International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

Sam Howard-Spink
E-mail: shs263 (AT) nyu (DOT) edu

A Londoner by birth and New Yorker by choice, Sam Howard-Spink is a freelance journalist and North America Editor for the recording industry newsletter Music & Copyright. He is also a Doctoral Candidate and instructor in the Department of Culture and Communication at New York University. Sam has been a journalist for 13 years in the U.K., Asia and the U.S., with much of that time spent covering the international music industry and emergent technologies, as well as policy debates raised by their interaction. He has written for Music Week, Music Business International, The Guerrilla Guide to the Music Industry, The South China Morning Post, IBM Think Research and openDemocracy. He recently co-authored an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Grokster case, and worked closely with the Brennan Law Center's Free Expression Policy Project on a recent report on the state of Fair Use in America. His academic papers have been published in the U.S., Hungary and Brazil. Sam's research interests include Intellectual Property and copyright systems, cultural and 'information society' development programmes in developing countries, the political economy of the worldwide music industry, the 'copyfight' and 'participatory culture' social movements, and global digital communications regimes. Sam is also an hiphop/scratch DJ, international Ultimate frisbee player, helpless U.S. news junkie, and unashamed Star Wars geek.