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gull
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The Seventeenth Napster Item
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Jan 13 14:40 UTC 2004 |
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?
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| 102 responses total. |
gull
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response 1 of 102:
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Jan 13 14:43 UTC 2004 |
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.
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twenex
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response 2 of 102:
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Jan 13 14:48 UTC 2004 |
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.
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krj
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response 3 of 102:
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Jan 13 17:26 UTC 2004 |
((( Winter Agora #72 now linked as Music #169. )))
Thanks for starting this and keeping the traditional form, David!
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jep
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response 4 of 102:
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Jan 13 20:31 UTC 2004 |
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?
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twinkie
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response 5 of 102:
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Jan 13 21:28 UTC 2004 |
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.
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slynne
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response 6 of 102:
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Jan 13 22:00 UTC 2004 |
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.
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jaklumen
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response 7 of 102:
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Jan 14 09:05 UTC 2004 |
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.
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twinkie
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response 8 of 102:
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Jan 14 15:12 UTC 2004 |
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
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albaugh
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response 9 of 102:
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Jan 14 17:08 UTC 2004 |
Heard on the radio this morning: Last year music industry sales dropped only
1%, but music sales in the Country genre dropped 10%.
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gull
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response 10 of 102:
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Jan 15 02:28 UTC 2004 |
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.
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krj
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response 11 of 102:
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Jan 16 20:16 UTC 2004 |
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
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twinkie
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response 12 of 102:
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Jan 16 22:07 UTC 2004 |
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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tod
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response 13 of 102:
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Jan 16 23:30 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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krj
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response 14 of 102:
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Jan 18 18:35 UTC 2004 |
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
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willcome
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response 15 of 102:
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Jan 18 19:05 UTC 2004 |
It's not news.
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krj
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response 16 of 102:
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Jan 18 20:01 UTC 2004 |
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." <<
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gull
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response 17 of 102:
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Jan 18 22:13 UTC 2004 |
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.
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mcnally
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response 18 of 102:
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Jan 18 23:43 UTC 2004 |
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?
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twinkie
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response 19 of 102:
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Jan 19 04:56 UTC 2004 |
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.
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gull
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response 20 of 102:
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Jan 19 14:17 UTC 2004 |
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.
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twinkie
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response 21 of 102:
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Jan 20 01:55 UTC 2004 |
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.
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mcnally
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response 22 of 102:
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Jan 20 03:34 UTC 2004 |
Agreed.. And though it's not a replacement for Photoshop, you can always
use Gimp for your counterfeiting projects..
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bhoward
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response 23 of 102:
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Jan 20 07:30 UTC 2004 |
Open source to the rescue, once again :-)
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remmers
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response 24 of 102:
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Jan 20 12:53 UTC 2004 |
Don't be too blase'. Open source is what they might try to regulate
next.
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