Copyright Law, Fragments and Imagination - February 24, 2014
Intellectual property rights laws are undoubtedly overdue for revision. The digital age has, remarkably, expanded access to a wide range of words, songs, pictures and ideas. Creating all that is work, deserving recognition. The laws see the door to those works as either open or closed. The simple solution is finding a different door.

Copyright Law: Think Small And Thin - March 4, 2013
If the digital age needs dramatically different copyright law, the wait keeps getting longer. Legislatures looking to the past to chart the future choose vague language so everybody stays happy or, at least, quiet. And it’s the small things that get in the way.

Be Flexible, The World Has Changed - September 13, 2012
Advancing creativity and innovation through universal connectivity enabled by new technology has been the great promise of the digital age. And, too, there’s the promise of lots of money. Who would want to stand in the way? Many, it seems.

The Unpopularity of Things - May 17, 2012
The vital truth about democracy is its disregard for the conventional. Trends, though, form and reform without regard for the way things have been. There’s a thread connecting the popular rejection of austerity economics and internet freedom.

Tied, Bound And Handcuffed - April 23, 2012
Absent a digital correction of copyright rules, rights holders will continue to pick away at Web service providers and portals through the courts. An open internet openly flaunts those “ancient, pre-digital rules” seeking sustainable business models. But rights holders want business models, too. The Web and content providers are tied, bound and, maybe, handcuffed together.

They Were Wrong About ACTA - February 20, 2012
Street protests in several cities over recent days generated more than headlines anti-piracy advocates never expected. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multi-lateral treaty to protect “copyright protected works” through a new global enforcement mechanism, is just short of ratification. Activists mounted a campaign to derail, at most, or disrupt, at least and it may have succeeded.

Fear And Loathing On The Copyright Trail - November 24, 2011
Internet technologies have upset business models to the extent that punishing is preferable to creating. While the public loves this orgy of innovation, rights holders can’t see the forest for the ICTs. Flexibility, says the boss, should be part of the plan.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Intellectual Property Rights - Yours, Mine and Ours

Every content creator and user has a vested interest in intellectual property rights, the rules meant to set a course for fair distribution of art, music, video and the written word. Agreement on those rules is not absolute. This ftm Knowledge file explores what's yours, mine and ours. 42 pages PDF (March 2011)

Order here

Music & Media - Changing Scene

You can hear the pulse of life in music, they say. For the music industry that heartbeat is frantic as business models disappear and reappear. Media has loves music, too, just not in the same ways. This ftm Knowledge file covers the tale of two worlds intertwined. 78 pages PDF (September 2010)

Order here