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Court Ruling Denies EMI Access to Millions of Personal MP3 Files

A New York Judge has denied a request by EMI to force MP3tunes to turn over all music files for its 125,000 users. For now, this means the contents of personal music Lockers will remain private.

In court EMI v MP3tunes, EMI demanded that MP3tunes provide copies of the more than 100 million songs in their subscribers' personal music Lockers. MP3tunes offers a free and paid service for people to store their music files digitally so customer or music fans can both keep them backed-up and listen to them anywhere through a Net radio, like those from Logitech, Reciva or Terratec, or from any Net connected device, such as a Wii or PC. The newest feature allows subscribers to automatically sync their music files to a device of their choosing so all their music is where they want it to be, without the hassles of running software and plugging devices in via USB! cables. All access to a music Locker requires a unique username and password, and there is absolutely no sharing between Lockers.

MP3tunes strongly objected to EMI's request, because it was both an invasion of user's personal storage, and because it would create a huge technical and financial burden, with more than 300 terabytes of files in personal Lockers. Files are not MP3tunes' possessions any more than the contents of a safety deposit box are owned by the bank that houses them. The storage provided by MP3tunes is the user's own space. A Locker is empty when someone opens an account and that customer decides what files are placed into their Locker. All files are stored at the request of the user. People who choose to utilize remote storage should be guaranteed the same level of privacy they have for the files stored on their local hard disk.

No corporation should have the right to demand the content of tens of thousands of personal accounts be turned over to them. There's no reason to suggest that the users are doing anything but listening to their own music collections in a modern manner. There are millions of Gmail accounts that have MP3 files stored in them - same with Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's email and hosting services. If EMI can gain unfettered access to wantonly look through personal accounts on MP3tunes, those services will be next.

EMI is trying to eliminate online storage and take people back to a prehistoric time before Internet services existed. I'm not sure the Judge saw this as a privacy issue, but he got it right when he rejected EMI's demands to turn over personal files for thousands of unsuspecting people. It is an early, but very important, ruling in our battle with EMI. This fight will likely prove to be a long one, because some record labels would rather spend millions in attorney fees trying to outlaw all new technologies, like online storage and web hosting, rather than figure out how to use them to grow their business. At stake is personal ownership and privacy in the digital era - both issues worth fighting for.

-- Michael Robertson, MP3tunes

AFL-CIO Supports Performance Rights

The AFL-CIO Executive Council committed to righting a wrong - the lack of compensation to musicians and singers whose recorded music AM/FM radio broadcasters use to attract listeners and thus to sell advertising.

In "Fairness in Radio: A Performance Right for Sound Recordings," the Executive Council called for enacting bills in Congress, H.R. 4789 and S. 2500, that would enable musicians and singers to receive compensation for terrestrial radio play of their recordings, as they already do for satellite and Internet use. The Council highlighted the inequity of compensating songwriters, but not vocalists and musicians. It pointed out that the United States is virtually alone among technologically advanced countries in denying compensation to these performers for terrestrial radio broadcasts of their recordings.

DPE President Paul E. Almeida is a member of the AFL-CIO Committee on Public Policy and Legislation. He accompanied AFM President Tom Lee and AFTRA President Roberta Reardon as they spoke in support of the resolution first to the Committee and then to the Executive Council. DPE staff worked with AFM and AFTRA in developing the resolution.

For the full text of the resolution, go to/click on http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/ecouncil/ec03042008g.cfm

INTRODUCING BLUE COMET CAFÉ: THE PREMIERE VIRTUAL MUSIC VENUE!

Los Angeles, CA-January 10, 2008 - Thanks to the advances of technology and streaming video online, Blue Comet Café takes elements of what radio used to do, breaking new artists, and combines that with a social networking environment and a global reach that only the Internet can provide.

Blue Comet Café is a virtual showcase club for on-the-verge touring and recording artists. Videotaped live, the Blue Comet's "Main Stage" artists play the best traditional venues in the country with new songs and interview segments rotated on a regular basis.

"When you think of the best concerts you've ever seen, a lot of times it involves an artist who is just finding their audience, performing in a relatively small club for a few hundred people. Everyone wishes they had seen Bruce Springsteen at The Main Point in Philadelphia or Elton John at the Troubadour in Los Angeles or Norah Jones at The Bitter End in New York City when they were just starting out. The fact is you have to be at the right place at the right time and if you live in a smaller market, you're probably out of luck. That's no longer true thanks to Blue Comet Café," states co-founder Tom Crosthwaite.

In mid-February, Blue Comet Café will introduce their unique social networking capabilities where visitors, musicians, singer-songwriters, bands and fans will create their own profile pages, upload photos, bios, audio files and video clips. They will make friends, create groups and forums, and interact with like minded artists and fans worldwide.

This week's featured artist is Nashville based Billy Patrick, who is part singer-songwriter, part one-man-band and part street musician. Anyway you look at it, he's a whole lot of music, and his performance captured at Blue Comet Café is nothing short of spectacular!

There are future plans to periodically produce shoots where Blue Comet Café will videotape several artists for presentation on the Main Stage. The next shoot is tentatively planned for Los Angeles with Boston, Nashville, Austin and Toronto on the list of cities to visit.

Contact: Chip Schutzman
Company: Miles High Productions
Address: 6622 Delongpre Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90028
Tel: 323-806-0400
Fax: 323-462-0829
Email: chip@mileshighproductions.com
Website: http://www.bluecometcafe.com

ZDNet News
[08-01- 2007]

House panel approves legal shield for bloggers

WASHINGTON--A congressional panel on Wednesday voted, against the Bush administration's wishes, to shield journalists including advertising-supported bloggers from having to reveal their confidential sources in many situations.

By a voice vote only after politicians spent nearly two hours airing various misgivings, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved an amended version of the Free Flow of Information Act. Chiefly sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), it proposes protection for a wider set of people than previous years' versions.

"Today, we are reclaiming one of the most fundamental principles enshrined by the founding fathers in the First Amendment of the Constitution," Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said before the vote.

In response to concerns raised by the Bush administration and other politicians, the revised bill attempts to exclude the "casual blogger" from reaping those benefits by stipulating the protections apply only to those who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from the journalistic activity, Boucher said Wednesday. That broad rule could, however, include part-time writers who receive even a trickle of revenue from Google Ads or Blogads.com.

The bill defines the practice of journalism as "gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public."

"To extend the shield beyond (those who gain financial benefit) would create an avenue for virtually anyone to avoid compelled testimony by simply creating a blog that contains the information in question," which is not the bill's intent, Boucher said.

But in an age in which it's relatively easy and inexpensive to slap advertisements on blogs and meet the "financial gain" standard, several politicians questioned on Wednesday whether that language will make much of a difference. Anyone "could start a blog and request advertising on that blog, and whether they get it or not, would be considered a journalist under this bill," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said.

Such a definition "would potentially encompass millions of people who blog or change the manner in which they blog (to gain the privilege)," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), adding that the shield is "far too broad and far too easily gained for me to support that language."

Both Boucher and Pence said they sympathized with those complaints and planned to work on changing the definition further before the bill goes to a vote in the full House. Conyers proposed assembling a "working group" to work out the differences. The bill's supporters had previously resolved to leave it up to the courts to refine the journalist definition as necessary, rather than running the risk of excluding certain people by narrowing the scope beforehand.

Some form of "reporter's privilege," either through laws or court decisions, already exists in 49 states and the District of Columbia, and major news organizations support the federal bill. But the Bush administration has continually opposed passage of such a measure, arguing the most recent House effort's approach is so sweeping that it could imperil national security and federal criminal investigations. Currently there is no federal shield law.

To be sure, immunity under the federal bill would not be absolute, and the Boucher amendment adopted Wednesday added additional exceptions.

In the approved version, people eligible for the privilege could be forced to reveal their sources when it's necessary to prevent an "act of terrorism" against the United States or its allies, when it's clear that crimes have been committed, when "significant specified harm" to national security could occur, or when trade secrets, nonpublic personal information or health records are compromised in violation of existing laws. The person seeking to compel the journalist to turn over the information would also have to exhaust "all reasonable alternative sources." Some politicians said even more exceptions are needed.

Boucher's amendment also specified that "foreign powers or agents of foreign powers"--including a government-controlled newspaper--and any "foreign terrorist organization" designated by the Secretary of State cannot receive the protections.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the committee's ranking member, said he intended to oppose the bill on Wednesday because he said he believed the amended bill will still cause the Justice Department to "be constrained as it goes about the business of conducting investigations and prosecuting criminals."

Smith nevertheless scolded what he perceived as the Justice Department's lack of cooperation with the committee on the bill. The agency "should do more than just complain, it should negotiate in good faith and provide the committee with language that addresses its concerns," he said.

With Congress scheduled to depart for its summer recess at week's end and lingering disagreements over the bill's approach, it's unclear whether the bill will move ahead anytime soon. The House bill's Senate counterpart has not yet gotten any attention this year.

CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.

Correction: This story inaccurately described how Reps. Adam Schiff and Lamar Smith voted. While both voiced opposition to the bill, no vote was recorded.

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MOVIE REVIEW by Judy Lamppu,
[07-30-2007]

MOVIE REVIEW: “Once” Linwood Dunn Theater, Hollywood, California.

Thanks to the Society of Composers and Lyricists and Fox Searchlight Pictures for just about the best picture I’ve seen this year. 

This was an unexpected delight.  I felt that this film was inside of me and I was inside of it and I believe this must have been true of the entire audience of musicians, composers and lyricists.  These actor/singer/songwriters inhabited the same world we live in.

GLEN HANSARD and MARKETA IRGLOVA, acting in their first movie, got to do a lot of improvising, basing the story and the songs on their own lives in many ways, giving this film an almost documentary “realness.” 

ONCE is the inspirational tale of two kindred spirits who find each other on the bustling streets of Dublin.  Hansard plays a street musician who lacks the confidence to perform his own songs.  Marketa Irglova plays a young Czec mother trying to find her way in a strange new town.  As their lives intertwine, they discover each other's talents and push one another to realize what each had only dreamt about before.  Written and directed by John Carney (who Hansard calls the John Casavetes of Ireland), this is a nod to the classic musicals of the past, while it is also grounded in the bohemian world of struggling young Dubliners that Carney knew from his days as a young musician. Set in Carney’s native Dublin, with Irish rock band Frames’ singer Glen Hansard as a songwriting guitarist, and Marketa Irglova – a musician from Czech Republic who has collaborated with Hansard - as an immigrant composer/pianist. 

I have attended many screenings and seen many Q&A’s following, but this one was the most fun ever.  The moderator was USA Today writer Anthony Breznican, a handsome and very articulate young man, whose questions and remarks were informative, perfect, and provoked the most amazingly honest and absolutely entertaining responses from two refreshingly down-to-earth and humble new – “shocked-at-their-own-sudden-success” stars.  They even played guitar and sang two of the film’s songs for us.

This was a very low-budget film by an innovative filmmaker who cast his friend (Hansard) and former band-mate who was supposed to provide the songs for an actor who bailed out at the last minute; and Hansard convinced director Carney to cast his friend and often collaborator, Irglova, and both were terrified they would fail at this new craft for which they had no training.  Well, they didn’t. 

Like the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland films where you threw something together in your back yard and it came out amazingly, this fairy tale really happened.  As I told moderator Breznican, this is every singer/songwriter’s dream that we all imagine for ourselves.

The film is rated R and is a very short 88 minutes.  Many in the audience begged for a sequel.  I highly recommend this film to my fellowship of the musical world - and to everyone else who dreams.

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Music Industry News Network
Business News [03-26-2007]

DiMA Applauds U.S. Register Of Copyrights' Call For Copyright Modernization

U.S. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, calling for modernization of Section 115 of the Copyright Act to help legal music services compete with online piracy. Digital Media Association (DiMA) Executive Director Jonathan Potter issued the following statement:

"U.S. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters hit the nail on the head when she urged Congress to streamline the Section 115 licensing process and clarify the law regarding the scope of licensing rights for digital music services. A streamlined blanket music licensing system will guarantee digital music services access to more music with lower transaction costs, which in turn will encourage innovation, keep legal music prices low, grow our industry and increase royalties to all creators.

"Most importantly music licensing modernization will help level the playing field between digital music services operating within the law and their fiercest competitor – pirate networks that are 'stocked' with virtually every song ever recorded. The current licensing system fails the music industry not only because it is antiquated and ambiguous, but also because it gives an indirect advantage to illegal music sources, which are, far and away, the single greatest threat facing the music industry today.

"DiMA seconds Register Peters' call for Chairman Berman, Ranking Member Coble and other Subcommittee Members to reform Section 115 this year, lest we find ourselves stuck in the same place on the 100th anniversary of a statute written in 1909 to promote piano roll licensing."

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Music Industry News Network
Business News [03-19-2007]

The Harry Fox Agency Collects Over $379 Million In Royalties For Its More Than 31,000 Affiliated Publishers In 2006

Email: ljakobsen@harryfox.com
Company Uses Technology and Business Process Improvements to Expand Beyond Traditional Mechanical Licensing Role

March 19, 2007 – The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), a leading U.S. music rights licensing organization, announced today that its total 2006 royalty collections from all sources was $379.4 million, a 2% increase from 2005, with 1.49 million mechanical licenses issued in the year. 182 music publishers chose to affiliate with HFA in 2006, bringing the company’s total representation to over 31,000, with over 1.6 million songs available for licensing.

“I’m pleased that HFA exceeded our previous year’s overall results in a continued softening of mechanical royalty market. While we got a nice bump from additional Royalty Compliance Examination collections, I believe these positive returns are due in large part to our improvements in our technology and our people-driven business processes, which have allowed us to focus our resources in new ways,” said Gary L. Churgin, President and CEO. “2006 was our first full year of operations with our new integrated technology platform, and it is satisfying that we have been able to realize immediate results for our publishers and licensees. Among other benefits, this has allowed HFA to offer some services to its affiliated publishers on a non-commission basis, including a lyrics licensing arrangement with LyricFind and all transactions through the HFA Songfile online licensing service. The real benefactor of our infrastructure, the licensees and users, are paying for its benefits.”

“2007 will mark HFA’s 80th year of operation,” Churgin continued. “In that time, the company has moved from licensing paper piano rolls to digital downloads. Although known principally as a mechanical licensing source, upgrades to our infrastructure and our highly qualified staff allow us to support many new rights exploitation opportunities for the publishing industry. Looking ahead, we will continue to seek alternative licensing arrangements and to pursue relationships that allow us to move away from a pure commission-based system to provide cost-effective solutions for music publishers.”

Financials

Overall collections were up just over 2% from 2005, due primarily to an increase in Royalty Compliance Examination collections. Total mechanical collections, excluding collections derived from Royalty Compliance Examinations, was over $ 349.2 million, a decrease of 4% from 2005, reflecting the expected continued decline of the market for physical albums, which was down more than 7% for 2006.

For 2006, Royalty Compliance Examination collections were $29 million, a dramatic increase of 358% from the previous year. The increase in collections from HFA’s Royalty Compliance Exams was due in part to the conclusion early in the year of a significant exam that was in progress in 2005, as well as several additional examination closures. In total, 23 examinations were concluded, with 63 in progress. Royalty Compliance is the process by which HFA examines the books and records of licensees to evaluate the accuracy of royalty statements submitted and payments remitted by licensees, and enters into a settlement for additional monies owed if applicable.

HFA’s collections period for mechanical royalties is 45 days after the close of the calendar quarter, which means HFA’s reporting for 2006 most closely reflect the actual retail sales period of October 2005 through September 2006.

The U.S. statutory mechanical rate for 2005 was 8.5 ¢ for songs under five minutes and 1.65¢ per minute for songs over five minutes. It increased on January 1, 2006 to 9.1¢ and 1.75¢, respectively. HFA’s commission on distributed royalties in 2006 remained at 6.75%.

Technology & Business Process Improvements

In early spring 2006, HFA completed its major technology transformation initiative, which brought online a suite of catalog management services for publishers and licensing tools for licensees of all sizes. 2006 was the first full year of utilization of these tools and results have been promising:

o The number of pre-paid, limited quantity licenses issued by HFA has increased 25% while collections increased 13.4% over 2005 when the new HFA Songfile was launched. Since these licenses are pre-paid at the current statutory rate, this translates into immediate royalties for HFA publishers. This service has been so successful that as of January 1, 2007, HFA eliminated the commission on HFA Songfile transactions and in response to the requests of publishers and Songfile users, the minimum number of units for physical products was reduced from 500 to 250 copies.
o 75% of licenses were signed online using eSignature, reducing the turnaround time and postage and handling costs to execute a license.
o Publishers’ use of CWR and eSong to enter songs into the HFA database strongly contributed to a 180% increase in the number of songs added, from 96,000 for 2005 to almost 173,000 for 2006.

Collectively, these technology improvements have removed much of the manual labor from HFA’s processes. This has allowed HFA to redeploy its Licensing and Publisher Services teams to focus more of their efforts on reducing unprocessed and unclosed requests, which have reached an all-time low for the company. In addition, HFA’s Collections team now has more tools to track proactively key release sales against royalty payments, ensuring that publishers are receiving their royalties on a more timely basis, rather than in connection with a later Royalty Compliance Examination. In 2006, they tracked over $35 million in royalties using this new system.

HFA continued to release additional enhancements to several of its technology applications during the year. As a part of this effort, it developed a new Income Tracking Reports (ITR) application, which began a wider rollout to publishers in January 2007. ITR gives publishers the ability to access detailed information about their HFA royalty history, and to create customized searches for specific information regarding a song, licensee or sub-publisher over a period of time.

HFA continues to champion the standardization of data exchanged between rights organizations, publishers, and licensees. As part of that effort, it is an active charter member of Digital Data Exchange (DDEX), which launched in May to explore, develop and maintain a robust framework of voluntary data exchange standards for information relating to digital media content including licensing and royalty reporting.

Licensing

HFA issued 1.49 million licenses in 2006, bringing the total number of licenses HFA administers to 11.95 million. All license requests were processed in less than 60 days, with an average of 90% processed in less than 30 days. HFA added over 50 new licensees to its bulk licensing program for permanent digital downloads (DPDs) in 2006, bringing the number of companies participating in this program to 615.

HFA’s Business Development team continued to deliver new opportunities for affiliated publishers in 2006. Most notable was the landmark LyricFind licensing agreement, which not only expanded HFA’s business from mechanicals to lyrics licensing, but it was also offered to publishers on a commission-free basis. HFA also offered publishers the option to participate in licensing arrangements with four ringtone companies, the Orchard, Quios, SingleTouch, and TouchM, and three previous ringtone agreements with Zingy, EMI Music, & Zapptrio were renewed. For digital background music, HFA offered a new arrangement with PLR and a renewal of the arrangement with Trusonic. HFA also offered a licensing arrangement with NIDEC Sankyo Shoji Corp., a musical movement manufacturer, for the use of musical compositions in their products that are imported and distributed in the U.S.

Copyright Law Review & Rate Negotiation

As the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) operating subsidiary, HFA works closely with that organization on lobbying and legal actions to protect and promote copyright for the benefit of music publishers and songwriters and provides the bulk of its funding.

Two of the important issues the organizations worked on in 2006 were the statutory mechanical rate hearings of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), and the Section 115 Reform Act, or SIRA. The CRB proceeding and licensing reform will continue to be priorities.

The current schedule of mechanical rates is set to expire at the end of 2007, and the Copyright Royalty Board proceedings began in January 2006 to determine the next schedule of rates. In addition to determining the statutory mechanical royalties for physical products and permanent digital downloads, for the first time rates will be set for limited downloads and interactive streams. HFA has issued over 3.1 million licenses for these two formats since 2001, and collecting and distributing the royalties for these uses will be a major activity for late 2007 and beyond.

As part of this rate proceeding, the Register of Copyrights issued an administrative ruling in October stating that ringtones and mastertones may also be licensed as a compulsory mechanical under certain circumstances. This ruling would limit publishers’ ability to negotiate terms for ringtone licensing in the free market, as they have been doing for the past several years. This decision has no effect on HFA’s existing ringtone licensing policy. At the appropriate time in the process, the NMPA will pursue appellate review of this decision.

The Section 115 Reform Act (SIRA) sought to amend Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act to create a better system for the licensing of digital music services. Among its proposals, SIRA would create a blanket license for digital uses and certain hybrid products. A General Designated Agent would be created to handle these blanket licenses, with provisions for the creation of additional Alternate Designated Agents. Designated Agent candidates would have to meet certain market share thresholds; based on its level of representation, HFA would have been a leading candidate for the General Designated Agent.

This legislation was passed by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property but was not considered by the full House Judiciary Committee or the Senate before the 109th Congress ended. Congress is expected to consider music licensing in the new 110th Congressional session.

About HFA
Established in 1927 by the National Music Publishers’ Association, HFA represents over 31,000 U.S. music publishers for their mechanical licensing needs, issuing licenses and collecting and distributing royalties. HFA also provides collection and monitoring services to its U.S. publisher clients for music distributed and sold in over 95 territories around the world. For more information about HFA, or to become an affiliate publisher or a licensee, see www.harryfox.com.

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YES, DEAR ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT
FORMED BY INDUSTRY VETS

Music industry veterans Mike Gormley (board member of Los Angeles WoMen in Music) and Jolene Pellant have teamed up to form a new management/marketing/music publishing company. The new firm is called Yes, Dear Entertainment. Pellant resigned this past summer as Vice President/Marketing for Live Nation after completing work on several national tours. Gormley has been President of L.A. Personal Development since 1987. Prior to that Gormley was partners with Miles Copeland in L.A. Personal Direction.  Both were affectionately referred to as L.A.P.D. Yes, Dear management clients already include buzz artist Quincy Coleman, new Danish/Greenlandic singer/songwriter Simon Lynge and the firm will represent Australia’s Michael McMartin in North America, primarily regarding Oz icons The Hoodoo Gurus.  For more information, visit www.mgormley.com.

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Music Industry News Network
News - Video News [02-28-2007]

VersusMedia Seeking Songs For Film Music & Foley Library Volume 1

Url: http://www.versusmedia.com
VersusMedia is putting together their first volume of music and foley sounds for filmmakers to download as a complete stock package. The volume will come as a ZIP file and contain work solely created by independent musicians and artists.

Types of files they are seeking include: songs (all genres), composition samples, and foley sounds.

All songs submitted should be free of royalty fees and at least registered using Creative Commons for copyright protection. There will be no licensing or exclusivity involved.

The volume will be made available for purchase to filmmakers who have registered on VersusMedia.com. All earnings will be split in equal parts with the artists within the volume.

Anyone interested in making a submission should send VersusMedia an e-mail at their earliest convenience.

The submission deadline is March 26th, 2007.

More information may be found on VersusMedia.com

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Music Industry News Network
Business News [02-18-2007]

Musicians' Union Criticizes IRS for Jobs Act Ruling

Url: http://www.afm.org

More than two years ago, Congress enacted the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, designed in part to encourage independent film makers to produce their pictures here rather than in Europe, Asia, or elsewhere.

Last week, the Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued regulations that will likely undermine the beneficial intent of that legislation. The IRS has ruled that participations and residual payments must be considered "production costs" for the purpose of calculating the $15 million production limit stipulated in the federal production incentive contained in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.

Typically, participations don't happen unless a profit is made on a film, and residuals are usually based on sales and broadcasts, which won't happen unless the film is successful. Since the budget limit (except for distressed areas) is $15 million, this IRS decision creates a level of uncertainly that will make it very hard for the makers of low budget features to use the incentive.

The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) joins with the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and the Screen Actors Guild in expressing its unhappiness over this unwise regulatory action.

"The movies are a major industry for this country and an important source of work for America's professional musicians, who create soundtracks that are the envy of the world," says AFM President Thomas F. Lee. "The AFM urges Congress and the Administration to take all steps necessary to undo this bureaucratic response to what was intended to be job protection legislation."

The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada is the largest organization in the world dedicated to representing the interests of professional musicians. Whether it is negotiating fair agreements, protecting ownership of recorded music, securing benefits such as health care and pension, or lobbying our legislators, the AFM is committed to raising industry standards and placing the professional musician in the foreground of the cultural landscape.

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YouTube, Inc. Senior Staff Visit Japan to Discuss Preventive Measures against Copyright Infringements

Url: http://www.whitakercenter.org

As previously announced, 23 right owner groups and companies sent a letter to YouTube, Inc. on December 4, 2006 due to the situation where extensive amount of Japanese copyrighted audio-visual works such as television programs have been posted and placed without the permission of right owners and neighboring right owners on the U.S. video-posting website "YouTube." YouTube, Inc. responded on December 15, 2006 showing their views towards preventive measures against copyright infringements and indicated their intention to visit Japan to discuss the matter.

YouTube senior staff* visited Japan and met the delegates of 23 right owner groups and companies in the afternoon of February 6, 2007 at JASRAC. The parties discussed preventive measures against copyright infringements on the YouTube website in line with the items requested by the 23 right owner groups and companies, and the reply by YouTube, Inc. In this meeting, the delegates of 23 right owner groups and companies requested YouTube, Inc. once again to implement concrete measures in order to forestall copyright infringements and YouTube senior staff explained their position. The parties further exchanged their views on the issue.

YouTube, Inc. promised as immediate measures which they can take at this point is to indicate a warning notice in Japanese "not to upload audio-visual contents which are not authorized by the right holders" on the web page where users can see at the time of uploading audio-visual works.

Meanwhile, topics such as registration of user names and such, termination of user accounts of those who illegally uploaded audio-visual works, and issues regarding technical aspects of preventive measures against copyright infringements were also discussed. YouTube senior staff stated that although they had already carried out termination of IDs by the current system, they would assure efforts towards fundamental measures in technical aspects, working together with their owner company Google, Inc.

Furthermore, 23 right owner groups and companies and YouTube, Inc. agreed to discuss preventive measures against copyright infringements continuously. Through the two hour meeting, discussions were held in a gentlemanly and friendly manner.

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Musicians Institute And Hal Leonard Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary Of Publishing Collaboration

Url: http://www.mi.edu

2007 marks ten years since the founding of Musicians Institute Press, the publishing collaboration between MI and Hal Leonard Corporation, the world's largest publisher of print music. MI Press was created in order to put MI-style educational materials in the hands of musicians around the world, and publications are divided into four categories: "Essential Concepts" (based on various programs' core curriculum), "Master Classes" (content from elective courses); "Private Lessons" ("one-on-one" lessons with MI faculty instructors); and "Videos" (in-depth lessons on DVD).
 
Founded in 1977, Musicians Institute has long been recognized as one of the world's premier colleges of contemporary music; intense, hands-on degree programs designed and taught by top-notch working professional musicians are available for guitarists, bassists, percussionists, vocalists, keyboardists, and musicians into recording, luthiery, film scoring and the music business.

In 1997, Hal Leonard Corporation, the world's largest and most innovative music print publisher, created the Musicians Institute Press imprint to exclusively publish books, book/CD packs and DVDs from these acclaimed educators. Prior to that, MI professors authored books and lessons through various publishers, but none of these were sanctioned by the school. The first book branded with the Musicians Institute Press imprint was Rock Lead Basics for Guitar and remains among the bestsellers. Other top-selling titles include Harmony & Theory, Vocal Technique, Ear Training, Guitar Soloing, Bass Fretboard Basics, Double Bass Drumming and Salsa Hanon. There are currently more than 100 titles in the line with more being added regularly, and combined sales have surpassed over a million units.

Comments Hal Leonard Vice President of Pop & Standard Publications Jeff Schroedl, "We're very proud to serve as the official publisher for Musicians Institute. For countless musicians, attending MI is a lifelong, but unattainable, dream. We're pleased to do our part in making the unsurpassed curriculum from this school available to these students of music."

Keith Wyatt, Vice President of Programs for MI, says, "We're elated to have simultaneously reached both the 30-year anniversary of the school and this ten-year milestone with Hal Leonard. We knew from the beginning that Hal Leonard would be the publisher best-quipped to distribute MI Press on the widest scale, and we also knew that we could trust them to help us translate MI's unique educational style into print and video. We were absolutely right on both counts."

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Music And Movie Industries Applaud Release Of New Study Documenting High Cost Of Piracy On Los Angeles Economy

A new report released says that global piracy and counterfeiting cost Los Angeles-area companies $5.2 billion and the city at least $483 million in tax revenues in 2005. Representatives from the music and movie industries said the report would be a rallying cry for additional anti-piracy efforts by the city and praised local officials for their commitment to devote more attention and resources to the problem.

The study, conducted by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) and commissioned by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilmembers Wendy Greuel and Jan Perry and County Board of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy, identifies measurable losses in local revenues, jobs, wages and taxes due to piracy. While the report describes the economic devastation of piracy across nine different sectors of the Los Angeles economy, it finds the entertainment industries – motion pictures, music, and related industries – to be hit hardest. For a complete copy of the report, please visit http://www.laedc.org/consulting/projects/2007_piracy-study.pdf.

Local officials also announced the formation of an Inter-Governmental Task Force on Piracy and Counterfeit Goods, a group made up of a diverse cross section of the community representing industry, law enforcement, business leaders, government, prosecutors and judges. The goals of the task force will be to come up with specific policy recommendations and to identify resources to deal with the problem of counterfeited goods.

"This report pointedly illustrates piracy's true costs, both to the music community and to Los Angeles, and we believe it will be a real catalyst for additional anti-piracy measures by the city," said Mitch Bainwol, Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Just this week, the Grammy's celebrated some of the music industry's most well-known stars. This study reminds us of the individuals who work every day, in a much less public way, to make that music possible. The trafficking of stolen music stunts growth and advancement for the creative industries, working families and the community as a whole. We are very thankful to the leaders who commissioned this report and to those who have joined them in stepping forward to tackle this problem head on."

"The LAEDC report confirms what our industry has been consistently saying: the crime of film piracy doesn't just hurt Hollywood, it damages economies everywhere movies are produced and sold. Motion picture piracy results in lost jobs and wages for middle class American workers inside and outside of the movie industry, and we now have even more evidence of the specific damage it does to the Los Angeles economy and workforce," said Dan Glickman, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA). "We appreciate the leadership the City and County of Los Angeles have provided on this issue and for working so hard to curb piracy in Los Angeles."

According to the report, global piracy disproportionately hurts Los Angeles because of its concentration of so many of the firms that make the original products prone to counterfeiting. As a result, the LAEDC report indicates that the local black market across the nine identified sectors could be valued as high as $17.4 billion.

The motion picture and television production industry in 2005 generated more than 1.3 million American jobs – over 500,000 of those jobs were in California; $30.24 billion in wages to American workers; and $10 billion in state and federal taxes. In 2005, the worldwide motion picture industry lost $18.2 billion as a result of piracy.

The recording industry reports that the global trade of pirate music discs was worth $4.5 billion globally in 2005, with 80 million discs seized – up from 36 million discs in 2004

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Tish Ciravolo - Biography

Combining a lifelong passion for making music with a desire to “level the playing field” for dedicated female guitarists and bass players of all ages, Tish Ciravolo, founder and president of Daisy Rock Guitars (www.daisyrock.com), is a Renaissance woman of the music industry and a true pioneer of the instrument manufacturing world.

Since being founded in 2000, Daisy Rock has nearly doubled in size each year, with 2005 sales exceeding $2.4 million. The catalog includes acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars, 6-string and 12-string electric guitars, and electric basses in a vibrant selection of colors. The company offers an ample bouquet of models from popular lines such as the Butterfly, Daisy, Heartbreaker, Pixie, Wildwood, Stardust, Tom Boy, and Rock Candy series, and 2006 marks the launch of the Star series, Stardust Retro-H and Elite Custom guitars, Rock Candy Custom and Custom Special guitars, Rock Candy Special Basses, Stardust Elite Rebel and Elite Petite Rebel guitars, and the Cheetah Heartbreakers.

Now distributed by Alfred Publishing since spinning off from Schecter in 2002, Daisy Rock’s current 37 models are available at over 500 music retailers throughout the United States and Canada. With the addition of many new distributors, Ciravolo’s imaginative designs are also gracing the walls of another 200 dealers across the pond.

When the Los Angeles-based Ciravolo says, "The boy’s club is over," she means that for all females. Daisy Rock offers a variety of guitars that appeal to girls of any age. Younger girls are drawn to the Butterfly, Daisy, Star and Heart shapes as well as the pallet of yellows, purples, pinks and blues. Adult women are drawn to the solid construction and amazing sound quality of Daisy Rock’s lighter-weight, slimmer-neck designs.

Famous artists from across the musical spectrum also love their Daisy Rock guitars, including Joan Jett (The Runaways), Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Louise Post (Veruca Salt), Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin (Go-Go’s), Share Ross (Bubble and Vixen), Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles), Nina Hagen, Annie Minogue, Lisa Loeb, Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton, Ella Hooper (Killing Heidi), Precious Finch (L7), Marla Sokoloff, Shonen Knife, and Anna Waronker . Girls, however, aren’t the only ones having fun with Daisy Rock guitars—The Cure’s Robert Smith, and The Psychedelic Furs’ Tim Butler, Chris Stein from Blondie, Sylvain Sylvain from The New York Dolls play them, too, as do Adam Levy (Norah Jones) and Paul Leary (Butthole Surfers).

Ciravolo’s dream that “every girl who wants to play guitar is welcomed and inspired to do so” is centered on the love she has for her two daughters, seven-year-old Nicole and five-year-old Sophia.

“When the time comes, I want their experience as musicians to be different from when I was growing up, when every guitar available was designed with men in mind,” Ciravolo says. “I want them to be able to walk into a music store anywhere and be able to find something made with them in mind. Daisy Rock is not about making me rich and famous or being a hero to anyone. It’s simply an opportunity to leave a legacy for my kids and to provide females with great instruments designed with them in mind.”

In a sense, Ciravolo’s daughter Nicole is the true visionary behind Daisy Rock. When Nicole was a one-and-a-half years old, she drew a picture of a daisy, and her mom was inspired to draw a neck on it. She developed the design and took it to her husband, Michael Ciravolo, the president of Schecter Guitars. (Schecter had grown under Michael’s leadership from its original roots as a small instrument parts company in the 1970s and ’80s into a major guitar manufacturer. Early Schecter endorsees included Michael’s old friend Robert De Leo from Stone Temple Pilots, as well as artists like Prince.) “I told Michael that I wanted to create a line of guitars designed just for girls and women,” says Ciravolo, “so that’s what I did.”

Tish grew up in Merced, California, where her best friend Barbara taught her to play guitar as they attended El Capitan High School. The young Ciravolo—whose first exposure to a girl playing rock bass was Suzi Quatro as Leather Tuscadero on the television show “Happy Days”—was a quick learner and by age 16 was on tour with a band called Plateau. When Plateau ended up playing in Kansas City, she decided to stay there and enrolled in Penn Valley Community College as a journalism and business major. After receiving her degree, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she balanced a series of crazy-making day jobs (waitress at Duke’s Coffee Shop, temp positions, assistant to Jay Leno and his former manager, the late Helen Kushnick, to name a few) with amateur night performances at The Improv and Comedy Store. Intent on being a rock star during those middle 1980s, she gravitated towards what would become her primary instrument, the bass. Like her influences Simon Gallup and Tim Butler, she played with a pick. “They kicked me out of the Dick Grove Music School after five minutes,” she recalls, “because I didn’t want to play with my fingers.”

Hopping from band to band, inching ever closer but never getting to that elusive record deal, Ciravolo became the quintessential L.A. rock queen. She played in bands over the years including Rag Dolls, The Velvets (a female Psychedelic Furs-type outfit), They Eat Their Own (new wave pop), and eventually, her own group, Shiksa and the Sluts. Then she entered her “big hair metal phase,” hanging with the popular band Lipstick from 1988 to 1992. “We had a billboard on the side of the Roxy and everything,” she says. “We did the windmill head shaking routine when we played, which was big at the time. We were also house band at the Whisky for a time, and played in the Battle of the Bitches at FM Station.” Finding other creative outlets, Ciravolo also made two independent films (The Wake, and Birds & The Bees) and wrote sitcom with partner Karen Peterson.

“Through all those years of playing music, of great success and crushing disappointment, I always had so much fun,” Ciravolo says. “It’s physical, it’s artistic, and it’s who I am at heart. These days, I’m in this punk band called sASSafrASS, and we do covers like “Cherry Bomb” by the Runaways plus original material. I’m kind of over the whole ‘getting the record deal thing,’ and it’s more fun than I ever had before. If I got a record deal now, it would probably interfere with everything I’m doing with Daisy Rock.”

Ciravolo’s commitment to young female musicians extends into the realm of book publishing. With music education giant Alfred Publishing, she has released three instructional titles: Girl’s Guitar Method, books 1 & 2, and Girl’s Bass Method. Each teaches easy-to-follow course material from a female perspective, with a style and design that addresses the interests of today’s young women.

Barbara’s passing from breast cancer in 2000 inspired Ciravolo to donate liberally to breast cancer organizations. Daisy Rock also promotes breast cancer awareness through a national ad campaign in which Ann and Nancy Wilson are extensively involved.

Ciravolo is committed to numerous female-driven causes in addition to promoting breast cancer awareness. Through a scholarship program called Girls Rock (for which the Donnas are spokesgirls), Daisy Rock sponsors underprivileged girls, hooks them up with guitars, and sends them off for the experience of a lifetime at DayJams Rock & Roll Camp. Daisy Rock sponsorships include the sixth annual VH-1 Divas special in 2003 and the 2005 national LadySixString Lyric Writing Contest, and among the company’s numerous guitar donation recipients are the Make a Wish Foundation and VH-1 Save the Music. Additionally, the Ciravolos hold online auctions at Guitars4Kids.com, an organization they created from which all monies raised benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

“There are so many things I love about Daisy Rock Guitars and all of the endeavors we are involved in here,” Ciravolo says. “But there’s no greater feeling than reading letters from young girls who had no idea there were guitars out there for them. The wonder of discovery is so incredible, and it’s as if learning how to play our guitars helps them discover their true selves. I always wonder how different my own life in music would have been had I grown up playing a Daisy Rock guitar. It’s exciting just to know that something I have created has made such a difference.”

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Important News for all Songwriters
by NSAI’s Bart Herbison.
From Bart Herbison, Executive Director, Nashville Songwriters Association.

Dear California Songwriter:

Whew! It has certainly been a busy and eventful few months in Washington, DC. Congress did not act on music licensing legislation. The Section 115 Reform Act, or SIRA, was legislation that would have fundamentally changed the way songwriters get paid for digital mechanicals. The precedents in SIRA would also likely have impacted future copyright debates in Congress.

Absent Congressional action, the music licensing framework SIRA created is now left to the marketplace and to the Register of Copyrights. The Copyright Office has made it clear that they do NOT share songwriter views on how we should be compensated in the future. That was evident in the recent "ringtones" decision by the Copyright Office. Their ruling was that "ringtones" are part of the compulsory license, therefore the songwriter should receive only a mechanical royalty instead of being able to negotiate the price of the "ringtone."

The election will also heavily impact the copyright debate going forward. Congress will have all new Committee Chairs and Subcomittee Chairs. Representation from California-based songwriters has never been more important to our legislative efforts. Many California members of the House and Senate will play prominent roles in the new Congress. It is IMPERATIVE that we urge Congress to speak on some very imortant issues before the Copyright Office rules, perhaps adversely, on multiple issues that will impact songwriter payments for decades to come. Next year is also the year that the Copyright Office will rule on the new mechanical rate for the next five years.

We are continuing our efforts to engage the California writer-community in our political-advocacy work. Toward that end, we are planning a California songwriter trip to Congress. (We cannot set the date until Congress sets their 2007 Calendar, probably in mid-January. The target dates for the trip are May 21-23, 2007).

We will first hold briefings and meetings in California February 20-23, and April 17-20, 2007 (subject to change, of course). Please tentatively set your calendars for these dates. We REALLY need a large contingent on the May DC trip. We ask that everyone pay their own expenses on these trips, that is how we've managed to do 2,000 appointments with Members of Congress over just the past six years! We will have a cost estimate soon, but we will likely spend two nights, Monday and Tuesday, and return late Wednesday. We will likely arrive on Monday and hit the Hill Tuesday and Wednesday for dozens of appointments. We will split into several groups, each accompanied by a "Team Captain" very familiar with the legislative process and issues. Tuesday night will likely be a "Guitar Pull" with everyone playing one or two songs. We will, of course, play songs in almost every office throughout Tuesday and Wednesday.

During 2007 a "California Advisory Board of Directors" will be appointed for the "National Songwriters Association." Board and Committee meetings, regular briefings and activities will be held throughout the year.

In 2006 we changed the United States Tax Code. I am confident that together, we can impact music licensing and related issues such as board representation, an end to controlled composition and pass through payments and even define NEW revenue streams for songwriters. I am really excited about the next few months and just want to say that I LOVE you guys. (gendre non-specific -- lol!)

Bart Herbison, Executive Director
National Songwriters Association

Meanwhile, here are some links to pertinent legislative information.

SIRA AND RINGTONES-

http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/news.ez?viewStory=870

SONGWRITERS LOBBY CONGRESS-- (give this link some time)

http://www.visionsphere.com/nsai/legislative/CapitalGainsR_RJuly21o6.pdf
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2005/09/19/story7.html

SONGWRITERS CAPITAL GAINS TAX EQUITY ACT

http://www.mcall.com/business/columnists/all-kristof609jun09,0,7034572.column?
coll=all-randomcolumnistsbus-misc

OTHER LEGISLATIVE NEWS

http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/news.ez?viewStory=728

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NEWS
Supreme Court weighs 'obviousness' of patents
By Anne Broache, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: November 28, 2006

WASHINGTON--U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared to take issue with the current legal standard for granting patents, which many high-tech firms claim is ineffective at weeding out inventions that should be obvious.

During hour-long oral arguments in a case that's closely watched by the business community, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that an existing federal court test for determining patent obviousness relied too little on common sense. Justice Antonin Scalia went so far as to call the test "gobbledygook" and "meaningless."

"It's worse than meaningless because it complicates the question rather than focusing on the statute," Roberts went on to say of the test, which requires evidence of a past "teaching, suggestion or motivation" that would lead to a particular invention in order for it to be declared "obvious."

The case, rooted in an obscure patent spat about gas pedal designs between the Canadian firm KSR International and Pennsylvania-based Teleflex, has attracted the attention of high-tech, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other patent-dependent firms because because it addresses one of the fundamental questions in patent law: What makes an invention, particularly a combination of existing parts, too "obvious" to warrant protection?

If the high court decides to rewrite the legal standard of patent "obviousness" to make it more restrictive, it could have wide-ranging effects by reshaping U.S. intellectual property law and reducing the number of marginal patents. Tuesday's arguments are the only ones that will be heard in the case. A decision is expected by July 2007.

The benefit of hindsight
According to federal patent law, an invention must be declared obvious--and thus non-patentable--when a person of "ordinary skill" in the same field could have come up with it. But it's easier to say an invention is obvious in hindsight, so courts have attempted to construct a more objective way to come to that determination.

That's what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation's dedicated patent appeals court, was trying to do when it set what is known as the "teaching, suggestion or motivation" standard in 1982, Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged.

"They say obviousness is deceptive in hindsight, that in hindsight, everybody says, I could've thought of that," he said.

But those siding with KSR--including the U.S. government, a number of large Silicon Valley firms, and the open-source and free software movement--contend that the test, however well-meaning it may have been, has made it easier to obtain patents on seemingly obvious combinations of preexisting inventions. They claim that making an obviousness defense is impossibly tough because firms of their nature don't routinely document incremental changes to their technology, which they say are effectively required by the test.

KSR had argued in its brief that the test for obviousness should rely more heavily on what a person of ordinary skill in the field is "capable" of devising. But Thomas Goldstein, the attorney arguing Teleflex's side, argued that if courts give too much weight to capability, they'll miss out on protecting "the most important part of invention," which, he said, is "deciding how to put (different parts) together."

Perhaps the most outspoken skeptic was Justice Stephen Breyer, who repeatedly questioned how courts are supposed to decide whether a "motivation" existed for a person to come up with a particular invention. He suggested that the federal court's test was trying too hard to "absolutely define" a way of settling patent obviousness when perhaps the issue isn't so clear cut. "I seem to think that maybe it isn't well settled, and maybe there's something we should do," he said.

Patent disputes are known for being dry and technical, but in this case, the dark-suited audience erupted into laughter multiple times during the justices' questioning. On one occasion, a deadpan Chief Justice Roberts asked Teleflex's attorney: "Who do you get to be an expert to tell us something's not obvious?"

To a roar of laughter, he added, without missing a beat: "The least insightful person you can find?"

Goldstein argued that if the Supreme Court revises the current standard, "it will create genuine, dramatic instability" because it underlies the hundreds of thousands of patents that have been granted each year for the past quarter century.

Such consequences were not lost on some of the justices. "If we see it your way," Justice David Souter asked U.S. Department of Justice attorney Thomas Hungar, who advocated changes to the system, "are there going to be 100,000 cases filed tomorrow morning?"

If sweeping changes are made to the test, asked Justice Scalia, "does it make sense to assume patents are valid under a test that has been erroneous for 20 years?"

Justice Anthony Kennedy questioned whether scrapping the entire Federal Circuit test was necessary, implying that perhaps a compromise could be reached. "Does it not serve to show us at least one way in which there can be obviousness?" he asked.

It was clear that the current standard brought displeasure to some justices, said Steve Maebius, an intellectual property partner with the law firm Foley & Larder in Washington, D.C.

"One of the themes that came out in the questioning, in particular from Chief Justice Roberts, was the need for flexibility," Maebius, who attended the morning arguments, said during a conference call with reporters. "He felt that perhaps having a test that requires motivation is too rigid and doesn't always give the court or the decision maker the flexibility needed to reach a conclusion of obviousness."

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YouTube Goes Mobile

YouTube, a consumer media company that enables people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, today announced that, in early December, its leading video entertainment service will be available to people on mobile devices. In its first strategic mobile distribution agreement, YouTube will enable Verizon Wireless V CAST consumers to access a selection of YouTube videos from their mobile phones exclusively for a limited time.

In this landmark arrangement, YouTube will deliver a sampling of the most popular videos to Verizon Wireless' V CAST subscribers in the United States. With the largest community for online video entertainment, YouTube's move into the mobile space will enable a new audience of mobile users to enjoy entertaining videos virtually whenever and now wherever they want.

"We are excited to launch our new mobile service and to partner with Verizon Wireless to bring YouTube videos to a new audience," said Steve Chen, chief technology officer and co-founder of YouTube. "People want to be entertained in a way that fits their individual lifestyle. This service offers our community and Verizon Wireless subscribers a new opportunity to connect and engage with their favorite videos. We will continue to roll out more exciting partnerships and features for the mobile user over the coming year."

"Delivering YouTube content gives V CAST customers a mobile connection to video content that has revolutionized how people are being entertained today," said John Harrobin, vice president of digital media for Verizon Wireless. "Today's announcement is groundbreaking for mobile video, and we're proud to be working with the leader in online video entertainment. This relationship signals Verizon Wireless' commitment to bring the very best entertainment to V CAST customers."

YouTube will provide Verizon Wireless' V CAST customers with a variety of videos, enabling users to access video clips on any one of the Verizon Wireless V CAST-enabled handsets, including the Chocolate (LG VX8500) and MOTOKRZR K1m. Video enthusiasts also will be able to record and share their favorite moments with their mobile phones – whether it's an unbelievable skateboard trick or memorable moments, such as their child's first steps.

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Beyond the Multiplex

Dig into Salon's list of the best independent films of 2006 already out on DVD. Now that's something to be thankful for, By Andrew O'Hehir

Nov. 23, 2006 | In the last couple of years there's been a bunch of chatter (some of it promulgated by me) about new models for distributing independent film. Major changes are upon us, we have told ourselves, or at least just over the horizon. Maybe the idea that we have to pay money to go sit in some darkened room with a bunch of strangers in another part of town to watch motion pictures is on the way out; maybe it just needs to get dressed up with monkfish, pasta and a nice Riesling.

We have seen the so-called innovation of "day-and-date" release, in which a film is released in theaters, on DVD and/or on pay-per-view cable at the same time. And it has been underwhelming. OK, it meant that Magnolia Pictures found a way to make "Bubble," Steven Soderbergh's sub-Bresson experiment in downscale naturalism, into a modest success. (It was the day-and-date guinea pig last January, generating all sorts of media coverage it did not deserve on aesthetic merits.) But for most of 2006, day-and-date has looked like a dumping ground for films of dubious value with minimal commercial prospects. We already had a term for that, and it was "straight to video."

Don't get me wrong; things really are changing. If there's any kind of consensus in the business right now, it might be this: Theatrical release is still important, but more and more of the adult audience is choosing to watch films at home. Nobody's sure what that will mean in a few years: DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, broadband downloads, high-definition TV, or some device yet to be invented that will beam movies into our subconscious minds while we sleep, so I can wake up tomorrow and already have seen Hou Hsiao-hsien's next film. Most likely it means what it means now, a cobbled-together combination of all of the above, with no consistent or dominant pattern.

Here's what it means for you right now, circa Thanksgiving weekend 2006. Movies come out on DVD faster than they used to, and indie movies with limited theatrical releases generally reach disc within eight to 12 weeks of their first appearance in theaters. For obscure or difficult or niche-market movies that come and go quickly in a few big cities, Netflix and Amazon now represent their main chance to build an enduring audience.

So here's my completely subjective list of the best, and least appreciated, independent films of 2006 that are already available on video (or will be released by Christmas). Some are still, mysteriously, missing. Where is the horrifying documentary "Darwin's Nightmare"? I have no idea. Why is Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows," the best-reviewed rerelease of the year, only available as a European import?

Everything here, with the possible exception of the sleeper hit "Brick," didn't quite find the audience it deserved; some of them, like Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky's hallucinatory, indescribable "4," didn't find any audience at all. So damn it all, watch them.

There's bound to be some overlap between this list and my forthcoming top-10 list for the year, so this one is alphabetical and unranked.

"Agnes and His Brothers" This thrilling, angry and disturbing family comedy from German director Oskar Roehler is a mess: It's partly a vulgar sex farce, partly a rip-off of "American Beauty," partly a political satire and partly a Teutonic version of the Almodóvar-style gender-bending melodrama. It might also be a scabrous take on the prevailing cultural climate of post-Wall Germany -- and it might also be the most exciting film I've seen all year. (To be released Dec. 19.)

"Battle in Heaven" Mexican director Carlos Reygadas' contemplative, slow-moving crime saga opens with a remarkably beautiful young woman on her knees in front of a remarkably fat and ugly guy, and she's not giving him a pedicure. The various real-life sex scenes are memorable indeed (and will probably ensure "Battle in Heaven" a long life on DVD) but the real question is whether Reygadas is Latin America's answer to Tarkovsky or a pretentious poseur. I didn't adore this when I first saw it, but its potent images have never left me.

"The Beauty Academy of Kabul" Of all the movies I've seen about the United States' entanglement in the Arab and Islamic worlds over the last three years, none has been stranger, funnier or more enlightening than Liz Mermin's documentary about a group of American stylists and Afghan émigrés who try to set up a cosmetology school in the post-Taliban Afghan capital. (To be released Dec. 19.)

"Brick" Rian Johnson's debut feature, a Hammett-goes-to-high-school noir shot in his (and Richard Nixon's) suburban hometown of San Clemente, Calif., turns out to be more than a one-trick pony. It might be the most sincere reinterpretation of the detective genre in 30 years. Plus, it's sweet, funny and scary in just the right doses.

"Brothers of the Head" I really thought that this film about a pair of conjoined (aka "Siamese") twins who are sold by their dad to a sleazeball promoter and become minor glam-rock legends in mid-'70s England would be trash too. But it's great! Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's fiction-film debut is a spooky, mysterious movie with a rock 'n' roll heart and dirt under its nails, capturing the anarchic energy of its time and place and making you believe, for a few moments, that something this weird and grotesque could really have happened. (Adapted from the novel by science-fiction legend Brian Aldiss.)

"CSA: Confederate States of America" Kevin Willmott's mockumentary about a contemporary America in which the South has won the Civil War and slavery has continued into the 20th century was castigated in some quarters for its historical inaccuracies and perceived blind spots. Hello! "CSA" is satire, not a careful rendering of alternate history. Some people just didn't want to deal with how funny it is, and how ruthlessly it asks audiences just what our racial attitudes really are.

"The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" An ultra-dark comic journey through the Bucharest night with a lonely, dying Romanian alcoholic, Cristi Puiu's film has been the toast of many festivals, without finding much of a paying audience anywhere. Even calling it a comedy is misleading; "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," which transpires almost in real time, has a sense of humor closely allied to terror and to compassion. Along the path through many hospital waiting rooms toward Mr. Lazarescu's possible demise (his first name, by the way, is Dante), we encounter an accidental panoply of human dreams and desires. This is the first film in Puiu's series "Six Stories From the Bucharest Suburbs," which might be the most important film event out of Eastern Europe since Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Decalogue."

"The Fallen Idol" For buffs of classic British cinema, nothing else this year approaches the rediscovery of Carol Reed's 1948 drama -- written by Graham Greene! -- about a lonely little boy in a big London house, whose only friend is Baines (Ralph Richardson), the wisecracking butler with a host of adventure tales to tell. It's a mystery but not a ghost story, a tale of subtly shifting loyalties told through Reed's expert point-of-view camerawork and psychological manipulation.

"4" Ilya Khrzhanovsky's extraordinary debut proves that the ironic, self-obsessed, half-crazy spirit of Russian filmmaking is alive and well. "4" begins as an erotic, mysterious mood piece about a group of strangers in a Moscow bar and ends as a grotesque satire of the kind of "village movie" so often made in Russia. In between it's about whores, dogs, the dark side of the meat industry and the secret human cloning project conducted by the Soviet regime under Stalin and Khrushchev. The director may be young, but the script is by veteran Moscow avant-gardist Vladimir Sorokin. (To be released Dec. 12.)

"Gabrielle" Patrice Chéreau, the onetime enfant terrible of the opera world, has grown up into a new identity as a cerebral filmmaker, heir to the vacant Great Man of Cinema throne. This spiny, experimental adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novella "The Return" is an early 20th-century costume drama, but also one that stretches the film medium to the breaking point, with intertitles, silent passages, switchbacks from black-and-white to color, strident modernist music and other trickery. Pascal Greggory and Isabelle Huppert are terrific as the central warring couple, but most of all "Gabrielle" throws down the gauntlet before the rest of contemporary cinema. Not easy to watch, but a great ride for the right kind of viewer. (To be released Dec. 19)

"Lady Vengeance" I know the fanboys won't let me into their party for saying this, but the final installment of Korean filmmaker Park Chanwook's "Vengeance" trilogy, after the acclaimed "Oldboy" and "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," is the best, and by far the most serious. With huge Korean star Lee Young-ae as a recently released convict who is plagued by genuine guilt (but still pursuing those who have wronged her), it's more of a character study -- and more cognizant of the genuine costs of violence -- than Park's more charismatic earlier films.

"L'Enfant" Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's latest portrait of down-and-out street life in Belgium's drab industrial cities captured the 2005 Palme d'Or at Cannes -- and as usual that meant absolutely nothing in the United States. Still, this tale of a feckless, likable hustler, the lovely girl he betrays and the baby he sells (all with the best intentions!) is told with remarkable cinematic energy and intensity. Some mavens prefer the Dardennes' other films ("La Promesse," "Rosetta" and "The Son"), but for believers in the European cinematic tradition, this is not to be missed.

"Nathalie" A wicked shape-shifter from the underappreciated French filmmaker Anne Fontaine ("How I Killed My Father"), this one pairs Gallic screen legends Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant as the moving parts in a crumbling marriage. Discovering that her husband is having an affair, Ardant's character hires a sultry, dead-eyed hooker (Emmanuelle Béart) to seduce him. Anything more I might tell you would give the game away; suffice it to say this is a psychological puzzler, terrifically filmed and brilliantly acted, with a dynamite payoff.

"On the Outs" A compelling and compact, if didactic, fable of three young women dealing with post-prison life on the impressively mean streets of Jersey City, N.J. Brilliant starring performance from Judy Marte as a tough-girl drug dealer, and a promising fiction-feature debut from documentarians Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik.

"Our Brand Is Crisis" You might not think that a movie about a presidential election in Bolivia would tell you much about American politics. You'd be wrong. Documentarian Rachel Boynton brought her cameras to South America to follow the consultants of Greenberg Carville Shrum, the now-defunct firm headed by former Bill Clinton aides Stan Greenberg and James Carville, as they try to get an American-style reform candidate elected. There are no heroes or villains in Boynton's story, which ends up being fascinating, chilling and tragicomic, with an unexpected conclusion.

"The Road to Guantánamo" Hardly anyone wanted to see Michael Winterbottom's riveting docudrama about the three British Muslims held in Gitmo for three years, and tortured as possible Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, when it first came out. I see no indication that has changed. I mean, now that the Democrats have won the election and U.S. foreign policy has returned to sanity, all that stuff is behind us, right?

"Somersault" Australian director Cate Shortland's debut is about a young girl who runs away from home, hooks up with the wrong guys and gets into trouble. But it also isn't: It's a marvelous landscape picture, capturing an out-of-season ski resort and the lovely face of young Heidi (Abbie Cornish) with the same dispassion. Cornish is an awesome young actress (she's also in the current "Candy") and this movie is one of the year's true discoveries.

"Three Times" So Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien, darling of the international cinéaste set but virtually an unknown commodity to American moviegoers, finally got one of his films released in the United States. It's a Hou movie all the way, a languorous but intimate love story told in three different eras of recent Chinese history, with the same two actors, Chang Chen and the beautiful Shu Qi, playing the two lovers in each segment. It's lovely and slow-moving, depicting time in its granular, tiny moments and its ungraspable infinitude. So it was a big art-house hit, right? Um, sure.

"Time to Leave" I've been agnostic so far on François Ozon ("Under the Sand" and "Swimming Pool"), who's pretty much the name French director of the moment. But "Time to Leave" is a near-perfect miniature about a shallow Parisian fashion photographer (played by Gallic pretty boy Melvil Poupaud) who learns he has only months to live and must make peace with himself and his family as best he can. It's a tender, heartfelt work that never panders with sentimentality or tries to convince us that mortality makes us morally superior. Shot in CinemaScope, "Time to Leave" is also one of the most spectacular pictorial experiences of the year. (To be released Nov.28.)

"Wassup Rockers" Larry Clark's latest teen docudrama, recounting the almost-real-life adventures of a bunch of Latino skate punks lost among the paler people of Beverly Hills, has a tenderness that's always been near the surface of Clark's work. The sex and drugs are kept to an R-rated level, and Clark seems to have realized, finally, that his audiences are not shocked to learn that today's teens do stuff. So the result is a likable, even zany quality, a rough-and-tumble odyssey told with compassion and humor.

"Zizek!" Directed by onetime Salon contributor Astra Taylor, this irreverent, intelligent documentary explores the life and worldview of Slovenian sociologist and philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who turns out to be a brilliant and mostly comprehensible dude, despite being relentlessly name-checked by the brothers Wachowski throughout the "Matrix" trilogy.

Fast forward: Varda's amazing "Cléo From 5 to 7"; "Backstage" with the bitch-goddess; in quest of "Our Daily Bread," the charming "Opal Dream"; Robert Altman signs off
Yes, there are movies this week! I don't know how widely the new 35mm print of Agnès Varda's 1961 "Cléo From 5 to 7" will play after opening this week at New York's IFC Center. But, God, I hope it comes to your town too, because it sure is wonderful. Out of slight material -- a spoiled actress and pop star, Cléo (Corinne Marchand), wanders the streets of Paris for two hours, distracted and anxious, while awaiting the results of a medical test -- Varda creates a tapestry of city life, and a consideration of mortality, that's joyful, simple, daring and profound.

The long traveling shots from inside the various taxis, cars and buses Cléo rides in are worth the price of admission by themselves. That's not even counting the amazing cafe scene, where she eavesdrops on half a dozen conversations, the even more amazing musical number (written by jazz pianist Michel Legrand, who appears as Cléo's songwriter and rejected lover) or the interlude of silent-film comedy. With its lighthearted experimentation and its magical transformation of a shallow, self-absorbed girl into a romantic heroine, "Cléo" is, for me, above all other films of the French New Wave.

For a radically different vision of French pop culture, try Emmanuelle Bercot's lurid but highly absorbing new film "Backstage," which I caught last spring at the Tribeca Film Festival. Emmanuelle Seigner (that's Mrs. Polanski to you) stars as the icy blond Madonna-style pop idol with an even icier heart who is an object of worship to the lonely small-town girl played by Isild Le Besco. When the idol and her biggest fan are brought together for a trashy reality-TV special, they become entangled in a relationship of mutual dependency.

Most of the twists and turns this twosome takes are familiar -- drug orgies, a shared male lover, overtones and undertones and just plain tones of lesbian obsession -- but Bercot renders the vapid luxury-suite life of stardom in highly convincing detail and both actresses play these mismatched, needy creatures with skin-crawling realism. Photographed by the great Agnès Godard with a lustrous, decadent gloss, "Backstage" offers a fascinating study of pop capitalism in late-stage decline. (Now playing at Film Forum in New York. Opens Dec. 15 at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles, Jan. 5 in San Francisco, Feb. 2 in Chicago and Denver, and Feb. 9 in Boston, with more cities to follow.)

What with Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation" and Nikolaus Geyrhalter's near-silent new documentary "Our Daily Bread," upscale moviegoers may never wish to eat again. Stuart Klawans, the Nation's excellent film critic, has compared "Our Daily Bread" to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," whereas I was reminded of "The Matrix." A generational difference, I suppose. Whatever your choice of science-fiction comparatives, Geyrhalter's film is a chilling, commentary-free, widescreen study of industrial food production. (He's Austrian, and the film was shot in various countries of Western Europe.)

Yes, much of it is upsetting: We see cows, pigs and chickens slaughtered, as well as sunflowers harvested, farmed salmon sucked through a huge hose, tomatoes and peppers picked via robotic conveyor belt. Whatever your conclusions about that stuff, the really troubling part is the presence of human beings -- almost expressionless in their astronaut suits, rubber boots and goggles -- as they wander through this perfect, antiseptic landscape of death. I was reminded of the late-Marxist philosophical notion that the most important product of industrial capitalism was not the commodities but the workers themselves, and the sense of space and time to which they are conditioned. (Opens Nov. 24 at Anthology Film Archives in New York and Facets Cinematheque in Chicago, with more venues to follow.)

I wanted to like "Opal Dream," the new flick from "Full Monty" director Peter Cattaneo, more than I did, but for fans of Ben Rice's beloved Australian children's novel "Pobby and Dingan," this adaptation will have to do. Young Kellyanne (wonderfully played by Sapphire Boyce) is an odd and sensitive girl stuck in an Outback opal-mining town. Her dad (Vince Colosimo) is accused of "ratting" on another miner's claim (i.e., invading it) -- and now her imaginary friends, Pobby and Dingan, have gone missing! Eventually, "Opal Dream" does deliver its desired emotional payoff, as Kellyanne's predicament reunites the brutally divided town, but it's too bad Cattaneo's direction is so foursquare and sentimental, and most of the acting so hambone-obvious. Certainly this is a sweet-tempered family flick, but Rice's book and its fans, young and old, deserve something more nuanced. (Now playing in New York and Los Angeles. Opens Dec. 8 in San Francisco, Dec. 15 in Minneapolis, Dec. 22 in Denver, Jan. 19 in Chicago and Portland, Ore., and Feb. 2 in Boston, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis and Washington, with other cities to follow.)

My colleague Stephanie Zacharek has already published a wonderful tribute to Robert Altman to mark his unexpected death, and I won't attempt to compete. Suffice it to say that while there will be no more new Altman pictures to see, and that's irredeemably sad, the adventurous and unsinkable grandpa-sprite of indie film will always be with us. His legacy will continue to change, to reverberate throughout the medium, as long as people still make and watch movies.

Altman went out in high style, having recently made his biggest hit (and best film) in decades. He remained his irascible, charming self to the end; when I talked to him by phone last June, he had been feeling poorly but was telling dirty jokes and planning his next picture. An attractive female journalist of my acquaintance told me recently that when she last interviewed him, he jokingly suggested that if she was interested, he was available and the hotel bed was free. (She declined.)

He was perfectly frank about describing "A Prairie Home Companion" as "a movie about death," adding, "Listen, if you can't laugh at death, you really have no right to be here." I summoned the courage to ask him if he was just going to keep working until he dropped dead and he said absolutely, that was the plan.

Altman was jazzed about his planned fiction-film adaptation of the documentary "Hands on a Hard Body." (He had just cast Billy Bob Thornton in a leading role, and was almost ready to go.) Wherever he is right now, I know he's direly disappointed not to be making it. But I also feel confident that he laughed as he departed, laughed in that detached but compassionate Robert Altman way at his own vanity and ours, at the world of movies and people, at the silliness and certainty and beauty of it all.

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Industry Profile: Mike Gormley

— By Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner

Industry veteran Mike Gormley is president of management firm, L.A. Personal Development. But after 24 years, he is launching Yes, Dear Entertainment, a new company, which will include management, marketing and publishing, through his new partnership with Jolene Pellant, a former VP of Marketing at Live Nation. Two management clients have already been signed, marketing has several clients and the publishing signings and an administration agreement with a major publisher are expected shortly.

Mike started out in music industry as a musician and journalist in his native Ottawa and then as a columnist with the Detroit Free Press, where he was youth editor or what was becoming at the time, rock journalist. Mike also wrote for Playboy, Creem, Billboard, Chicago Sun Times, and others on a freelance basis. "I continued writing somewhat after joining Mercury Records, but eventually I didn't have time to do the research," he notes.

Mike joined Mercury Records, based in Chicago, in 1970 as director of Publicity. Although not in the A&R field, he was instrumental in the signing of the New York Dolls and Kraftwerk. He also oversaw the PR campaigns for Thin Lizzy, The New York Dolls, Rush, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, The Runaways, The Ohio Players and many others.

In 1979 Mike left the label, which had been absorbed by PolyGram a year after he took on corporate public relations duties and helped establish the PolyGram brand in the U.S. He was chosen to move to PolyGram's headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, but when the president of PolyGram decided to move to New York, he wanted Mike to go there with him. "I was disappointed because I really wanted to move to Europe for a while," he recollects, "and right at the same time I got a call from A&M asking if I wanted to move to L.A. Like I had to think twice."

At A&M, Mike rose to the post of vice president of Publicity and assistant to the Chairman Jerry Moss. There he worked with The Police, Supertramp, Herb Alpert, Styx, Peter Frampton, Joe Jackson, Squeeze and others.

Mike left A&M in 1982 to start his own management firm, L.A. Personal Development with manager Miles Copeland, who was the manager of The Police, of which his brother Stewart was the drummer. Over the years, Mike has managed several major acts from their early days through to major international recognition, including The Bangles and Oingo Boingo. Boingo front man Danny Elfman has become a major film composer with help from Mike, who convinced him to do the music for "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" many years ago. (Elfman is now one of the top composers in the film industry having scored "Beetlejuice," the first two Batman movies, "Spiderman," "The Red Dragon" and "Chicago." His work on "Good Will Hunting" and "Men In Black" each earned Elfman an Academy Award nomination.)

Five years later, Miles left L.A.P.D. to produce movies. "Wall of Voodoo had dissolved, The Bangles were breaking up and basically had broken our working relationship, so he left and I kept the company and Oingo Boingo, got Danny Elfman going in movies," Mike explains. "I went from there."

Other artists Mike has managed include Wall Of Voodoo, Angelique Kidjo and Concrete Blonde.

Mike also worked with Filter in their early days, and Paige O'Hara, best known as Belle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" films. Mike served as the music supervisor on several films and TV shows, including "Adventures in Babysitting" and the first season of "The Equalizer."

Mike founded and ran Wildcat Records, distributed by Universal, which had success in several genres, including Top Ten on the AC charts with Michael Damian and AAA success with The Boomers. In the process he discovered comedian Craig Shoemaker.

Now settling into his new partnership with Jolene Pellant, Mike informs that they already have several marketing clients including 85 art theaters around the country such as the Laemmle Theaters in California, City Theaters in New York, and Anjelika theaters in Texas, New York City and California.

"We will market their in-theater music programming and expand the exposure of the music presented," explains Mike, noting that other clients are about to be announced. "What type of music it will be is hard to say, but we deal mostly in singer/songwriter/alternative artists."

Management clients include: singer/songwriter Quincy Coleman, a recent KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic guest, and Greenlandik/Danish singer/songwriter Simon Lynge, who is writing with, and for, Lucie Silvas, whose last recording sold over a million in the UK alone.

"Simon is recording in L.A. with John Mattox (The Young Dubliners) and Matt Folger (Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney)," informs Mike. "He isn't finished recording yet, and we've a licensing deal in Scandinavia. There's more to come."

L.A.P.D. will stand on its own as a separate company with singer/songwriters Ronny Cox and Clair Marlo.

Also new on the block, Mike just began teaching at UCLA Extension's continuing education program called, "The Insider's Guide to Music Management." The class covers, among other things, what music managers do, why they are important, and how to avoid management pitfalls. The course began on Oct. 11 and will continue each Wednesday thereafter for a total of six classes, ending Nov. 15.

His professional organizational involvement includes sitting on the boards of Music Manager's Forum and L.A. WoMen In Music. Mike is also on the Management/Legal Advisory Committee for AFTRA and is past president of the Conference of Personal Managers.

Why did you leave the record business and decide to become a manager?
My position with A&M became boring. My staff was doing the creative stuff. I was going to meetings to find out what time the next meeting was to take place. There was some political crap going on that I didn't need in my life. Miles and I'd worked pretty close together on his bands, and he knew my frustration.

How did the idea to start an artist management company with Miles Copeland come about?
Miles knew of my frustration. One day he and Jay Boberg took me out to lunch and hit me with the idea of starting LAPD. Jay really wasn't involved. It was his idea to invite me in so he came along to the lunch. Miles was still living in London, the Police were the hottest thing going, but he signed L.A. based bands Oingo Boingo and Wall of Voodoo for management, and he really didn't have anyone to take care of them. So we made a deal. I took a drop in salary but became partners with Miles. About six months after we started the company, we found The Bangles, then called the Bangs.

How did the name LAPD evolve?
Miles Copeland managed The Police. His brother Ian had the booking agency FBI, and, of course, there was IRS Records. It came from all of that.

How did you come up with the name for your new company?
I thought it would be fun when someone calls the company, the receptionist would answer, "Yes, dear."

How did you get involved with the UCLA Extension program?
I've been a guest speaker at several classes in their Entertainment division, and about a year ago they asked if I'd any ideas for a music business class. It turns out they've never done any kind of entertainment management class so they liked that when I suggested it.