An article by UNM School of Law May 2006 graduate Carlos Ruiz de la Torre has been published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. Towards the Digital Music Distribution Age: Business Model Adjustments and Legislative Proposals to Improve Legal Downloading Services and Counter Piracy, 8 Vand. J. Ent. L. & Prac. 503 (2006), was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 Legal Writing Contest of the Grammy Foundation’s Entertainment Law Initiative, a competition open to law students nationwide.
Photo: Carlos de la Torre
His paper considers licensing issues related to the digital distribution of music over the internet and proposes legislative solutions to streamline and make more economical the licensing process for digital music retailers so that more music is available for legal downloading.
Among his suggestions is a proposal to merge the functions of the performing rights organizations with the Harry Fox Agency, a safe-harbor fund to protect music retailers who are unable to locate copyright owners; and percentage-based mechanical royalty to replace the penny-rate royalty.
The paper also considers the reverse-engineering of downloading and playback devices to achieve the interoperability that consumers desire (e.g., so that songs downloaded on sites other than iTunes could be played on the iPod).
In 2005, Carlos was one of four runner-up finalists in the Grammy writing contest for his paper, Digital Music Sampling & Copyright Law: Can the Interests of Copyright Owners and Sampling Artists be Reconciled?, 7 Vand. J. Ent. L. & Prac. 401 (2005).
Law professors Marsha Baum and Sherri Burr offered guidance and insight in preparing Ruiz de la Torre’s 2006 and 2005 articles for submission, respectively.
In addition to recently graduating from UNM, Ruiz de la Torre earned degrees in piano performance and jazz studies from Indiana University.
Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, (505) 277-5915; e-mail: lmellas@unm.edu