Mash Ups?

Is this a legal practice?

Mash Up is a Derivative Work ✓ Perfectly legal if the owner gives

permission.

✓ If they don't you have an issue of copyright infringement.

✓ While no court cases have effectively ruled out free expression as a defense, there are major issues of permission that arise when using samples and lifting hooks from other musical styles.

Streaming Media ✓ The RIAA does consider streams as a

"performance" and as such the writers should be compensated.

✓ As a mechanical royalty if you purchase a stream, the writer should get paid right?

✓ What happened at the end of 2008 with Hollywood writers?

Ringtones ✓ Normal statutory rate for a composition is

9.1 cents per dollar.

✓ Not applicable to ringtones at first.

✓ Ringtones are sold at a premium, and don't use the whole song.

✓ The US Copyright Office curbed the huge profit margin of the cell phone providers, and cell phone tones are the same as everyone else.

Does the iPod have "legal" music?

✓ Apple says no.

✓ According to a 2007 survey, the average iPod in America contains about 1770 tracks.

✓ Of those tracks more than 800 are pirated.

✓ What does that say for the bottom line of ITunes?

✓ Who is REALLY making money on this stuff?

RIAA isn't playing around ✓ Since 2003 the RIAA has filed more than

35,000 lawsuits.

✓ RIAA is working with certain ISP's to get the identity of the people that are stealing the music, so that they can follow up without the person knowing that they got discovered.

✓ The whole situation has been a PR mess.

Web 2.0 and Social Networks ✓ Web 2.0 refers to the interconnectedness of the

internet.

✓ Technology allows us to post content at a rapid pace, however stealing is at an all time high.

✓ You can't post background music on your website if it hasn't been cleared by the copyright owner.

✓ Most of the major networking sites have

stipulations that talk about violating 3rd party rights.

Major Label Flaws vs. Digital ✓ On average, with current price structures,

you'd have to sell nearly a million albums just to break even on the advances and hidden cost structures that benefit the labels.

✓ Less than 1% of all major label artists do that on their first record.

✓ So is it worth it?

Artist Development vs. AI? ✓ With such a tight budget, most major labels

don't give artists enough time and/or credit to develop their craft over several albums.

✓ American Idol does that work and so does the other model of reality TV shows.

✓ Is this the downfall of quality control or not?