Better Options, Not Legal Threats, Curb Music Piracy

A recent report is showing that the prevalence of P2P music file-sharing is on the decline but it turns out to have little to do with groups like the RIAA suing music fans:

The plethora of legal music options online has prompted Internet users in the UK to cut down on their P2P ways. According to an annual report from media and technology research firm The Leading Question, monthly file sharing has dropped among all users since the last national survey in 2007. The drop is particularly significant among teens, where file-sharing has declined by a third.     LINK

So where are teens going for their music?  To legal streaming sites like Last.FM, Pandora and Slacker.  See, as soon as there is a useful, accessible and easy option to P2P services, users are more than happy to make the switch.

Instead of spending all their time and energy suing music fans, the music industry needs to focus their resources on creating true competition to piracy. That is the only road to sustainability for the industry.  While this shift will mean a huge shake up in the current power-structure it beats losing everything to those dastardly pirates.

Meet CinemaCube – An MPAA Nightmare

The device pictured to right is BrightView’s CinemaCube and, if they are aware of it’s existence, it is giving those in the MPAA nightmares.

The device plugs directly into a user’s TV and uses any USB storage device (from thumb drives to external hard drives) to store data. On the surface, that means you could watch your home movies or view photos.

The CinemaCube is also comes with a built-in BitTorrent client, meaning users can access the online file sharing service. It’s also networkable, letting users can grab files (ranging from music to video to photos) from a remote PC to view on their television.

The device, which supports HD content up to 720p and comes with an HDMI port, is on sale now for $89.99.   LINK

I don’t have much to add except that it’s one more reason the MPAA and the major movie studios should be spending more time a new distribution model than on suing sites like The Pirates Bay

UK Music Label CEO Still Doesn’t Get It

In yet another attempt by a major music label to justify it’s continued existence, the CEO of the UK label BPI has written a rather pathetic, rehashing of the same old arguments against file-sharing masked as a look back on the ten years since Napster changed everything, forever:

Many critics have argued that the music industry could have avoided some of the problems it faces today if we had embraced Napster rather than fighting it. That’s probably true, and I, for one, regret that we weren’t faster in figuring out how to create a sustainable model for music on the internet.

Ok, I’m listening.  Tell me what how your new vision and understanding will translate into a new busines model that takes advantage of, instead of fights futilely against what the internet does best:

But this innovation, and the vital investment by labels in new music, is constantly undermined by the various P2P successors to Napster. These companies take and exploit what musicians and artists create, without being honest enough to reward them. And the publishers of books, journalism, films, TV programmes and other media are now lining up with us in the fight against illegal downloading.  Like us, they see how it will destroy their ability to create new content. So we are united in calling for ISPs to play a more positive role in steering consumers towards digital services that reward creators.

Oh, wait, you don’t want to change anything AND you aren’t even remotely listening to the issues and complaints by some of music’s biggest acts including Radiohead and NIN.

Well, maybe you’ve at least moved beyond thinking that the future of the music business will be driven by album sales:

It is true that some people use P2P for music discovery and spend more on music as a result, but in the aggregate they are heavily outweighed by the number of people whose downloading substitutes for purchases. If the reverse were true, our business would be booming and not contracting right now.

Christ, you still think you’re business is collapsing because of pirates?! How about your insane treatment of fans as criminals?  How about your insistence on raising the cost of an album even while the cost of making and distributing that album has plummeted?  How about all the artists that have been screwed by devious contracts and cheating accountants?

Once again, the music industry demonstrates why they will not be long in this new world.

Girl Talk Deconstructed Makes Strong Case as Original Work

Wired has created a really cool graphic that deconstructs all of the tracks sampled in a single song created by “mash-up” artist extrordinaire Girl Talk.

If the old-world gang of the RIAA et. al. would like you to believe that this combination of samples is, in fact, a copyright infringement of every single artist sampled and that Girl Talk should be stopped, sued and probably drawn and quartered.

If one can’t see how this re-use of existing materials hasn’t resulted in a wholly new piece of art then all art will have to be classified as theft.  I mean, if I use the 2×4 I got at Home Depot to build a stool, should I pay a royalty to Home Depot in addition to the original cost of the wood I rightfully purchased?

Universal Teams with Virgin UK to (almost) Give Away Music

Lots of reports out there about the Universal Music deal with Virgin UK’s ISP:

The service — a world first — will enable any Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from Universal Music’s entire catalog, in return for a great-value monthly subscription fee. Downloaded music will be theirs to keep permanently and to store on any MP3 compatible device.  LINK

I haven’t seen firm pricing but I have heard something in the range of $15-$40/month.  Now, this is by far the cheapest offer so far from a major label especially when you consider that a really dedicated subscriber could easily download a few thousand songs in a month without breaking a sweat.  Remember, this isn’t just unlimited streaming, it is unlimited download-to-own forever MP3’s.

There are still a few big problems, however,  While Universal is a huge label it is not clear that just getting access to their catalog is enough to put a dent in P2P file-sharing.  Even if all the labels join, it is still a deal only going out to users of Virgin’s ISP service.

Still, this is one big step closer to an ever more likely result – a blanket subscription fee that we all pay via our ISP in exchange for the free and legal right to download all the music we like.  For this sort of deal to truly compete with the current option (i.e. free piracy) it will have to be much cheaper than I imagine the labels will be able to swallow and it will have to make all the music easily and quickly accesible.

This might solve the problem of everyone downloading music for free but it will never come close to replacing the revenue lost from traditional album sales. So, at best, these sorts of deals are just bandaids over bullet wounds.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Virgin puts ‘legal P2P’ plans on ice (theregister.co.uk)
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Apple Buys BitTorrent’s Bad Press

Engadget is reporting on Apple latest wacko move blocking a new iPhone app:

This time the company’s rejected Maza’s Drivetrain, an app that allows users to remotely control the Transmission Bittorrent app, because “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights.” Right, “this category of applications,” apparently meaning any app that has anything to do with Bittorrent at all.

For those still in the dark, BitTorrent is a file-transfer protocol that allows users to easily share digital content.  The challenge for those involved in trying to develop and expand upon this extremely useful and effective protocol is that it has been, it seems, inextricably linked to web piracy since torrent sharing sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova host links to both legal and copyprotected content.

Apple’s move to block this application is just one in a long line of potentially damaging decisions by Apple as it tries to police how people use their iPhones.  What’s so absurd is that there isn’t another computing platform I can think of that so strictly tries to control the actions of its users.

Imagine if you get a PC and then discovered you could only buy software from a single maker and they only made software they thought was “acceptible” to them – so you, an adult who has completely purchased the computer can no longer buy violent videogames or eBooks with explicit sex. That would be insane but so far iPhone users are accepting that deal.

How long will Apple be able to keep jail-breakers at bay as more unapproved apps make it to the pirate sites?\

LINK

The Pirate Bay Loses Battle, Not War

In a small setback for all those who believe in progress and innovation , the Swedish courts have found the four key principles involved in running P2P BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay, guilts of copyright violations.  The sentence is one year in jail and $3.6M in fines.  All that, officially for:

…having made 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via the Piratebay.org Web site.

Of course, this case is not about 33 files but about the entertainment industry’s claim that The Pirate Bay was simply a hotbed of illegal file traffic.  The big question was whether or not simply providing links to the protected content was enough to be found guilty of violating copyright law.  It looks to me like the prosecution was unable to make that case and basically got the founders of The Pirate Bay on what amounts to a techicality.

One shudders to think how many people would have to be rounded up and imprisoned for a year if all it took was making 33 protected files available via a common P2P protocol.  And what about the lesser “crime” of downloading a protected file?

An estimated one in 10 people in the Nordic country engaged in file sharing last year.

Are we really ready to lock up 10% of the population because groups like RIAA and MPAA have tragically outdated business models and have thrust their heads into the sand as a response?

While this is a “win” for big media it certainly isn’t going to turn the tide back in their favor.  Not only is it impossible to put Pandora back in her box but the very same links provided by The Pirate Bay are available on Google.

Plus, it sounds like this verdict is only further empowering those who are hungry for change:

The Pirate Party political group–which has been supporting Pirate Bay and thus has gained popularity among the large number of file sharers in Sweden–also sees the verdict as an opportunity. The verdict is the “ticket to get elected to European parliament” in June, the Pirate Party said in a press release.

And don’t worry about the guilty party, they are appealing and it will be years before this thing is settled.

LINK

BBC Makes (small) Bold Step in P2P Open Distribution

The BBC is doing something pretty exciting, on a very small scale.

They have decided to release a new show called “R&D TV” wide across the internet AND they’re releasing it under a Creative Commons license!

As the accompanying Read Me file (complete with the old-school ASCII BBC logo) says, “you can watch, rip, redistribute and remix all the contents of this package.” As long as you don’t try making money from the videos, you’re set.

That would be exciting all on its own but BBC is taking things even futher:

To make it easier for people to play around with the contents, they’re also packaged in what’s termed an asset bundle, which includes separate files for each of the segments, as well as some metadata.

The idea is that providing more ways for people to view and interact with a show might actually be a way to create more fans.  Crazy, right?  Of course not.  In fact, it is the first completely legit attempt I have seen from a major broadcaster to fully leverage the power of P2P file-sharing and the remix culture of the modern age.

If the show turns out to be a success, look for more offerings from the Beeb under CC licenses and more fun for everyone out their in viewer-land.

LINK

Time to Stop Calling Everyone a Pirate

Unless you happen to be discussing Johnny Depp or Blackbeard, I think it is time for the overuse of the word pirate to describe both people who engage in the sharing of copyrighted content and people who use violent force to hijack ships at sea.

As a description of file-sharers, the term “pirate” just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Not only does it imply a higher level of criminality than tends to be the case, but there aren’t a whole lot of similarities between downloading Wolverine via BitTorrent and boarding a ship with the help of guns.

Now, the people hijacking ships off the coast of Somalia are technically pirates but I think the constant use of the term in the media makes them seem a whole lot more cool and intriguing than actually are – in fact, they’re just gangsters in speedboats.  Ok, that sounds kind of cool, too… Still, pirates is worse.

Labels are a powerful tool and in the case of “pirates” I fear the label is doing little to either resolve the complex issues surrounding copyright law or make the high seas safer.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Somali Pirates a Far Cry From Buccaneers of Old (abcnews.go.com)
• Surfers Scared Offline Thanks To Anti-piracy Policy In Sweden (ubergizmo.com)

Facebook v. The Pirate Bay Demonstrates Futility of the Fight

Recently, the much-discussed torrent-discovery site The Pirate Bay, added a “post to Facebook” button that allowed users of the social media site to quickly share links to torrents with their friends.

It didn’t take long for Facebook to act to block this ability since many corporate entities (i.e. MPAA, RIAA, et. al.) do not look kindly on the fact that The Pirate Bay facilitates the distribution of links to contents that might be copyrighted.  Of course, Facebook isn’t just blocking links that might infringe on copyright but any and all links to The Pirate Bay including those linking to completely legal torrents.

While it is disappointing that Facebook has taken such a drastic action against a single specific site it is some consolation that the efforts are likely in vain.

The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak that this is plain censorship and said he will try to come up with a workaround so people can continue to share. “I’ll fix it later today so it will have a link to a redirect site or something,” he said.

Much like the Hulu / Boxee battle that has Boxee easily working around Hulu’s unreasonable blockage time after time.

Considering I can easily link to potentially illegal torrents with, say Google, it seems a bit silly for Facebook to block The Pirate Bay.

LINK

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• Torrent Sharing Comes to Facebook: Will the RIAA Step In? (mashable.com)
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• The Pirate Bay adds file sharing to Facebook (venturebeat.com)