Once again, tales of the demise of the music industry appear to have been exaggerated. Revenue figures for recorded music in the U.S. show strong growth in 2017, both at wholesale value (12.6% to $5.9 billion) and at estimated retail value (16.5% to $8.7 billion). According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), “total revenues from streaming platforms were…

Does “Blurred Lines” Decision Open Door To Copyrighting A Cowbell? In a column for Forbes, contributor Adrienne Gibbs analyzed the March 21 federal appeals court ruling on the “Blurred Lines” copyright case and what it means for artists. Gibbs wrote that the court’s ruling in favor of the Marvin Gaye Estate “is major” because “artists might consider erring on the…

Bipartisan Agreement: Copyright Regulatory Capture Is Bad For The Economy. NPR’s “Planet Money” podcast interviewed libertarian Brink Lindsey and liberal Steven M. Teles on how regulatory capture leads to economic inequality. The podcast hosts noted that Disney should be enshrined in the “hall of fame for regulatory capture” for the company’s efforts to change copyright law to suit its own…

And The Oscar Goes To…Fair Use For Its Role In Free Speech Protections. In a Medium post published on the heels of the 90th Academy Awards, Re:Create Executive Director Joshua Lamel spotlighted the “inherent tension” between Hollywood’s love for free speech as part of the creative process and its use of copyright law to limit free expression in support of…

New Podcast: Copying Is Human Nature. As part of Fair Use Week, Re:Create released the latest episode of our Copy This podcast with guest Laura Quilter, Copyright and Information Policy Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Quilter shares with listeners her insights about the role copyright plays in education, research and learning. According to Quilter, a crucial part of…

Re:Create Study Review Finds Opportunities For Creators Today Is “Unprecedented.” In an analysis of Re:Create’s new economic study released last week, Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick commended the “impressive” report for showing that “for actual creators, today is an astounding, unprecedented period of opportunity.” Masnick also highlighted the report’s findings that these creators are in all 50 states and the District of…

Content gatekeepers stand in the way of innovation By Joshua Lamel The Hill February 21, 2018 Charlie Puth was discovered after posting his music to YouTube. “Girlboss” Sophia Amoruso launched her fashion and business empire with an eBay account. Amanda Hocking’s self-published paranormal thrillers have sold millions of copies on Amazon. These are just a handful of notable and highly…

Re:Create Unveils Research On The New Creative Economy. The Re:Create Coalition released a new report, Unlocking the Gates: America’s New Creative Economy, which finds that 14.8 million independent, American creators earned a baseline of almost $6 billion from posting their music, videos, art, crafts and other works to internet platforms like Amazon Publishing, Instagram, Etsy and YouTube in 2016. As…

Ad Bowl Fallout Continues For Chrysler. Chrysler’s Super Bowl ad for a pickup truck has already been criticized for using a speech from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, but things took a turn for the worse when Current Affairs magazine created a critique video. After using audio from the same exact speech where King explicitly criticizes car ads, the media…

Meet Fanfiction Writer Michael Lemley. Michael Lemley first discovered fanfiction through MTV’s Teen Wolf. Since then, he has written over 800,000 words of fanfiction on Archive of Our Own, the leading forum for fanfiction and a free service run by the Organization for Transformative Works. In the latest profile for our New Creator Series, Michael explained the role of fair…