Mastodawn

Now the Washington lawyers want to destroy digital collections of scratchy 78rpm records, 70-120 year old, built by dedicated preservationists online since 2006.

Who benefits?

https://www.reuters.com/legal/music-labels-sue-internet-archive-over-digitized-record-collection-2023-08-12/

Music labels sue Internet Archive over digitized record collection

Universal Music Group <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/UMG.AS" target="_blank">(UMG.AS)</a>, Sony Music Entertainment <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/companies/6758.T" target="_blank">(6758.T)</a> and other record labels on Friday sued the nonprofit Internet Archive for copyright infringement over its streaming collection of digitized music from vintage records.

Reuters

Brewster Kahle Aug 13, 2023

A 78rpm record every hour from the Great78Project-- really a threat? https://mastodon.archive.org/@great78

thegreat78project (@[email protected])

5.8K Posts, 2 Following, 1.5K Followers · A newly digitized 78rpm disc every hour! @internetarchive is digitizing 78rpm discs for preservation, research & discovery. http://great78.archive.org

Internet Archive

Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle What a fun project, it's so sad to see it's considered a threat. Keep up the good work!

Isho'ye Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle We need to go back to the 1831 range of copyright duration (42 years), or something like life of the author + 10.

LisPi Aug 13, 2023

@wuffish @brewsterkahle For a moment I thought this was going to be a time-travel assassination mission like the killing Hitler idea.

Isho'ye Aug 13, 2023

@lispi314 @brewsterkahle perhaps, but instead, we lock Sonny Bono in a closet to quash his aspiration of running for congress.

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)Aug 14, 2023

@wuffish @lispi314 @brewsterkahle I say we go even further and renegotiate the Berne Convention.

Nick Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle The lawyers?

zeruch Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle The RIAA (and MPAA) were clients of mine when I worked in "anti-piracy" (a categorically broken and/or stupid industry if ever there was one) and the petty, reactionary, scrooge on meth personalities there were utter gobshite on a good day...good days were rare.

They are utter turd-tsunamis.

MJ Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle boggles the mind how limited some are

Mat-Su Monitor student paper Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Let folks know how we can help. Donations?

Brewster Kahle Aug 13, 2023

Please donate: https://archive.org/donate

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

llywrch Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle I guess the Internet Archive is threatening their possible but unrealized profits. That the music industry might leave money on a table that doesn’t yet exist.

John Levine✅Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Some of the songs in the complaint are considerably less than 70 years old. This isn't going to go any better than CDL did.

clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Aug 13, 2023

To anyone as ignorant as I:

"CDL" is "controlled digital lending" and this is how that lawsuit has gone so far (as of October last year):

blog.archive.org/2022/10/17/th…

The publishers seem to be arguing that all digital lending is a potential threat to their business and libraries have no right to do it. That's as expected. It seems the lawsuit has not reached a summary judgement, reached a settlement, nor gone to court yet?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controll…

@spamvictim @brewsterkahle

The CDL Lawsuit and the Future of Libraries | Internet Archive Blogs

John Levine✅Aug 13, 2023

@clacke @brewsterkahle The court ruled in favor of the publishers and against the Archive in March.I see that just yesterday there's a proposed settlement, which makes CDL go away unless the decision is overturned on appeal, which I don't think is likely.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/publishers-internet-archive-agree-streamline-digital-book-lending-case-2023-08-11/

Publishers, Internet Archive agree to streamline digital book-lending case

The Internet Archive and a group of leading book publishers told a Manhattan federal court on Friday that they have resolved aspects of their legal battle over the Archive's digital lending of their scanned books.

Reuters

clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Aug 13, 2023

@spamvictim Thank you. I hate it.

clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Aug 13, 2023

Latest blog post on the topic from @brewsterkahle and the @internetarchive

blog.archive.org/2023/08/11/ou…

/via mastodon.archive.org/@internet…

Bob Jonkman Aug 13, 2023

Also an article from @torrentfreak where I learned about the latest developments:
https://torrentfreak.com/internet-archives-copyright-battle-with-publishers-leads-to-lending-restrictions-230813/

@brewsterkahle @spamvictim

Internet Archive’s Copyright Battle with Publishers Leads to Lending Restrictions

Following a setback in court, the Internet Archive's online book lending library will be severely limited to avoid copyright liability.

TF Publishing

LisPi Aug 13, 2023

@clacke @brewsterkahle @spamvictim > digital lending is a potential threat to their business
"That's quite unfortunate but I don't see how your choice of a failed business model is society's problem."

Bob Jonkman Aug 13, 2023

From my limited understanding, the media companies are claiming that the digitization (copying), archiving (copying again), and lending out (copying x3) of old, out-of-copyright 78s is infringing on the copyright of modern re-releases.

Trying to do an end-run around copyright expiration...

John Levine✅Aug 13, 2023

@bobjonkman @brewsterkahle Nope. The Music Modernization Act of 2018 restored copyight in pre-1972 recordings, with an effective term of 100 years. You can (and should) think this is terrible policy, but like I said, you don't get to ignore the law just because you think it's a bad one.
https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/

The Music Modernization Act | U.S. Copyright Office

Orrin G. Hatch—Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act

John Levine✅Aug 13, 2023

@bobjonkman @brewsterkahle Here's the complaint, which lays out the media companies' position quite clearly, if a bit overexcited. As far as I know, their facts are correct.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.604258/gov.uscourts.nysd.604258.1.0.pdf

Transcript Order – #663 in In re: Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal., 3:21-md-02981) – CourtListener.com

Transcript Order

CourtListener

Bob Jonkman Aug 13, 2023

Well, that's worse than I thought. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it does (applies to so much nowadays).

Thanx for the links. But the second one, https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/og-lookup/ just gives me a "404 Not Found" error. I suspect Mastodon or my app cut off the URL parameters.

Transcript Order – #663 in In re: Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal., 3:21-md-02981) – CourtListener.com

Transcript Order

CourtListener

Dave Spector Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle aren’t they out of copyright and in the public domain???

Eric Vitiello Aug 13, 2023

@Dhmspector @brewsterkahle right???

AccordionBruce Aug 13, 2023

@Dhmspector @brewsterkahle
Everything with copyright is overly-complicated, so what do I know?

But I think things are likely to be locked up unless they were produced before 70 years ago

So the rolling date of “out of copyright” is now 1923 (moving forward every year)

#copyright #music

@batyalee 🌿Aug 13, 2023

@AccordionBruce @Dhmspector @brewsterkahle Don’t you mean 1953? 1923 is 100 years.

AccordionBruce Aug 13, 2023

@batyalee @Dhmspector @brewsterkahle
See? Complicated 🤕

Don’t put me in charge of the math 😳 🧮

There’s different dates for different things and it takes a lawyer to answer seemingly basic questions

And one usage may be “safe” while another is not 😵‍💫

So reform and simplification would be a great thing

(And strengthening of original creator’s rights against some forms of exploitation might win some strong moral allies)
#copyright

Simon Templar Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Doesn’t stuff this old enter the public domain at some point??

ClickyMcTicker Aug 13, 2023

@simonsez40 @brewsterkahle Can’t effectively enter public domain if you prevent anybody else from having a copy.

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)Aug 14, 2023

@simonsez40 @brewsterkahle they do, and it’s really fucking long as two years ago every sound recording before 1923 entered the public domain. That is not a typo.

Jonathan Hendry Aug 13, 2023

Can you give a copy of the archive to the Library of Congress or Smithsonian just in case?

It would be fun if the LOC posted the archive online, causing the suit against the Internet Archive to be moot or a pyrrhic victory at best.

That Anonymous Coward Aug 13, 2023

Their lawyers.

"The lawsuit said the recordings are all available on authorized streaming services and "face no danger of being lost, forgotten, or destroyed.""

Anyone watched Willow (tv series) this week oh wait that was a tax write off.

Because the archive exists, there will be no market for their "remasters" meant to extend the copyrights another 150 years because you call it a remaster & restart the clock.

Just happy the artists will be paid... oh wait...

Yma Aug 13, 2023

@that_ac The artists are fucking dead lol.
Better find their maid’s daughter’s second husband’s former mistress to pay the royalties to. (Like Ravel’s Bolero: “The piece of classical music has proved a serial money-spinner for a succession of copyright owners, including the composer’s brother’s masseuse, her hairdresser husband and his second wife”)

That Anonymous Coward Aug 14, 2023

*waves hi*

I'm TAC, the sarcasm is implied in my statements.

Colonel Panic 🌻🇺🇦

@brewsterkahle since having *almost* everything is never enough

Fan of Shared Truth & Empathy Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle @deborahh Information wants to be free… to provide profit increasing exponentially annually to the wealthiest owners who can buy everything they desire.

C₆H₁₂O₆ Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Records are subversive anyway as they don’t provide recurring revenue streams. A concept like „buy once and listen as often as you like“ is a dangerous idea and people shouldn’t be reminded something like that ever existed. 😈

CHB Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Aren’t those past copyright protection thus making them “free”?

J.Sʜᴀʀᴘ🌍🇺🇦Fʀᴇᴇᴅᴏᴍ&Dᴇᴍᴏᴄʀᴀᴄʏ Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle
No one. We all lose when history is destroyed.

bassplayer Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle UME is evil https://youtu.be/pSIHNCNcTiA

How Google Ruined Creativity Forever

YouTube

VulcanTourist [MOVED]Aug 13, 2023

No one should forget that our previous Vice President and current President Biden has had in the past, and probably still does, a hand firmly stuffed in the pants of Big Copyright. One of his first acts as VP was to crow to a meeting of Big Copyright execs how much he was gonna be able to help them with copyright exploitation.

Stephen Collins Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle what kind of arseholes sue The Internet Archive? Oh, wait, it's music industry lawyers working for the labels. Of course.

LisPi Aug 13, 2023

@trib @brewsterkahle Working for such scum should essentially be a career-ending decision as a demonstration of a complete lack of ethical standards.

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)Aug 14, 2023

@trib @brewsterkahle also, four book publishers.

xs4me2 Aug 13, 2023

Greed and capitalism, not beauty…

Perverted.

Boswell Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle all of those songs are on YouTube etc making a fortune for tech giants, but if a not-for-profit has a go it's $400 million worth of damages?

Yma Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Fuck copyright and fuck those IP hoarding idlers.

Daniel Hakimi Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Disney benefits. Their Mickey Mouse bullshit gets normalized just a little more.

prasta Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle man, FUCK the labels for this horseshit. Exhibit 9,987 why they should shove their business model up there ass. Hopefully the r/DataHoarders of the world have already pulled all these files into their storage.

Nicole Parsons Aug 13, 2023

When historical or cultural artifacts are taken into the custody of a tiny moneyed elite, they get to control the narrative.

Missionaries destroyed or removed Indigenous cultural artifacts to spread the false narrative that they were savages in need of "civilization".

Black culture is under attack by the same tiny moneyed elites. Turn of the century jazz is proof of the very sophisticated music of the era.

How can #KochNetwork reconstitute slavery without a false narrative?

The Wolf Spirit Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Bunch of fucking vultures, the lot of them.

aa Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle riaa almost as corrupt as nintendo legal

dangrsmind Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle ah sweet memories of that time I spent the morning in the RIAA offices being threatened by the RIAA's general counsel.

Fun times.

En Buen Ora 🆗Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle these are the same people who don't think they should pay artists and writers more than maybe 15 cents, one time

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)Aug 14, 2023

@enbuenora @brewsterkahle it’s as a writer of the Daily Show said about Sumner Redstone during the 2007 writers’ strike: “if you’re not paying him, you owe him $412 million. If he’s not paying you, *he’s not paying you*.”

Phil Landmeier Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Well, what do you expect from a business composed of (mostly) talentless people who profit off the talents of others? That's what they do. They monetize art created by others. They've always been like this.

JerrDansel Aug 13, 2023

@brewsterkahle Seriously, I’m on the Archive’s side, but do you have any evidence that it’s “Washington lawyers,“ whatever that’s supposed to really mean, and maybe not publishers that are behind this?

Wilhelm Gere Aug 14, 2023

They want it all. For free. And then sell it back to us. Artists will get nothing out of this.