Dean Kay - The Dean's List

Tech companies and criminals have made billions supporting the illegal exploitation of our cultural past
while ruthlessly pursuing the dismantling of incentives creators need to fashion our cultural future

The Dollars and Sense of Intellectual Property
Book review by Adam Mossoff -- Once a backwater for tech geeks and a small subset of highly specialized lawyers, patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights are now common fare of above-the-fold newspaper articles (now read on the Internet), blog commentary, and, of course, many high-profile court cases. For this reason, Ronald Cass and Keith Hylton's new book, Laws of Creation: Property Rights in the World of Ideas, could not have been published at a better time. ... Their engaging and well-written book is ambitious in its goals and comprehensive in its scope.

Making Freemium Add Up
By Mark Mulligan -- Today at MIDiA Consulting we have released a new report on the digital content sector entitled ‘Making Freemium Add Up'. The report combines an unprecedented appraisal of key freemium service metrics with market analysis and recommendations to create a definitive assessment of the freemium marketplace. [The report is free to Music Industry Blog subscribers - which is also free. Click the "Follow" prompt pop-up on the website to sign up.]

If People Really Cared About 'Legal Hosting,' RapidShare Wouldn't Be Dying...
By Helienne Lindvall -- It's a common line of defense by services such as MegaUpload while fighting attacks by the entertainment industry: "We're used for legitimate file hosting." But the news that RapidShare has sacked 75 percent of its staff, after making a concerted effort to prevent illegal use of its services, proves how few people were interested in using it for legal means...

Can Pandora Find A Business Model That Works?
By Kyle Bylin -- In this interview panel on Pandora, four influential executives in the music and tech industry weigh in on whether they think Pandora can find a sustainable, profitable business model.

Pandora's Plan to Share More Streaming Data With Artists
By Alex Pham

Whistleblower Emerges Amid Google's U.K. Tax Woes
By Levi Sumagaysay -- A report published by the Sunday Times sheds light on the tone of British lawmakers' grilling of Google over taxes last week: A former Google executive has turned whistleblower, showing the newspaper evidence he says proves that "what Google is doing is immoral."

Eminem's Music Publisher Suing Facebook (Exclusive)
By Eriq Gardner -- Rather than pulling down an advertisement that allegedly incorporated an Eminem song, the defendant's lawyers attacked hip-hop legend Dr. Dre for stealing from Michael Jackson. ... In the music world, there are only so many degrees of connection. This copyright infringement lawsuit adds another dimension by discussing willfulness in the context of likes and dislikes. ...[This could get juicy. Read the Complaint Here]

Is Viral Success A Myth?
By Bobby Owsinski -- Is it possible that what we think of as viral isn't actually viral after all? A number of recent articles and presentations propose that these videos were given a big corporate helping hand first before getting any kind of traction.

Soundhalo Turns Live Concert Videos Into Impulse Buys During The Show
By Clyde Smith -- Soundhalo is a brand new service for taking live concert video recordings and transforming them into mixed single song videos for immediate sale

Music Leads The Way In Return To Analog
By Clyde Smith -- A seemingly inevitable cultural embrace of analog, or what we used to call "real world" products and experiences, is underway and the music industry is very much in the forefront with indie record stores, vinyl, merch and live shows.

"American Idol" Ratings Free Fall: What Went Wrong
With a median age of 51.2 during season 12, "It's become your grandparents' 'American Idol,'" says media analyst Brad Adgate

Yahoo's Flickr to Offer Massive 1 Terabyte of Storage for Free
By Salvador Rodriguez -- To put in perspective how much space the company is giving, Yahoo said users could take one picture every hour for the next 40 years and not fill up their storage. Besides photos, Yahoo also said users can upload 1080p HD video files of up to three minutes in length to their Flickr accounts.

Web of Estate Planning Considerations for Digital Assets
By Rochelle L. Haller Esq. -- The rise of the internet has changed the way clients conduct their lives; accordingly, it changes the way attorneys should approach estate planning. Digital assets that (1) have intrinsic financial value, (2) are the primary means of accessing other assets of financial value, or (3) hold unique sentimental value now comprise a significant component of many clients' property and should be addressed in the estate planning and administration process.

How iPads, Apps and YouTube Can Be a Band's Best Practice Tools
By Mark Crump --

Potential Of Direct-To-Fan Realized By Few Bands
By Kyle Bylin -- Direct-to-fan marketing tools and services continue to hold a lot of promise. They enable artists to connect with their fan base and sell their products directly to them. But has the full potential of these tools and services been realized? ... In this interview panel on direct-to-fan marketing, four influential executives in the music and tech industry weigh in on the potential of direct-to-fan.

Keyboardist Ray Manzarek of the Doors Dies at Age 74
By Eric Kelsey -- Ray Manzarek, a founding member and keyboardist of 1960s rock group The Doors, died on Monday at a medical clinic in Germany at age 74 following a battle with cancer, the group's manager Tom Vitorino said.... Singer Jim Morrison and then-UCLA film student Manzarek formed The Doors in 1965 after a chance meeting at Los Angeles' Venice Beach, and Manzarek's keyboard work would go on to be a touchstone of hits like "Break On Through to the Other Side" and "Light My Fire."

3 Ways to Turn Your iPad Into a Cat Toy
By Lore Sjöberg