Madison Start-up Creates Marketplace for Digital Art

A long-standing problem with digital art is that it can be easily copied, even stolen, leaving artists with little control over their work. But now, with help from the blockchain technology underlying the Bitcoin digital currency, graphic artists and illustrators are finding a new marketplace that protects their pieces’ originality and authenticity.

“It’s a very interesting time to be not only a digital artist, but also a young collector,” said QuHarrison Terry, co-founder and chief executive officer of Victory is Very Illuminating Inc., also known as 23VIVI, a Madison start-up that is among the pioneers in creating a marketplace for the art.

The company has a website that is only 8 weeks old. But Terry and co-founder Ryan Cowdrey have experience and influence in the digital art world.

Source: JS Online

Academic Publishing Is Having a Napster Moment. Again.

copyrightAcademic work is pirated for much the same reasons that music was in the early 2000s—not just because people prefer to get something for free, but because the industry’s distribution model is deeply broken. Academic publishing is dominated by for-profit companies including Reed Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, and Sage, and many university libraries, even at large research institutions, can’t afford the high subscription fees for all of the journals their faculty need.

Paying individually for articles is impractical when a researcher needs dozens or even hundreds of articles, which can cost up to $35 each, largely paid for with the personal funds of professors and students. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen my academic friends on Facebook FB 1.20% begging for someone with better library access to share a copy of an article they desperately need.

Source: Fortune

What Happens to the NFL’s Battle against GIFs when Thursday Night Football Streams Live on Twitter?

According to the press release, users won’t have to register in order to stream the game, but surely some portion of football fans will wind up signing up for an account. This may be a Hail Mary move for Twitter which needs to boost its flagging growth in user numbers. According to the NFL, Thursday Night Football’s TV broadcasts averaged 13 million viewers over the 16 games broadcast last year.

One thing that remains to be seen is how they’ll treat GIFs. I don’t mean that in a glib way. Sports GIFs after games are a huge social media phenomenon; after an amazing catch, touchdown, or buzzer-beating shot, short clips from the broadcast flood social media streams. And broadcasters and sports leagues have signaled they don’t like it, coming out aggressively against the use of their copyrighted material.

Last year the NFL, along with the NCAA and UFC, filed a number of DMCA requests to get GIFs and Vines of games taken down. Those requests led to the suspension of several Twitter accounts, including those of Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin and an SBNation account

Source: Fusion

Comcast Expands Digital Store Offering in a Content Licensing Agreement with The Walt Disney Studios

frozen-2Comcast today announced that it has entered into a content licensing agreement with The Walt Disney Studios to start offering a selection of digital library titles and new releases as they become available from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney•Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Disneynature and Touchstone Pictures via the Xfinity On Demand digital store. Effective immediately, customers can buy Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest blockbuster hit in the Star Wars franchise just released on Digital HD and SD directly from their TV or via the Xfinity TV website to enjoy the film at home or on the go.

Over the coming weeks, the complete selection of popular new releases and celebrated classic films from The Walt Disney Studios will be available for purchase contingent on license terms and can be stored in the cloud to watch anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Inside the ‘Digital Single Market’

Most of us feel frustrated when not being able to watch the newest television show or the most talked about film online. “Sorry, this content was blocked for your country” is a sentence that pops up on our screen far too often.

It feels a bit awkward that the majority of people can travel across European borders without too many problems, but that content apparently cannot. But change is upon us. In Brussels, the European Commission plans to ensure a free flow – so, no barriers – for content on the Internet. The policy initiative to this end is called the ‘Digital Single Market’.The issue is controversial. Whereas most television viewers and film fanatics love the sound of this, most companies in the industry do not. They fear detrimental effects on their business model. Most likely the European Commission will roll out plans in an adapted and more moderate manner.

Even if such a scenario were to take place, the impact of the United Kingdom, its citizens and its media industries remains to be seen. The possiblity of Brexit is looming and might result in UK citizens still seeing annoying pop up screens on their computer or tablet, preventing them watching content from other countries.

Source: openDemocracy

Bitcoin and Public Blockchains Will Power the Smart Contracts Revolution

As the study of ‘smart contracts’ went from strange academic curiosity to the cutting-edge of FinTech, most market observers are still wondering just how this revolution in value transfer works.

Smart contracts, for those who still don’t know, are small bits of code attached to an asset, which determines where and how the underlying asset will perform based on events in the network. The promise of financial instruments that are routed through the economy autonomously, and without need for intervention by a custodian, is immense.But exactly how does such a technology work? And what makes a smart contract different from similar solutions for financial logic that have been commonplace for decades in our modern banking system?

Source: CoinDesk

Blockchain Technology Predictions For 2016

With the growing buzz around the Blockchain technology, we have gathered predictions of experts from different branches of the industry, on its future evolution and prospects going forward.

Blockchain and Bitcoin have become mutually inseparable, however Blockchain is much more than just a collection of records for a cryptocurrency. A Blockchain is at its core a ledger of records, which is distributed across different parties. It can only be updated with the consensus of the majority of the participants it is shared with and is inerasable. The beauty of the Blockchain is that its applications go beyond cryptocurrency transactions. 2015 saw a lot of hype around Blockchain and its adoption by the mainstream financial services industry.

Source: CT

A New Chapter in Artist Revenue

This week my company, OpenAura, made an announcement that signals the beginning of a new era for the music industry: previously artists got paid for their music, now we are helping them get paid for their images.

Our first customer products have launched, the first royalty checks have been issued, and a new revenue stream is coming alive. I’ve been working towards this goal for years, so I wanted to share why I started the company, and where I think the industry is heading. I’ve been lucky to spend a large part of my life doing something very important to me: helping artists (and those that support them) make a living by helping them reach their audiences.

Source: Medium

David Lowery Talks Lawsuits, Licensing and Free Streaming

David Lowery is feeling positive, three months after he flung the cat into the music-streaming pigeons with his role as the example plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit against Spotify over its publishing licensing.

The $150m lawsuit over the mechanicals element of songwriter royalties was soon joined by a second – a $200m lawsuit – from fellow artist Melissa Ferrick. More followed for other streaming services from musician John Emanuele and his publisher Yesh Music. Meanwhile, Spotify has announced a settlement with the US National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) to license songs and pay songwriters their missing royalties; and journalists have been hastily brushing up on their knowledge of the ins and outs of US copyright law.

Source: MusicAlly

Cooking Vinyl Australia Launches Music Publishing Division, Matthew Donlevy to Lead

Australia’s music publishing sector has a new indie player. Less than three years after opening for business Down Under, Cooking Vinyl Australia, the Australasian division of Martin Goldschmidt’s Cooking Vinyl Group, is launching a music publishing division.

Matthew Donlevy will oversee Cooking Vinyl Publishing Australia, and is tasked with signing and nurturing songwriters from Australia and New Zealand for development both domestically and abroad.

Source: Billboard

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