Author Archives: Chris Castle

In order to break through the lobbyist mumble tank, the Congress needs to hear clear and persuasive facts from creators like Jonathan Yunger. You Can’t Call 911: @jyunger of @MillenniumFilms Tells Senate Why Piracy is Still a Problem and How U.S. has Failed to Lead — Music Technology Policy

…there was lunch in the larger, first floor cafeteria where, in the corner, on a small stage there was a man, playing a guitar, who looked like an aging singer-songwriter Mae’s parents listened to. “Is that….?” “It is,” Annie said, not breaking her stride. “There’s someone every day. Musicians, comedians, writers….We book them a year […]Continue reading “Is Streaming a New Shadow Economy? — Artist Rights Watch”

A group of legislators have written a letter to the American Law Institute asking for an explanation of why the ALI finds it necessary to draft a “Restatement of Copyright Law”. They have good reason–historically, the Restatement series has been a crystallization of “”black letter law” on common law subjects such as Property, Agency, and […]Continue reading “Letter on “Restatement of Copyright” to American Law Institute from @SenThomTillis @RepBenCline @RepMarthaRoby @RepTedDeutch and Rep. @HarleyRouda A Leading Cause of Pearl Clutching — Artist Rights Watch”

Variety reports that the Spotify corpcomms book “Spotify Untold” is getting an order from Netflix for a series telling the story of Spotify’s “creation” featuring–guess who? The levitational awesomeness of Daniel Ek. No word on who will play David Lowery, Melissa Ferrick, Bob Gaudio or Brownlee Ferguson. So Netflix–which screws songwriters–is promoting Spotify–which also screws […]Continue reading “@variety: New Netflix Original to Tell the Story of Spotify’s Creation — Artist Rights Watch”

You’re probably aware that Google keeps tabs on what you’re up to on its devices, apps, and services—but you might not realize just how far its tracking reach extends, into the places you go, the purchases you make, and much more. It’s an extensive set of data, but you can take more control over what Google collects about youContinue reading “All the Ways Google Tracks You—And How to Stop It”

Elastic, a software start-up in Amsterdam, was rapidly building its business and had grown to 100 employees. Then Amazon came along. In October 2015, Amazon’s cloud computing arm announced it was copying Elastic’s free software tool, which people use to search and analyze data, and would sell it as a paid service. Amazon went aheadContinue reading “@daiwaka: Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World”

ARW readers will remember the Google Shill List. The Shill List was part of a brilliant strategy deployed by Oracle in their copyright infringement case against Google (still going on, see my Hypebot post on the case that is now going to get review by the U.S. Supreme Court before Lessig buddy Justice Kagan). The […]Continue reading “Case Act Myths And Facts: EFF FUD Campaign — Artist Rights Watch”

A “Theodore Kaczynski” from Lincoln Montana signs a Google-funded astroturf petition over and over again. Google-funded and affiliated astroturfs have mounted a spambot campaign targeting Senators to vote against the CASE Act. The CASE Act (voluntary small claims copyright court) passed the house 410-6. Google and their allies are worried because independent artists and creators […]Continue reading “Make the Spambots the Issue: A Quick Demo of How to Hijack Google-Funded Spambots — The Trichordist”

Diogenes searched the world for an honest man, and Cloudflare is searching the world for a decider in chief to tell them what to do. But as we know from Cloudflare’s IPO, Cloudflare need only look within because the insiders have structured the company’s governance so there is clear responsibility–and it’s with Cloudflare employees. The […]Continue reading “@cloudflare CEO Calls for a Decider–When That Decider Is Cloudflare Employees — Music Technology Policy”