.Another Beijing-based company to watch is Yobo Music (www.yobo.com), a recommendation and discovery site for music. Its founder Allen Guo was perhaps the most eloquent at Music Matters on the need to offer Chinese consumers a variety of models and services that enhance their music experience. Only by meeting the various needs of different consumer segments — as the Japanese music market has done so successfully — will alternatives to piracy be sustainable.Future revenues will be driven by value-added music services rather than easily pirated downloads or ringtones. And while advertising may seem a panacea to many in the U.S. and China (did I mention they are the 2 largest advertising markets), Allen noted some success by Yobo Music with other revenue models such as micro-payments and music gifting.The Silver LiningIn the end, the Wild West was tamed and I believe the same will happen with China. America in its first 50 years was home to pirates (ie., privateers) and some of the worst copyright/patent infringers of the time. This is part of what lead to the growth of the young, scrappy republic. But as it matured, and itself became more of a creator/innovator, America began to place increasing value on protecting copyright/patents.The same will be true for China. As Bloom noted, “How do you expect a people that had no concept of private ownership 10 years ago to understand, let alone value, something like copyright?” In other words, not only has copyright been a foreign concept, it would have been counter-productive to the country’s development. But as it begins to export more cultural goods and develop new patents, that trend will reverse as surely as it did in the US. The only question is whether it can put the genie back in the bottle when the time comes.I happened to arrive in Beijing on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident. Sure enough, I could not access Twitter or YouTube, and any coverage on foreign TV channels, like BBC were blocked by a blank screen. Once the Communist Party determines that copyright is something worth putting the effort towards protecting, I wouldn’t give those 7,000+ so-called music services much of a chance.

Knowing The Legalities Of Your CD

August 13th, 2009 at 06:35pm Under copyright act

Once you’ve finished your recording, what now? You have all the right mixes finished and everything is in its place, but there is still work to be done before your CD will truly be finished. By knowing what needs to be done after all of the recording is finished, you’ll have a much easier time getting from recording to successfully finished product: your CD.
After the CD is finished recording, the first thing which needs to be done is to send a copy off to the copyright office. This will ensure that no one else can release your music as your own, as well as letting you have a written record of what you have done. Normally, what you’ll need to do is to fill out a copyright sheet for the copyright office and send that in along with your CD and a fee for the copyright. Your copyright will last a number of years before expiry; at which point you will need to re-register your copyright.
After doing this, there a number of ways which you can license and register your compositions. ASCAP and BMI are the best places to start. Both of these organizations act as a sort of head office for keeping track of compositions. If anyone else ever performs your compositions, these organizations will send you a performance fee for your compositions. If you have not yet finished your CD, you should nevertheless consider registering with ASCAP or BMI for musician’s rights and then send them copies of any music you record to keep a record of this.
Next, you should think about how royalties for the use of your music by others will be administered. If someone wants to use a piece which you have composed for a compilation album, for example, you’ll want royalties. There are businesses which take care of royalties and publishing licenses such as Harry Fox; doing this will let you get royalties for each sale of your work by someone else (such as a compilation album maker).
There are other licensing options to think of as well. If another band uses your composition, or your music is used on television or for a commercial, these people must pay you a royalty fee along with a mechanical licensing fee. You still hold the copyright to your music, but basically ‘rent’ out the song to others for their use. ASCAP and BMI can usually track your composition’s appearances as long as you have registered your recordings with them and the person using your work goes through the proper channels to obtain permission to use your music.
Once this registration issue has been handled, you have some choices as to how to go forward with preparing your music for distribution. The growth of the internet as a marketplace and venue for entertainment means that you can approach sales of your music via physical CDs as well as digital distribution; e.g. – downloads.
Digital distribution offers the musician a lot of possibilities, such as websites like SnoCap, CDBaby and IODA. All of these take your music, convert them to MP3 format and distribute your work to websites and online jukeboxes which will make them available to the public. All you have to do to accomplish this is to register your CD or other recordings through this (there is a small fee) and the portal will do the rest of the work.
Whatever sort of music you are recording and no matter how you intend it to be used, experienced and enjoyed, you should always have the legalities of the recording process in mind. This will help you not only to sell your music, but to achieve wider distribution for your work.

An Open Letter to the New York Times

August 12th, 2009 at 06:35pm Under copyright act

An Open Letter To The New York Times

Dear New York Times Legal Department:

I write several commercial blogs for clients with diverse business interests. I write and manage blogs on real estate, Internet marketing, security, art and literature, software and technology, advertising media and online gambling. Recently, I received an e-mail from a commercial writer who creates content on one of your subsidiary websites. It was a very threatening letter.

In read in part, and this is a paraphrase, that my use of her material on one of my blogs constituted plagiarism and that I should remove it or be subject to her attorneys’ – you – hungry ambitions. I was aghast that a fellow author didn’t understand the fair use clause of U.S. copyright law.

According to a report for Congress on fair use on the Internet, written by Christopher Alan Jennings of the American Law Division, courts weigh four factors with regard to fair use, whether online or off line:

1. Purpose and character of work in question

2. Nature of copyrighted work

3. “Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”

4. Effect of use of the work “upon the potential market”

Now, I’m no legal scholar, but it seems to me that copying a paragraph or two and commenting on it on a blog falls into these guidelines as fair use. While there is no black and white dividing line with regard to fair use, I believe the first point (purpose and character) has a lot to do with medium. In other words, the media used in communicating a copyrighted work is essentially and inherently tied to purpose and character.

This is an important distinction because, while blogs are fairly new on the historical landscape of copyrighted material, it is very common and a fairly accepted practice – not to mention encouraged – for bloggers to copy and paste a few sentences or paragraphs from a website and add their own comments to it. Of course, it is generally recognizable that, when doing so, bloggers will link back to the quoted source as an act of attribution. This is considered fair use by the majority of bloggers who engage in this practice. It is also what I did when I “plagiarized” your subordinate author’s copyrighted material.

In his report, Jennings goes on to elaborate on each of the points above, noting that purpose and character has to do with two factors – primarily commercial use and transformative use. Jennings quotes the Supreme Court with regard to the first factor: “The crux of the profit/nonprofit distinction is not whether the sole motive of the use is monetary gain, but whether the user stands to profit from the exploitation of the copyrighted material without paying the customary price.” Again, I’m no legal scholar, but it seems to me that a vital question to ask in determining this crucial distinction is whether or not the commercial use of the copyrighted material could stand on its own without the material in question. Since I removed the “borrowed” material from my posts immediately upon receiving this e-mail, I think any judge would see that there is no question that my blog posts could survive without your material.

This brings me to Jennings’ next point. He says in his report that “transformative use” means generally that the new use of the copyrighted material “adds something new, with a further purpose or different character, altering the first with new expression, meaning or message.” Well, since I added my own comments to the “borrowed” material in order to highlight certain points that I agreed with, simply using the material as a testimonial to prove my larger point, I believe that would qualify as a valid transformative use of copyrighted material. Again, since I did link back to the original source, which constitutes attribution, I do not understand why a fellow author would consider that plagiarism.

In light of your own issues regarding plagiarism – i.e. Jayson Blair, which led to the resignation of Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd – I can understand why this might be a sensitive issue for you. Perhaps your newspaper would like to change its public image or take any attention off of yourselves due to these very serious issues that have resulted in a negative image of your company. But that’s no reason to toss around false accusations. I’d encourage – indeed, I implore you – to please take the time to educate your employees on what constitutes plagiarism and fair use for bloggers and other Internet authors. I’d hate to see your company involved in other embarrassing and unnecessary legal wrangles.

How Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights can increase the value of your business

August 9th, 2009 at 12:43pm Under intellectual property

Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights can become a valuable asset in the portfolio of your small business or corporation and should be managed judiciously.

One of the most daunting questions a small business owner faces when he or she decides to sell their business is “what do I have to sell?”. Aside from the phone number, address, and equipment, the main asset that is marketable is goodwill in most cases. Yet the concept of goodwill is elusive, amorphous, and difficult to quantify and monetize.

How do you measure goodwill? How difficult would it be for another business to amass the goodwill your business has accrued in the marketplace from scratch? How quickly could they build their own good will especially after the impending vacuum your exit will inexorably create? Sure, accountants have artful methods of ginning up the numbers in support of your goodwill appraisal, yet all the silver tongue number crunching will still leave you uneasy and leave your prospective bidders unconvinced.

One surefire way of providing flesh, structure, and a skeleton to support your goodwill appraisal is the Intellectual Property portfoliio of your business. In particular, if you assert to a prospective bidder for your business that your goodwill is worth $x, you may bolster your argument with a United States Patent and Trademark (USPTO) registration and/or a state registration of your Trademark. At least now your asserted appraisal of your goodwill has support in the form of a nice seal and ribbon which may release concerns your prospective purchaser may have regarding how they may be able to monetize your goodwill.

In addition, if you are in the manufacturing industry, a prospective bidder may feel more at ease if you can point to some patents you have on the products you make, or the proprietary methods and processes you use in order to conduct your business. Your prospective bidder may take comfort in the fact that he or she may be given some leverage to assert in the marketplace with patent protection.

Now, on the flip side it is true that a portfolio of patents, trademarks, and copyrights can get a bidder to sit up straight and get their eyebrows creasing may also be difficult to appraise and monetize in their own right. Not all patents, trademarks, and copyrights are enforceable or even valuable. Many patents are not worth the paper they are printed on. Many trademarks upon which there is a registration are actually enforceable due to their inherent weaknesses. As such, if you are in the position of purchasing a business with an Intellectual Property portfolio, you may want to enlist a Patent Attorney to take a look at what is underneath the hood and do some diagnostics on the true strength and value of the value of the Intellectual Property portfolio.

As such, business owners who desire to sell their business sometime in the distant future would be well advised to immediately start building up a strong Intellectual Property portfolio consisting of Patents, Trademark registrations with the USPTO and their Secretary of State, and Copyright registrations. And on the other side of the transaction, a business purchaser should be advised to enlist the services of an experienced Intellectual Property attorney to evaluate the strength of each Intellectual Property asset to arrive at a fair value of the business.

For more information on patents, trademarks, and copyrights please visit the Los Angeles Patent Lawyer website.

Image protection (for Internet Artists)

August 8th, 2009 at 06:42pm Under copyright protection

No method of image protection is wholly effective, but nevertheless, Artists should take reasonable steps to defend their images from unauthorised use. The aim of this article is to show what can be done, rather than how to do it. Free tools, software, codes, and how to advice can be easily found on the Internet, once you know what to look for.Image preparationThe best form of protection is to make your images fit for use only as web graphics. 1. Don’t make your pictures any bigger than necessary. The bigger an image, the easier it is to achieve quality prints. 2. Use image compression/optimisation software to reduce the file sizes of your images. On screen, there is little difference between a compressed and uncompressed file, however compressed files can comprise up to 90% less information, and will not withstand enlargement without severe loss of quality. 3. Watermark your images. Visible watermarking is simply a matter of placing some text, or a graphic, over your image. The trick is to achieve a balance between making your watermark difficult to remove, and not overly obscuring the image.

4. Use a correctly worded copyright notice on your web pages, and as your image watermark. This should comprise the © symbol (to let others know they should not use the artist’s work without permission), the name of the copyright owner next to it (so that anyone wishing to use the image to trace the copyright holder), and the year in which the image was created (to let others know when the term of protection started).

File protectionThere are a number of easy steps that can be taken to keep your image files as inaccessible as possible.5. Protect your image directory. Most web designers put their images and graphics in suitably named folders (sub-directories). Browsers automatically look for an “index” or “default” page within each sub-directory, and if there isn’t one, they display a list of all the files in that sub-directory. This means anyone can get a complete list of all your images and grab anything they want. There isn’t much point in employing other safeguards (such as no right click) if folder content lists are accessible. To stop this happening, place an index page in each folder where you have images. The page can be a blank document, or could include an appropriate message. 6. You can stop Browsers from caching the images on your web pages, by inserting the following code HEAD tags of your web page: .7. Internet Explorer 6 has an annoying little feature called the “Image Toolbar”. Whenever your mouse hovers over an image, the Image Toolbar pops up, and invites you to save, print (etc). To disable the Image Toolbar, insert the following code between the HEAD tags of your web page: .Code techniquesThere are a number different ways in which you can use code to deter people from copying your website images, but unfortunately NONE of these are fool proof. They will only ever discourage the casual thief.8. Use a rollover script to display images. When the mouse is moved over the image, a second image appears with a copyright notice, for example. Right clicking will only grab the rollover image. 9. Null images and nested tables (or overlapping layers, or even CSS). Briefly this involves creating a transparent image (GIF or PNG) the same size as the image you wish to protect. The “real” image is placed in the first table, and the “null” image placed in a second (nested) table, so that it is in front of the real image. If you right click to save the image, the transparent GIF/PNG is grabbed.  10. Sectioning images is a process in which that image is divided into parts to form a number of separate images. These are then reassembled in a “zero border” table, recreating the original image. Right clicking will save only a section of the image.11. Disabling the mouse right click functions prevents the most common method used to grab an image. There are several JavaScripts available – with and without pop up warning messages. 12. Slide-Shows Java and Flash slide show scripts can be a good choice. The images cannot be saved directly, however, they remain vulnerable to screen grabs.Other options13. Invisible watermarking, like those created by Digimarc, digitally embeds a personal identification number within the image. They do not prevent your images from being taken, but offer proof of ownership.14. There are a number of further techniques and software options, but they all require either a little expertise, or expenditure.

Portraits by John Burton

Technology That Stops Illegal ‘copyright’ File Sharing

August 7th, 2009 at 06:42pm Under music copyright

SafeMedia, the preeminent provider of “Clouseau” a P2P Active Denial Network Security Appliance announced today it has expanded its reseller channel through an agreement with Systems Design & Support Inc (SDSI).

“Systems Design & Support’s corporate clients will immediately benefit by having complete protection against P2P network risks. SafeMedia is confident SDSI’s extensive network design and implementation expertise will be the foundation on which SDSI expands its offerings of the best solutions available, by leveraging SafeMedia’s technology as a leader in P2P Active Denial Systems,” said Bill Weiss, Vice President Sales.

SafeMedia’s innovative network appliance protects clients from P2P security risks and legal liabilities created by “infringing P2P networks”. SafeMedia’s advanced architecture, utilizes Dynamic Profiling and Adaptive network pattern recognition, which can run on any network, regardless of type or speed, resulting in far more scalable processing capacity. Clouseau can be easily deployed across all industry segments. Protection from P2P security risks was not available through firewalls or other security systems until SafeMedia introduced “Clouseau”. “Clients will immediately reclaim network bandwidth, reduce network congestion and eliminate theft of confidential data from inadvertent file sharing. Clouseau will also reduce non-business streaming activity which can threaten the integrity of VoIP communications,” said Norman Landerman, Director of Sales for Systems Design & Support.

About SafeMedia

SafeMedia is a global technology leader that has developed portable and scalable P2PActive Denial Systems to monitor, detect, intercept, capture and deny all illegal sharing of copyrighted digital files from P2P networks, encrypted or non-encrypted, without any measurable latency on the network. SafeMedia’s technology is the only technology available to immediately stop all digital copyright infringement from P2P networks and protect user from inadvertent fill sharing security risks

http://www.SafeMedia.com

About Systems Design & Support Inc.

SDSI has provided networked solutions to businesses of all sizes for over 10 years. All SDSI systems engineers’ have industry certifications including MCSE, CCNA, CCDA and others. SDSI’s solutions cover all areas of networking technologies including Voice over IP, Microsoft Server platforms, routing, and security.

http://www.net-sdsi.com

Protecting your Website’s Images From Stealing: is it Really Possible?

August 6th, 2009 at 12:40pm Under copyright protection

It is simply not possible to prevent someone from copying your website images. If someone is skilled and determined there’s no way to stop them from abusing your website and your content. But there’s still light in the end of the tunnel. You can use some semi-sophisticated techniques to limit the amount of people that can copy your website’s images. Keep reading.

The first method I recommend is called digital image watermarking. A watermark can be visible or can be invisibly embedded into the pixels of an image. There are companies like Digimarc offering digital watermarking services and providing a digital identity for any media object, thus protecting it from stealing. But these systems are not fool proof, they have serious weaknesses and they are costly.

Another method would be to hide your original image behind a transparent GIF using CSS style sheets. If someone right clicks the image and selects to save it, it will only save the transparent GIF, not the original image. Similarly, you can insert the image as a table background. But in both cases a visitor can always make use of the -PrtScrn- button to copy anything from your website.

Embedding the images in Flash files is another popular method. Now, this is a neat method to use, it will make it difficult for a thief to steal your work. You cannot right click and copy the image if it’s embedded in a flash file. But the flash file is already on your hard drive (cache). You can use any flash de-compiler software to easily grab any contents from a flash executable file. And of course you can simply use the -PrtScn- button to take snapshots.You see, the truth is that there’s nothing you can do to prevent a thief from stealing your content.

Protecting your Website’s Content: Just Don’t Bother

August 4th, 2009 at 12:42pm Under copyright protection

The internet is the best place if you want to steal content. It makes it really easy to copy any information you see on webpages, whether it is text, images, media or .pdf files etc. A lot of web designers or webmasters are spending hours using various techniques to protect their webpage content. Well, the fact is that there’s no method that can effectively protect your website content from copying.

When you view a webpage that means all content from this particular webpage is already on your hard drive. All the words, images, source code, media files are already downloaded to your temporary internet files folder on your pc. It’s a matter of simply moving those files to another location on your hard drive and you’ve got all the content from that website.

So, whether you like it or not the news is there’s no way to prevent a skilled and determined thief from stealing your content. Here’s is my advice: If you have something that’s really valuable and don’t want people to make use of it without your permission, then just don’t upload it on the web.So called “Protection methods”

Disabling the text copy. Lots of webmasters use this method hoping that it will protect the webpage’s content from being copied. This method is very easy to implement. You just add a small java script code which prevents the website visitor from highlighting any text on the web page and make use of the -Copy- function.

And what happens if your visitor has disabled java script? Or if they simply view the source code of the webpage from the browser menu? My advice: Just don’t bother using this method, it will only annoy your visitors.

A very popular method is the “No right click” script. This is a java script that disables the right mouse click on webpages so that visitors will not be able to look at the web page source code. My advice: never disable the right mouse click. Again, you will only succeed in annoying your website visitors.

Another popular method is the HTML stripping method. The idea is to remove all spaces in your source code so that it looks like a big long line. That way it will make it harder for people to read it and will also make your webpages download faster. But what happens if you want to edit that webpage yourself? My advice: Don’t even think about using this method especially if you keep updating your webpages often.

By far the most useless method of protecting your content is to convert all your text to images. I’ve seen only a few websites implementing this technique. It will take you years to convert all text, you will confuse the search engines (I doubt you will ever rank in any search engine) because they will not be able to read any text, and if someone desperately wants your content all it takes is to sit down and retype it manually!

There are other similar so called content protection methods, but I firmly believe that there’s no point to try to protect your content using any of them. It’s just a waste of time. If someone really wants your website content, no matter you do, there’s no way to prevent them from stealing.

Why Do Videos Get Removed From Youtube?

August 4th, 2009 at 12:39pm Under copyright infringement

Ever wonder why videos get removed from YouTube? We took a large random sample of videos from our YouTube index, and gathered some interesting statistics on what was removed and why.

At Webmunism.com we index over a million videos from popular video sharing site YouTube. Because videos get removed, we also check periodically to see which ones are still there. Out of scientific curiosity, we took a random sample of over 20,000 videos known to have existed in our index (20,811 videos to be exact).

Of these, 89 percent of the videos were still up, with 11 percent having been removed for various reasons.

There are 3 main reasons YouTube give for the removal of videos. We checked the 2,134 removed videos to determine what percentage were removed for each reason, giving the results below.48% – Removed by the user

This means the video was removed voluntarily by the person who uploaded it. There could be any number of reasons for doing this. Maybe they produced and uploaded a better version, or maybe they just got tired of it.41% – Removed due to terms of use violation

This means the video was removed at the initiative of YouTube staff, because it breached the YouTube terms of use in some way. It might have contained obscene, pornographic or otherwise unacceptable content. I think – but I can’t be sure of this – that it might also include some copyright issues. In this case it’s likely that the video was removed before a formal takedown notice was issued.11% – Removed at the request of the copyright owner

The dreaded DMCA takedown notice or its equivalent. This means that YouTube were served with a request to remove the video on the grounds of copyright, and complied with that request.

Clearly DMCA notices aren’t the most common reason videos are removed from YouTube, it’s more likely for a user to remove a video of their own accord. However, it’s still a statistic to give you pause, when you consider that (if our sample is representative) just over 1 in 10 videos that disappear from YouTube, do so as a result of copyright infringement notices.

If there’s enough interest, we may put up a page on Webmunism.com to track these statistics in (semi) real time.

What New Artists and Musicians Can Do to Keep From Being Taken Advantage of – See a California Music & Entertainment Lawyer

August 4th, 2009 at 06:40am Under copyright infringement

There is probably no other profession than the music business where so many people will try to take advantage of you when you are starting out as an artist or musician if you don’t have a lawyer. Whether you or your band hails from Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach in San Diego, Anaheim or Santa Ana in Orange County, or Palm Springs, whether you developed your talent in La Jolla, or at Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach or Santa Barbara, and whether you live, studied or performed in Hollywood, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice, Malibu, Palm Desert or La Quinta, when you are just starting out, the entertainment industry sees you as someone whom they can take advantage of.

Music contracts are notoriously long, complicated and almost undecipherable to all but a music lawyer. Thirty page contracts are nothing unusual in this business. And there are so many contracts you will be faced with as a musician. Sign the wrong contract and you can be married to a bad agent, promoter, manager, distribution deal, publishing deal or record company and have your career over before it ever began.

Besides the issues you will face with copyrighting your music and trademarking your band name and logo, if you have one, there are management contracts, recording contracts, publishing contracts, agent contracts, distribution deals, licensing contracts, promotion deals, festival and concert contracts, producer agreements and that doesn’t even get into the complex issues contained in many of these agreements.

A music lawyer must have knowledge of synchronization rights, digital rights, peer to peer file swapping, sampling, mechanical licenses, copyright infringement, publishing, advertising law, immigration, employment law, negotiation, ring tones, and have a good understanding of how music is made from mixing to mastering, from the roles of the producer to the needs of the musicians.

And yet, for the music lawyer, there is little that is as rewarding as being part of the recording process or helping a band make it to the big time.

My advice to musicians just starting out and being presented with any type of contract is that having their contract reviewed by a music lawyer is essential. You are likely being presented with the most one-sided type of contract in any business or profession. They are written by the attorneys for the company or manager who is handing it to you with absolutely no attempt to be even handed.

Worst of all, at this stage in your career, you have little leverage. No matter how good you think your music is, the music world is littered with great musicians who signed horrible contracts that stifled if not ended their careers. If you have to do an extra gig and save the money to have a contract reviewed, that’s what you need to do. Get yourselves a good music lawyer. Not a divorce lawyer. Not a trial lawyer. An entertainment lawyer who knows the music business and one, preferably, who is interested in music and who is willing to listen to your music.  

If you have an entertainment law, copyright or trademark issue in San Diego, Newport Beach, Irvine, Orange County, La Jolla, in the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Palm Springs or anywhere in Southern California, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Huntington Beach Entertainment Lawyer and your Anaheim Entertainment Attorney. Be sure to hire a California law firm with entertainment law experience who can serve areas such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Anaheim, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Fullerton, Del Mar, San Diego, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Buena Park, La Jolla, Oxnard, Ventura, La Quinta, and Santa Barbara so you are properly represented and get the compensation you deserve.

If you have an entertainment law, or copyright dispute of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you.