US District judge S. James Otero has ruled that the sale of promotional CDs is “protected under the first sale doctrine.” The ruling came down in a case that Universal Music brought against Troy Augusto, who was selling promotional CDs on eBay.com. Otero ruled that “The promo CDs are gifts distributed by UMG, as they are mailed free and unsolicited to thousands of people without any expectation or intention of their return. The first sale doctrine says that once the copyright owner sells or gives away a copy of a CD, DVD, or book, the recipient is entitled to resell that copy without further permission.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation was supporting Augusto. They have a press release posted.

The C-J is reporting that a new nightclub, to be called Club Underground, is planned for a building at 544 S. Fourth St., just south of Fourth Street Live!. The building was formerly the site of a McCrory’s five-and-dime store.

An article from the Canwest News Service says that the Canadian government is “secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices….The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police.”

The agreement would include allowing for confiscation and destruction of devices with infringing content. The entire article is here.

The problems radio is having continue; the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) reports that total radio advertising fell below $4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2008, a drop of 5%. The splits were reported this way: “Local revenue dropped six percent in the quarter, with national revenue off by 11 percent. Meanwhile, network ad revenue grew by seven percent and off-air revenue was up an impressive 15 percent.” FQMB.com has the story.

Tucked away in the Business section of the Courier-Journal this a.m. was the news that the weekly publication LEO has been sold to Nashville-based SouthComm Communications. Published Pam Brooks keeps her job; editor Cary Stemle, sales and marketing director Kelly Gream, designer Mark Bacon and circulation/Web manager Michael Steiger all have been fired, Managing editor Stephen George will be interim editor. What this means to the weekly will not be completely known for some while, though the new owners assert that things will continue as usual.

Will probably never happen

That’s how Bob Lefsetz starts his most recent “why-don’t-musicians-pay-attention-to-their-business” columns. Worth reading, re-reading and re-re-reading.

Bob Lefsetz justs keeps on refining and repeating the basic information that musicians have to have to be successful in today’s music market. His latest post reduces it to five steps, not including the work of becoming and continuing to be a practicing musician.

ESPN aired a piece on ticket ‘reselling,’ a.k.a., scalping, which discloses that TicketMaster owns one of the biggest ticket resellers, thus profiting from the sale of the original ticket and the resale of the same ticket. Free market capitalism at its finest?

“Happy Birthday to You” was written, as some Louisvillians know, by sisters Patty and Mildred J. Hill in 1893, when they were teaching at what is now known as the Little Loomhouse, under the original title of “Good Morning to All.” Despite the fact that the tune should have been in the public domain long ago, the current familiar arrangement, by Preston Ware Orem, was registered with the Copyright Office in 1935 by the Summy Company. That copyright is scheduled to expire in 2030 in the USA, assuming that the U. S. Congress doesn’t accede to The Disney Company’s desire to keep Mickey Mouse from the public domain and extend copyright yet again. There is a recently set up website that details the various legal and historical aspects of that song’s continued copyright protection and the money that it makes. Wikipedia has a shorter version of the story.

Joe Lord details a post from Tom Nord about Brigid Kaelin’s musical grand slam: sitting in with Elvis Costello last night at the Palace as an accordion and musical saw player. She got to play several tunes with the band and was introduced at the end. She had left him a note at WFPK, offering her services as an accordion player and he took her up on it.

This might only be a one-day story for Brigid to tell her family or it might well wind up in the books along with Kris Kristofferson’s famous helicopter arrival at Johnny Cash’s house, should some additional blessings come Brigid’s way as a result.