Salt Pepper Ketchoop For Here Or To Go?

This article over at Variety clued me in to one of the more sensible things that the RIAA has done lately.  They’re finally pushing congress hard for a uniform public performance royalty from radio stations.  The bill was originally introduced backed in December of 2007 and Passed the House Judiciary Committee back in June but seems to have stalled around the time of that whole economic crisis thing.  Pfft.  Hit the jump for a bunch of background and analysis on what’s going on.

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Why would you appoint an attorney whose entire litigation strategy got thrown by the wayside last week to a major place in the justice department?

http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2009/01/oba.php

Sure, the industry is a disaster right now and there was no other option for a while, but to reward the guy for pursuing a flawed course and costing the music industry, the courts, and individuals millions of dollars does not sit well with me.  I bet this is Biden’s fault.

Thanks to the Berne convention, copyright protection expired in Europe for Popeye on thursday, 70 years after the original cartoonist’s death.  In India, all works written by Ghandi are free for all to use without royalties, now that it’s been 60 years since his death.  The US extends copyright to 95 years after the author’s death, so our list isn’t really that interesting.  Raggedy Ann is now public domain though, so i guess there’s that.
more info here, here, here, and here.