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The Misunderstanding Behind Intellectual Property Isn’t New
A friend linked me to this post over the holidays, and the similarities stunned me. I highly recommend reading the article, but the gist of it is that we’ve essentially been through the whole “property” debate before, with slavery (Ah! The S-word). People are saying some of the exact same things to defend and protect intellectual property…
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Financing a Record with Free
It’s inspiring to see people breaking out of the box and coming up with truly creative ways to use free content as part of a business model. Free culture makes for better business—just not for the crusty middlemen. Definitely check out Georgia Wonder. Both during store hours and after the store closes each night, they’ll…
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Paying Attention to Filesharing
Filesharers are all too often characterized as lawless neanderthals who “just want things for free.” Of course, the evidence shows that in fact, digital sales are increasing and many studies have suggested that sharers actually buy more. Unfortunately, two of the most popular conclusions from this completely overlook the nature (and power) of global information…
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How to Save the Music Industry
I first started getting interested in “copyfight” and issues related to filesharing in college, where I was introduced to a local network where resident students across the university campus could connect and share what they loved on- and offline. As the music industry continued to ratchet up their anti-sharing campaigns, I thought that the iTunes…
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Who Really Has the Moral High Ground on Filesharing?
A number of people I have talked to claim that they do not engage in filesharing because “it’s wrong,” a sentiment that seems deeply rooted in the idea that sharing files involves taking something that doesn’t belong to you; that is, stealing. These people believe they are taking the “moral high ground” by refusing to…
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Concert Aftermath
I had an amazing time at the Silversun Pickups concert at Rams Head Live in Baltimore this past Monday night. Perhaps a little too much of my enthusiasm went to twitter, and ultimately to Facebook, because several Facebook friends were upset on Tuesday about my flood of status updates. I’ve since switched to the Selective…
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The Tenenbaum Farce
Despite media attention that suggests otherwise, the number of cases brought by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) members against their customers that have actually gone to trial can be counted on one hand. One of the most recent of these is the trial of Joel Tenenbaum, the case that set itself up to be…
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To Arr is Pirate
The voting results are in and the Swedish Pirate Party has gotten at least one seat, probably two, in the European Parliament. You’ve really got to hand it to these guys: they’ve done a lot of work to get to this point. In only three years they’ve gone from a startup political party established groups…
Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.