Hot or not: Online Music Sabotage

[KillerMuffin]

Link: http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=1504683

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By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Frustrated by the continuing presence of free music on the Internet, the recording industry asked for Congress' blessing on Thursday to gum up the online networks they blame for slowing their sales.

Congress is considering expanded legal protection for record labels who resort to sabotage in their ongoing battle with "peer to peer" networks that allow users to freely trade music, movies and other copyrighted material.

The recording industry offered a glimpse into its tactics, which include blocking transfers and flooding the network with dummy songs, and promised a House of Representatives subcommittee that they would not disrupt the Internet or reach into individuals' computers.

"I can't foresee any scenario where it would be in our interest to go into anybody's computer and delete a file," said Hilary Rosen, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America.

But some lawmakers worried that overzealous copyright enforcement measures could end up targeting innocent computer users, and said they did not want to encourage a high-tech game of cat and mouse that could easily get out of hand.

"What are the implications for the Internet's functionality when the inevitable arms race develops?" asked Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher.

Boucher noted that overzealous copyright enforcers have already mistaken a photo entitled "Portrait of Mrs. harrison williams 1943" for a song by former Beatle George Harrison, and demanded that Internet provider UUNet terminate the account of a customer who posted a book report on Harry Potter.

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The recording industry has aggressively fought peer-to-peer services since Napster gained widespread popularity more than two years ago.

While the recording industry was able to persuade a California court to shut Napster down, it has so far been less successful against next-generation services that are based overseas or operate in a decentralized manner.

The industry has tried different tactics recently, targeting individual users with automated tracking software and launching an advertising campaign to discourage illegal downloads.

Record labels have also turned to Los Angeles technology firm MediaDefender Inc., which floods peer-to-peer services with decoy songs in an attempt to crowd out copyrighted material.

MediaDefender president Randy Saaf said the company can also block downloads through a technique called "interdiction," which closes off a user's hard drive to others on the network.

The industry has used the decoy service heavily, to the point where nine out of ten versions on a peer-to-peer network may be empty shells, he said. Interdiction has been less popular, he said, as it may run afoul of anti-hacking laws.

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What do you think? Is this a good way for RIAA to get a handle on a problem or do you think they're full of it? What would be a better solution? Is this even a problem? Why do think this?

 

[JazzManJim]

Short version: The big-name recording companies would much rather spend money and time on ways to further alienate their customers instead of being inventive and breaking some new ground in the market.

Lazy bastards.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

Personally, I think MP3 trading actually helps to boost CD sales. It's quite a stupid move for the RIAA to try and stop MP3 trading altogether.

For as long as I can remember, my friends and I have been trading bootleg music. Whether it was cassettes with music copied off the radio, cassette to cassette copies, LP to cassette, CD to CD....we have ALWAYS copied music. But yet, we still buy dozens of music CD's a year.

In order for a music CD to sell, word of mouth has to spread. Shut those mouths and CD's won't sell.

 

[Calamity Jane]

For as long as I can remember, my friends and I have been trading bootleg music. Whether it was cassettes with music copied off the radio, cassette to cassette copies, LP to cassette, CD to CD....we have ALWAYS copied music. But yet, we still buy dozens of music CD's a year.

Exactly. I don't think it's any different to be d/l a song off the net than it was when I was a teenager and sitting in my room listening to the radio, waiting for that one song so I could record it onto a cassette.

 

[KillerMuffin]

CD sales have slumped significantly in the past three years. They tie it online trading. Most consumers probably tie it to 14.99 - 19.99 for a single CD which has an average ratio of 3 good songs for every 15.

 

[JazzManJim]

CD sales have slumped significantly in the past three years. They tie it online trading. Most consumers probably tie it to 14.99 - 19.99 for a single CD which has an average ratio of 3 good songs for every 15.

It doesn't hurt that the one realy try the industry made to market single songs: the CD Single, has died a horrible death.

Of course, they charged well over three dollars in my area per single.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

CD sales have slumped significantly in the past three years. They tie it online trading. Most consumers probably tie it to 14.99 - 19.99 for a single CD which has an average ratio of 3 good songs for every 15.

But how much of that $$$ do the artists themselves actually see? That's a larger problem than prolific MP3 trading. If a CD has one good song on it, then I usually won't buy that CD. I just find the MP3, and add it to my collection.

That's another good thing about MP3's...you can check out an entire CD and decide if you like it or not. If you don't like it, at least you saved yourself some $$$. If you do like it, you go out and buy it.

 

[Calamity Jane]

CD sales have slumped significantly in the past three years. They tie it online trading. Most consumers probably tie it to 14.99 - 19.99 for a single CD which has an average ratio of 3 good songs for every 15.

So they should be tryin to block the sale of CDR's. I rarely buy CD's because they're so expensive. I find a friend or sister who has purchased it, and I make a copy. When I do buy CD's I make copies for others.

 

[phrodeau]

By waging this war, they are sinking millions into the toilet. The pirating will never stop, and it's been going on since the cylinder days.

Where the music industry screwed up was in giving away products as a marketing tactic. They put it over the airwaves for anyone to copy, in hope that people would pay to hear more by buying albums. It seemed to work, and some companies got very big, at the expense of smaller labels and their artists.

But to pay for all that free music being broadcast by the big businesses, album prices were pushed up and up. Now with the expense of this current campaign against pirating, prices will likely rise again.

People are more motivated than ever to pirate music, and the tech is made simple. The RIAA wants people to pay full price or do without, and a lot of people need that third option.

Musicians that haven't "sold out" to the recording companies and are producing and marketing their own CD's aren't being victimized by pirating. They're also selling CD's for under $10 apiece, and making great music.

 

[JazzManJim]

So they should be tryin to block the sale of CDR's. I rarely buy CD's because they're so expensive. I find a friend or sister who has purchased it, and I make a copy. When I do buy CD's I make copies for others.

But that's a never-ending chase.

See, if you make something illegal, people will always find a way to circumvent that to do what they want to do anyhow. That's an immutable thing.

The best way to handle that is to find phrodeau's third alternative. Lots of individual musicians have done it (such as, on the 'big nam" end, Prince), and it's not terribly difficult. It just takes away their considerable cash cow - or at least reduces it somewhat.

 

[Calamity Jane]

See, if you make something illegal, people will always find a way to circumvent that to do what they want to do anyhow. That's an immutable thing.

That was exactly my point Jimmie. There's no way to stop people from pirating music, anymore than you can stop them from recording movies off HBO.