Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University Law Professor and author of the Creative Commons License, has an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times opposing the Orphan Works bills currently before Congress. The piece, called "Little Orphan Artworks", is well worth reading. He discusses why the Orphan Works bills currently before Congress should be stopped and what alternatives might satisfy the needs they are trying to address.

Let your congressional senators and representatives know that you oppose the Orphan Works bill. Use this link to send them a letter. The web page automatically determines your members of congress and e-mails them based on the info that you provide. For an excellent, comprehensive explanation of how this bill affects you as a creator of visual art (photographer) ...

Every year the Music Press Report publishes an annual Music Press Directory containing a listing of music writers and photographers, their contact information, location, and specialties. It is time to submit your information for the 2008 directory, or update it if you have been listed in previous editions.

Are you reading the news feeds we provide? We have selected a number of feeds to provide MPN members with current news on the music industry, photo industry, and technical and business blogs. Make sure you click the News Feeds link in the left menu bar and check out our feeds. They are updated every hour. You can view them by category or by source. You can also double-click the News Feeds menu item to read the news feed items without leaving our site.

There has been a growing trend over the course of many years now where photographers have been asked to sign contracts that contain predatory terms and conditions. Predatory terms and conditions in this article are any contract language that transfer your intellectual property to another party without fair compensation. In this article, several real-world examples are shown to educate you on what predatory language looks like.

UPDATE: Added more attachments.

Yes, that is correct - $1.3 billion or more. In October of 2007, Madonna inked a deal with Live Nation estimated to be worth $120 million. Jay-Z is reported to be in current negotiations for a similar long-term contract with Live Nation estimated to be worth $150 million. The U2 deal announced in March is expected to be worth more than $1 billion based on the band's 2005-2007 Vertigo tour which grossed over $400 million. The details of these deals are extraordinary.

News Corporation, owner of MySpace.com and the MySpace Music Service, is partnering with three of the four major record labels to create a new music website. The MySpace Music Service will be spun off into an independent venture with Sony BMG, Universal Music, and Warner Music Group. EMI is expected to join the partnership in the coming weeks. The exact terms of the deal and details about the new site, including prices for downloaded music tracks, have not been disclosed. MySpace said that the site will offer songs for download that are free of digital rights management. The site reportedly will also offer free online streaming of music, tickets, t-shirts, and other items.

Adobe has released a public beta of Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom® 2.0. The beta program will run through August of 2008. According to their website, the following enhancements are included in the beta release:

In January, long time Florida concert promoter Jon Stoll died from complications of brain cancer. He and wife Lori were owners of Fantasma Productions. Last week, Fantasma Productions entered into an agreement with Live Nation. Read the details of the agreement after the jump.

Over on the Strobist blog, David Hobby discusses his first impressions of the RadioPopper. Like Nikon's SU-800 with Nikon SB800 & SB600 flashes or Canon's ST-E2 and Canon 580EX II & 430EX flashes, the RadioPopper offers full TTL control. Like PocketWizard systems, the RadioPopper uses radio signals for all of its communication between the transmitter and the receivers. What you get is a beautiful marriage of TTL over radio signals. Why is this important?

On February 10th, MusicPhotographers.net made their official launch. We have been open for a month now and our membership is already at nearly 240 members. We have quite a few notable photographers among our members including Jon Seivert (author of Concert Photography), David Bergman (check out his Bare Naked Ladies!), Sherry Rayn Barnett (great images of several icons in music including Joni Mitchell), and several others.

I found these rules on a music artist's fan page on a social networking site. I would like pointers to other similarly offensive photo contest rules. Post a link to the rules and name what section in the rules contains the offensive language. This will be helpful for every member of this community.

NikonUSA relaunched their website on Tuesday with a completely new design. Along with the new website, they have launched a blog where website visitors can provide constructive feedback and recommendations for how to improve the website. Read more about this after the jump.

As recently as a three weeks ago, on the Q4 earnings investor call, Getty Images (Public, NYSE:GYI) CEO Jonathan Klein said "I would stress that at no point has Getty Images talked about a sale. We have talked about strategic alternatives." You can read a live blog of that call with investors written by Daryl Lang over on Photo District News.

Rob Haggart, aka A Photo Editor, posts a nice interview with Jodi Peckman, Director of Photography for Rolling Stone magazine. The last few questions are of particular interest to me as a music photographer. Go check it out!

10 Questions for Jodi Peckman - Director of Photography, Rolling Stone Magazine