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Pied Pipers of
Piracy. While we were sleeping, the Pied Pipers of Piracy enlisted an
entire college generation to begin nabbing other people's property –
intellectual property – without regard for the consequences. Their
recruitment was viral. Not only did their business model encourage young fans
and average folks to rip off artists because it was quick, easy, free and
anonymous, these otherwise decent people had begun acting and thinking like
common thieves.
In this episode of
Small Business School we meet two of the lawyers who faced one of the largest
and earliest of the pirates, Napster. The lawyers, Mark Litvack and George
Borkowski, are partners of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp (MSK). Started in
1908, this firm represents some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Yet, de
facto they represent all of us. Also, they're one of us!
First, though MSK
represents many big businesses, they are technically a small business (under
500 employees) with just over 100 partners and no more than 300 employees. When
they win a case for the largest groups in the entertainment industry, they help
protect the intellectual property of all of us. Also, they are the counsel for
the many groups within the entertainment industry which include a large number
of small businesses.
So, let's cheer
this firm on!
They are doing
pretty good. Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp won the largest U.S. copyright
verdict to date – $136 million – against a CD manufacturing group.
In June 2005
standing before the nine justices of the US Supreme Court, George Borkowski
knew they won an important battle. The justices were unanimous - Grokster was
out of step with the law. Now known as pirates, intellectual property was
getting more respect than physical property from the high courts!
On Tuesday,
November 8, 2005 Grokster threw in the towel; they were folding their tents.
Vibrations Felt
Around the World: You meet Daniel Walker, the composer of the theme music
of SmallBusinessSchool (as well as Sex and the City and others).
Daniel cites three professional groups for recording artists that fight for
royalties and rights protections of their members.
Every trade
association could stand to learn from ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC and from RIAA.
Perhaps that is where the protection of intellectual property rights is best
defended. What do you think?
How low have we
gone? Look on your own desktop. Look in your closests. Do you have anything
anywhere that was not been paid for?
You meet an
educator, Bob Tarcea of Sign2Me.
With Joseph Garcia, he opened the world of
sign language to babies. Today it's a global movement, but business is never
easy. First we learn that sweet, young mothers confess to copying his
copyrighted materials. Though "we all do it," it is not right. Then we learn
that he's being blatantly ripped off by some English chap using eBay! As of
this writing, eBay hasn't even shut that pirate down.
So, we all have a
few things to learn. First, get commercial quicker and cheaper and easier. Use
"Try-Buy." Second, create some friction so people stop to think twice. Use the
tools that are available such as CSS encryption. Consider developing your own
authentication program like Microsoft. Begin using Flash, copyright notices,
and share insights so we can reverse this $600 billion per year rip off.
$600 billion is a
lot of lying, cheating, and stealing. Even though the worst of it is among the
get-rich-quick scam artists looking for the short cuts, all of us have to be
vigilant. All it takes is one small act to lead to another and then we each
risk an infection within our conscience. If there is metastases, we lose sight
of any moral-ethical guideway. And, if this pollution of our hearts and minds
and souls continues, we jeopardize our democracy, our economy, and all of our
businesses.
Business is based
on trust, integrity, value and the creation of value. Exploitation is the
antithesis.
READ THE
TRANSCRIPT. Read
all the dialogue from the show. The transcript of this show along with the
study guides, profile/overview and streaming video equals a
Master
Class.
FOCUS ON THE CASE STUDY GUIDE: We start
our business with a "big idea" but we sustain our business with key ideas. The
links just above in the green box go to the key ideas of this episode of the
show. Because these case study materials are now published as part of over 40
leading college textbooks in business schools, these materials are being used
daily in virtually every college and university throughout the country. So,
please, spend some time with the case study
guide.
CONTACTS
(listed in order of appearance)
Mark Litvack and
George Borkowski
Mitchell
Silberberg & Knupp LLP
11377 W. Olympic Blvd. , Los Angeles, CA
90064
2300 M Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20037
Thomas Lambert,
Managing Partner
Tel: 310.312.2000 (LA) 202.973.8109 (DC)
Email:
Click
here
URL: http://www.msk.com
Daniel Walker, composer
2118 Wilshire Blvd., #863
Santa Monica, CA 90403
Tel: 310.452.7388
Email:
Click
here
URL:
http://www.harvestermusic.com
More: Daniel's
work on the show's music
»
Steve Weinstein,
Executive Vice President & General Manager
Adam Gervin, Senior
Director of Marketing
MacroVision
2830 De La Cruz Boulevard Santa
Clara, CA 95050
Tel: 408.562-8400
Email:
Click
here
URL: http://www.macrovision.com
Maggie
Sanchez, General Manager
Microsoft
15700 NE 39th St, Redmond,
98052
Tel: 425.882.8080
Email:
Click
here
URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/Genuine
Bob Tarcea, Chariman, CEO,
Publisher/Educator
Sign2Me / Northlight Communications
11395 5th
Avenue NE, Suite B, Seattle, WA 98125
Tel: 206.361.0307
Email:
Click
here
URL:
http://www.sign2me.com/
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS. We'll
always invite your comments and questions.
Read the
Wall Street Journal on this issue.
WATCH THE
SHOW ONLINE: Three weeks after the show begins airing, it is posted as
streaming video. If you did not TiVo or otherwise record the show, you can
watch it here as streaming video. ON GROKSTER'S HOMEPAGE as
August 2006:
Small Business School
Napster then Grokster tainted an entire generation. |
»
OVERVIEW: That's this page! Also
known as the
Profile, it is always about doing
something. We say, "Take constructive action. Create more value in our world.
Make a difference."
»
UNDERSTAND THE LAW:
We must embolden ourselves to learn,
understand and teach the deepest meaning of law-and-order. We have all got to
get back to our first principles. Stealing is stealing is stealing. It creates
an inherent disorder and destroys relations.
To have equal
justice under the law we must stand up and protect that which we know is ours.
Ideas, once taken from mind-to-market, as a product and a personal asset, are
easily and literally ripped off the Internet. It is obvious the days of the
"free Internet" need to be redefined.
1. Let's get all of our
attorneys involved. You've met Mark and George. They are always lecturing
at schools and organizations. But all our local attorneys can take a little
time and go out into the classrooms and into the professional trade
associations to help us understand IP and what can be defended and what should
be defended.
2. Let's get our
trade associations involved. If you haven't already,
JOIN, JOIN, JOIN.
Of course, the
artists have a long history here, but every one of the 40,000± trade
associations can catch up. For many years we have been saying that your
professional association is a key to continuing education, market research,
strategic partnerships, collaborations and capital.
»
TRADE ASSOCIATIONS & PUBLICATIONS: We are adding a challenge that your trade
association become your advocacy and watchdog group to protect members'
intellectual property as well. Here are the associations that were mentioned in
this episode and they have set the precedent for such a role with their
membership:
1.
ASCAP (American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers): Representing over 228,000 composers,
songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers, you can be sure most of them are
small businesses.
2. BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.): "...represents about
300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers..." This is a
performing rights organization for musicians. Most of these people are a
small business.
3.
SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors
& Composers) was founded in 1930 to represent European artists who need
help in the USA. Today it serves artists around the world.
All trade
associations at the very least should be educating their membership on the
power of copyrights, trademarks and patents. These kinds of references help us
all:
» Motion Picture Association
(MPA): Essentially the association for big business of the entertainment
industry, MPA represents the likes of MGM, Disney, Sony, Buena Vista, 20th
Centry-Fox, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers. No matter how we feel
about the products that they create¹, their
piracy and copyright actions do help to
protect us all. They created
respectcopyrights.com.
» Recording Industry of America
Association (RIAA): From their online listing we'd guess there are over
1,500 members, all an integral part of the $40 billion recording industry
accounts where the firms in the USA account for fully one-third of that world
market. Most of these are small businesses.
» IFPI (International
Federation of the Phonographic Industry) "...represents the recording industry
worldwide with over 1,450 members in 75 countries and affiliated industry
associations in 48 countries."
» National Music Publishers
Association
(NMPA) since 1917 there are now 800+
American music publishers. NMPA interprets copyright law, educates the public
about licensing, and tries to safeguard the interests of its members.
If you don't know
your association, type in your "business type" + association into a search
engine and you will discover at least one.
»
CASES BY
BUSINESS TYPE. Click on the heading to find all the business types and
then click on your type of business to check out those case studies. This
episode contributes insights into
Business Services,
Information technology,
and
Legal.
»
Laws help stimulate real
business: In a news release from the RIAA we learn from David
Israelite, Chairman and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association
(NMPA), that since the Grokster verdict, there has been solid growth and
innovation for legal music services.
Growth of
Legitimate Peer-to-Peer Markets
1.
iTunes: 99 cents to $1.99 per song
2.
Rhapsody: Not known
3.
Sony Connect: 99 cents per song.
4.
Wal-Mart.com: 88 cents per song
5. Yahoo! Music: Five bucks per month
6.
Napster (yes, even Napster has gone straight)
but their cost structure is still difficult to discern.
Whatever you do
to try to get clean, always read the End-User License Agreement (EULA).
More...
»
WATCH TV ABOUT VALUE CREATION: Turn off TV about people exploiting
people. It brings us all down. To find SmallBusinessSchool, check your
local PBS-member station. If you don't find us there,
drop
us a note and we will get it on your local government station for economic
development. You can also check the rebroadcast of PBS-member station signals
on DIRECTV and DISH Network.
» FIRST PRINCIPLES: Starting a
business is the road to economic independence for most of us average people.
Read a little more to see why
incorporating a business keeps the passion of
the American revolution alive!
»
SUPPORT PUBLIC TELEVISION:
Become a member of your local station.
If you are already, great. If not and your business is doing well, consider
joining the Producers' Club ($1,000). Too much? Get a twenty employees,
customers and/or suppliers to join en masse with you at $50 per person.
Just get on the inside of your local station and
learn how
to become a producer. |
