Category: issues

Obviously, the arts are not the first issue that leaps to mind when one thinks of this year’s U.S. presidential race. But is it really necessary for both candidates to completely ignore such issues as arts education, federal support for artists and performers, and the future of the NEA? “I suppose you could try to dismiss arts issues as a tangential topic in a campaign where war, terrorism and the economy are the driving issues. But the arts touch our lives and those of our children daily. Can you honestly say the same about gay marriage?”

Americans For The Arts has announced that it will create a political action committee to directly lobby politicians for greater arts support. The new PAC is funded by a $120 million grant from the Lily Foundation, and “one of the group’s first moves will be to issue congressional report cards on individual legislators’ support of the arts and arts issues. Another of the group’s functions will be training advocates on how to promote bond, tax or other arts-funding issues in their communities.”

“The British music industry has been granted a court order forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to reveal the names of illegal music swappers.” The ruling comes only days after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a federal decision prohibiting the American recording industry from using the same practice.

“While the entertainment industry has had some recent setbacks in its fight against piracy in the courts and in Congress, it has a new ally in John Ashcroft, who recently pledged to make cracking down on copyright violators a top priority. On Tuesday, the attorney general released a report from the Department of Justice’s Intellectual Property Task Force that outlines plans to beef up enforcement of copyright violations.”

“Lincoln Center — home to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic, among others — released a study Wednesday showing its significant economic contribution to the New York city, state and metropolitan area. Prepared by the Economic Development Research Group in association with Mt. Auburn Associates, the study finds Lincoln Center’s total economic contribution in 2003 to the greater metropolitan region was $1.52 billion of business sales, which in turn supported 15,200 workers with $635 million in benefits and wages.”

“In what architects describe as a preservation emergency, [Ernest Hemingway’s Havana] house, known as Finca Vigía or Lookout Farm, is tumbling down. An effort to save the finca, an American cultural treasure and an important Cuban tourist attraction, seems threatened by a storm of politics.” An American foundation has offered millions to fund the restoration of the house, but the U.S. government has refused to allow the project to go forward, claiming that it would promote tourism in Cuba, thereby helping the economy of the Communist nation.

From the FCC crackdown to judges who feel free to lock up reporters who refuse to reveal their sources, first amendment activists have had a lot to complain about this year. Frank Rich claims that such recent events make the Bush Administration the biggest threat to free expression since Nixon, and worries that much of the nation seems perfectly willing to accept censorship and outright media intimidation, so long as the resulting “news” coverage conforms to their political point of view.

“Since the dawn of the film industry, it has been common practice for writers to send scripts and pitch stories to movie executives and producers. And for almost as long, scores of writers have sued the studios for stealing their ideas, only to have suits, filed on hard-to-prove copyright infringement grounds, which are dismissed or quietly settled. But a recently published opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation, may soon shift the balance of power in this age-old tug of war.”

The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of the federal court ruling that barred the music industry from compelling internet providers to turn over the names and addresses of their subscribers. The decision could throw a major monkey wrench into the industry’s tactic of suing illegal file-traders anonymously, then forcing providers to match the computer footprints with user information. A high court decision on whether it will rehear a separate case concerning the liability of manufacturers in piracy cases has not yet been announced.

In Wisconsin, civic and arts leaders are holding a Congress at the spectacular new Overture Center in Madison to try to sell legislators and the public on the idea that the arts are a good investment. The main thrust of the argument is that the arts attract tourists, who spend dollars in the state. (Of course, the Overture Center itself was built entirely with private money…)