Helen Fu's blog

What do Tommy Hilfiger, MasterCard, the World Wrestling Federation, and Tom "Scopes monkey trial" Donohue, the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have in common? Apparently, none of them has a sense of humor when it comes to their respective brands.    read more »

Digital technologies have allowed people to share music in unprecedented ways, and earlier this week recording artists, music industry leaders, and policymakers gathered at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. for the Future of Music Policy Summit sponsored by the Future of Music Coalition to talk about their impact on the music community. Also on the agenda were panels on how recording artists can use digital technology and social media to share and promote their work. Unfortunately, some of our intuitions of what kinds of sharing are okay don't always square with the law of copyright. The result has been confusion about the boundaries for legal conduct. For instance, we recently received this inquiry from a reader: "Can I post a mix tape on my blog to highlight a new recording artist? Can I allow visitors to download my mix tape?"   read more »