The CopyKat - furry, flexible, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey

Fashion and celebrity photographer Milton H. Greene was only 26 years old when he photographed Marilyn Monroe for Look magazine and he went on to take thousands of photos of the Hollywood star, “capturing both her vulnerability and her sex-bomb persona”.  Now, 3,700 unpublished black-and-white and colour negatives and transparencies of Greene's Monroe archive are going on the auction block — along with the copyright – as part of a total of 75,000 celebrity negatives and slides Greene shot in the 1950s and 1960s.

What will the jury think?

A website that provided a fan subtitle service -or fan-made translations of popular Hollywood movies and television shows - has been shut down by the police after a recent raid. Swedish authorities investigated a copyright complaint and raided two Undertexter properties and confiscated what were classified as "evidentiary materials". The Swedish Police Service National Coordinator of the Intellectual Property Crime Division stated that they tracked the computers to establishments in Helsingborg and Stockholm. Consequently, Undertexter services are now permanently offline and cannot provide on-screen text sharing services to their users.

The European Union took an important step toward establishing a single market for online music distribution and a more efficient system for licensing and distributing copyright royalties after the European Parliament’s Committee for Legal Affairs approved changes to the current fragmented system in the 28 member states.  “This proposal is a key to create a digital single market,” MEP Marielle Gallo (EPP-France), a member of the conservative European People’s Party and the individual steering the legislation through the EU law-making body, said. “Simple and transparent licensing of copyright means more legal offers and easier access to online content for consumers. … This reform also ensures remuneration for artists and will develop new business opportunities.”

One of the most important posts I have ever read about how the music industry might function in the future has been published on the CMU Daily website - I say 'one' - its actually two posts looking at the Spotify business model - and why its good for tech start ups and their record label partners - and very bad indeed for artists who are currently receiving a (usually) tiny share of revenues from their labels for digital uses - and in the case of two of the three majors, Sony and Universal, the very same labels who co-own Spotify. Now Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich have taken to the net to formally express displeasure in the all-you-can-eat streaming business model. To prove their point they announced that their respective solo albums, and the long-player from their collaborative venture Atoms For Peace, had all been removed from Europe's highest profile streaming service. Announcing what he dubbed as a "small meaningless rebellion", producer Godrich said via a string of tweets: "We're off of Spotify. Can't do that no more man. Someone gotta say something. It's bad for new music. The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model. It's an equation that just doesn't work" with Godrich saying "The music industry is being taken over by the back door, and if we don't try and make it fair for new music producers and artists, then the art will suffer. Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system. The numbers don't even add up for Spotify yet. But it's not about that. It's about establishing the model which will be extremely valuable, meanwhile small labels and new artists can't even keep their lights on. It's just not right".

The articles cab be found here http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/as-spotify-debate-goes-atomic-where-are-we-at/ and here http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/godrich-and-yorke-reignite-spotify-debate/

The White House has announced an agreement with several of the largest internet ad brokers to curb advertising on websites that promote copyright infringing content. The White House announced that the deal, which includes AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, had been reached to try to limit the display of advertisements on websites with content that infringes copyright and engage in counterfeiting. The voluntary measures aims to stem the flow of cash to websites that rely on advertising to make money

And finally a reminder about our 'Forthcoming Events' section on the right sidebar.  This Thursday (18 July 2013) it's IP and Digital Entertainment in Holborn and the fun packed day features 1709 Blogmeister Jeremy Phillips in the chair, and 1709 bloggers Iona Harding (Baker & McKenzie) and Ben Challis (Glastonbury Festival) speaking on the current role of copyright and 'Digital Glastonbury' respectively. Other speakers include former 1709 blogger Amanda Harcourt on personalised radio services such as Pandora and Spotfy along with Toni Vitale (YouView) on TV on Demand, Gary Moss (EIP) on IP enforcement in the digital sphere, Gill Grassie (Brodies) looking at the "The Digital Revolution: To Hargreaves and Beyond", and Rosie Burbridge (Rouse Legal / Art and Artifice) taking a view on copyright and computer games. Please don't forget that from the 19th to 23rd August it's the annual IBC Intellectual Property Summer School at Downing College, Cambridge, and finally, and up in Scotland on the 6th September 2013, it's "Artistry and Artificiality", a fascinating and free event at the University of Glasgow, under the baton of copyright-and-music maestro Dr Andreas Rahmatian himself, bringing together specialists in music and in copyright law to discuss the way in which copyright conceptualises music from the perspectives of the musician/musicologist as well as the lawyer. Confirmed speakers include Professor Alison Firth, Professor Paul J Heald, Dr John Williamson, Professor John Butt, Professor Bjorn Heile and Professor Charlotte Waelde