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Grex > Music > #19: The Twenty-fourth "Napsterization" Item |  |
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krj
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The Twenty-fourth "Napsterization" Item
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Mar 29 17:01 UTC 2006 |
The usual canned introduction:
The original Napster corporation has been destroyed, its trademarks
now owned by an authorized music retailer which does not use peer-to-peer
technology. But the Napster paradigm, in which computers and networks
give ordinary people unprecedented control over content, continues.
This is another quarterly installment in a series of weblog and
discussion about the deconstruction of the music industry and other
copyright industries, with side forays into "intellectual property,
freedom of expression, electronic media, corporate control, and evolving
technology," as polygon once phrased it.
Several years of back items are easily found in the music2 and music3
conferences, covering discussions all the way back to the initial
popularity of the MP3 format. These items are linked between
the current Agora conference and the Music conference.
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| 46 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 46:
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Mar 29 17:09 UTC 2006 |
News from Euroland: France has been moving a bill on digital
copyright issues through its legislature, and keeping up with what
has been happening is hampered by our unfamiliarity with the language,
and our unfamiliarity with the French legislative process.
At one point the draft legislation proposed to legalize peer-to-peer
file swapping through the payment of a small compulsory license fee.
That provision sent the French copyright industry into a panic, and
it was deleted from the legislation. However, the current version
is reported to penalize file sharing at about the same level as
minor traffic violations. The fine for downloading copyrighted
material is set at 38 euros; the fine for uploading is about 100 euros.
Germany, in contrast, has just pushed through a law making unauthorized
downloading a felony punishable with two years in prison. As the EU
countries are supposed to be harmonizing their laws, it will be interesting
to see how this plays out.
The new French legislation has a goal of mandating interoperability
among digital music file sellers and digital music file players.
I think this is proposed to happen by forcing market players to
disclose information necessary to allow competitors to build
interoperable systems. This is widely seen as targeting Apple, who have
a somewhat closed market with the iPod players and iTunes store; their
Digital Restrictions Management system is proprietary, so songs bought
on iTunes will not (easily) work with other systems. But I don't
see why it wouldn't hurt Windows Media just as much; if the WMA guts
have to be disclosed, it should be trivial for programmers to write
open source code to unlock the WMA files.
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keesan
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response 2 of 46:
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Mar 29 17:29 UTC 2006 |
Linux already has players for WMA and Realaudio formats.
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kingjon
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response 3 of 46:
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Mar 29 18:48 UTC 2006 |
... but the RealAudio one is provided by the Real corporation. It's free as in
lunch, not free as in freedom -- just because the Linux operating system is
free doesn't mean everything that runs on it is free, any more than everything
that runs on Windows has to be proprietary because Windows is proprietary.
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mcnally
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response 4 of 46:
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Mar 29 20:10 UTC 2006 |
Linux codecs are available which can handle a *subset* of the WMA format,
but that's not the same as being able to play all WMA material.
In particular the material from on-line music stores is likely to use
security features which are not (fully) supported in Linux players.
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gull
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response 5 of 46:
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Apr 1 09:12 UTC 2006 |
Re resp:1: Apple has apparently blasted the bill that would require them
to open up their DRM scheme as "state-sponsored piracy":
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/22/apple_attacks_france/
Frankly, I don't think it would hurt much except maybe iPod sales. It's
already trivial to circumvent the iTunes DRM by burning a bunch of
tracks to a CD, then ripping it.
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krj
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response 6 of 46:
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May 2 23:25 UTC 2006 |
Here's an interesting lawsuit. Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers
Band are suing Sony Music claiming that they are being underpaid
for online music song sales through sites like iTunes.
The bands have an interesting argument. In the old, pre-Internet
world, music contracts described two different types of financial
transactions. A "sale" is governed by a lower royalty rate, about
4.5 cents per track; a "license" to use the music should net the
artist roughly half of the money collected by the label, which
works out to 30-40 cents per track.
The bands argue that the technical and legal encumberances on
online track purchases mean those are really licenses, and not
sales of product. Heh. Stereophile magazine says that should a
court rule that a paid download is a sale of product, then all sorts
of legal rights for the consumer kick in, such as resale and loan.
http://stereophile.com/news/050106ABB/
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tod
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response 7 of 46:
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May 2 23:49 UTC 2006 |
That's an earthquake for the RIAA.
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mcnally
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response 8 of 46:
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May 3 03:55 UTC 2006 |
Note that under the terms of the "sale" category, the record
companies are apparently deducting their contractual charges
for "packaging" (20%) and "breakage" (15%), or so various
write-ups of the story report..
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other
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response 9 of 46:
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May 5 01:46 UTC 2006 |
Yup. The RIAA is in the position of having to defend download sales as
licenses to the consumers and as product sales to the artists. Either
way, the labels have to pay out, but the conclusion is that the artists'
interests are pitted against the consumers'.
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krj
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response 10 of 46:
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May 6 03:36 UTC 2006 |
I now have confirmed the story that the British music licensing authority
PPL has forced most/all commercial UK stations to terminate webcasts
outside the UK borders. Reportedly this already happened. It does not,
as yet, affect the BBC.
Links: from March 17:
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/031706/index.asp
from the last few days:
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/050506/index.asp
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1766532,00.html
(Guardian headline:
"Will licensing kill the radio star?")
The Guardian story says the PPL wants the radio barrier to work
both ways; PPL's spokesman says they are prepared to sue to stop
USA webcasters from sending streams into the UK.
I will miss Britain's light-classical station "Classic FM," which always
brought back nostalgia for our 1995 trip over there. And, which sometimes
sent me off to amazon.co.uk to buy a CD they were playing...
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krj
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response 11 of 46:
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May 11 05:20 UTC 2006 |
A press release reports that Green Linnet Records, the leading American
record label for Celtic music, has been sold to Digital Music Group,
"the online aggregator and distributor of music to online music
stores."
DMGI's business appears to be ALL about sales of digital files through
online stores, though they mention the possibility of licensing out
the manufacture of physical CDs. But, it sounds to me like there is
a good chance that the Green Linnet artists and recordings are going to
be departing the world of tangible, manufactured CDs.
If there were any Green Linnet recordings I coveted in those old-fashioned
silver discs sold in stores -- especially older catalog titles -- I would
not put off getting copies.
Green Linnet has been in financial difficulties for a while and a
number of their artists were publically protesting non-payment a
while back, so a sale of the label is not a surprise.
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krj
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response 12 of 46:
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May 11 05:24 UTC 2006 |
Forgot the source links:
http://www.paidcontent.org/digital-music-group-acquires-celtic-music-catalo
g
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060510/law049.html?.v=54
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happyboy
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response 13 of 46:
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May 11 17:20 UTC 2006 |
forget
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wilt
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response 14 of 46:
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May 16 23:45 UTC 2006 |
HACKED BY GNAA LOL JEWS DID WTC LOL
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wilt
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response 15 of 46:
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May 16 23:59 UTC 2006 |
HTTP://WWW.GNAA.US/
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jesuit
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response 16 of 46:
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May 17 02:13 UTC 2006 |
HTTP://WWW.GNAA.US/
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jesuitx
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response 17 of 46:
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May 18 02:24 UTC 2006 |
http://www.jewsdidwtc.com/
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tarbaby
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response 18 of 46:
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May 18 23:17 UTC 2006 |
TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE
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gull
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response 19 of 46:
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May 19 02:29 UTC 2006 |
The MPAA is supporting an effort to train dogs that can sniff out DVDs.
The problem, of course, is that a pirated DVD smells the same as a
legitimate one.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/11/gogs_hunt_dvds/
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jep
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response 20 of 46:
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May 19 13:43 UTC 2006 |
Maybe they can train monkeys or Ohio State grads to watch them.
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garyn
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response 21 of 46:
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May 19 23:41 UTC 2006 |
this board is impossible to trlol
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gaynigger
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response 22 of 46:
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May 21 02:48 UTC 2006 |
I NEED SKYKE CREDIT
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camwhorejax
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response 23 of 46:
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May 22 07:54 UTC 2006 |
hi it's me i'm a camwhore
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gayniggerassociation
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response 24 of 46:
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May 23 20:50 UTC 2006 |
GNAA GNAA GNAAGNAA GNAA GNAAGNAA GNAA GNAAGNAA GNAA GNAAGNAA GNAA GNAAGNAA
GNAA GNAA
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