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25 new of 165 responses total.
other
response 6 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 06:35 UTC 2002

From slashdot:  

CBDTPA Finds A Champion In the House:  Wired is reporting that House 
member Adam Schiff of Burbank is seeking a co-sponsor for his House 
version of Hollings' CBDTPA. 
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51400,00.html

http://slashdot.org/yro/02/03/28/2137253.shtml?tid=103
other
response 7 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 07:26 UTC 2002

oops, i'm replicating an earlier entry in the other "stupid government 
behaviour" item.
gull
response 8 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 14:48 UTC 2002

Re #3: Will this apply to regular radio stations that simulcast online, 
too?  In other words, will they be double-billed?

I remember a while back an organization that represents TV stations 
tried to get a bill considered that would have banned anyone from 
streaming more than 30 minutes of continuous video over the Internet.  
It was promptly heavily opposed by their own constituancy -- many small 
TV stations were just starting to benefit from simulcasting on the 
Internet, which gave them a bigger audience than they could get 
otherwise.
krj
response 9 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 15:08 UTC 2002

IIRC, radio stations which broadcast over the air get a 50%
break on the new digital performance rights royalties for their
Internet simulcasts.  
keesan
response 10 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 16:25 UTC 2002

I thought the record companies (CD companies?) liked to have radio stations
broadcasting their music because it resulted in more sales.  And that they
would even pay them to do so.
jazz
response 11 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 16:41 UTC 2002

        Okay.  Record companies aren't really worried about theft of property
through services like Napster or internet radio;  they're quite good at bean
counting and even the most elementary statistical analysis shows that, like
radio play, Napster had a noticeably positive effect on record sales.  What's
happening here is that record companies want to OWN the Napster business. 
By regulating it and making it difficult, if not impossible, to get into the
business, they create an industry where they can be the only players.

        The intellectual property argument is for political spin control.
krj
response 12 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 22:29 UTC 2002

The old online journal NewMediaMusic had one of their best pieces
on this subject, maybe about a year ago.  Unfortunately I did not save
a copy and their site is now gone.

In the record company business model which is now rapidly breaking,
the record company would work like the dickens to get free temporary
copies delivered to customers over the radio, with the expectation
that this would motivate purchases of tangible, permanent copies.

(The effort to get those temporary copies out onto the radio waves
has become so expensive that industry execs cite it as a major
reason that major-label releases have to sell 500,000 copies to 
break even now.)

Now, map that old business model to the Internet world.
    The delivery of the free radio samples:  
         ship digital bits to user's computer.   
    The delivery of the paid-for copy: 
         ship digital bits to user's computer.
The difference between the marketing function (free radio) and the 
sales function has vanished.  Uh-oh... thus we come to 
the SSSCA-type proposals to cripple all computers to create
artificial distinctions between groups of bits, and restrict
the manipulation and processing of those bits accordingly:
essentially, to outlaw the general purpose, Turing-machine computer.
krj
response 13 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 23:41 UTC 2002

While writing resp:12 I had a wisp of another idea.  
The major labels say they have to spend an obscene, and rising,
amount of money promoting their releases to radio.  
Why should this be so?  Well, in the last couple of years we have
had the rise of the Clear Channel radio "pigopoly."
But more generally: the major labels are having to spend more to 
try and get Release X to stand out from the pack, because there 
are so many releases.  There is, in short, an oversupply of music.

Market theory tells us that some things are supposed to happen
in response to an oversupply: prices are to decline until the 
less efficient producers are forced out of the market.

One wonders when the market forces start to kick in.
Articles published in the wake of the music industry sales reports
for 2001 said the decline in sales would probably lead to a 
decline in prices, but we have not seen it yet.
jazz
response 14 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 29 23:41 UTC 2002

        That's not going to happen.  Follow the money.  There's way too much
money at stake in computing.
russ
response 15 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 30 01:00 UTC 2002

Re #9:  In the case of the dual-casting station which currently
pays $1000 a year to BMI and ASCAP, instead of paying $1000 a
day for the compulsory webcasting license they would only have
to pay $500 a day.  That's only 180 times what they pay now.
Whatta bargain...

You can bet that there will not be any webcasting by student
radio stations if this is not radically scaled back.   Non-profits
will be pretty much removed from the market too.
krj
response 16 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 30 01:37 UTC 2002

I've come across some mention of a lower rate for non-profit organizations,
but I can't remember all the details.
raven
response 17 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 30 20:38 UTC 2002

re #15 Why Russ it sounds like you are calling for goverment regulation
of the record companies?  I think the genuis of the market knew everything,
could it be that life is more conplicated than that?
krj
response 18 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 30 21:15 UTC 2002

Here's a story from about ten weeks ago about the DataPlay discs:
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-864058.html
"Small discs to feature big artists"
 
DataPlay discs are "about the size of a quarter and can hold 5 to 11 
hours of music, or three to five albums."  (Those are really, 
really long albums...)  Leading independent label Zomba, home to 
Britney & N'Sync, has signed a deal to start using the format for 
new releases, joining major companies Universal, EMI and BMG.
 
The hope of the recording industry is that they can convince 
consumers to switch to DataPlay discs, which include digital rights
management, so the unprotected CD can be withdrawn from market.
 
"Blank discs will cost between $5 and $12."        (*coff, coff*)
oval
response 19 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 30 23:33 UTC 2002

i've put this item off until i could thoroughly divulge into it and i must
admit it all seemed confusing and inevitable what with tv and the
entertainment industry being how it is already. but until i read *this*
article:

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,51274,00.html

i wasn't nearly as angry. maybe they should should control the english
language so that every word i'm typing here comes with a fee.

(#11 was very well put by jazz)

mcnally
response 20 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 00:08 UTC 2002

  Wired News is now reporting that Senator Leahy, chairman of the Senate
  Judiciary committee (which for some reason has jurisdiction over the
  SSSCA / CBDTPA) is opposed to the measure and has stated his intention
  to prevent it from reaching a vote this year.

  http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51425,00.html

  However, the bill (or one like it) is still proceeding in the House
  and if Leahy's opposition should falter or fail the bill is still a
  danger.  It's still important to contact your elected representatives
  to let them know that you're strongly opposed to this legislation.
krj
response 21 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 02:37 UTC 2002

Tsk, mcnally's resp:20 belongs in the Agora item on the CBDTPA, not
in the Agora/Music "napster" item.  :)    But it's mildly encouraging
news anyway.
oval
response 22 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 02:40 UTC 2002

there's a CBDTPA item?!

krj
response 23 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 02:50 UTC 2002

Yes, spring Agora, item 13, is discussing the CBDTPA.   ( item:agora41,13 )
I can usually find enough about the music industry and other 
copyright topics to keep this one busy.
oval
response 24 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 02:52 UTC 2002

it's all closely related though -- hard to talk about one without fondling
the other just a bit...

jazz
response 25 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 08:04 UTC 2002

        Fondling bits is expressly forbidden by the CBDTPA.

        The DataPlay maneuver will proabably go over about as well as consumer
copy-protected DAT;  the industry really had to learn that it isn't quite
smart enough to predict the format consumers will choose, and if they were,
their meddling with rights management will delay it's entry to past the
critical few months where the format would have been chosen, anyways.

        That's kind of a salvation to Napster users;  hacker kids, like 'em
or hate 'em, are always going to be smarter about subverting data security
than professionals are about instituting it.  Instituting is by nature a
harder job, and professionals are often more in business than obsessed.
krj
response 26 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 19:36 UTC 2002

The DataPlay people have a website at http://www.dataplay.com.
You can buy clothes and bags with their logo imprinted, and there is 
a promise that blank media and recording/playback machines will 
soon be available. 
Some of the promotional material on their web site actively 
touts the DataPlay resistance to file sharing, so I don't think 
this site was intended to market to end users.  :)
 
One of the aspects they are happiest about is that DataPlay discs
can be given away or sold with content "locked up" so the holder of 
the disc cannot get it unless additional payment is made.
jazz
response 27 of 165: Mark Unseen   Mar 31 23:03 UTC 2002

        How long d'ya think that'll take to reverse engineer?
oval
response 28 of 165: Mark Unseen   Apr 1 08:54 UTC 2002

so if my friend comes over and i play a cd for him, and he likes it and i let
him borrow it for a while, am i in trouble?
gull
response 29 of 165: Mark Unseen   Apr 1 17:01 UTC 2002

Re #17: Record companies don't seem to be part of a free market.  Sales 
of CDs have been falling for months now and the price has oddly 
remained the same.  The "unseen hand" doesn't seem to be doing its job.

Re #26: That sounds like the DIVX "pay for play" model.  You'll note 
that DIVX was extremely unsuccessful.
mdw
response 30 of 165: Mark Unseen   Apr 2 00:07 UTC 2002

Unless the DataPlay discs have some sort of per-disk uniquification
(using a long enough key), I don't think it will last very long.
There's already an active market in subverting satellite TV encryption
systems, which are apparently based on a shared symmetric key.
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