Recent Articles

An ASCAP for Books

October 28, 2008 20:34

Pending approval by the court, it appears that Google has worked out a deal with US book publishers. Google published an announcement of the deal in its blog and the story has been in most of the major media. The deal is primarily focused on books that are still under copyright, but no longer in...

Lala Land?

October 23, 2008 15:33

My brother sent me an invite to sign up for the music streaming service "Lala". According to their promotion it's all kosher with the Cartel. You play a stream in your Web browser in a Flash browser (like Pandora and Last.fm). I'm not terribly inclined to sign up for another service and was...

PvP vs The Cartel

October 22, 2008 13:51

The PvP comic usually centers around gaming and related topics (the characters work at a game-reviewing magazine) but today's strip shows they didn't learn the lesson Deborah Gregory learned the hard way.

Law Enforcement Seizes Biker Gang IP?

October 22, 2008 13:19

I'm tempted to file this under "weird IP stories you don't expect to read" but I don't have a category for that. Buried at the very bottom of the AP story on the Feds busting up the Mongols biker gang appear the following paragraphs:U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien has asked for an injunction that...

Business Models Blog Series Concludes

October 20, 2008 15:28

The "Business Models for Artists" series I noted a few days ago has now concluded. The series ended up being less about actual models and more about methods for enacting a model once you've got one.

McCain Can't Win on Song Front Either

October 17, 2008 20:25

Not content with getting into legal troubles before, McCain's camp has decided to get itself chastised by yet another 80's rocker, at least according to this MTV Newsroom piece. No idea if they're using a general license again or just appropriating.

Maybe Art Isn't A Business

October 16, 2008 17:21

Seth Godin has a post on his blog warning that maybe art should be - or must be - for its own sake, or for the sake and enjoyment of the artist creating it. Godin is arguing against the idea that you should take what you love and turn it into a business. This love-into-business notion is...

21st Century Business Models for Artists

October 16, 2008 16:08

A friend who is trying to figure out how to make something like a living as an independent writer/creator pointed me to the first entry in what promises to be a blog series. The authors are somewhat known as authors and creators themselves, and the series will culminate in a business-model paper. ...

Steal This Comic

October 13, 2008 14:54

Randall Munroe, author of the xkcd comic, and one of the few people I know who is making a living through his Web comics, has had enough of DRM. His most recent published comic contains a simple four-step "you will be a pirate anyway" argument. Or, if you don't like it, demand DRM-free content in...

Apple Gets a Dock Patent

October 09, 2008 18:14

Apple was finally granted a patent, for which it first applied in 1999, on the user interface construction that has come to be called the "dock". The patent calls it "a userbar" but Apple's own documentation calls it a dock (this image also comes from Apple's site) and that's the term it's...