Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits

Well, it's about time... the lawsuits haven't work..

interesting, this comes just days after Saddam Hussein's spokesman admitted the US did successfully invade Iraq in 2003.

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits - WSJ.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Mistrial for RIAA's $222,000 defendant

This is great... the "make available" argument was bogus to begin with.

Mistrial for RIAA's $222,000 defendant | Politics and Law - CNET News

A federal judge on Wednesday threw out the verdict against Jammie Thomas, the peer-to-peer network user ordered to pay the recording industry $222,000 for allegedly sharing music online.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minn., declared a mistrial in the case against Thomas, who was charged in October with violating copyright law by making 24 songs available for others to download on the Kazaa network.

Davis set aside the verdict on the grounds that he misguided the jury, telling jurors that simply the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. The judge first indicated in May that he was considering granting a new trial.

In June, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other consumer and industry groups weighed in, also claiming the jury instructions were erroneous.

The Recording Industry Association of America argued that the jury instructions were valid.

"Requiring proof of actual transfers would cripple efforts to enforce copyright owners' rights online--and would solely benefit those who seek to freeload off plaintiff's investment," RIAA attorney Timothy Reynolds wrote in a court filing.

Thomas is the only individual charged with copyright infringement by the RIAA who has taken her case to trial.

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DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD

This should have been "legal" years ago... And while this is a good first step, it still has a long ways to go. Paying more money to watch your movies on other PC is silly, only being able to rip the movie "uncompressed" is lame.

And the whole idea of having to pay for the right to copy and watch your own DVD's is just silly....


DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The online music rip-off and the failure of DRM

PC Pro: Blogs & Analysis: Features: The online music rip-off [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DRM-Free Music Spells Trouble

I could not DISAGREE more with this.

DRM is a form of control AFTER the sell. What other products to producers still control AFTER they sell it to you? Does FORD limit where I can drive my car? No! Then why should a movie studio limit which laptop or PMP I watch a movie on (after I paid for it). DRM is an artificial control placed on digital media and I'm happy to see it go.

This doesn't spell trouble, it spells flexibility. But it does it spells the end of high profits from selling low cost copies of music and movies. Ford would love to spend millions designing a new car, but mass produce copies of the car for $500 while selling them for 20 thousand dollars each. The days of selling a CD or DVD for over $20 when it only costs 50 cents to make are over. Movies were invented when the only way to make money from them was from the box office, now they make more money on DVD sales. But have the prices at the box office gone down any? I dont' think they will go out of business if the insanely high DVD profit goes away.

The idea that it is OK to make 4000% profit on selling a plastic disk is dead. Movies will have to make their money in the movie theater, singers and performers will have to make their money at the concert hall. They will still make some profit off of DVD and CD sells (or whatever medium replaces them including downloads) but the cost of these will be much closer to the actual cost to make the discs than it is now. And this is a GOOD THING, not trouble.

DRM-Free Music Spells Trouble: Digitization - Columns by PC Magazine

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/4663/drm-free_music_spells [This Post Continues after the jump...]

The RIAA speaks--and it gets worse

All I can say to the RIAA, is that it is better to remain silent and have the world think you a fool.... than to open your mouth and remove all doubt!!

The RIAA speaks--and it gets worse | The Digital Home - Don Reisinger's take on the tech closest to home - CNET Blogs [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Recording industry should brace for more bad news

Recording industry should brace for more bad news | Perspectives | CNET News.com
By Wayne Rosso
Story last modified Wed Jan 16 16:51:02 PST 2008

The recording industry is facing yet more bad news.

Forget about Warner Music Group's plummeting stock price, or the shrinking retail floor space. Forget about EMI's announcement this week that it's cutting 1,500 to 2,000 jobs. At least the new owners of EMI are recognizing that they bought into a dead industry and are trying to confront it head-on with significant changes in business strategy. It remains to be seen if the suits who now own EMI can navigate the shark-infested waters of a business that feeds on schadenfreude.

The big problem that EMI, and by extension the rest of the industry, faces is the sudden stampede of brand-name artists away from the traditional recording companies. The Eagles are with Wal-Mart, Madonna left Warner for Live Nation, a concert promotion company. EMI has lost Paul McCartney and Radiohead, and Coldplay is said to be threatening to leave. Last week, the label's biggest seller, Robbie Williams, announced that he too would be leaving the label. All pretty devastating.

Record companies have always depended on the revenue and cash flow generated from platinum-selling artists to finance new talent. If that revenue stream disappears, how can they compete?
The case of Robbie Williams is very interesting and will probably be studied in business schools for years to come.

The case of Robbie Williams is very interesting and will probably be studied in business schools for years to come. Williams' managers, Tim Clark and David Enthoven of IE Music, are two of the most savvy, straight-shooting entrepreneurs in the business. They worked diligently to build Williams into a global superstar and then broke industry tradition by virtually creating a new music industry model, the 360 deal. They formed a joint venture between Robbie and EMI. For 80 million pounds ($157 million), EMI got a minority stake in the venture, which included all of the revenue that Williams generates--concerts, record sales, merchandising, sponsorships.

At the time, EMI was assailed for being a sucker, but the reality is that it made a great deal and it has more than paid off. This model has since been duplicated by Linkin Park, Madonna, and several other artists. It has become the rage du jour in record label business affairs departments and hailed as the model that will save the business.

But what Clark and Enthoven realize is that the point in time has come where major artists can do it themselves. First you had the Radiohead experiment. The band has been criticized by industry and media types for botching it and leaving a lot of money on the table. The important issue is that Radiohead made a bold first step, no matter how successful it was. Now artists like Williams can take full control of their assets, and enlightened managers like Clark and Enthoven can implement groundbreaking models that heretofore have been stymied by old-school thinking.

If you're a big enough star, you just don't need a record label anymore. In fact, even if you're an unknown, Clark and Enthoven have shown that you don't need a major record company behind you to be successful. Backed with money from London-based venture firm Ingenious, they just made a deal for a new singer named Sia with Starbucks. The Sia record will enter the charts in the Top 40 in its first week of release.

I don't know if Williams will sign with another record label or not. I really doubt it. The bottom line is that music has lost its economic value to consumers. But it still has emotional value. People will never stop listening to music. They've just stopped paying for it. So the challenge comes in figuring out how to capitalize on that emotional value. There are lots of ways to do that and guys like Williams, Clark, and Enthoven are sure to find them and transform the landscape.


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A Music Tax

This sounds like the CD tax Canada has. Since CD could be used to copy music, the music idustry gets a cut of EVERY CD sold.

Great idea if you're the Music Industry, but silly otherwise.

The Music Industry’s Last Stand Will Be A Music Tax [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Laughing at the music industry!

Who else is laughing at the music industry? | Crave : The gadget blog:

"Warner, I appreciate your attempt to try to make amends, but actions speak louder than words. Call me when you strip DRM from songs, denounce the RIAA and lose the greed."

This is great!! I LOVE Apple, if only because they are doing to the Music Industry what the Music Industry did (and is doing) to artist (singers, song writers, performers, bands, etc). Apple dictates the rules to the labels the same way the labels dictate the rules to the artist, and Apple takes a cut of the profit the same way. The labels all HATE it, but it's just a taste of their own medicine!!

Of course this means that Apple is as evil and greedy as the labels... but that's beside the point! Eventually even Apple will become a useless middleman too.

UPDATE:
Here's more on what I think is the same speech. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DVD Ripping Faces Another Test

Argh... why is Hollywood so bent on protecting an encryption scheme that has been cracked already. The cats out of the bag already people!! If you don't support legal means of putting movies on a jukebox or computer, people will just use other means.

Changing the CCA license will

- do NOTHING to stop piracy.
- put an innovative company out of business.
- give the people that pay for DVD's less choices.
- prove that Hollywood believes there is (or should be) no such thing as "fair use"


It's ridiculous


- DVD Ripping Faces Another Test - News and Analysis by PC Magazine [This Post Continues after the jump...]

$3 DVDs in China

Paramount and Warner Bros. market $3 DVDs in China:

Well, all I can say is THANK YOU pirates. This proves that piracy is a GOOD thing for us customers.
DVD's are too expensive, why do they cost $15-$20 here in the US if $3 still makes a profit? It's pure profiteering by the movie studios an makes there ridiculous claims of loosing "millions of dollars" to pirate all the more silly.

Now if they would just wise up and lower US prices too!! [This Post Continues after the jump...]

P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

Michael Geist - Gov't Commissioned Study Finds P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

If you real about the case the RIAA won recently (RIAA Wins Key Victory) , you'll see that the person they sued for offering 20 songs online, also bought a lot of CDs.

This really is a case of the RIAA suing it's BEST customers.... when will they learn? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Hollywood writers near strike

Hollywood writers near strike over royalties on new technology | CNET News.com

I'm sorry, but just why do these writers think they should get paid continuously for work done once? I mean do the designers at Ford get paid for every car sold? Do most people get paid repeatedly for work they do once? I sure don't.

The whole "royalty" concept is going to hurt us if we don't control it. I don't see why there "artists" think they are different from the rest of us workers. Why should their "x days of labor" drive repeated income while my day's labor earns just a day's salary. I guess it's good work if you can get it, but it's ridiculous.

But in a way I don't blame them, movies and TV shows are way over priced and the money really should go to the "talent" and not to executives at media companies. But that's a different issue. The price all trickles down to us consumers.

Luckily things are changing -- because there are other ways to distribute TV shows now and the "networks" and "media" companies are becoming less and less important.

But it still sounds greedy to me. They want to be paid over and over for writing a funny joke once, where as I get paid once of anything I write at work. Doesn't seem fair to me...

More after the Jump....


Updated 11/3
I've been thinking about this more and more. Running a camera certainly takes talent and skill, and some might even call it an art. But I wonder if the camera operators get a cut of every DVD they sold? I doubt it.

Again I ask, WHY are the writers different?

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Music exec says business model is 'done'

The writing has been on the wall for years... it's good to see that the music industry has learn to read!!

The sooner they give up their insane and draconian attempts to hold on the the OLD business model, the better we ALL will be.

Music exec says business model is 'done' | Tech news blog - CNET News.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Music suit creates discord

Business & Technology | Music suit creates discord | Seattle Times Newspaper


I fail to understand the idea that some people have that they should constantly be paid for their work. Do I get paid for work produced last year? Does Honda get paid every time I drive my car? NO! so why should a song writer or performer? I honestly fail to understand this. Can someone help? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Steve Jobs, Apple, and EMI Get it

Steve Jobs, Apple, and EMI Get it

This reminds me of a Star Trek Quote from "Mirror Mirror"

Kirk and Spock readily agrees that the Empire is doomed; "The illogic of waste", Kirk tells him.

"One man cannot summon the future," Spock reminds the captain.

"In every revolution , there's one man with a vision," Kirk insists. "Be that one man!"

Maybe Jobs is that man for the coming music/entertainment revolution!! ....or maybe not... :-(

Quotes from http://scifi.about.com/blmirrormirror2.htm [This Post Continues after the jump...]

DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach

Michael Geist - DMCA Architect Acknowledges Need For A New Approach:

"Bruce Lehman, the architect of the DMCA said: 'our Clinton administration policies didn't work out very well' and 'our attempts at copyright control have not been successful' ..... While he says that teens have lost respect for copyright, he lays much of the blame at the feet of the recording industry for their failure to adapt to the online marketplace in the mid-1990s."

When something doesn't work, it's time to move on... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

A Message from the RIAA

Alright, you college student pirate assholes, LISTEN UP. Cary Sherman and Mitch Bainwol, the president and CEO of the RIAA, respectively, have a message for you in an op/ed on Inside Higher Ed. Suing all of you is "necessary" because what you're doing is costing "billions of dollars in lost revenue, millions of dollars in lost taxes, thousands of lost jobs." That's right, people are losing their JOBS. Thousands of them. I'm not sure who or what they did, but this is probably because now they're unemployed, thanks to you.

You stole two thirds of your music. You told the NPD you did. So now, "finding a record store still in business anywhere near a campus is a difficult assignment at best." It's not because of Best Buy and Wal-Mart undercutting them with lower prices or anything, it's because those super low prices weren't low enough for your thieving asses.

And these damn universities are so uncooperative. The RIAA is being super helpful and showing them all kinds of ways block P2P entirely to stop you bastards in your tracks, since "the overwhelming, if not sole, use of these applications on campus is to illegally download and distribute copyrighted works." It's not like anyone actually uses that BitTorrent store, after all.

It's a damn shame schools aren't doing more, because they have a "moral responsibility, as educators, as organizations transmitting values" to teach you jackasses not to steal music. Which is why "when schools increasingly provide their students with amenities like cable TV, there is simply no reason not to offer them cheap or free legal access to the music they crave." Yeah, schools should pay for the licenses for those services. The RIAA deserves that money, so they get paid even if you resort to stealing music encoded at a higher bit rate with no DRM. Greedy assholes.

Artists' mansions are shrinking. Their children are only able to afford a Wii and a 360, but not a PS3. Think about that the next time you download Nelly's new album, or even some up-and-coming band's new record which you tell all your friends about so they go to their shows and stuff. You just stole a CD from them.

God, why do you keep complaining about the RIAA? They're just trying to "educate these particular students about the importance of music... and the importance of respecting and valuing music as intellectual property." You don't have to be a pirate for life. The RIAA can help. It just needs a small settlement to get you started. –

Bt Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo

http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/03/15/sherman
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Watermark video to catch pirates

This is really great new. If it really works AND doesn't effect the video quality any, then this is a perfect solution in my opinion.

Video files would be UNPROTECTED meaning you could do anything you want to with them, copy them to a laptop, iPod, DVD, Jukebox, or even give copy to a close friend or family member.

The the video files would ID'ed so that if you did TOO MUCH like up load it to a server or P2P network or NewsGroups, it could be traced back to you.

I would totally support this IF the law specifically allowed you to make backup copies, change the movie to different formats and media AND share it with a limited number of close family and friends.

I honestly think the movie studio need to "give something back" in exchange for this level or tracking and monitoring.

CEBIT: DSL gateways will watermark video to catch pirates

And Here from Gizmodo [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs

The clueless RIAA...

Techdirt: Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs

I spent $1500 on used 286 PC in 1988, and $2400 on a new 486 in the early 90's. But I just built a new dual core PC (reusing some exiting parts) last month for total of less that $800.

But for some reason ....

but the recording industry wants to pretend that music.... should increase in cost over time, rather than decrease -- even as the actual costs of production, distribution, discovery and promotion have all gotten cheaper over time? Sorry, but economics doesn't work that way

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