Copyright Law Blog

Billion Dollar Animation Industry

August 3rd, 2009 at 06:43pm Under intellectual property

Billion Dollar Animation Industry

The Second Golden Age of Animation is creating enormous revenues from both box office gross to billions of dollars in sales generated by all manner of kids’ products spinning off from Intellectual Properties aimed at the kiddy market, products that range from the bizarre (Spongebob) to the sublime (Harry Potter).

 When was the First Golden Age of Animation? This was a period in American animation history beginning in 1928 that began with the introduction of sound cartoons. It continued into the early 1960s when the introduction of this new medium of television animation drew audiences away from cinemas. It was during these years that an impressive number of Animation Properties came into being; such characters as Tom and Jerry, Superman, Woody Woodpecker, Felix the Cat as well as a huge range of Disney characters.

 Walt Disney’s first films; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi came into being during this era.

 What then is the Second Golden Age of Animation? It is happening today. Traditional animation, called cell animation, had been the standard since the 1920’s. Very labor intensive, cell animation was the backbone of the Disney corporation production facility and other companies such as Hanna Barbera. The introduction of computers, while slow to take hold, has completely changed the face of animation production taking animation from two dimensional characters to three dimensional images that are more realistic, easier to manipulate and store and most importantly, are the backbone of the huge video gaming market.

Animated films have far outstripped other genres in home video and DVD sales in the last fifteen years with retail dollars now capturing 32% of total sales, far ahead of second place comedy at 20% according to the Producer To Producer Book, 2nd Edition. In recent years, the licensing and merchandising industry driven by animated television series targeted at children has performed beyond most industry expectations. An excellent case in point, the children’s craze, Pokemon, surpassed accumulated worldwide sales of $10.0 Billion by 2001. Licensing and Merchandising revenues are expected to exceed $100 Billion annually by the year 2010 fueled by such monster hits as Shrek 2 – $881 Million Dollars, Finding Nemo – $865 Million and The Incredibles – $624 Million to name just three.

The target market for children’s television and films is the 50 million plus 4 – 12 year old North American kids whose buying power for toys, games and puzzles was approximately U.S.$13.4 billion per year in the nineties and now in excess of $200 Billion a year. The secondary markets are Europe, Asia and the Pacific region where North American companies have traditionally experienced success with many movie driven properties.

 Kids buying power grew 12% over the 90’s and is expected to continue at a double digit growth rate well into the 2000’s. So dramatic was this growth of the Kids market that marketers dubbed the 90’s as the “Decade of the Child”.  In response to this phenomenon, more and more toys, clothes, food and entertainment products are being developed for this huge and growing market.  The companies involved in producing children’s live and animated productions have now identified this Kid’s market as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and now team up with toy companies and other manufacturers to exploit this lucrative ancillary market with an unimaginable number of products ranging from downloadable clips for cell phones to video games to social networking websites. 

Computer generated films are now the driving force behind the enormous jump in sales of toys, electronic games and the multitude of other products aimed at the kid and tween market. items.

 What does the future hold in this new Golden Age of Animation? Producers, manufacturers, distributors and kids are always on the lookout for that next new product. What will that be? As usual, it’s anybody’s guess. Who would have thought that some years ago, adults would be fist fighting over something called Cabbage Patch Dolls? Whatever the next hit is, it will no doubt be spawned from the depths of a computer chip.

 The Author and Associates

Michael Trigg is CEO of You N Me Productions Corp, a Vancouver Canada entertainment company. You N Me Productions has joint ventured with Media Kitchen I.N. Teractive and Worlds Away Productions Ltd of New York to produce a new children’s website entitled Greanwold’s World.

Resources

Greanwold’s World www.greanwold.com  is the environment of Greanwold and his Minosaur friends, the newest children’s property in the kids international market place.

Audio Galaxy, Music introduced

July 29th, 2009 at 06:41am Under music copyright

Audiogalaxy free download is committed to promoting and raising people’s understanding of music and broaden the range of music available that you might not know exists through a community of people who have a passion for music. The music application Features Auto-resuming: Never worry about resuming incomplete files. It is a file sharing system that indexed MP3 files. Audiogalaxy free download started out as the Borg Search, an FTP search engine written by Michael Merhej. Its stated mission was to facilitate sharing of music, though much more appears to have grown from its legacy.

The media application is great for that because of its unique group of users. Audiogalaxy free download is a cut above the rest of the peer-to-peer apps. The policy ran a type of centralized server, which means the company had some control over the types of files on its system. The music design company, which has consistently ranked among the most popular applications at Download. It has and is preventing a user from downloading certain more main stream songs. Some Features of its Auto-resuming: Never worry about resuming incomplete files. The Satellite is a real-time, transaction-based file-sharing system for MP3 users. The program is committed to promoting and raising people’s understanding of music and broaden the range of music available that you might not know exists through a community of people who have a passion for music.

The software program had to deal with several copy right cases. The popular Internet file-swapping service, agreed to filter copyrighted works as part of a legal settlement with the recording industry. The multimedia platform was accused of encouraging and facilitating the online trade in illegal music by “millions of individual, anonymous users”. But really Audiogalaxy free download was just trying to cooperate with the music industry and block copyrighted songs from their network. So nowadays the platform for online data exchange is coming back, in a big way. People who wish to have their music exchanged via Audiogalaxy free download may make their music available. The application is still allowed to provide a medium for people to exchange music.

The platform is great for that because of its unique group of users. Audiogalaxy free download also offers 25 megs of free Web space to musicians, so that they can post their MP3s, band information and images. Some Music categories here: rock, alternative, metal, blues, folk, jazz, rap and country. So you don’t have to be scared that your type of music isn’t presented. But important is that you must download, install, and run the Audiogalaxy free download Satellite for the system to work correctly. It resumes and best of all, you don’t have to worry about where it is downloading from, it automatically tracks the next best server. Requesting off-line files: If nobody is currently sharing the file you want, select it anyway because once somebody comes online with that file you will automatically start downloading it from them. SO don’t hesitate any longer and sign up for free today!

Music and Movies Download Sites – are They a Scam?

July 25th, 2009 at 06:41pm Under music copyright

Surfing the Internet, looking for music and movies to download, you will find a lot of so called music and movie download sites These sites do not provide you with music, or movies to download, no, they provide you with file sharing soft ware you can use to search for, and download music, movies and games. Most of them also provide you with cd burning soft ware and they have a helpdesk for those members who run in to problems with their downloading.

These sites are under attack.

First of all there is the entertainment industry that wants to shut them down. They claim that these file sharing programs are used to download copy right protected materials.

This is true of course, but lots of people download and trade files legally on file-sharing networks.You can, for example, legally download music from hundreds of bands and thousands live concerts, as well as multiple software titles and games. File sharing has enabled music fans from around the world to build the largest library of recorded music in history. File sharing is not illegal as long as you obey and comply with all relevant copyright laws. Sharing copyrighted material without permission could be illegal in your country.

In America the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) are leading the fight against the sharing of copyrighted music. Others, like Hollywood’s MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) are also starting to get involved and are taking legal action against the music and movie download sites.

It will not be easy to shut down these download sites. Especially since the Internet has no borders, it will be an almost impossible task, to get all the countries in the world to agree on how to legislate Internet downloading.

Another attack on music and movies download sites comes from, what I call, seasoned Internet users. They claim these download sites are a scam, because they charge for something you can get for free.

Well, you could get it for free, that is true. These download sites provide you with soft ware to search for and download files from the Internet. They provide you with software to burn these files on a cd should you wish to do so.

All this software is available for free on the Internet, but for an Internet novice it could be a daunting task to look for this kind of soft ware, to decide which soft ware to use, how to use it.On top of that they have to make sure that they do not download spy ware, ad ware or what ever. Joining a download site and have all the info in one place is not a bad option for most of them. Another advantage is the fact that these download sites provide a help desk for their members.

Is it a scam if you provide info that people could get for free elsewhere?

Consider this.

You are looking for a telephone number, so you look it up in the phone book.

Say you do not have the right phone book, you can go out looking for it.

You probably can find this free info in the library.

You can also pick up the phone and ring an information service.

They will provide you with this free info and they will charge you for it.

So, is this information service a scam?

I do not think so, and I also do not think that the music and movies download sites are a scam.

Provided of course that they tell you what you can expect from them before you sign up with them, and that they deliver on this promise

If you want to join a download site, chose one that gives a guaranty that you can have your money back if not satisfied.

Once you have joined, test out everything, especially their helpdesk.

If you have no questions, ask them a few things you know already, just to test their response.

And last but not least, do not hesitate to charge back your money if you are not completely satisfied.

Free Ipod Music Downloads – Real or Not?

July 21st, 2009 at 06:44pm Under music copyright

Sites offering free iPod music downloads are appearing all over the internet everyday. But if you were to take a closer look at them, one thing you must find out is whether they are legal music downloads. Everyone likes free stuff including free iPod music downloads. The sad truth is quite a number of these sites are illegal and violate copyright laws by uploading patented or copyright music without permission from the record labels or music companies. There are only a few sites where you truly can get hold of free iPod music downloads.

Recently, there were reports on the TV and newspapers regarding people facing lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association for America) for uploading copyrighted music for others to download. These people may face fines in the range of thousands. It seems that those who supported these offenders by downloading free iPod music downloads could be implicated. These are the free music sites that cost you absolutely nothing to download. But there are the risks of getting caught of course.

However, there remain ways in which a person can download free or rather almost free iPod music downloads without getting into trouble with the law.

The first thing you should be looking for is sites that have a membership system. For you to be a member of these sites, you have to pay a one-time membership fee, about $40 over to join. After that, you are free to download as much music as you want to your iPod. At present, this seems to be an increasingly popular alternative to sites like iTunes, WalMart, eMusic, etc which operates their business on a pay-per-download system. There are occasions you can find iTunes offering certain songs for free downloading but such occasions are really rare. Registering with a paid membership site is still more cost effective for free iPod music downloads. Period.

So it is not wrong for anyone to say that downloading iPod music at these online membership sites is free afterall. It is simple maths that the more you download, the average cost per piece of music goes down and down until you reach a point where the cost per download is almost zero. For example, I paid $40 for the lifetime membership and download close to 2000 songs. Each song cost me 2 cents per song only. Free iPod music downloads is within reach as we download more.

In everything, there are the good ones and the not-so-good sites. But generally, these are the few factors you need to watch out for. The sites must offer a wide selection of all kinds of music giving you a personalized feel when you download music at these download sites. Everyone must be able to find their favorite music there. With millions of songs in store at several popular and reliable sites, it is almost a certainty that you would find what you are looking for. The technical and customer support must be top-notch and assist you should you face any difficulty in downloading music from their sites to your iPod.

Free iPod music downloads do not only mean they cost nothing. They must also be free from adware, spyware and viruses so that you can download them with a peace of mind. Only when these download sites satisfy these conditions are they considered worthy to join. Read up a review on my music blog to find out which sites are great places for free iPod music downloads.

The content of this article is provided for the purpose of education and illustration only and is in no way associated with Apple, iTune, or any company or subsidiary of Apple. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The name of the author, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Big Money in Kid’s Properties

July 19th, 2009 at 06:43pm Under intellectual property

What is a Property? For most people the term “Property” generally brings to mind real estate or a belonging. In the world of entertainment or licensing and merchandising, a Property refers to a character or a group of characters. In other words, an Intellectual Property. Well known examples are Mickey Mouse as a single Property or the Teenage Ninja Turtles as a group Property.

Properties can be utilized or arise in a book, a comic book, as an image on a cup or can be the focus of a television program or can be utilized in a television commercial.

Billions of dollars have been generated since Mickey Mouse developed in the wonderful mind of Walt Disney and of course the Disney Corporation is the epitome of intellectual Property rights that all others aspire to.

What does a Property consist of? This is where matters become confusing. If you can imagine in your mind, a pizza pie that has been cut up into slices. Or, better still, take a sheet of paper and draw a pizza or a circle. Then, divide the circle into parts – let’s say sixteenths. Each one of those sixteen pieces represents a different part of the whole and each one of those pieces can be sold off or licensed, as is more the common practice.

The following are some of the more common categories that are licensed off as part of a Property; publishing, music, board games, electronic games, clothing, television, action figures, plush dolls, remote control toys, play sets, cards, greeting cards, educational products and so on.

Obviously, the more popular the Property, the more licensing fees are generated and the wider the range of products. A wonderful example of a Property that spun off from a first book is Harry Potter. I’m sure that when J.K. Rowling was slogging over her first book in a London cafe, she had no idea that Harry would become a world-wide phenomena spawning a huge array of children’s products.

If you have an idea for children that you think kids around the world will crave after, get started. The North American licensing and merchandising market totaled sales of over $60 Billion in 2006 and North American kids spent over $200 Billion in the same year. How to get started you ask? If you have an idea for a character and have limited artistic abilities, hire an illustrator or an art school student to take from your mind and transpose it onto paper. If you enjoy telling stories that kids like, even if your writing abilities are marginal, write them down.  The point is – get started. Don’t imagine you are going to be an overnight success. It takes hard work, long hours and a lot of money to become and overnight success, however, if you can develop your idea into something kids enjoy or better still want, you are halfway there.

The Author and Associates

Michael Trigg is CEO of You N Me Productions Corp, a Vancouver Canada entertainment company. You N Me Productions has joint ventured with Media Kitchen I.N.Teractive and Worlds Away Productions Ltd of New York.

Resources

Greanwold’s World www.greanwold.com  is the environment of Greanwold and his Minosaur friends, the newest children’s property in the kids international market place.

Why Do Games Have Increasingly Stricter Copyright Protection, Even Though They Never Stop Piracy?

July 8th, 2009 at 10:25am Under copyright protection

No matter what game companies do to protect their games from piracy, it never seems to work. Spore was given more copyright protection than I think I ever heard of for a game. (thinks the 3 install limit), yet it was cracked almost as soon as it was released.
Meanwhile, the paying customer gets inconvenienced and treated like a criminal. So my question is, if copyright protection measures don’t work, why are the game companies still implementing them? The pirates will still find a way around them and frustrated gamers may not even buy the product.