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Chris Castle
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Chris Castle is Managing Partner of Christian L. Castle, Attorneys with offices in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2004, the firm represents a variety of clients in music, motion pictures and television, as well as technology companies and video game publishers. Chris also consults leading organizations on public policy matters relating to copyright and artist rights including Arts+Labs. Prior to founding the firm, Chris held senior positions at technology companies and record labels.

Before law school he was the drummer for Long John Baldry, Rand Bishop, Yvonne Elliman and Jesse Winchester among others, and was a member of Local 47, American Federation of Musicians AFL-CIO.

Blog Entries by Chris Castle

How Chairman Goodlatte Could Stop the Ennui of Learned Helplessness

(0) Comments | Posted May 16, 2013 | 5:49 PM

Today, Chairman Goodlatte held a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet entitled "A Case Study for Consensus Building: The Copyright Principles Project."

The Copyright Principles Project is an ad hoc group predominantly comprised of "high tech" lawyers and...

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FCC Needs to Step on the Gas and Move Fast on the Incentive Auctions

(0) Comments | Posted May 1, 2013 | 5:21 PM

Big Tech's "rock stars" are known by their first names only. There's Larry and Sergey, Bill and Steve, and even Mark and Meg.

So it is for the Big Tech commentariat, where two of the most revered names...

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Growing the Internet: IP Network Conversion Helps Creators, Too

(0) Comments | Posted March 21, 2013 | 2:53 PM

A huge technological transformation is underway in the U.S. and around the globe: Consumers are abandoning older technologies in favor of high-speed Internet services that rely on modern, fiber-based or IP-enabled broadband networks. As consumer demand skyrockets, it becomes more and more imperative to upgrade the old public switched telephone...

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Some Good News for Songwriters: Universal's Innovative Licensing Bringing Multichannel Networks in From the Cold

(0) Comments | Posted March 18, 2013 | 7:09 PM

Universal Music Publishing recently signed agreements with Maker Studios and Fullscreen, two of the YouTube "multichannel networks" or MCNs. MCNs have been criticized for being unlicensed and of course YouTube has been criticized for permitting these unlicensed networks on the YouTube system.

Fortunately for all concerned -- starting...

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The Tide Has Risen: Five Reasons to Worry About the Internet Radio Fairness Act

(0) Comments | Posted October 30, 2012 | 6:49 PM

Big Tech and Big Media have joined forces in the "Internet Radio Fairness Coalition" which includes Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, Computer and Communications Industry Association (Google), Consumer Electronics Association (Google), Digital Media Association (Google) and... Pandora.

So you see, it sure looks like the way this works...

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What's Missing From the Google Transparency Filing?

(0) Comments | Posted August 22, 2012 | 11:59 AM

"Come to me when thou hast seen the elephants dance..." -- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The elephants are dancing in the Northern District of California, and the presiding judge has had about enough of it. In an interesting twist to the Oracle v. Google case, Judge William Alsup...

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Is Google Hiding Pivotal Documents in Key Antitrust Investigation? That's Right, You're Not From Texas

(0) Comments | Posted August 7, 2012 | 3:06 PM

We have heard much about Google's many self-inflicted legal woes. The Street View/Spy-fi debacle alone has produced convictions of Google in at least nine countries, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, not to mention Google's $500 million fine under a no-indictment agreement with the U.S....

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Talking With Leslie Lewis, GRAMMY Nominees and Ted Soundtrack Producer

(0) Comments | Posted July 25, 2012 | 9:42 AM

Leslie Lewis has had an active role as a record executive, producer, manager, recording artist, marketing executive, artists & repertoire executive, advocate, motion picture music studio executive, soundtrack music executive, and as the Director of the Producers & Engineers Wing.

She co-founded and continues to produce the...

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Interview With David Lowery of Cracker

(0) Comments | Posted June 26, 2012 | 7:26 PM

I interviewed David Lowery of Cracker and Camper van Beethovan about his viral blog post on The Trichordist discussing artist rights. Lowery's post was itself a response to an earlier post by an NPR intern, Emily White, and was widely viewed as a game...

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Jay Frank of DigSin: Reinventing the Record Label, Part 2

(0) Comments | Posted June 21, 2012 | 2:49 PM

I interviewed Jay Frank, owner and CEO of DigSin, a new singles-focused music company that allows subscribing fans to obtain music for free. DigSin signs new artists to deals that leverage new platforms, social networks and analytics that expose music to a wider audience, building popularity outside of traditional methods....

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Jay Frank of DigSin Reinventing the Record Label, Part I

(1) Comments | Posted June 13, 2012 | 1:03 PM

I interviewed Jay Frank, owner and CEO of DigSin, a new singles-focused music company that allows subscribing fans to obtain music for free. DigSin signs new artists to deals that leverage new platforms, social networks and analytics that expose music to a wider audience, building popularity outside of traditional methods.

...
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How Artists Get Paid for Internet Radio: An interview with Mike Huppe, President of SoundExchange (Part 2 of 2)

(0) Comments | Posted April 30, 2012 | 2:57 PM

I had a chance to talk to Mike Huppe, President of SoundExchange, about how artists get paid for the public performance of their recordings. (See Part 1 for the backgrounder). If you are a featured artist or sound recording owner, you can register at www.soundexchange.com This...

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How Artists Get Paid for Internet Radio: An interview with Mike Huppe, President of SoundExchange (Part 1 of 2)

(2) Comments | Posted April 26, 2012 | 2:20 PM

I had a chance to talk to Mike Huppe, President of SoundExchange, about how artists get paid for the public performance of their recordings. This interview is available as a podcast at Arts+Labs Innovation Central.

Background: This is an important distinction that is frequently lost on the public...

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An Interview With John Pointer of Patronism.com

(0) Comments | Posted February 15, 2012 | 3:20 PM

I caught up with John Pointer, a great artist from Austin, Texas (see his "Holy Trinity of Rhythm") and talked to him about his new web venture Patronism.com We also recorded a podcast which is available on Innovation Central.

Tell me about

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Recording Tips for the 'The Loudness Wars': An Interview With Mastering Great Bob Ludwig Part 2

(2) Comments | Posted January 11, 2012 | 4:10 PM

This post is Part 2 of a two-part interview with mastering great Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering. Read Part 1 here

I'm sure you don't master with freeware, can you give an overview of the kind of technology you use?

Bob Ludwig: We have great state-of-the-art...

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Recording Tips for the 'The Loudness Wars': An Interview With Mastering Great Bob Ludwig

(5) Comments | Posted December 30, 2011 | 1:37 PM

Mastering is the last and probably the least understood step in the audio recording process.

Mastering engineer Bob Ludwig is one of the true living legends of the music business. In addition to being a Grammy winning engineer, he has received many TEC Awards for excellence and was...

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The Samba of Bad Moves: Eric Schmidt Changes His Testimony -- Again

(0) Comments | Posted December 21, 2011 | 2:31 PM

Chairman Herb Kohl and Senator Mike Lee of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights wrote an interesting letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the issues raised against Google by several of the subcommittee's senators. This passage is striking:

"As discussed at...
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Let's Play Fair on SOPA and Copyright

(33) Comments | Posted December 10, 2011 | 4:58 PM

Writing in the Huffington Post, Leslie Harris, the president and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology, accused Senator Chris Dodd of promoting Internet censorship through rogue website blocking. Harris wrote that Senator Dodd "...directly (and apparently favorably) compared the Internet filtering contemplated in two controversial U.S....

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On Rogue Websites Legislation: When You've Got Them by the Bucks, Their Hearts and Minds Will Follow

(5) Comments | Posted November 7, 2011 | 3:43 PM

It's often been said of struggling political candidates that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Historically, it's been a sound strategy, often enabling the "scoundrel" to steal a comeback victory by standing up for flag and country. In the digital age, the patriotism ploy has been updated with the...

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