Music Notes Blog

RIAA's Report Card on Google's Anti-Piracy Policies

December 19, 2011

Approximately a year ago, Google blogged about its new copyright piracy policies and the steps the company committed to undertake.  Today we offer a report card and comprehensive evaluation of each of the specific commitments. Please find the report card here.

ITIF Rogue Sites Report: Responding to Critics & Finding a Path Forward

December 07, 2011

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) recently issued an authoritative report on rogue sites bills currently pending in both houses of Congress.  The author, ITIF Senior Analyst Daniel Castro, concludes that “the claims by opponents of the legislation that the bills would ‘break the Internet’ or lead to censorship are unfounded” and offers a detailed response to many of these claims (with special attention on DNS filtering). It also puts forth five suggestions to Congress, stating, “Finding a reasonable solution to the problem of online piracy and counterfeiting is too important to let hysterical, ideological posturing and threats influence public policy. It is time for policymakers to take a deep breath and consider this issue on the basis of facts and rational argumentation.”

We encourage you to read this compelling report which can be found here.

Country & Gospel Music Groups to Congress: Support Rogue Sites Bill

December 07, 2011

More than 15 organizations and companies representing America’s country and gospel music communities wrote to Congress this week asking members to support H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA Act).  Those artists, songwriters, producers, publishers, engineers and other music industry workers add their voices to an enormous network of creators and businesses -- large and small -- that have endorsed rogue websites legislation to help  protect American creators, innovators and workers from unscrupulous foreign rogue websites that illegally counterfeit American goods. 

Read the full letter to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives here.