LONDON/VIENNA (Reuters) - Facing an imminent toughening of sanctions, Iran is hinting at a readiness to give some ground in its long nuclear stand-off with world powers, but any flexibility could split their ranks and lead to protracted uncertainty about how to respond.



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You may remember that some officials in Chile recently began wondering what benefit they would get from agreeing to be a part of TPP. It seems that view is going even further. There was just another negotiating round and it appears (as we've expected, but don't know for sure because the US negotiators, led by Ron Kirk refuse to be even remotely transparent) that the US's strong position on IP is scaring off Chile. A high level government official is now saying that the country is considering...

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - The FBI has opened an inquiry into the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, stepping up pressure on the bank after key U.S. agencies said they were looking into high-risk trades that first drew regulators' attention last month.



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Words matter -- just think of the number of times flame wars have broken out in Techdirt's comments over whether you can "steal" music or films. But one phrase that nobody really questions is "orphan work". And yet, as Lydia Pallas Loren
points out in a brilliant paper, this is a loaded term with a very particular agenda:

In the metaphor of the romantic author, the works he creates are his children, born of his labor and genius. He is given rights to control, and thus protect, his children....

In the US we have three main music collection societies for performance rights (ASCAP, BMI and SESAC), and then SoundExchange for satellite/online streaming. However, many other countries just have a single collection society, with somewhat monopolistic tendencies. There have been efforts (mostly failed) to create more competition in Europe, mainly by encouraging the organizations to leave their local country and work across Europe. There have been precious few new entrants, however. At...

A British judge says a Kazakh banker can remain in hiding while appealing his prison sentence.

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CANNES, France (AP) - The sunbaked Cannes Film Festival got under way with Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom," whose carefully composed whimsy stood in stark contrast to the zoo-like atmosphere at the...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A splintered Syrian opposition voted on Tuesday to keep a secular academic exile seen as a consensus builder as its top figure to further a quest for recognition from wary big...

Music reality TV has become a key feeding ground for the major labels lately. Shows like American Idol, the Voice, X Factor and the like seem to be where the labels have been picking up some of...

Ah, baseball. The national pasttime (for every month the NFL isn't playing) is rife with the most wonderful of traditions: Fenway's Green Monster, cheating, Wrigley's ivy, cheating, the divisional...