TorrentFreak is a great resource for those interested in the world of copyright, P2P, “piracy” and the future of digital content.
Recently, in response to claim in the Swedish court case against popular torrent tracker The Pirate Bay that piracy was the primary cause for the decline in music sales for the major labels, TF’s Jens Roland has written a brilliant 8-point rebuttal that ends with these thoughts:
The fact is that the music industry’s revenues have been artificially inflated for decades because of limited consumer options. The last 15 years of innovation have lifted those limitations, effectively leaving the music industry with an obsolete, defective business model of monopolized production technology, forced album bundling, and almost nonexistent competition in the realm of home entertainment. What is happening now – the decline of music profits and the piracy witch hunt by the music industry – is merely the panicked struggle of a dying business model, a complacent industry’s refusal to accept its diminishing role in a digital world. The pirates are not the reason, and the decline is the not the disease. It is the cure.
I highly recommend reading his entire post. While it is important for artists to have ways to be compensated for their efforts, there is no reason it should be done the same way in the face of massive innovations and there is also no reason that the artists’ work needs to support a vast network of middlemen who provide less and less service to the artists or the fans.
For those who don’t know, one of the largest BitTorrent tracker sites on the internet, The Pirate Bay, is on trial right now in Sweden facing a slew of charges that basically claim that the creators of the site are guilty of facilitating massive copyright violations.
A number of issues are being raised, including the always sticky question of whether or not it is a crime to simply provide a link to potentially copyrighted material. This is basically all that Piratebay does and they are far from alone. In fact, Google is a great resource for locating links to copyrighted material.
Go ahead and search, say, “stream dark knight free” in Google. I just did it myself and within three clicks (one) I was (two) watching The Dark Knight (link). Not only that, but the video I watched began with a pre-roll ad from Nestle Crisp! Which of these sites should the studios go after next? Or should they be going after me? I mean, I am the one now watching The Dark Knight for free from the comfort of my desk.
My point is that trying to sue The Piratebay is simply a supreme waste of public resources. Even if the Piratebay loses the case, it will do nothing to curb the current situation online in regards to the easy availability of copyrighted content.
Instead of focusing on a single entity, it is time for the big industries to accept the writing on the wall and devise some new business models before they are wiped out complete, not by pirates but by progress.
There was a piece in the New York Times about the somewhat surprising success of iPhone Apps, especially the success of the apps that aren’t free:
What’s most interesting is how iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not.
I’ve criticized Apple from time to time for not having a coherent approach to delivering free content with advertising. But in some ways, the development of a market for paid content is a bigger and less expected achievement.
Why has this happened? Apple has created an environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. Paying for software, especially games, is not new to Apple customers. So when you see the iPhone manual or the Frommer’s Paris guidebook, it feels natural to click. (And of course, your credit card is already on file with Apple.)
What I think is most important in this story is that is proves that most people are more than willing to pay a reasonable price for a decent piece of content if a) it is extremely easy and streamlined to make the purchase and b) the content is priced in a way that seems to fit the value.
It certainly wouldn’t be hard for their the be a vast P2P network for iPhone apps much like there is for music right now – and there is when it comes to “jail-broken” iPhones – but it seems that the vast majority of users are more than happy to pay for the apps they want since Apple has made it simple and affordable.
Hey record labels and studios, you guys paying attention?
The new shirt-based social networking site asks users to create profiles and upload their one of a kind clothing content. Creations are then voted on by the online design community (or the friends they get to join it) over the course of a three week cycle. Once that cycle stops spinning, the winning design is added to the Dirty Launderette shop and the designer gets a free copy.
While this is not an especially new idea (Threadless has a pretty similar scheme) I think the true genius of Dirty Laundrette is that they are under no obligation to devise or market clever t-shirts themselves. All they have to do is print the winners shirts on-demand for existing buyers and all it has cost them is one free t-shirt to the designer and some nominal web hosting and design costs.
I just finished watching The Daily Show from last night on Hulu and happened to be in the middle of folding some clothes when the show ended. After a brief ad, the screen went dead and offered up some static thumbnails of suggested viewing.
It dawned on me that Hulu was missing a great opportunity to either introduce me to new content or keep me viewing related content while increasing my potential time on the site – a big benefit when trying to sell advertisers.
So, Hulu, here is my free advice:
Once a program ends, if the viewer doesn’t intervene, just start streaming something else, just like you would do on TV. Sure, I might not end up watching whatever it is…but I might. Plus, you’ve lost nothing for trying.
Oh yeah, also, get your deal worked out with Boxee. Installing these hacks is a pain in the butt and you’e not going to come out ahead by resisting.
Looking for signs that the entire notion of copyright has simply gone too far? You’ve come to the right place:
If you’re one of the millions of people practicing yoga for mental and physical health, you may soon run into legal trouble: a lot of the traditional poses are being patented and trademarked by Western yoga teachers.
So, India is fighting back: it has set up a team of yoga gurus and scientists to identify and patent all ancient yoga positions or asanas to stop “patent pirates.” (via)
Think about this for a moment. People are fighting over the right to “own” the positions in which you might choose to hold your body. It is difficult to imagine how anyone might actually enforce this kind of copyright and the idea that Indian officials would want to suddenly put legal limits on the spread of their own ancient form of physical expression is equally baffling.
As to how/why Western Yoga teachers are able to claim some sort of copyright, you’ve got me. I’d love to hear the legal arguments that have allowed this to happen.
What’s next? Baseball players patenting their swings? New York City Ballet patenting a pirouette? Celine Dion owning the rights to a high-C?
There are plans brewing for cable companies like the atrocious Time Warner Cable to begin offering “exclusive” online streaming access for subscribers to programming currently not being offered via sites like Hulu.
Top cable-television providers and TV networks are exploring a sweeping solution to the threat of online video: putting large numbers of cable shows online, but accessible only to cable subscribers. (via)
Let’s take a quick look at why this is destined to fail.
1) They consider online video a “threat” that they can somehow defeat when it seems pretty clear that online video is here to stay.
2) Cable companies think they are going to be able to make content accessible only to cable subscribers. Our short internet history has shown pretty clearly that these “gated communities” are easily and quickly circumvented by those unwilling or unable to gain access “legally.”
3) By attempting to lock up content behind over-priced and inflexible walls pirates will simply be more motivated to offer consumers a superiour alternative.
4) Right now I can find and view just about any TV program online without subscribing or paying via any number of legal, quasi-legal and illegal streaming sites not to mention the myriad p2p solutions. Cable is not likely to be competitive with this offer.
5) Attempting to build a business model on the concept of “scarcity” when your product is a digital video file that easily copied and distributed and then trying to charge for this artificial scarcity is just plain absurd.
I am a heavy NPR listener and was really excited when they created the DIY podcast builder that pulls specific NPR stories from all their shows based on your keywords and makes them into a handy daily podcast. Awesome.
Now, I understand that they need to pay for this service and the news NPR provides so I can accept a certain amount of advertising but the current system is driving me nuts and might actually force me to stop using the service altogether.
Right now, before each story in my lineup, regardless of length of story, is preceeded by a 15-second ad for one of NPR’s sponsors. So, even if all I have listened to is a 90-second quickie I still have to endure a 15-second ad. Not only that, but it is the same ad EVERY time.
To put this in some perspective, I usually have about 20 stories in my daily NPR podcast with a total duration of about 90 minutes. This means I am being bombarded with the same 15-second spot 20 times in an hour-and-a-half.
This is more advertising than I am exposed to on Hulu by far!
I am also surprised that NPR hasn’t figured out a way to serve ads more related to the keywords I use. Even though most of the stories I listened to yesterday were about film and TV I was deafened by T Rowe Price 20 times.
There is a kind of cute, sorta cheeky little webseries over on The History Channel’s website called Great and Telling Tales with Timothy Dickinson.
Aside from the fact that there does not seem to be any way to embed the videos (always baffling) I am totally confused by the presence of Olay as the sponsor.
Not only does being a sponsor for History.com seem to be counter-intuitive to a brand that is all about maintaining ones youthfulness, but last I checked, the History Channel skewed more male than Spike TV.
I love the ongoing “pissing into the wind” approach of big media in their battle against the ease and speed with which any and all content will be spread:
Looking for highlights of last night’s Oscars on YouTube? Good luck.
That’s because ABC, which broadcast last night’s show, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the event, don’t want clips of last night’s show on the world’s biggest video site. Instead, they’d prefer that you watch highlights on ABC’s Oscar.com site. (via)
Aside from the fact that I was able to find a number of live streaming links of the Academy Awards last night (on of them was even on the popular Justin.tv) there are literally hundreds of clips of last night’s show on YouTube and elsewhere.
Oh, and you can also download the entire thing from any number of P2P sites.
The point is that ABC has wasted time and energy trying to protect their property instead of working with the powerful distribution forces that were going to win either way.
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February 27, 2009 6:52 pm | 
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