WASHINGTON — The top White House copyright cop said on Tuesday that the administration is working aggressively to implement a wide-ranging strategy to crack down on digital piracy and the flow of counterfeit goods, saying that protecting U.S. intellectual property interests is a central pillar of the government’s efforts to nurse the economy back to health. “Protection of our innovation and protection of our creativity is an essential part of our plan for economic recovery,” U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel said in a keynote address here at a policy conference hosted by the Future of Music Coalition. “Protection of intellectual property will increase exports, it will create jobs,” Espinel said.

Live coverage from the Future of Music Policy Summit (#FMC10), Georgetown University, Washington DC

Panel Title: Monsters of Data read more

It comes as no surprise to musicians any more that they need to manage their own careers in a different way than they used to. Instead of making great music, then trying to obtain a manager, a publicist, an agent, a record deal, etc., events like FMC’s Policy Summit help educate musicians about how they are going to manage their own careers. To paraphrase Amaechi Uzoigwe of Definitive Jux Records on Sunday, “being a musician today is like running a small business.” At OurStage, we want to encourage musicians to use our platform and various tools to advance their musical career so that they can grab hold of another rung and move up the ladder of success. read more

Our good friends at the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) are hosting their annual Policy Summit next week in Washington, D.C. Several of us from Fractured Atlas will be attending and/or appearing on panels. This will be the third summit I’ve attended and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to geek-out on topics at the intersection of culture, technology, and policy. read more

Nine years ago, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit called the Future of Music Coalition held its very first policy summit.

The world had begun to buzz with questions about where music was headed (What are we going to do about piracy? Will record labels still exist?), but the discussions rarely seemed to include the people actually creating the music, and the FMC wanted to see that gap bridged.

“We were simply trying a new thing at the time,” says Casey Rae-Hunter, the FMC’s Communications Director. “Bring policymakers and other influencers into a space with creators who are impacted by those decisions and see what happens!” read more