“It’s a new day.” That’s one of Edmund’s lines (as portrayed by Mickey Rourke) in Bob Dylan’s film Masked and Anonymous. Edmund says this in a portentous manner as he’s getting ready to take over leadership of the fractured America portrayed in that film. Well, it sure is a new day, now that the Web Sheriff has apparently been hired by Bob Dylan and/or his representatives to defend his copyrighted material in various online contexts. YouTube is a different place with the Dylan content disappearing even as we speak. The Web Sheriff has performed this function for other artists, e.g. Van Morrison, to some dramatic effect. You can’t eliminate all forms of file and content sharing on the internet, but you can certainly severely limit it. I had thought that what you might call “Dylan, Inc.” had judged that all of the online activity with regard to Bob’s work had only served to increase his profile and popularity (witness Modern Times and Together Through Life being such smash hits). Oh, well. Things have changed.

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UPDATE 11/1/2009: On the other hand, maybe not! See the latest on this — A howdy from the Web Sheriff.

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