Technology Laws

What is our world coming to? Social media is taking over our everyday lives. More people today are using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on a daily basis, now than ever before. Even from a business standpoint, more companies are referring to social media outlets to advertise their products and increase brand awareness. Since more people are using it, there is a greater need for media law. Some companies, however, are stepping over the boundaries and acting illegally. In the next three podcasts we will discuss the latest terms in the media world.

The first podcast talks about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1988, DMCA and how companies are dealing with this act. The act was passed by President Clinton and has five components. The act combines online copyright infringement liability limitation, computer maintenance competition assurance and other miscellaneous provisions including webcasting and sound recording. The panelists discuss various lawsuits that they were involved in or have knowledge of in reference to DMCA issues.

The next podcast talks about how social media can be used as evidence in court cases. One of the examples given is about a sexual harassment case in the work place. In the past, workplace sexual harassment cases typically were based on ‘he said she said’ evidence. With today’s technology, however, conversations can be permanently recorded, and therefore are a possible source of evidence. Consider text messages. Conversations through text message are extremely popular today. These messages though can be viewed by anyone. The iPhone’s messages can actually be photocopied the texts and enlarged to use at trial. This source of concrete, detailed evidence eliminates the ‘he said she said’ and provides the trial with actual facts. Unfortunately, most people are not considering the permanence of electronic writing. Once something is written online or through text message even if it deleted it still sits on some server. It is important to be careful what a person says through text because it can be brought up and used against you in trail.

The last podcast talks about infringement, specifically those involving websites and uploading content to websites without gaining permission. There are many people who do upload content to their websites only to later be asked by the content’s original owner to take the information down. One of the questions asked during the podcast dealt with a website that allowed people to upload their favorite magazines to a website. This was a huge infringement problem that needed to be addressed. These people obviously did not get the permission to upload the content page by page so a number of them are being asked to take the information down.

All three podcast gave great information about dealing with law and digital media. The information is given so that people can learn and grow from the experiences. The concepts discussed in these podcasts, can each be applied to anyone’s business that looks to grow with the new technology of the future as well as the laws that accompany it.

Podcasts:

Standford University. Legal Frontiers in Blogging, Social Networks and the Internet (2010). Retrieved on May 24^th 2011 from http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-frontiers-in-blogging/id385575960?i=85422280

Law in the Information Age. Social Media as Evidence. Retrieved on May 14, 2011 from http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-media-as-evidence-new/id389258452?i=86453867

Legal Frontiers in Digital Media (2009). Retrieved on May 14, 2011 from http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/is-medium-more-than-messenger/id384241284?i=85096531

Intellectual Property

In a world that technology is changing faster than the seasons, there are items that are overlooked. Lines are blurred and things become unclear. Some of those items boundaries are tested include intellectual property. There are different types of IP: copyright, trademarks, trade secrets and patents. All of these legal forms have specific laws and the music industry has many cases that deal with them.

One case that is current is between Viacom and YouTube. Viacom is suing YouTube over copyright policies. It comes down to what type of system is put in place to prevent the violations. Viacom states that YouTube should have prevented this and taken measures to protect the copyright by installing software filters. If these precautions were taken then the lawsuit would not be in dispute. There should have been filter software put in place since copyright infringement started to have negative affect on companies. Emailing the user who uploaded the content is another way that Viacom wants to put an end to the infringement. But that only goes so far and who will check to see if people actually take down the content? While uploading videos of my own, even for some classes, I can’t use the music that I would like to use. No audio will play from the video because it has been disabled. YouTube is taking into consideration the copyright laws. Viacom brings up good points but YouTube may win this argument because they are already in the process of putting in filters for music content, they must be working on video filters as well.

Another case involves the music artist Ke$ha. She is suing a watchstrap company called “TikTok” because the name is too similar to her popular 2009 single, “TiK ToK.” Ke$ha’s lawyers want the company to hand over its entire stock. The artist was not financially stable until the song hit No. 1. If she can prove that consumers associate her and the product then she will most likely win the case. I can see where Ke$ha is coming from when suing the company. The song made her career and defines who she is. I associate “TiKToK” with her. I hope that she wins this case. She deserves a little bit more financial stability.

The last case talks about the future of the music industry. Rethink Music Conference was held a few days ago. Leaders in the music industry from record labels, copyright offices, recording studios, venture capital firms were some of the areas that were represented at the conference. At the event different issues were discussed about the future of the music industry. One of the issues was about the way fans received the music. Some artists are not focusing on how fans receive the music but the music itself. When you work on making good music then the fans will follow. Another issue was the talk about empowered artists and if a record label was necessary. Record labels provide a lot of help to the artists. They have many connections, so they will not be completely going away. However more artists are using social media spread their music and connect with fans. They are turning down label deals to become more authentic and close with fans. Facebook and other media sites are becoming a hubb for fans to share their musical interests with friends. What better way to find out about a band than the recommendation of someone you know? 

This is just the beginning of conferences and discussions about the future of music. As the music world turns digital, there different rights and laws that are emerging from the advances in technology. They will all have a great impact on the entertainment business in a way.