The Rise and Fall of Napster So who remembers Napster? It would probably be fair to say that all of this recent debate over file sharing and copyright law as it pertains to the internet all started with Napster. (...)

How do you go about Determining Ownership of a Copyright? It’s not always easy to figure out who owns a copyright. There have been cases where filmmakers were forced to remove music from a movie because, while they did get permission from the musician, it turned...

Copyright and Privacy: Photography and the Law Believe it or not, you can actually get in some pretty deep trouble just for taking a few innocent photographs. Now, nine times out of ten, you can basically photograph anything you like and not have to worry about it,...

What can I do with Free Content? Free content differs from open content in a number of ways. By definition, free content is any kind of abstract property, artwork, music, fictional characters, etcetera, wherein no legal restrictions are placed on what an individual...

What does the Law think of Sampling? Sampling is defined as the act of taking a small portion of one work of art, and then taking that piece and mixing it into an original work of art. This is probably most common in music, particularly in genres like hip hop, house,...

The Rules of Royalties Royalty payments are defined as a usage-based form of payment made by one party, referred to as the licensee, and another party, referred to as the licensor. The licensor would be the artist or copyright holder of an intellectual property,...

What is an Alternative Compensation System? There are actually a few different meanings for the term “alternative compensation system”. In general, it simply means that the author of a given work, or copyright holder of a given work, will receive payment or...

How Syndication Works Simply put, in broadcasting, syndication is a way for the creators of a TV show to turn that show into an asset, rather than a sort of a one shot deal. By selling the rights to broadcast the show to any number of networks, the owners of the show...

Know the Basics of Patent Law A patent is defined as a set of exclusive rights, as granted by the state, to an inventor or creator, or his or her “assignee”, for a pre-determined length of time, in exchange for the full disclosure of his or her invention. (...)

How does an Open Music Model work? In response to the growing wave of piracy that first started making itself known in the late 1990’s, lawmakers, music industry people, and internet groups were desperate to find ways to somehow offer music online. (...)