Songs2Share Inc. » 2010

Googles Sudden Music Blog Purge

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Sunday, August 15th, 2010

by Devin Coldewey on February 11, 2010

eviction
Yesterday, in response to allegations of DMCA violations, several popular music blogs were wiped off the face of the net. They were hosted by Google via Blogger, and it was only after they were completely erased that the owners received emails to the effect of “We got one too many complaints — you’re deleted. Love, Google.” It’s trending around the net as “Musicblogocide 2010,” but that puts too much of it on Google’s lap, I think. After all, it’s the clumsy and outdated DMCA that actually led to the blogs being deleted.

It’s a bit of a sticky wicket, speculating about the legality of these things, but with such a decisive and bold action as the one Google has taken, we can probably reach some conclusions about how it should have gone down.

The sites in question were, of course, walking the line in terms of legality. MP3 blogs are scary to the music industry, because they represent such a challenge to the established promotional and sales flow. This is not the place for a whole argument about fair use, but I think most of what these blogs did would fall under that definition, woolly as it is. They hosted MP3s of artists they were discussing or promoting, but not whole albums. One of the bloggers notes that “everything I’ve posted for, let’s say, the past two years, has either been provided by a promotional company, came directly from the record label, or came directly from the artist.” I used to have an MP3 blog myself, and never received anything but thanks from the artists I tried to promote. So what happened here?

Well, Google is probably limited in what they can discuss publicly, but chances are that these blogs were fingered by some overzealous lawyers using the same sort of technique to catch copyright offenders as commercial fishermen use to catch tuna. These lawyers likely did a little searching for their clients’ names and properties, found a few MP3s, and then added the domains and any related domains to a list. They then filed DMCA violation paperwork against everyone on the list. How could a blog that had permission from the labels or artists to post every item get stuck in this net? Well, at the risk of stretching the metaphor too far, the DMCA isn’t exactly dolphin-safe.

I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t attempt to criticize the DMCA on any sort of technical grounds, but more eminent authorities have concluded that the act and its related laws are admirably well-designed to preserve the status quo. It’s clear that the laws had the interests of labels and such in mind, who certainly had a hand in setting them up. How else would it come to be so easy to get an innocent, probably beneficial personal blog completely effaced from the net?

The Blogger authorities have responded, somewhat, in this post. Essentially they’re saying “well, we just followed the rules.” And that’s true. They offered this service for free with a EULA and what they did was, if not the best move, at least not unprecedented. There are at least two problems presented, though.

First, the burden of proof is on the accused. That’s a bit disturbing, isn’t it? Any allegation is assumed to be true unless the person at which it is directed disputes it — a person who likely little understand of the technicalities of the law, and furthermore is often not even informed which track or post is allegedly in violation. Their recourse is limited and obscure. And mistaken or fraudulent takedown notices are far from rare. One of the bloggers affected cited four he’d received in the last year that had turned out to be out of order.

Second, the sites that were taken down were more than lists of links to MP3s. There was a lot of content on there that was most certainly not violating any law. Specifically, all the writing done by the bloggers and commenters. Some of these blogs had been going for years, and had built up large readerships as well as an enormous archive of commentary, history, interviews, all that kind of thing. Blogger threw the baby out with the bathwater, and there should be some kind of protection against that.

On that last point, it should probably be noted that while the blogs were described as being completely removed, I have no doubt that they’ve simply been taken offline. The content has not been zeroed off the servers and so on. After all, what if the owners challenged the DMCA notices and won? They could conceivably sue Blogger for destroying years of work that had nothing to do with the allegedly offending content. That last part I’m not sure about (Google is within the law in taking the blogs down) but a sympathetic judge might see the harm done and blame Google for acting rashly and negligently. So I’m guessing all that content is still around, though much damage will have been done whether the blogs are ever restored or not.

Of course, it’s not just music pirates who are now worried. Since these blogs were popular and (in a relative way) legitimate, it seems that the dagger now hangs above every person that ever dared to share. It’s like the immense fines levied against minor P2P offenders: the RIAA and its lawyers are barking up the wrong tree and biting the wrong ankles. And since they show no sign of changing their tack, we must appeal to the middle man — in this case, Google and Blogger. What could they have done?

Well, to begin with, a presumption of innocent would be nice. They say that they usually just put the offending post in draft status and alert the owner. So far, so good. But what line was crossed that these blogs were not only removed, but removed with no warning? A cordial notice of suspension would be a hundred times better than a real removal:

“We’ve received several complaints about your blog. Because of their number and previous complaints against you, we’ve temporarily suspended your account until this issue can be resolved. View the complaints here. If you feel these allegations are baseless, fill out this form and we will forward it to the complainants. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Wouldn’t that be nice? If you’re going to give someone the means to walk in the margins of the law (and free blogging accounts are certainly that), then it would be ethical to provide some means of negotiating with it. Google offers a loaded gun to anyone who asks; there’s no need to defend someone if they take the gun and hold up a bank with it, but if they do, at least make sure they get read their rights before they get hauled off.

YE_INTERNET

Lastly, lest I be accused of promoting kid-glove treatment of those ignorant of the law and EULA, people who intend to work in the margins of the law should make sure they know what those margins are, and how to navigate them. It is their responsibility, after all, and ignorance is not a valid defense. I was careful to add a disclaimer that was linked in every MP3 post I wrote which provided contact information and copyright acknowledgment. I’m guessing these blogs did as well; they wouldn’t have been so friendly with the musicians they worked with if they didn’t. But it’s a first line of defense, and if I (and they) were serious about having a website that provided a questionably legal service, I would have put some serious CYA boilerplate in there.

This little fracas is, I am guessing, far from over, so we can expect further developments. But I felt it was important to weigh in following the event itself in order that I can weigh the actual results against what is most desirable. These disputes don’t always end happily, but they often serve to further demarcate ambiguous areas of the law, and future settlements will walk more freely once they clear the backs of their fallen brethren. That came out a bit more dramatic than I had intended, but you understand me. We’re making a new media omelet, and some eggs are about to get cracked.

Tags: music blogs deleted by Google, music for licensing, songs
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2 Tips For Your Singing Voice

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Sunday, August 15th, 2010

There are many people out there who just love to sing or imagine themselves with a great singing career. However, there may be a few things lacking from their technique or ability that will set them back from others in the music industry. While there are many different things that can help a singing voice to become better, following some singing tips will greatly improve the chance of making it big. Even for those who sing only for small groups or in a church choir, the tips that are given by others in the music industry can certainly improve just about any voice.

As any vocal coach will say, singing should be a relaxing hobby, so there is no need to be tense. Those singers who are much more relaxed with their mouths and tongues will have a much better sound than those who keep their mouths more closed than open or have their tension in their tongues. These two singing tips alone can greatly improve a singing voice as this is where the majority of the problems come into play. Many singers find it useful to sing while looking in a mirror so they can determine if their mouth needs to open further or their tongue is too tense.

Understanding the correct way to breathe while singing is also important to have a great singing voice. Many people tend to take in too much air or don’t breathe deeply enough to maintain a note for any length of time. It is important to allow breath to come naturally as it does in everyday life. Some other great singing tips include believing what is being sung and having the energy to sing the song. Since it often take a lot of physical energy to actually produce the notes to sing any song, a singer must be energized in order to hit higher notes and keep the note held for any length of time.

Following as many of these tips is essential for any singer to do a much better job. It really doesn’t matter if someone is singing in church or on stage in Nashville, they must understand that these tips will allow them to be the best singer they can be. The hard work involved in perfecting a singing voice will pay off when singing in public the next time.

Tags: music for licensing, singing voice, songs
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Advice From Kurb Artist Management On Websites Re-post

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Sunday, August 15th, 2010

This is just a follow up from Kurb promotion talking specific stuff for musicians websites and blogs when you’re dealing with music business and Online Artist Management. If you’re looking for music marketing services or free regular advice visit kurb’s music marketing, management, and blog! Here’s some tips on developing your artist blog or music website- posts spaced months apart make the site look dead and inactive, we need to get the posting frequency up so fans see that the band has an active presence and the website is worth coming back to or recommending. Our key outcomes for visitors that is: sign ups, sales, and social networks, free downloads must be prominent. Often I will include these prompts at the head of each post so visitors are always made aware of particular propositions we are pushing.

Having a lot of written content on your site is essential if you’re going to bring in Google traffic, so we need to produce written content. Usually when I’m doing content and branding work for Online Artist Management we aim for 1 post each week on the blog then we collate these 4 posts with any other content available to make up our monthly email mail out. I’ve been doing my blog for 2 years now but it averages 200 hits a day and I am never short of leads, when you can get that kind of traction you should be able to pick up fans without even the benefit of other more aggressive But I’ve written 300 posts in that time so that’s the kind of commitment you’re looking at, but from my perspective it’s worth it because I never have to look for “fans” now, there’s always someone ready to pay me for what I do.

It’s a great struggle for me because the written word is my natural medium, whereas a lot of artists find it more of a chore. If you can make this part of your promotion routine it would be great, with some other clients. I have to write their blogs etc. for them and I have to charge them significantly for this and it still doesn’t substitute for the artists directly contributing this to engage the fans. So you want to be concentrating on writing as much down as possible, but we also want strong visual content. Sounds like you’ve got the video stuff covered so I’ll wait and see what you come up with before making any detailed suggestions, although long term it probably be advisable to improve the presentation of your site, and also stay mindful of what exactly our key propositions are (whether that’s an email sign up or sale of a product or service).

I think initially we should start with a free song in exchange for an email sign up and to push the album, design a landing page for the album to push fans toward and also think about another page where we might develop an alternative offer compromised of other offerings outside your album. I have been doing some Google promo for bands and musicians website, but I think it’s important for us to discuss improving your homepage. I think you said you could do the changes yourself? I think it’s really important to get the feel of the site and social pages right before launching into some of our Artist Management and promotion strategies. For more information visit us at:

www.KurbArtistManagement.info

Tags: artist management, licensing, music websites and management, songs
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Neil Young Doing The Gulf Coast a Fundraising Service

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Sunday, August 15th, 2010

August 12^th, 2010 at 1:05 PM

Neil Young to Tour Gulf Coast

Neil Young will be touring the Gulf Coast this September in an effort to aid those affected by the BP oil spill. He will be performing four concerts in the region and has asked that concert goers bring non-perishable food items to the shows. Those items will be donated to the Bay Area Food Bank, which serves communities in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. Young has also enlisted the help of Tyson Foods, who will be donating 100,000 pounds of chicken—the equivalent of 400,000 meals—to the food bank. Additionally, all profits from the sale of limited-edition t-shirts, available only at the concerts, will go to the food bank. Young also hopes that the concerts will help bring funds to businesses in the area affected by the BP oil spill. “Millions of people who live along the Gulf Coast struggle with hunger and the economic impact of the oil spill has only made matters worse,” Young said in a recent press release. Dates for the concerts are below.

9/20 – Panama City, FL – Marina Civic Center
9/25 – Biloxi, MS – IP Showroom
9/26 – Mobile, AL – Saenger Theatre
9/28 – Pensacola, FL – Saenger Theatre

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Tags: Music, Neil Young tour Gulf Coast, song for licensing, songs
Posted in Music News | No Comments »

Call For Music - Spanish Rap

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Friday, August 13th, 2010

MusicDealers.com just put this call for music up. If you have a song, UPLOAD it in 320kbps at their website. Good Luck.
Roberta

Trailer - Spanish Rap

Confidential

08/21/2010 - 12:00pm

$15000

TRAILER

Active

Tags: Call for music for film trailer, songs for licensing, Spanish Rap Songs Needed
Posted in Call For Music | No Comments »

Practice Practice Practice :-) = Write A Song Now! Re-post

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Friday, August 13th, 2010

I need the practice

July 27, 2010 by songwriterstipjar

Do you wait for the muse before starting to write a song? How’s that working out for you?

When I wait for the muse, it can be months between writing sessions and I know that’s not enough writing for me. I need the practice. So I no longer wait for the muse. I try to invoke the muse and try to be the muse, but most of all, I just try to write more and more often.

Regular writing in itself seems to attract the muse. But it also strengthens the creative muscle. Just like sports and piano lessons, it’s better to practice regularly than to save it up for one long session (i.e. 7 daily one-hour sessions instead of one grueling seven hour session).

Something about the daily repeated action of engaging the creative mind and putting words (or melody) to paper is the perfect practice for writing songs. Writing songs takes practice. But instead of playing scales or doing crunches, a good way to practice writing songs is to actually write a song.

A side benefit is that if you tell yourself you’re writing a song as practice, the pressure is off to create your masterpiece. And when the pressure (usually self-imposed) is off, creativity is freed.

If you’re only writing when inspiration strikes, try writing as a regular practice. And post a comment here to let me know how it works.

Tags: daily practice, practice writing songs, song for license, songwriting
Posted in Motivate & Inspire & Laughs | No Comments »

Song Requests - From Fans

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Friday, August 13th, 2010

At any given concert you may notice a few folks in the first couple rows screaming song requests at the band at the top of their lungs. Maybe this has worked for you in the past but chances are you are probably better off saving your breath. On-the-spot song requests are about the last thing most bands want to hear from their audience. The same often holds true at private events.

In the heat of the moment - at your wedding reception or private party - inspiration may strike. You might come up with what you think is THE perfect song request for your performer. So you wait until a song ends and you yell out your request. It’s your event and you are the one cutting the check – so why not?

Well, for starters – your band might not even know that song. If the performer didn’t tell explicitly tell you that they were ready to play that tune - or for that matter, that they were willing to take requests at all - you probably shouldn’t interfere with their set. Either way this is a discussion you should have had long before the band took the stage.
As a paying client you are absolutely within your rights to request that your hired performer plays your favorite song. You improve your chances of hearing that song tenfold by making this request in advance.

George Lareto of Costa Mesa, CA’s Undercover explains that his band always does their best to play every request, but that they need time to learn them. “Requests to the band are always welcome and we try to accommodate every client. We offer to learn (wedding) client’s first dance request as a complimentary service. Typically (the band) will learn three to five tunes for a wedding or corporate event.” It takes time for a band to truly master a new song, let alone three to five. That is a very generous offer.
The best thing that you can do if you want to ensure that your favorite songs get played at your event is submit the requests to the band well ahead of time - weeks or months before the event.

George also believes that it is equally important that you tell your performer what you don’t want to hear. “We always ask the client for a Do Not Play List so we know what styles or specific song they don’t want to hear. Nine times out of ten this is way more helpful then asking the client for a set list which can add stress to your client.” One bride told us that putting “The Macarena” at the top of her Do Not Play List, and the fact that her band stuck to their promise not to play it, saved her wedding when one overly eager relative began pleading to hear it.

Getting back on topic – there are some performers who tolerate and even encourage requests during the event. They are called DJs (important note: not all DJs feel this way – it is very important that you discuss this ahead of time).

Dave’s Mobile Disco of Tampa, FL welcomes on the spot requests from the client and their guests during his performance. “Accepting requests during the event keeps me on track on the needs and expectations of the client.”

A good point – what better way to ensure that you are keeping your crowd happy than by playing exactly what they ask for? Dave continues “The only time that I don’t take requests is when specified by the client not to.” Again, this is an important discussion to have with your DJ ahead of time.

So the moral of the story for you party people: plan ahead. Don’t be afraid to request your favorite song. But if you want to hear a good version of it – be sure to give your performer some time to learn it first.

Tags: Music licensing, song requests at your gig
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Musicianscontact.com Has Asked Us To Post Their Link

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Friday, August 13th, 2010

www.musicianscontact.com - The primary source of employment for musicians nationwide, established 31 years. Jobs and resumes are updated online daily.

Tags: finding gigs, Music, musician contacts, songs for license
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Clear Channel’s Free Apps Are A Money-Maker Re-post

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Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Source: Paid content

Among the eight million people who have downloaded Clear Channel’s free mobile applications, the average user spends 3.5 hours listening to the streaming radio service and visits an average of four stations a week. All of that adds up to profitability for the media conglomerate’s mobile business, demonstrating that for at least some, the medium has started to push past the experimental phase.

Evan Harrison, Clear Channel Radio’s EVP and President of the company’s digital unit, said the applications generate revenues in two major ways. The apps, available on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry, increase a radio station’s overall audience (by an average of 15 percent when combining both apps and online), and the apps create additional opportunities for ads.

Less substantial are affiliate fees that are generated when a user buys a song or album through the V Cast app store on Verizon Wireless, or through Apple’s iTunes.

Not only is mobile reusing content from 750 of the company’s terrestrial stations, there’s made-for-mobile programming, too. The apps feature a number of celebrity stations, including radio shows hosted by the Eagles and Maroon 5. The app is also currently featuring an exclusive music video Clear Channel (OTCBB: CCMO) created for Alex Lambert, who was voted off American Idol, and subsequently added to the “Dream” house reality show.

The ads don’t appear in the app until a user selects a station. Then, the ad takes over the whole screen. Harrison says users either have the option to click-through or dismiss it. The ads are returning a roughly 3 to 4 percent click-through rate, he added. In the next iPhone version to be released, the application will feature ads from Apple’s own iAd network, which are touted as being engaging and returning good results. Of course, the content also features the typical audio ads you’d hear over the radio.

Tags: cover songs, free mobile applications, songs for licensing, streaming music on-line
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Apple Loses Big in DRM Ruling: Jailbreaks are “Fair Use” Re-post

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Thursday, August 12th, 2010

Apple loses big in DRM ruling: jailbreaks are “fair use”By Nate Anderson | Last updated 2 days ago

Every three years, the Library of Congress has the thankless task of listening to people complain about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA forbade most attempts to bypass the digital locks on things like DVDs, music, and computer software, but it also gave the Library the ability to wave its magical copyright wand and make certain DRM cracks legal for three years at a time.

This time, the Library went (comparatively) nuts, allowing widespread bypassing of the CSS encryption on DVDs, declaring iPhone jailbreaking to be “fair use,” and letting consumers crack their legally purchased e-books in order to have them read aloud by computers.

The exemptions

The DMCA was passed in 1998, so this is the fourth go-round for the Library. In the past, people have usually complained that DRM prevented them from making legitimate use of items like DVDs—format-shifting a copy to one’s iPod, for instance, was forbidden. The Register of Copyrights (who is part of the Library of Congress) dutifully listened to these complaints and then did… very little. Previous exemptions could charitably be described as “parsimonious.” After all, if you need a two-minute clip of a film, you could always get it from a VHS tape or by taping a TV screen. Right?

The Librarian and the Register, cautious folks that they are, have moved slowly, but after more than a decade of the DMCA, they are increasingly willing to acknowledge its harms. That lead to this morning’s ruling, which provides DRM circumvention exemptions for the following six classes of works:

(1) Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances:

(i) Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students; (ii) Documentary filmmaking; (iii) Noncommercial videos.

(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.

(4) Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:

(i) The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and (ii) The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law.

(5) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace; and

(6) Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

The language here can be opaque, so let’s parse these a bit.

DVDs

First up: DVDs! Previous exemptions have been carved out for college professors who might use film clips in class. But note the broad nature of the new rule—it applies to everyone. As long as you are making a documentary or noncommercial video, you’re in.

The exemption only covers “short portions of motion pictures,” since the Register was not convinced that longer portions would necessarily be fair use. And if there’s some other way of getting the clips short of bypassing DRM, you should take it.

According to the official explanatory text (PDF), “Where alternatives to circumvention can be used to achieve the noninfringing purpose, such noncircumventing alternatives should be used.” Thus, if you have screen capture software and need only a low-quality copy for some purpose, you should use that.

But the exemption is a key one, despite its limiting language. As the Librarian of Congress finally admitted, “I agree with the Register that the record demonstrates that it is sometimes necessary to circumvent access controls on DVDs in order to make these kinds of fair uses of short portions of motion pictures.”

Jailbreaking

The most surprising ruling was on “jailbreaking” one’s phone (exemption number two), replacing the company-provided operating system with a hacked version that has fewer limitations. Make no mistake: this was all about Apple. And Apple lost.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that jailbreaking one’s iPhone should be allowed, even though it required one to bypass some DRM and then to reuse a small bit of Apple’s copyright firmware code. Apple showed up at the hearings to say, in numerous ways, that the idea was terrible, ridiculous, and illegal. In large part, that was because the limit on jailbreaking was needed to preserve Apple’s controlled ecosystem, which the company said was of great value to consumers.

That might be true, the Register agreed, but what did it have to do with copyright?

“Apple is not concerned that the practice of jailbreaking will displace sales of its firmware or of iPhones,” wrote the Register, explaining her thinking by running through the “four factors” of the fair use test. “Indeed, since one cannot engage in that practice unless one has acquired an iPhone, it would be difficult to make that argument. Rather, the harm that Apple fears is harm to its reputation. Apple is concerned that jailbreaking will breach the integrity of the iPhone’s ecosystem. The Register concludes that such alleged adverse effects are not in the nature of the harm that the fourth fair use factor is intended to address.”

And the Register concluded that a jailbroken phone used “fewer than 50 bytes of code out of more than 8 million bytes, or approximately 1/160,000 of the copyrighted work as a whole. Where the alleged infringement consists of the making of an unauthorized derivative work, and the only modifications are so de minimis, the fact that iPhone users are using almost the entire iPhone firmware for the purpose for which it was provided to them by Apple undermines the significance” of Apple’s argument.

The conclusion is sure to irritate Steve Jobs: “On balance, the Register concludes that when one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.”

SecuROM and SafeDisc

Exemption four is quite clear—security research on DRM-limited video games is allowed—but why is it there? What research needs to be done?

It turns out that the real target here is the DRM itself, specifically two controversial systems called SecuROM and SafeDisc. Professor Alex Halderman, a longtime security researcher in this area, begged the Library to let him investigate these kinds of invasive DRM without legal worries.

“The evidence relating to SecuROM tends to be highly speculative,” said the Register, explaining her approval of the exemption, “but Professor Halderman asserted that this situation has been crying out for an investigation by reputable security researchers in order to rigorously determine the nature of the problem that this system cause[s], and dispel this uncertainty about exactly what’s going on. He believed that the prohibition on circumvention is at least in part to blame for the lack of rigorous, independent analysis.”

But the SafeDisc situation is clearer. “In contrast to SecuROM, SafeDisc has created a verifiable security vulnerability on a large number of computers. Opponents of the proposed class did not dispute that SafeDisc created a security vulnerability, but they argued that the security flaw was patched by Microsoft in 2007, without the need of an exemption. However, SafeDisc was preloaded on nearly every copy of Microsoft’s Windows XP and Windows 2003 operating systems and was on the market for over six years before a security researcher discovered malware exploiting the security. The vulnerability had the capacity to affect nearly one billion PCs.”

Given what’s at stake, the Library decided to allow such security research.

E-books

Remember how Amazon got into trouble with publishers for allowing its Kindle to do automated text-to-speech? Publishers objected that this could cut into their audiobook money and that it might violate their rights.

Amazon may have clamped down on the feature in response, but the Library of Congress has now given users the right to crack e-book DRM in order to hear the words. Exemption number six only applies in cases where there is no alternative; if e-book vendors offer any sort of version that allows screen-reading or text-to-speech, even if the price is significantly higher, people must use that version rather than bypass DRM.

But if there are no commercial alternatives, e-book buyers are at last legally allowed to bypass DRM.

The clock is ticking

Other, broader exemptions were not allowed. Bypassing the DRM on purchased music when the authentication servers have gone dark? Still illegal. Bypassing the DRM on streaming video in order to watch it on non-supported platforms? Nope.

But the exemptions that did make it were carefully thought out and actually helpful this time around. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they must be re-argued every three years, and the Library has taken so long getting its most recent ruling out that that the next review happens just two years from now.

So enjoy your exemptions while you can.

Source: Arstechnica

Tags: copyrights on music, Music licensing, new laws regarding copyrights, songs
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