response 81 of 151:

Oct 27 19:02 UTC 2003

From my looking at the Billboard reports of Soundscan's measures of sales,
the RIAA's Sherman is right on the mark.  I entered Soundscan's report 
of sales figures for the week immediately following the lawsuits in 
resp:7, and sales have continued up.  Here's the most recent stuff
I have, from Billboard dated October 25:

    current week     11,580,000
    same week 2002   10,654,000   up 8.7%

There's an accompanying text story.  This was the fifth straight week
that sales have been up relative to year-ago, and that hasn't
happened since 2001.  Industry execs prefer to stress the appeal of
the new releases, but say the lawsuits against file sharers are
helping a little bit.

The article says everyone expects sales to fall below the 2002 level
at the end of October, because October 2002 had a huge boost from an
Eminem release.

-----
The convention wisdom was that suing ordinary people would provoke a 
backlash.

There is no sign of outrage at Big Music spreading beyond Slashdot
readers, and the 460 people who have been/will be sued.   A telling 
example for me is the website http://downhillbattle.org, which is trying 
to raise money for legal expenses and settlement bills for those sued.
 
So far they have raised a whopping $1900; in terms of the net, that's 
pathetic.

Big Music has to be saying:  why didn't we sue individual file swappers
two or three years ago?

response 83 of 151:

Oct 30 15:44 UTC 2003

(Geez, my ex-history professor sure has a lot of power...)

response 85 of 151:

Oct 31 05:02 UTC 2003

The RIAA has filed 80 new lawsuits against alleged file swappers.
These people are from the list of 204 people who were warned by the 
RIAA in early October that they would be the next targets.  124 of 
that group have either settled, or are discussing settlements, 
with the RIAA.
 
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5099738.html
 
-----
 
BMG says they're happy with the SunnComm copy-restriction system
which installs drivers on the user's PC, and they plan to use the 
system on more releases.  BMG says that sales for the SunnComm-
infected disk, by Anthony Hamilton, fell less than expected in the 
weeks after release, indicated that people were burning fewer
copies of it.

"CD Experiment Shows Early Promise"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38052-2003Oct29.html

response 89 of 151:

Nov 5 03:26 UTC 2003

re # 86-That is quite simply a matter of personal opinion scott.I'm guessing
you support the double-damned RIAA,huh?Shame on you!

response 91 of 151:

Nov 6 22:26 UTC 2003

The five major record companies are about to consolidate down to four,
or maybe three.
 
Sony and BMG (Bertelsmann) have signed a letter of intent to create
a new firm from their existing operations.
 
Meanwhile, EMI and (AOL) Time Warner are still negotiating
some sort of a merger, and in late news today EMI has bank
financing lined up.

It's unclear if regulators in the USA and EU would approve 
both deals.

Any consolidation would likely involve huge layoffs.

http://www.forbes.com/home_asia/newswire/2003/11/06/rtr1138376.html

response 93 of 151:

Nov 7 02:46 UTC 2003

Why Mike, is that just a *hint* of sarcasm I detect?

response 95 of 151:

Nov 7 15:15 UTC 2003

Hmmm... The report I'd heard said that the flag would NOT prevent the
recipient of the broadcast making a copy for personal use.

response 97 of 151:

Nov 11 21:13 UTC 2003

The movie studios and record labels are now starting to talk about 
"closing the analog hole," so you can probably expect to see digital to 
analog conversion devices restricted as well.  It wouldn't surprise me 
to see no analog outputs at all on digital video devices in the future, 
since this would both benefit the studios by restricting copying *and* 
benefit the hardware manufacturers by forcing people to buy new digital 
equipment instead of using converter boxes with their old analog TV 
stuff.

response 99 of 151:

Nov 15 20:19 UTC 2003

Cnet has bought what's left of mp3.com, which has been a source for 
independent and amateur musicians to distribute their recordings.
 
The site will shut down at the beginning of December, and Cnet 
plans to relaunch it as a music information site -- sounds like 
downloadable MP3 files will no longer be a part of the game plan.
 
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5107696.html
 
There's an interesting story to be written about the rise and 
fall of MP3.com, one of the dot-com debacles which might have 
gone somewhere.

response 101 of 151:

Nov 17 15:52 UTC 2003

For a lot of artists it was probably the only realistic chance they had
at reaching an audience.

response 103 of 151:

Nov 18 19:44 UTC 2003

I have unconfirmed reports that SunnComm's Media Max product is on
the new Sarah McLachlan and Pink CDs.  This product will definitely
infect your Windows computer with drivers intended to mess up CD burning 
and MP3 ripping if you click on the EULA which comes up, and 
there are unconfirmed rumors that it will infect the PC even if you 
don't accept the EULA.   Behavior on Macs unknown.

<krj makes a note to figure out how to shut off "autorun" on Win2K.>