via How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One.

The Artists Agent is for those artists who wish to explore an income stream from licensing their works onto new products outside of their original artistic piece.

The creativity may be in illustration, photography, painting, design, fine arts, gaming or cartooning where the artist’s original ideas can be applied to products sold at retail.

The global Art Licensing Industry was valued at over USD$3.9 billion in 2011, where increasingly more companies are seeking outsourced imagery from contemporary, innovative and unique artists.

The Artists Agent actively promotes all clients with the goal to close innovative commercial deals for the Artist.

Agent representation – Untapped Agency – The Artists Agent http://www.untappedbrandextension.com.au

Legals -Sweeny Legal  http://www.sweenylegal.com.au

A patent is legally enforceable and gives you (the owner), exclusive rights to commercially exploit the invention for the life of the patent.

A patent owner will often have a design and a trade mark which works in sync with the patent.

If you have any questions about patents.

Please contact Sweeny Legal

Design registration is intended to protect designs which have an industrial or commercial use.

A registered design gives the owner of the design, exclusive rights to commercially use it, licence or sell it.

If you have a design and are interested to protect it.

Please contact Sweeny Legal

Please contact me via my website Sweeny Legal

“There is a concern for the stability of trade mark meaning is increasingly important in a world where media saturation is on the increase, and our reliance on external mediating devices such as advertising are central to identity construction and social expression.”[2]

Some of the main considerations for future anti-dilution protection would be:

• Anti-dilution protection should harness public interest in trade mark language[3];
• Anti-dilution  protection would ensure that trade marks retain the qualities that make them brilliant resources for culture[4] ;
• If trade mark meaning is destroyed through the tarnishment of a mark, then the capacity to facilitate speech will be undermined, an adapted dilution right might prevent this.[5]

Along with preserving the intellectual commons in copyright law, the difficulty with a dilution protection right is balancing the competing interests which would allow the public to use the mark as an expressive resource through criticism and commentary, at the same time,  prevent harm which is adverse to a trade mark’s continued cultural use. [6]

The idea here is to protect the expressive use of a mark from dilution in the context of trade, this would be where the plaintiffs mark is being used in the advertising context to market a defendant’s goods or services.[7]

Lets take the example of the Barbie suit against MCA records where a pop group Aqua parodied the Barbie doll icon in a song titled Barbie Girl. The Court found that because the use of the Barbie trade mark involved parody it fell within the non-commercial use exception of the Lanham Act. [8] The court went on to say that any speech such as parody, criticism or commentary will fall within the non-commercial exception. Patricia Loughlan argues that if the Barbie Aqua case was argued here in Australia a similar result would be found by an Australian court because of the “use as a trade mark” requirement in the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth).[9]

The public speech interests outweighed the private property rights of the trade mark owner in the Barbie Aqua case.[10] Increasingly the US courts have been reluctant to allow registered trade mark owners excessive control  over their marks where it is considered to be an infringement on free speech.

However, there can be cultural value in protecting trade marks from dilution in the following ways:

• If we limit dilution liability, and concern ourselves with the commercial transaction, we should look closely at the content of the defendant’s use? If it is criticism or parody, then clearly the defendant escapes liability;[11]
• Perhaps use causation[12] to determine liability. Where the expressive use of a trade mark in trade context does not cause the blurring or tarnishment of a trade mark then protection should be limited.
• If you confine the protection of the expressive dimensions of a trade mark from dilution in the context of trade, and by limiting liability to instances where the defendant has caused the blurring or  tarnishment of the plaintiff’s mark, the public interest is served in preserving the culturally expressive dimensions of trade mark while permitting the culturally valuable use of existing connotations at the same time[13]

These suggestions provide a framework which better anti-dilution laws could function in society, which would ultimately allow for:

• original goals need to be restored;[14]
• individual creators need to be empowered more than ever[15];
• the volume and free flow of information need to be protected[16];
• the public’s rights of access and use must be honoured[17];
• we must strike a new balance of private and public interests that take into account the special dynamics of the internet and digital technology[18];
• global duties and obligations are a priority and any IP system must allow for the creation of human knowledge that is available to all users;[19]
• to create a system of property rights and economic incentives and to preserve the existence and availability of works and ideas – brands worth licensing is the key.

One clear idea emerges from this paper, that is, both copyright and trade mark owners will use overwhelming legal, technological and economic controls to regulate reading, viewing, listening, sharing and consuming products. More in my next article – Brandsworth Licensing.

1. We focus on the wrong things. It’s easy to get obsessed with filling the booking calendar and end up over-playing instead of being strategic about shows. On social media, we look at the wrong numbers, focusing on the number of followers rather than building up engagement. We need to take a step back and look at our long term goals, instead of focusing on immediate urges.

2. We want a shortcut to everything. I get more emails asking about an easy way to get a sponsorship or booking a show than anything else. The easiest way to get anything in the music industry is to do the hard work of building up a local fan base and create a unique niche for yourself. That’s when you can make the pitch. As Beverly Sills states, “there are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.”

3. We copy other acts. It’s good to learn from others’ examples, but you need to create something totally unique for yourself. Look for untapped markets where you can make fans in unexpected places. Have a unique voice or approach to social media, come up with unique pieces of merch, try new ways to promote. Don’t copy another act’s image. Imitation might be a form of flattery, but it does nothing to flatter the person doing the imitating.

4. The “magic solution.” This goes along with the shortcut: we often look for the next golden egg that can help launch the career. At first, everyone thought it was acquiring thousands of “friends” on Myspace, then it was licensing. Sometimes it is a national tour, others, the “solution” is getting a song on the radio. Reality check: there is no single solution that works for everyone. This is why I say that the best social media site for bands is the one your fans is on, not any site created by artists or made for bands. You have to find what works for your target audience, then do those things well.

5. We try and appeal to everyone. Instead of thinking of your target audience in terms of a demographic collection (i.e, 14-38 year olds), try to narrow it down to a single person. Who is your most enthusiastic fan? What sets them apart? What are they interested in? What is it about you that resonates with them? Once you determine the one person (rather than a generic group), forget about everyone else and just focus on other people like them. You’ll make better decisions and you’ll see better ROI on your efforts.

6. Not practicing for performance. Many acts might rehearse and get their songs down tight in the garage, but they don’t seem to be practicing for performance. In other words, even if the songs are tight, there the live show has issues: they don’t know how to set-up and clear the stage quickly, transitions between songs are long or loose, band members necessarily are messing around on their instruments during sound check or between songs (or “live” tuning), they don’t know how to address the audience. Try taking video of rehearsals and shows, compare the two. Time them. Fine tune it. If you want to be a professional, don’t act like an amateur band.

Do you find yourself slipping into one of these mindsets?

We have more resources for musicians than ever before, opportunities abound. However, bands also have to work harder than ever before as well. So before you just dive in, take a moment and think about your long term goals, develop a business strategy, and think about how you can give value to your most enthusiastic fans.

What’re some habits you find yourself falling into?

Dieser Event tritt auf, wenn der Domain Funktion Level auf Windows 2008 hochgestuft worden ist.

Lösung:

Der Lizenzserver benötigt im AD folgende Rechte:
- Read msTSExpireDate
- Write msTSExpireDate
- Read msTSLicenseVersion
- Write msTSLicenseVersion
- Read msTSManagingLS
- Write msTSManagingLS

Am einfachsten werden die Rechte über den Delegierungswizard gesetzt:
- Den Delegate Control Wizard per Rechtsklick auf der gewünschten Ebene (Domäne, OU) aufbringen.
- Terminal Server Licence Servers Gruppe auswählen.
- Create a custom task to delegate.
- Wähle Only the following objects in the folder: User Objects (ganz unten)
- Bei Permissions nur General behalten und Read and write Terminal Server license server Berechtigung auswählen

For another read on media freedom in Jordan, see Manar al Rachwani’s article, “After World Press Freedom Day”!

Read the original article in Arabic on al Dustour here.

Batir Mohammad Ali Wardam

“Among the 300 websites that were blocked two days ago, there is a select group that have tarnished the image of Jordanian media with unprofessional and irresponsible practices, but at the end of the day, one must look at the situation holistically. According to any person from the [media circles], the first question is: does the decision of the government in blocking unlicensed websites contribute to reduction of the continued, chaotic spread of unprofessional media?

It seems that the government believes that the answer is yes, but in fact, facing the challenge of declining quality of electronic media and the current chaos in it will not [be accomplished on] the path of the current law. The way the new publications law deals with websites is with three key elements: licensing, content control, and control of chief editing. Every one of them can be dealt with in a different way.

Licensing and registering is a legal practice that cannot be ignored. In all democratic states of the world there are regimes that control the process of establishing electronic news websites, considering them “media activities of an institutional nature,” meaning that they are subject to legal responsibilities, and financial ones too. The provisions of registering and licensing in the law are very lenient, for it does not even require a tax number or an independent financial audit for news sites. This is very important for them as commercial activities achieving financial gains, such as cash flows through advertising and so on. There is no rationale to prevent any website from registering and licensing.

In terms of content and the request for site managers to keep an archive of comments and so on, this is restrictive and not commensurate with freedom of expression. There is no place for it and it will not contribute to improving quality of content or control of it. This represents [some] freedoms that were violated in the law. With regards to the requirement for the chief editor [to have] membership in the journalists’ union, this is also problematic because the union itself is hesitant to approve practitioners to electronic media activities. Several criticisms of the [admittance] of a large number of website media professionals to the union have appeared recently, arguing that this “weakens the professionalism of the media.” The topic of the union and its membership is an internal media affair, and it is not logical for it to be an element in determining the official policy towards electronic media. It is better to solve this issue from within [press circles] and then implement the stated agreement through legislation respected by all.

Our problem is always that negative laws are based on bad legislation, that in turn are based on the miserable performance of the Parliament. We [are now] in a moment at which the government must either disregard implementation of the publications law (and this is the easiest of the solutions because it pretends not to notice several other laws!), or develop a new, more flexible law. However, who can guarantee that Parliament will not approve an [even] tougher law?

The government, press, union, and electronic media professionals are in trouble, caused by the failure of the [press circles] to organize itself internally and take a unified stance towards press legislation. Yes, we can talk for [many] days about “oppression of freedoms,” but at the same time [press circles] never undertook the required effort to organize the profession and emerge from a state of chaos and poor performance of some of the websites to a state of improved professionalism and [a better] freedom-responsibility equation.

We are used to ignoring the law, and perhaps it will take days, some [calling in of favors and meetings] before the government will back down on its decision and allow sites more time to organize themselves. Perhaps this will lead to the licensure of a third of the blocked sites and the straightening out of their circumstances. Nevertheless, this will not solve anything without a complete view of the role of media in Jordan supported by a system of modern legislation that preserves the freedom-responsibility equation.”

The idea of the album has evolved since Megadeth released Killing Is My Business in 1985.  In this day and age, the fans want more.  Our time is valuable.  TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead can take us away from listening to music.  Gaming can also limit our time.  We live in a world of choice.  If something is not good enough, we just move on.  It could be another band, a movie, a TV show, a game, a book, a magazine, a holiday and so on.

I still purchased the physical CD of Super Collider, so that I can have it as part of my Megadeth collection, however I cannot recommend it.  I wish I could.  What disappoint’s me is that Chris Broderick is still utilised purely for his lead breaks.  Is that all he is capable off?  I don’t think so, however that is how it remains in Megadeth.  Dave Mustaine is the riff meister.  He is the songwriter, however in this case, I believe that the songwriter of the band has gone missing.  It’s not a bad album and it’s not a good album.

Going back to the meaning of the post.  Why did Megadeth and Dave Mustaine follow the old way?  He could have recorded and released more frequently and still toured behind Gigantour?

For example, he could have recorded and released Kingmaker one month and then released Cold Sweat from Thin Lizzy the next month.  During that two month period, the band could have fine tuned the other songs, written better ones or just kept them as the same, if the initial songs connected with the fans.

There is no need to follow the “spend six months creating and recording an album”, release it, watch it fade away from the minds of people’s within weeks and then go on tour of the world and hope that the tour will rekindle sales.

Don’t get me wrong, the above format still works for great albums.  Five Finger Death Punch released American Capitalist in October 2011, and it is still selling.  They got five singles out of it.  The fans spread it via social media.  They have a new album coming out in July and then another album scheduled for either a November 2013 or February 2014 release.  I really liked how Coheed and Cambria did the same thing with The Afterman releases and Stone Sour did the same with House of Gold and Bones.  The bands need to be here today, everyday.  If you are gone tomorrow, in this day and age, its game over.

Megadeth in this case didn’t have enough material for a great album, and that is all we have time for these days.  I still love the band, I will still purchase tickets to Gigantour if they bring it to Australia and I will be hoping that Megadeth return to writing great songs.

Keeping with the creators following the old way theme, there is an interview doing the rounds at Loudwire, with Shinedown singer Brent Smith.  Basically, back in April, Shinedown allowed their Facebook fans to vote on which songs the band should cover.  So after the results came in, the band went away and filmed themselves playing the cover songs.  They have no plans to sell the songs. All they want to do is release the video’s of them performing the cover songs on YouTube, so that they releasing content each week. However, they cannot release the songs due to licensing issues.

The licensing part of music, is the old way of thinking.  This the way it works in two sentences.  The creators write the songs and then sell the songs for a fee to a publisher.  The publisher then licences the songs to advertising, TV shows and collects monies for them.  In my view, Publishers should be all shot and buried.

If anything, Shinedown will bring more attention to the original versions of the songs they cover.  I know that I am keen to hear them do Nothing Else Matters from Metallica.

Shinedown is trying to do things the new way, releasing content more frequently.  Amaryllis came out in March, 2012.  It’s still in the minds of the public.  As at last week, it was sitting at 410,000 sold in the U.S. alone.  Now they are going to be involved with the Carnival of Madness Tour.  In between they also released the Warner Sound’s Live Room Sessions EP  and Brent Smith has been very vocal about getting fans to speak up and stand up for rock music via social media and the hashtag (#theriseofrockandroll).  They also have the covers YouTube clips up their sleeve.  

The game is changing every day. The old wayers’ need to get in bed with the new wayers’ and start thinking differently.  It’s not all about the initial pay-day on release day.  It’s about staying in the minds of the public and the fans.

Are you using Oracle products to reduce your environmental footprint while reducing costs? For example, you may use Oracle Self-Service E-Billing for paperless invoicing or Oracle Advanced Compression for reduced disk space and power usage. The same sustainability solutions and environmental best practices that are embedded in their normal business operations are also available to their customers. Oracle is committed to developing practices and products that help protect the environment, working with their customers to address their needs. Whether through measurement accounting, waste reductions, the elimination of hazardous materials, or optimizations, Oracle is in the unique position of being able to provide sustainability solutions for customers that span the entire spectrum of IT and business requirements.

Learn how to achieve environmental performance improvement while also creating business value using Oracle’s solutions for:

• Risk and Performance Management
  

  It is critical to measure an organization’s environmental impact before determining how to reduce that impact and manage any associated risks. Well designed risk and enterprise performance management solutions help organizations set environmental goals, build them into their operating plans, track and report progress regularly, and optimally leverage their resources to maximize profits and achieve more sustainable success.
  

Permission granted to use image by Albert Antoniazzi

albertoantoniazzi.com

Sweeny Legal believes licensing and intellectual property is the perfect business tool. The creator or artist or owner retains the ownership of their intellectual property and issues a license to another party to use or develop their brand. Sweeny Legal’s Brandsworth Licensing can prepare agreements to license or assign all types of intellectual property for any business use:

Our services include:

• Trade mark and licensing agreements of all types
• Sponsorship agreements of all types
• Authorship agreements
• Assignment agreements of all types

• Licensing for advertising space
• Licensing for architects plans
• Licence to reproduce or repeat design of buildings

• Intellectual property licensing services
• Issue of licensing rights relating to audio productions
• Issue of licensing rights relating to films
• Issue of licensing rights relating to television productions
• Issue of licensing rights relating to video productions
• Issue Licensing rights to exhibit artist works

• Licensing in film recordings
• Licence of performing rights into a play
• License to adapt a novel into a screenplay
• Licence of copyright in a game
• License of endorsement of a product
• License of serial rights in a novel

• Licensing authority services
• Licensing of computer firmware
• Licensing of computer programs
• Licensing of computer software
• Licensing of copyright
• Licensing of intellectual property
• Licensing of patents
• Licensing of photographs
• Licensing of registered designs
• Licensing of research and development
• Licensing of rights to photographic prints and transparencies
• Licensing of software
• Licensing of stage plays
• Licensing of technology
• Licensing of trade marks
• Licensing services generally
• Licensing services relating to music
• Licensing services relating to music publishing
• Licensing services relating to performance rights
• Licensing services relating to the manufacture of goods

• Professional advisory services relating to licensing of patents
• Professional advisory services relating to licensing of designs
• Professional advisory services relating to licensing of trade marks
• Professional advisory services relating to the licensing of industrial property

New Annual Report and Strategy Document – Creative Commons.

Blackout on Thursday 6th June 2013 from 0000hrs to 2359hrs
This is what it feels like if you are not able to read or know

http://www.freemyinternet.com/

—

This blog is one of the participating partners (so excites!). Actually I never do anything partner-ish. I just boliao and kaypoh one.

–

I’ve usually treated the government’s various pronouncements with some skepticism. If it is something very good, there has to be some catch or white washing. If it something absurd or horrible, it is probably not as ridiculous as it sounds just that the media (MSM and/or alternative) has chosen to play a certain angle. However with this MDA licensing regime, my skepticism has now turned to cynicism.

I was just waiting for the G (as Ms Henson likes to refers to them) to give some clarification or good justification for the new licensing but none was forthcoming and the answers from Mr Tan and Dr Yaacob actually made me very cynical. Btw, it is Very Telling when people resort to this – ‘oh hello i’ve just bought a huge curmudgeon but i don’t intend to use it on you often, unless i think its necessary to’.

There are many problems with this licensing regime – that it was done through existing legislation by the MDA (which is part of the Civil Service) bypassing the need to debate the changes in parliament,  the motives behind such licensing just being a few of the issues raised.

Little Miss Kaypoh is compiling a list of articles from the MDA press releases to reactions from the blogging community and civil society – read these and form your own opinion. (ahhh her blog already blacked out… Can’t access the information!!  HOW LIDDAT!!!) (ooh blackout-ception hehe)

One of the things that changed my skepticism to cynicism was when Yaacob Ibrahim said this to the BBC.

“I think it is important for us to ensure that they [ordinary Singaporeans] read the RIGHT thing…” – Yaacob Ibrahim to BBC

In context, he meant the Right Thing to be accurate news, but

1. I think I’m intellligent enough to know what is accurate reporting and what is sensationalized reporting. I don’t need or want you to tell me what is accurate.

2. And I don’t trust you, dear government, to tell me what is accurate.

And this is what really tipped me over into cynicism – as Ms Bertha Henson writes

Said Mr Yaacob Ibrahim: “I expect that the sites will continue to operate as before. I hope that the activists who are today making this far-fetched claim (of the G clamping down) will be honest enough to admit it when the time comes.’’

Here’s a cynical response: You come up with this elaborate scheme, make people angry, and then say “it’s really nothing’’?

All this wishy washy vagueness is damn irritating (see what Tan Chuan Jin said on Talking Point). And, wow Y.I. already making a judgement call that activists are making far-fetched claims.

Anyway I’m a little irritated about how the government thinks we are sheeple (doesn’t help that some of their sycophants behave like one).

Sure, there will always be a set of people who are anti-G, no matter how it tries to engage them. But to lump everybody online as unreasonable and insensible and therefore needing a stern hand? (B. Henson in the same post again)

The government doesn’t trust its peeople, the people are beginning to not trust the government too…

—

Anyway there is a do in Hong Lim Park 8th June. I would want to go. But I can’t, because I’m having a cook out at my place, planned way before MDA even announced anything. And being Singaporean, eating good food is very very important.

So, instead of getting all angry and riled up, go there, hear some rational arguments, network with people and have a good afternoon. Hope the weather holds!

(eh #freemyinternet.. what’s the point of hashtag on blogs? -_- ) (LOL! I support you guys!)

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Acronym time!

* FYNAP = For Your Necessary Action Pls.

* Also,  FMIAPT - Free My Internet Asap Pls Tks (from Miss Kaypoh herself)

pls, tks – please, thanks. see Pls Revert Tks tumblr to navigate the pseudo civil servant speak lingo