Since no one has started a Napster item yet this Agora, and I have some stuff to post, I thought I'd start one. Quoting from krj's post in the previous Agora: "Napster the corporation has been destroyed, but the Napster paradigm 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." Would someone be kind enough to link this to Music?102 responses total.
I'll lead off with an article from the LA Weekly. The RIAA has taken a page from the ATF, and is staging raids with units dressed in SWAT team style gear with "RIAA" stencilled on the back: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=50096 This seems kind of creepy to me, but I've probably read too much sci-fi that involved private corporate police forces.
It seems creepy to me, too, and I haven't read too much (any) of that kind of Sci-Fi. Big corporations have always been part of the "Establishment"; it's the bad side of capitalism. There was a news report the other day about the lobbyists in Washington; all the big corporate interests had the ear of the Powers that Be, but a spokesperson from some citizens' interests pressure group complained of often having to fight to speak to senatorial aides, never mind senators themselves.
((( Winter Agora #72 now linked as Music #169. ))) Thanks for starting this and keeping the traditional form, David!
There are lots of music services out there these days, selling songs for about 99 cents. Are people here who used to use Napster or Kazaa buying their music from these services now?
I think at Macworld last week, Steve Jobs announced that over 30 million songs had been dowloaded. So certainly, some people are buying songs now. I've purchased two songs from Apple's music store, and was relatively impressed with it. Though, I think reducing the prices would help substantially. As it stands now, the going rates are $0.99/song or $9.99/album. For two or three dollars more, I can buy a CD at Best Buy that isn't AAC compressed, and comes with liner notes and album art. If the prices dropped to a level where I'd see real value in downloading vs. buying retail, I'd jump on it. And it would seem that Wal-Mart may help make that happen. They're poised to open their own music store, with plans to sell songs for $0.88 and albums for $8.88.
One of these days, I might get around to buying some songs online. I wouldnt buy a whole album because I could just buy it at the store which would be a whole lot easier.
resp:5 I'd seen mention of the Wal-Mart music store on.. I think it was ABC News. They were doing a story that was asking if the 'legitimate' downloading services were really catching on.
re: 7 It seems to be online now, though the pricing isn't across the board for albums, it is a bit less expensive than iTunes: http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/catalog/servlet/MainServlet
Heard on the radio this morning: Last year music industry sales dropped only 1%, but music sales in the Country genre dropped 10%.
I haven't bought any music online yet. To be honest, I got most of the ear candy stuff I wanted before I got rid of my downloading programs. Bands that I actually like more than two songs by I usually consider worth going to the effort of buying a CD.
Oh, there are such a bundle of news reports... I'll try to get a few in as time permits. Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina gave a major speech at the Consumer Electronic Show in which she attacked the copying and sharing of copyrighted materials and pledged that HP's products would work to stop this. >> "Just because we can steal music doesn't mean we should," Fiorina said. "It is illegal. It is wrong, and there are things we can do as a technology company to help." << "HP declares war on sharing culture" http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34804.html The Register's journalism always has a slightly yellow tinge, but this story appears in many other major sources. ----- Many new music products involve dual-format presentations of the same songs. Common anti-copying CD technologies include both a "red book" CD Audio program for standard CD players, coupled with a Windows Media set of files for computer use. There's also the attempt to encourage consumers to move to the Super Audio CD technology by manufacturing discs which include both SACD and standard CD audio versions of the same tracks, at different layers on the physical disc. The music publishers, who represent the songwriters, complain that they are entitled to two payments of the mechanical, per-copy royalties when such products are sold, one payment for each version of a recording on a dual-format product. The publishers also want back payments for every such recording sold, which could amount to a large pile of money. "Royalty Problems Assail Labels" http://p2pnet.net/story/551
It's pretty funny that Carly would stand so steadfast against music piracy, just after HP announced that they've teamed with Apple to sell HP-branded iPods.
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Richard pointed me to this: New York Post runs a non-news story about the non-sale of Tower Records. The article says Tower is running out of time to find a buyer. They are already months beyond the original deadline set by their creditors. Sun Capital Partners is reported to still be interested "in the Tower name;" that phrasing sounds like they aren't interested in the ongoing business any more, but it could just be my pessimistic speculation. http://www.nypost.com/business/15750.htm
It's not news.
Dan Gillmor sends a column from the Consumer Electronics Show. He amplifies on the coverage of HP's pledge to tie down their customers, arguing that this ideology is now sweeping the industry which was previously built on empowering users. "Companies tossing aside consumers' freedoms" http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7739841.htm Quote: >> "Another sign of where we're heading came during a panel I moderated at CES. The speakers were top executives from America's cable and satellite TV companies, and the topic was high-definition TV. "They didn't disagree when I suggested that customers' rights would be sharply limited when the transition to HDTV takes place. We will be able to time-shift programming (record it to watch later), watch it on different devices, or watch more than once only if the copyright holder says we can." <<
I wonder how restrictive copyright holders will want to be? It seems like disallowing time-shifting could really cut down on viewership, and advertisers wouldn't like that.
But allowing time-shifting allows the viewers to use those pesky recording devices (VCRs & PVRs) which allow them to skip the commercials and advertisers don't like THAT. Plus allowing people to make their own digital recordings might affect the ever more lucrative DVD market or television series. Care to guess how many DVD sets of the Sopranos HBO has sold at $60 a pop?
re: 18 - Advertisers really don't like that at all. It's had some recent coverage in Wired, and other publications. I don't think it really carries over to DVD's, though. They generally have added value, with outtakes, commentary, deleted scenes, "lost" episodes, etc. Consider HBO's rival Showtime, and their sales of Queer as Folk box sets. Showtime embeds TiVo smart tags on their commercials, to make it even easier for people to record their programming.
Interesting but admittedly only marginally-related item that came up on Bugtraq recently: http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11271~1882929,00.html According to the article, Adobe Photoshop CS contains a routine that recognizes when you're trying to open an image of a piece of currency (U.S. dollar bill, etc.) and blocks you. Discussion on Bugtraq reveals that some HP printer drivers contain code to stop you from printing currency images, as well. The anti-currency-copying technology was apparently designed by a consortium of central banks. In the EU, there's a proposal to make this mandatory.
re: 20 Surprisingly, Photoshop CS also blocks images that have a substantial percentage of US currency's color scheme (both old and new). Though some workarounds have been established, it's rather irritating. Though I don't envision it ever becoming a problem for what I tend to use Photoshop for, I'm disappointed that such flawed technology is built in to a $649 software application and can't be turned off.
Agreed.. And though it's not a replacement for Photoshop, you can always use Gimp for your counterfeiting projects..
Open source to the rescue, once again :-)
Don't be too blase'. Open source is what they might try to regulate next.
Not blasé so much as reasonably optimistic that any attempted regulation would prove quite difficult to implement, let alone enforce.
It would be impossible to regulate and keep open source, unless they created some magical encrypted libs that people would figure out how to decrypt (or just remove before compilation). While GIMP is nice for the price, it's not Photoshop. It's also less than functional on OS X. Though, it seems to be "getting there" slowly. I'd love to not pay $649 for Photoshop.
Go to Hong Kong. USD5.00 has pretty good software purchasing power in them there parts.
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Paint Shop Pro is pretty good, though it too is "not quite Photoshop, but getting there." It's a bit ahead of GIMP on most platforms. It's much, much cheaper than Photoshop.
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Oh, hell yes. I hadn't realized just how painful bad interface design could be until I started trying to learn to use the GIMP.
Washington Post has an article on the newfangled audio disc formats, DVD Audio and Super Audio CD (SACD). The executive summary: neither format is doing significant business, and there is no reason to expect them to survive. There are no portable players or car players for these formats. It seems that consumers value portability (mp3s, AAC and Windows Media) over the improved sound quality of the new disc formats. It also may be that consumers reject the new formats because of their resistance to digital copying. The formats have been on the market for three years. Three years after the introduction of the CD format, sales were starting to explode. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30490-2004Jan19.html "Audio Formats Stumble In Quest To Replace CDs" Quote: >> "During the six-month period ending in June 2003, only 100,000 DVD- Audio discs were sold, compared with 245 million CDs, the Recording Industry Association of America reports. Even traditional vinyl records outsold DVD-Audio -- by a factor of six to one. >> "Rather than growing, sales of DVD-Audio discs are actually down from the same period a year ago. The RIAA does not track SACD sales. "<<
They might have better luck introducing their "superior" DRM-ed formats if they didn't commonly charge another $5-20 over the already outrageous price of a CD recording. There just aren't many albums that I love enought to pay $25-30 for when a "good enough" CD version is available for $15-$20.
I have mixed feelings about GIMP's user interface. After using it for a while, it really annoys me that in Photoshop (or PSP) I have to truck my mouse clear over to the edge of the image window every time I want to switch tools, instead of just right-clicking. I agree that Photoshop is excellent...I'm not sure it's good enough to justify its outrageous price, for most people, though. Comparing the student discount price to the commercial price should give an idea of just how huge the profit margin on that software is.
I use GIMP, and I've never tried Photoshop. While GIMP is non-obvious to learn, it is pretty efficient at least compared to most computer apps. If I used it a lot I'd end up memorizing all the keyboard shortcuts and get pretty fast. (I'm using the Linux version, which of course is the most stable)
Yeah, I actually like GIMP, but it punishes new users.
The RIAA files another 532 lawsuits. Because the RIAA can no longer used the "expedited subpoena" power of the DMCA to uncover the identity of IP addresses it believes are being used to share files, the RIAA has filed these as "John Doe" lawsuits naming IP addresses, presumably with dates and times attached. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61989,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 ----- A Michigan Daily story says that nine U. Michigan students have had their identities subpoenaed by the RIAA. This makes little sense to me, as the DMCA subpoena process against file sharing users was thrown out last December, and it's too early for the new John Doe lawsuits to have been processed down to the University. ??? http://www.michigandaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/01/21/400e279425891
How on earth does one file lawsuits against J Random P2Per?
Re resp:37: The easy subpoena process against ISPs was thrown out. They probably subpoenaed the university, and the university probably decided not to fight it.
re: 34 - You have to consider that the student pricing is intended for people who are learning Photoshop in one of their courses. More likely than not, they'll ask their "How do I...?" questions in class, rather than calling Adobe -- which reduces the overall cost. I'll have to check our copies of Adobe software at work, but I'm vaguely remembering something about education copies not having any sort of phone support. I know that's how Macromedia handles their education software (after spending time mulling over paying $250 to let someone call once, or buying a 5-call pack for $1,000). And what's this right-clicking business? Do you mean Control+Click? ;) You might find Photoshop a bit friendlier if you move the toolbar closer to the area where you'll be changing tools.
I can't remember ever calling a software company to get phone support for a piece of application software. I'd be quite happy to exchange any right to do so in the future for the ability to buy legal versions of software at educational prices.
I've occasionally called companies about installation issues. I'd say about 75% of the time the phone support is useless and I end up having to work it out myself anyway. I don't have any experience with Adobe, though.
re: 41 - I'm almost positive that's part of the tradeoff. I know that's why OEM versions of Microsoft software costs less. The included documentation (what there is of it) says rather explicitly "If you need help, call whoever sold this to you. Don't call us. We won't help you for free." (of course, I'm paraphrasing there). re: 42 - That's part of the rub. You're paying for support, and not getting it very often. Adobe's support was reasonably good the last time I needed it, but that was about two years ago. I'm sure they've offshored their support to people who aren't able to help you with issues that aren't on a phonetic script by now. Sun and Apple, on the other hand, have the most fabulous support I've ever experienced. I almost want to call AppleCare, just to remind myself that there are a few good companies still out there.
The Washington Post had a chat this afternoon with Eric Garland of Big Champagne, a company which tracks usage on peer-to-peer networks -- not hunting individuals, but looking to measure popularity of various items. Garland's main thrust is that this is an unstoppable technical/social phenomenon and compulsory licensing is the only way out. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36356-2004Jan21.html
For $24/month, AOL provides online live support that tells you when their radio program won't install that you need more RAM, and after you tell them four or five times that your computer cannot take more RAM because it is a COMPAQ and they don't make large RAM for it, they tell you several ways to clear the hard disk cache. For some reason that did not free up RAM. (The RAM was being eaten up by things in Quick Launch). In the meantime we got Realaudio to work despite AOL. I think the first half of the 'dialog' was being run by a computer. 'We are having trouble with installing Radio@AOL'. 'Do I correctly understand that you are having trouble with Radio@AOL'. Yes. 'I will try to fix the problem. Can you tell me more'. ..... Eventually we started noticing typos in the answers and knew there was a live person.
It was probably a low-paid human in India working off a script.
The name did sound Indian. Today I got an email from the AOL user, who upgraded (sic) from 5 to 7 for the added features (none of which probably work without adding 128M RAM tho they say you only need 32M). She says it seems to be crashing more than usual. Usual is pretty bad! Could it be the modem? I gave her my 56K internal winmodem that had never crashed for me with Opera. I suggested she try reinstalling AOL 5 to see if that crashed as much, and then try running Opera with an AOL connection - would it continue to take up a lot of RAM even if minimized? I also strongly urged her to try a normal ISP instead.
Piece in the NY Times Magazine today about copyright issues.
Here's the best piece I've found on a recent copy-prevention story. Sunn Comm, who avid readers will recall have the Media Max copy prevention process which installs drivers on your PC to prevent copying, have acquired a UK firm called DarkNoise Technology. DarkNoise claims to be able to encode recordings so that they cannot be copied in either digital or analog fashion. Stereophile is skeptical of claims that this can be done without really audible artifacts in the original recording. http://www.stereophile.com/news/020904sunncomm/ Another point I thought of: if the Darknoise stuff successfully stops digital resampling, then that puts an end to webcasting as we know it today, since webcasting relies on resampling either to Real Audio, WMA or MP3 formats.
What on earth does it mean to make a sound that "cannot be copied in analog fashion"?
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Sorry, I'm not writing clearly. The DarkNoise company claims their process introduces unpleasant artifacts in copies made either digitally or via "the analog hole," even to ordinary cassette tape. One can make copies, but they are not enjoyable to listen to, claims DarkNoise. The Stereophile page linked above has links to DarkNoise's pages which don't sound like peer-reviewed research to me.
Ken, it's not you that's being unclear -- that's pretty much what I understood your text to say. It's DarkNoise's claim that the music will sound one way when you listen to it and another way when re-recorded on analog equipment that's confusing and nonsensical.
Stereophile's writer said this was theoretically possible, but the magnitude of the modifications required to the original sound are so great as to be pretty audible. For an example, think back to making a cassette tape off a really warped record. Record warp creates an inaudible low-frequency pulse which you could see on the tape deck's recording level meters; in severe cases, the subsonic warp signal could overload the tape, resulting in nasty distortion. (The solution was a subsonic filter, and I can't remember which box those filters were packed in when I last moved, dammit.)
Tower Records has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, protection from creditors. Stories are everywhere, so I won't bother with a link. Some stories say that this process is just to push the few reluctant creditors into a sale deal, and we should know soon who will be controlling Tower. ----- The Australian music industry has organized raids on the offices of Kazaa's corporate parent, the homes of their executives, and several universities and ISPs. The Aussie music industry believes that recent, unspecified-in-the-press changes in Kazaa make it vulnerable to this copyright action in Australia. There are better stories in the Aussie media, but this is all I have on screen right now: http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5155848.html?tag=nefd_top
According to a recent Slashdot article, the Australians are currently negotiating a trade agreement with the US that includes them moving to "US-style copyrights." Keeping in mind what an unverified report on Slashdot is worth, I nevertheless wonder if the sudden moves against Kazaa are entirely coincidental.
"One can make copies, but they are not enjoyable to listen to." That shouldn't be difficult to arrange, as it's already true of many of the original recordings.
ba-dum-bump!
I have an unconfirmed rumor that the Tower Records store in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham will be closed as part of the bankruptcy reorganization. Michigan folks might want to keep their eyes peeled for a store-closing sale, although there were no great bargains when Tower closed its locations in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
I prey for cheep cds
Did you bag any?
A couple of stories suggest the music wars are evolving along lines similar to the war on drugs: LA Times reports that students are learning to keep their heads down, not share files for others to download, and are then just downloading all they want: Title: "So Not Intimidated" http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ca-day15feb15,1,1149916.story? coll=la-home-style Meanwhile, from the University of Maryland student paper: "A harassment complaint was filed Wednesday to protect the student who reported popular file-sharing hub, Direct Connect to authorities and set of a wave of student anger, University Police officials confirmed yesterday." http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2004/02/13/news3.html ((Can you say "narc," boys and girls?))
The labels and the RIAA may, in the end, be able to stop the downloading services and the filesharing networks. And maybe that will be enough, from their standpoint. I doubt they'll ever be able to stop friends from sharing with friends, however..
They lost that battle when they were unable to stop the sale of blank cassette tapes. I don't think they see it as hurting their business that much, now. It's certainly not as much of a threat as the widespread copying that systems lika Kazaa facilitate.
The digital-to-digital copying technology available to consumers nowadays, though, is substantially less limiting than the analog-to- analog copies from the cassette tape ere, as anyone who ever listened to a hissy nth-generation copy can tell you. Unfortunately for the record companies, even if they succeed in making the digital original uncopy-able, they'll never again be protected by multi-generation quality loss, since any first generation analog rip will be converted to digital and distributed digitally thereafter without further loss.
That's true, but I'm not sure how great the impact of that really is. Most people don't seem to care that much about quality. Most of my friends say they can't tell the difference between good stereo speakers and $5 computer speakers, for example.
We never even mentioned the February round of lawsuits from the RIAA against suspected "John Doe" defendants for sharing music files. Another 531 lawsuits this month; a curious number, given that there were 532 suits in January. I'm not going to dredge around for a link; use news.google.com and search for "RIAA" if you want a citation.
RIAA Countersued Under Racketeering Laws Posted by simoniker on Wednesday February 18, @10:17PM from the prohibition-is-on dept. Negadin writes "According to CNET News, a New Jersey woman, one of the hundreds of people accused of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America, has countersued the big record labels, charging them with extortion and violations of the federal antiracketeering act." The woman's attornies are arguing that "...by suing file-swappers for copyright infringement, and then offering to settle instead of pursuing a case where liability could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the RIAA is violating the same laws that are more typically applied to gangsters and organized crime." http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/19/0124218&mode=nested
I doubt the courts will agree with her reasoning but I wish her lots of luck..
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This news story reports sketchy rumors and whatnot that Napster might not be doing so well. Executives are jumping ship, and record company sources say Napster 2.0 is only selling about 1/4 as many tracks as Apple iTunes. Staff are being laid off. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7988684.htm "Smiles Fade At Napster" The article mentions the pre-paid Napster download cards you can now buy -- perhaps for your kid who doesn't have a credit card -- and I did see those for sale at a Kroger's grocery store in Lansing.
Target sells them, as well. Although, Target also sells prepaid iTunes cards.
(The Feds have used RICO against anti-arbortion groups; make sense folks would try it against RIAA. I'd guess anti-trust action will be next.)
I think anti-trust action was already tried, and failed.
The trial court decision holds that popular DVD copying software from 321 Studios is illegal, and must be withdrawn from market. While IANAL, the decision seems to leave little room for any other DVD copying product to legally exist, unless the movie studios approve of it. http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5162749.html?tag=nefd_lede
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CD-burning software may not be affected, depending on which law(s) the courts based their decision on. Because the content on DVDs is encrypted, they're afforded extra protection.
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The fact that the software is illegal certainly doesn't mean it's going to disappear from p2p networks. But you won't see it sold retail anymore.
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I know someone who's been using something similar to make off-site backups of most of Blockbuster's DVDs. ;>
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For Ann Arbor area readers: Jim Leonard, the former owner of the SKR Classical CD shop, has a long essay in the March issue of the Observer about the wipeout of CD retailing in Ann Arbor. I have not had a chance to see if this is in the online edition. Leonard suggests that besides the well known issues of authorized Internet sales and unauthorized file sharing, something may have shifted in the culture; he discusses a number of fanatical CD collectors who have drastically cut back shopping and moved on to other parts of their lives. Leonard also writes that Steve Bergman is not getting a salary from his Schoolkids-in-the-Basement store.
> he discusses a number of fanatical CD collectors who have drastically > cut back shopping and moved on to other parts of their lives ...and the next generation of fanatical CD collectors? I know a few. They buy everything online.
I buy CDs exclusively online now. Retail stores almost never have what I want, so it's not worth the nuisance of driving around trying to find one that does.
I like to go to retail stores because they're easier to browse than online stores. If I don't already know what I want, and just want to see what's available, no service that Amazon has to offer does the job for me.
Music biz news: Edgar Bronfman's group closed on the purchase of Warner Music from the Time Warner conglomerate. 1000 staffers were immediately dismissed, 20% of the staff, including most of the top executives. The termination of Warner Brothers' involvment in the music business is at least mildly historic. Depending on how one evaluates it, it may also mean that none of the five (soon four) major music companies is in American hands. Sony is Japanese, BMG (soon to merge with Sony) is German, Vivendi Universal is French, EMI is British and Warner -- at least the top guy -- is now Canadian. (Bronfman, for those who aren't obsessive about this story, previously ran Universal Music Group before it was acquired by Vivendi.)
What happened to RCA and Columbia?
Columbia belongs to Sony now. RCA is part of BMG.
Is anyone cashing in the Pepsi bottle cap codes for free iTunes songs? Recent news stories in many places note that iTunes has passed 50 million songs sold; however, this is half of Apple's goal of 100 million songs by the beginning of April, and a small percentage compared to the billions of songs believed traded on the unauthorized networks.
Yes, Son-chan is cashing them in, when he gets one.
The Pepsi products that make it up to Alaska don't seem to come from bottlers who are participating in the iTunes promotion. :-(
There are some folks here at work who are participating in that.
So far, I've only found one bottle cap. It didn't seem worth bothering.
If anyone has unredeemed codes they'd like to get rid of, I'm always looking for new music to feed my iPod..
I don't drink Pepsi.
There is also a group looking for those unredemmed Pepsi
codes. They are using them for downloads of independent artists.
The more rare ones on iTunes, to show tht their music can be
viable for the download business.
For those that drink Pepsi, there is a way to tip the
bottle and spot a good code vs a 'sorry' before purchase.
Re #95: If I find more, I'll pass them on.
They've started suing downloaders in Europe. I won't be buying CDs until they start losing and wise up.
Of course, their justification for the lawsuits is that sales are down due to music sharing. So making sales go down further might actually be counterproductive. ;>
Or it might convince them to wise up.
Or convice them it is where the market is going. Maybe total
media sales is getting more heavily into DVDs. I think I said something
like this in the new item.
I would think they would be going after uploaders first. If
music is available for the picking, then it's hard to resist the
tempation.
You have several choices: