Hulu Boosts Pirates By Blocking VPN Access

Saw that Hulu has implemented a block on overseas users who were accessing the site via an anonymous proxy server called HotSpot Shield.  The point of the VPN is to block the user’s IP address so that Hulu doesn’t know they are trying to access the content from outside of the US.

Currently, due to a slew of misguided and ill-conceived rules and regulations, Hulu will not provide its content outside of the US and is clearly willing to go to some lengths to keep out those dirty foreigners.

Of course, these are just regular people who really really want to see the content Hulu provides.  They aren’t trying to bypass the advertising or trying to download the content so that they can make it into DVDs to sell on the street.  They’re just fans.

By blocking their access, Hulu (and the studios providing most of their content) simple force those outside the US to use “pirate” services – either P2P bittorrent sites or streaming sites – that are easily accessible. Sites like Megavideo, Supernovatube and Ninjavideo.

Basically, by continuing to believe that they can somehow artificially limit and control where their content is consumed, Hulu (et. al.) are giving a big boost to “pirates” while simultaneously losing viewers who could help drive up the price of ads.

And of course, those who still want to watch the programming on Hulu but can’t access it will probably just go somewhere else — torrent indexes and streaming sites like Megavideo, Supernovatube and, my personal favorite, Ninjavideo.

Oh Noes, They’re ALL Pirates!

According to the GuardianUK:

“More than half of young people copy the songs on their hard drives to friends and even more swap CD copies, according to research that reveals the huge challenge home copying poses to a music industry already battling internet file-sharing.”

AND

“Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying, including taking the music contents of a friend’s hard drive – 58% – and the more old-fashioned method of recording from the radio.”

Of course, this is causing the established record industry to call for tougher laws, more policing, bigger fines all in hopes of getting things back to the way they were…which is absolutely bat-shit crazy.  That’s like stirring your cream back out of your coffee.  It just isn’t going to happen.

Recording execs must feel a bit like the Stone-Age workers in this excellent skit from That Mitchell and Webb Look:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpeqPdVyQd0&hl=en]

Aussie Police ARE the Pirates

Oh, irony, you sweet mistress, you.  TorrentFreak (via The Australian) is reporting that hundreds of pirated movie files were found on the computers of an Australian Police IT unit!

“If the officers do go unpunished, it could create a favorable precedent for filesharers in South Australia. If police officers, who are expected to be held to a greater level of accountability regarding the law, show this level of contempt for the current copyright laws, are unpunished, it will make it harder to convince a court that regular citizen should be punished for similar acts.”

This really could be one of the steps that forces legal systems around the world to rewrite their laws around copywrite.  Imagine how many people would have to be prosecuted if anyone who ever downloaded or copied a “protected” file was actually found out.

My Interview with Ben and Steve from GrooveShark

Today I had the pleasure of skyping with Ben and Steve, two of the guys behind GrooveShark, a new (still in beta) site that has some interesting ideas about p2p music sharing, sales and discovery.

In this interview we get a nice overview of the GrooveShark business, a look inside their corporate culture and then chat about pirates and labels and the future of music as we know it… kinda.

Interview with Ben and Steve from GrooveShark

Virgin Media Does a Two-Step

There is a totally interesting (and slightly puzzling) post over on TorrentFreak regarding the recent change of policy by UK’s Virgin Media:

“Virgin Media in the UK has announced that it is working with the music industry to chase down its file-sharing customers and disconnect them from the internet. At the same time, it will offer an enhanced service which will see its customers get free Usenet binaries access, untraceable by the music industry.”

Did you get that second part?  You see, all the illegal downloading and file-sharing they are claiming to try to stop can easily be circumvented by taking advantage of the Usenet access.  Either the UK government and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) literally have no idea how the internet works or they’re happy to appear to be doing something while allowing piracy to continue unabated – except for the few noobs who miss the Usenet bus.

GrooveShark Has a Groovy Model

My very first read every single day, the Gainsville Sun, has a look at GrooveShark, a young company trying to find a legal, for-profit model for p2p music.

“The Grooveshark system works on the basis of a peer-to-peer music sharing system, Greenberg said. Users can upload their personal music library to the Web site.

To legalize the process, the user must buy a song if they want to add it to their collection, he said. Part of the profit is then deposited into the account of the person who uploaded the song to Grooveshark.

In this way, the sharing of an illegal music system is paired with the legalized purchase with the added benefit of compensation, Greenberg said.”

Not sure I totally get it but I’m going to check out the site and see if it all becomes clear.  Either way, it is so cool to see new thinking in this arena.  It is guys like this that will revolutionize the music industry.  Not Universal or EMI.

UPDATE: Christopher Suter, a developer at GrooveShark wrote in to say:

“To clarify, absolutely no purchasing of songs is necessary in order to join Grooveshark, share music, or use our free full-length streaming service. The option to download anything anytime does carry a price of $.99, of which the standard statutory cut goes to rights-holders.

Grooveshark is going to be in a state of constant, rapid improvement over the next few months, so stick around! “

Japan to Stop the Pirates….Yeah, Right.

There is a story over on TorrentFreak about the attempt to stop P2P exchange of copyrighted materials.

“Following a huge increase in complaints from the music, movie and software industries, the four major Japanese ISP organizations have agreed that they will work with copyright holders to track down copyright infringing file-sharers and disconnect them from the internet.”

While I think there are lots of issues to be worked out around copyright and P2P, it just doesn’t seem like this sort of approach is going to have the sort of results they seem to be hoping for.  We could eventually look back on what is now brewing as the digitial equivalent of the war on drugs.  And we all know how well that’s been working out.