Check Yo' Self

The New York Times reports a growth in 2007 of digital music sales, but "digital sales have yet to make up for the shortfall in sales of compact discs, and overall sales of recorded music fell about 10 percent last year".

The article also notes the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's plan "to step up a campaign to hold Internet providers responsible for stopping piracy over their networks".

[Eric Pfanner, "Digital Music Sales Grow, but at Slower Rate", The New York Times, at World Business (Jan. 25. 2008)]

The Luck of Lucien

Yo, "-Tip", what's wrong with Snails?

Today, the French government signed an agreement with content industries and ISP providers, where a centralized authority will receive complaints from content owners and will send messages via ISPs to end users infringing copyright. (Financial Times article; New York Times Article.) Under the agreement, ISPs will issue warning messages to internet users allegedly downloading files illegally. If users ignore those messages, their accounts could be suspended or closed altogether.

According to French President Sarkozy, this is "the advent of a civilised internet". The roots of this groundbreaking effort are in the Olivennes Commission.

What does this mean for private enforcement of intellectual property rights, like the USA's "notice and take-down" requirements under the DMCA?