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KaZaA Wants to Be An Official Content Distributor
scubacuda writes "Detroit News: Nikki Hemming, CEO of KaZaA, says KaZaA wants to be the official online distributor for the entertainment industry. 'Realize that this technology is inexorable, and come to the table,' says Hemming to our friends Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti."
"When users want one, they pay a royalty fee. If they want to share files, the system forces the next person who wants to get it to also pay the fee. '
so this is really where KaZaa 'comes to the table' and joins the establishment.
Advertising can only take you so far. At some point you've got to sell your soul and talk to the bigwigs.
What kind of safeguards are going to need to be put in place to make sure that content isn't simply distributed to the ends of the earth like it is now? Un-bypassable commercials?
I have been pwned because my
Paid downlaods and pirated versions of the same song, side by side...
Who doesn't like free music?
inexorable
\In*ex"o*ra*ble\, a. [L. inexorabilis: cf. F. inexorable. See In- not, and Exorable, Adore.] Not to be persuaded or moved by entreaty or prayer; firm; determined; unyielding; unchangeable; inflexible; relentless; as, an inexorable prince or tyrant; an inexorable judge. ``Inexorable equality of laws.'' --Gibbon. ``Death's inexorable doom.'' --Dryden.
(courtesy dictionary.com)
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Kazaa has basically made it's reputation spitting in the face of media companies. Their attitude to the RIAA and the US Government has been one of defiance, and frankly, arrogance from the very start.
Record labels will build their own online distribution points. Most of them are quite committed to the day Kazaa ceases to exist. If THIS was the strategy of Sharman Networks from the beginning, it was ill-concieved at best, and idiotic at worst. You don't piss in the face of competitors, laugh at them for it, and then expect them to actually WORK with you.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Personally, I think a tool like Kazaa would be perfect for a TV network to distribute programming. They could seed next week's episode of whatever into the network and allow it to be distributed to those who want to receive it. Use DRM to expire content after a week after you first play it if you want, but this would allow me to retrieve a program and then watch it at my convenience.
.... oh shoot... I just dropped my rose-colored glasses... nevermind...
(I'd prefer a TivO, but they're not in Canada, yet...)
Wouldn't it be something if a network actually embraced Kazaa?
'Realize that this technology is inexorable, and come to the table,' says Hemming to our friends Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti."
Continuation of blurb above... "'Realize that this technology is inexorable, and come to the table. Just make sure your pants are at your ankles when you are bent over the table signing the deal because either way you are taking it in the ass, at least when you get *pumped* by me you get a little money"
I predict that if this happens, the FastTrack protocol will be modified and used within a 'Kazaa-lite 2' P2P network (I can see some areas where it can use improvement, too).
The Kazaa people might have a monoply on Kazaa now... but it won't last if they do this (because obviously they're going to have to add some sort of DRM or other limits to the P2P network so that it's profitable).
Kazaa is already an official distributor of viruses so sure, why not. I have become quite intimate with my Registry since installing Kazaa (and not in a good way). It's enough to make a guy go legit!
not of the end user. They have been actively trying to get their software onto machines without the users' knowledge.
And, do they not realise the Hillary Rosen stepped down from the RIAA? Keep up.
This will never work. The credibility of this service now could not be worse with the RIAA et al, they would never agree to sell their content on Kazaa. Especially since the Kazaa model would give them very little control over their own content, they'd never go for it. Presumably Hemming knows this (I can't imagine her being naive enough not to), I wonder if she is just taking the opportunity to try and goad Rosen and Valenti...
This is a great idea that KaZaA has been trying to implement for quite some time now. However, after seeing musicians challenge Apple to force selling of entire albums as opposed to just songs it's almost clear that the RIAA isn't willing to do away with its current business model to stop copyright violations. The RIAA wants everyone else to change but won't think about changing themselves.
For some reason, reading this, Realize that this technology is inexorable, and come to the table,' says Hemming to our friends Hilary Rosen and Jack Valenti.", immediately made me think of ELP's, Brain Salad Surgery. If this isn't a 70's rock and roll prediction of KaZaa and the Net, I don't know what could be....
.
....
. .
Step inside! Hello! We've the most amazing show
You'll enjoy it all we know
Step inside! Step Inside!
We've got thrills and shocks, supersonic fighting cocks.
Leave your hammers at the box
Come Inside! Come Inside!
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!
Left behind the bars, rows of Bishops' heads in jars
and a bomb inside a car
Spectacular! Spectacular!
If you follow me there's a speciality
some tears for you to see
Misery, misery,
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!
Next upon the bill in our House of Vaudeville
We've a stripper in a till
What a thrill! What a thrill!
And not content with that, with our hands behind our backs,
We pull Jesus from a hat,
Get into that! Get into that!
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!
There behind a glass is a real blade of grass
be careful as you pass.
Move along! Move along!
Come inside, the show's about to start
guaranteed to blow your head apart
Rest assured you'll get your money's worth
The greatest show in Heaven, Hell or Earth.
You've got to see the show, it's a dynamo.
You've got to see the show, it's rock and roll
Soon the Gypsy Queen in a glaze of Vaseline
Will perform on guillotine
What a scene! What a scene!
Next upon the stand will you please extend a hand
to Alexander's Ragtime Band
Roll up! Roll up! Roll up!
See the show!
Performing on a stool we've a sight to make you drool
Seven virgins and a mule
Keep it cool. Keep it cool.
We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
were exclusively our own,
All our own. All our own.
Come and see the show! Come and see the show! Come and see the show!
See the show!
Hilary: Hey, Jack, did you get that email from the Kazaa guys? :)
Jack: Yeah, what about it?
Hilary: Is that something we should consider doing?
Jack: Did I miss Hell freezing over or something?
Hilary: No, no, I'm just fucking with you
Jack: Phew, I thought you were serious there for a minute. Don't do that!
Personally, I wouldn't touch anything that has the word "Kazaa" in it with a ten foot pole. Best to stay far away from that advertisement & spyware-ridden beast. Advertisements I can deal with. Spyware on the other hand is intolerable.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
While this statement might seem like anathema, I believe that distribution of the latest games through P2P content is a great way to "push" new games as they come about, rather than having to wait for physical media to be manufactured, or strain a single download server.
With increasing number of game consoles connected to the net via broadband connections, I believe the revolution that must be grasped is the fact that games will be online already. Therefore, a viral distribution mechanism whereby gamers download games from each other rather than through the outdated 20th century paradigm of buying physical media for one lump sum will be compelling and open new possibilities for design.
The interest and challenge for game designers will be to segment their games in a way such that one can get "started" playing immediately on a partial game download (and probably pay a little as each game downloads), while the rest of the game continues to download in the background, and in my laboratory, we are currently investigating architectures, both software and economic, for such "game streaming", as we call it. Think of it as the old Apogee/iD games where you downloaded/bought games one episode at a time.
As for issues of payment, authentication and piracy, with games having an online component, people will pay not to get the actual code or the media, but rather a "account", "CD key", or other unique identifier. Because such identifiers are always maintained on the server side, they are a (and the only guaranteed) crack-proof way, since one can't crack them client-side.
We at Nintendo are quite excited about such potential revolutions in game distribution and marketing, and look forward to a future where people are empowered to share their games, rather than stigmatized for it.
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
Is it me, or does it seem like the last stage of a P2P before collapse is attempting to go legit?
you know things are going to hell when they start charging for illegal downloads
Why not? They already charge a levy on CD-Rs for illegal copying of copyrighted music.
"I've been called worse things by better people." -Pierre Elliott Trudeau after being called an asshole by Richard Nixon
Hahaha! That's great. I'd call it a score 5 troll but the terrorism bit probably goes a bit far. Worth a 4 at least. Too bad you posted anonymously.
BTW After we get Kazaa are we going to label Finland as a rogue nation? After all that Linus guy is from there and every red-blooded American knows that Linux is taking money from all the good corporations.
The Anti-Blog
She's still with them through the end of the year.
You make some excellent points here. I agree that given the resources and time, KaZaA can be crushed. However, the only issue with crushing KaZaA is the users. We as internet users ( yes; like parent, I also have illegally downloaded music/programs/movies from my peers, so sue me ) are far too used to getting these things for free; that we take its legality for granted.
If you ask the average person on the street who uses a computer if they download music and such from KaZaA, chances are, they will say yes. It is also likely that they either don't realize that it's illegal or don't care, as the mentality of "they'll never catch me" applies to most internet users.
If KaZaA is destroyed, some other service will take reign of the illegal file sharing business. It's going to be nearly impossible to stop the everything-is-free mentality of p2p users.
Added to this, many users of KaZaA and the like are minors who do not have credit cards or any other means to support a pay-per-download mechanism. Unfortunately, because these users are so young, they do not have the moral upbringing to realize that copyright violation is stealing.
Okay, I'll stop typing now.
I could see BitTorrent being embraced by the media companies, simply because it is less associated at its core with infringing on IP and such. The media companies have had huge legal battles with Kazaa; why would they possibly want to have anything to do with them besides trying to shut them down?
If Kazaa sells out, I bet people will move to freenet, gnutella, or some other less centralized network.
Kazaa's intention to distribute licensed content via its users rather than via a central server
Kazaa intends to reward users with 'points' which they can spend on more content or prizes, for distributing this content for them
What remains to be seen though, is whether users will be willing to pay for the kind of content that they are used to downloading for free, and could probably obtain for free elsewhere. Given that Kazaa's users are already used to this convinience, it seems unlikely that they will start queueing up to get their copyrighted files in legal form. This is especially true since the download of these new licensed files from other P2P users will likely be no faster or more reliable than other files of more dubious legality. Also by allowing users to handle the distribution, the door is opened for cracks that allow people to start handing out their already purchased content for free. I'm unsure how Kazaa intends to stop this from happening, and with the files already stored on a user's machine, any method they select should be fairly simple to overcome.
Nonsense. The ethics people follow does not arise from governmental actions. If you stop downloading and you tell your friends that "theft is wrong", the situation might change. However as long as you are promoting your ethical views through hypocritical anonymous ranting that promote government-organized regulations, the rest of the world can be rather certain that your views will not become any more popular than they already are.
The truth is that the majority of people don't care all that much about copyrights and it would take something completely different from what you describe to change this situation.
Napster, Kazaa and Gnutella, etc. are great for poor people (i.e. most of us) or for companies that aren't making any money off the downloads to serve large amounts of data without buying expensive infrastructure. However, for a business that actually expects to make money off the service, I think that distributed P2P is irrelevant. You lose control over quality of service and availability without saving that much money.
I don't see why the music industry would use Kazaa's technology and I don't see why users would want Kazaa's nasty DRM.
Kazaa represents not piracy but a new market. The force that you see causing havoc is due to the market not being satisfied. Just like prohibition, where there is a need it WILL be satified. Put DRM on machines... fine. Bring lawsuits on customers... fine. Employ illegal tactics to try to disrupt the services... fine. Do anything beside scratch the itch that is the percieved destroyer of your previously succesful business... fine. When you wake up to reality and things CHANGED, with or without your consent or participation, it really is not anything but your own fault for missing the "window" of time you had to embrace the new market.
This has proven to be both enevitable and incontrivertible. Intellectual property will not be respected at the loss of market. Content will continue to be king, but it's shelf life and control will be a LOT less then what has been enjoyed in the past.
Sooner or later, the widespread distribution of near-perfect digital copies will destroy the market for commercial recordings, and make the production of the very product consumers seem so eager to pirate impossible.
:)
Sooner or later, the widespread distribution of near-perfect horseless carriages will destory the market for, not only the horseshoe producers, but the horse breeders, the carriage makers and all the various things which go into horse-based travel, and make the the production of the very product consumers seem so eager to change impossible.
Travel however, will still be available.
Nice troll, though, you managed to get modded up.
Anybody who cares about the system of intellectual property which has made the American entertainment and information technology industries so dynamic, and enjoys their fine products, from Windows XP to the "Lord of the Rings" movies to your new cell phone with built-in games and internet access, should understand the necessity of crushing Kazaa once and for all.
What should be crushed once and for all is Microsoft and the RIAA.
On the off chance that you're serious, do you really want to lump Microsoft, the recording industry, and the film industry together? No doubt the MPAA has done some heinous things, but at least those folks can reliably deliver good products at reasonable prices. The brand new extended cut multi DVD package of LOTR is like $28; whereas any crap band you can name goes for $18 for a CD.
There's just something about the recording industry that has them pushing inferior products at ultra-high markups. God bless Kazaa, especially if it hastens the recording industry's ruin. I'm never going to give the RIAA another nickel, if I can help it. I support the bands I like by catching them live, and if I really want a new CD I'll buy it at their show or order it from their online store (so they walk away keeping at least half the price of the CD.) And yeah, I listen to a bit of commercial garbage, and the stuff I like I buy used, listen for a while, and then trade it in. That way, the record companies don't get a penny.
And as for Windows XP and Microsoft, don't get me started.
Once again, however, I'm not defending the MPAA people so much as saying that at least they are capable of delivering a great product at a reasonable price. I think the world would be a better, richer place with a far more flourishing software and music scene if Microsoft and the big music labels were systematically denied their income. I'm voting with my wallet to make that happen, and you should too.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
What a surprise! It's been posted somewhere else!
As for piracy, I'm sure people are using it steal hordes of music. For my part, I use it to sample new music and I own the majority of my music. If I find songs that I like, I actually buy the album. If not, I delete them. But every day people use ordinary products for illegal means. Should we ban cars because they are used for drug trafficking?
Legally Kazaa is covered because they are a file distrubtion system whatever their organizational structure may be. IMO, the RIAA and MPAA have created the beast that they are fighting. Their strong arm tactics against ordinary users have caused businesses to resort to cloak and dagger actions or they could be sued into oblivion.
By the way, I wouldn't use the terms "fine products" and "Windows" with this crowd. You'd start a riot.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Aren't they that already?
It's going to be pretty hard to gain credibility with ANY company, when every single search phrase comes up with something about child porn.
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
If Kazaa plans on making money from using other people's bandwidth, isn't that going to be in violation of some ISP's service agreements? I know my ISP prohibts "commercial" use, so if I share files and for which I am paid in some form, wouldn't that in violation of that agreement?
Granted, they don't seem to mind p2p right now unless they get a notice from the RIAA/MPAA, but if Kazaa goes legit I could see them demanding a piece of the pie too.
KAZAA
There is no escape. Don't make
me destroy you. You do not yet
realize your importance. You
have only begun to discover your
power. Join me and I will complete
your training. With our combined
strength, we can end this destructive
conflict and bring order to the
galaxy.
RIAA/MPAA
I'll never join you!
-------- This space intentionally left blank --------
It like the gangsters get together and meet with teh FBI and say
"You give us a piece of the action and we will limit crime to only say 80% of what it is now."
"It's in both our best interests. We already know how to distribute illegal goods. This way it stays at a managable level"
Insane. Kazza aproachs it's arch-enemy and proposes,use our service to sell your goods.
You can't touch us in court because we're incormporated in some unknown island, so you better play ball.
Shouldn't someone at Kazaa have read the book, "All The Rave: The Rise And Fall Of Shawn Fanning's Napster"? Wouldn't they have learned that one of the reasons Napster failed because they tried to hardball the labels and back them into a corner? Just because Kazaa, Napster, or whoever, has the technology and the users, the industry still has the law and the money.
"KaZaA Wants to Be An Official Content Distributor"
And I want to be an Astronaut.
I think I like my chances better.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
No name "independant" artist? You mean the kind that isn't forced to process their music into mush in order to meet the recording industries version of marketable music. I don't want recording companies deciding what bands should be popular and available. I want good bands tomake it big not ones seleted by whomever to be their new "big hit".
Creative Demolition
Having their trademarked name in alternating caps doesn't speak volumes about piracy intent, now does it?
ph33r.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
This is where the entertainment industry tells them to go fly a kite.
I guess next bank robbers will be getting jobs delivering money to banks.
Kazaa can burn in hell.
I have my issues with the RIAA and MPAA, but I would never suggest to anyone with any sanity whatsoever to become a partner with Kazaa.
Kazaa is already an official distributor of viruses so sure, why not. When users want one, they pay a royalty fee. If they want to share files, the system forces the next person who wants to get it to also pay the fee.
Is this the best security/virus profit center ever or what? You trust that thing to bill you? Ha!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
and people in hell want ice cream.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
On the surface, what you say makes sense, but after reading it twice it falls apart. You are using the "worse criminal" defense for the RIAA and MPAA. In other words, you want to "crush Kazaa" and let the RIAA and MPAA completely off, because you believe that Kazaa is the only bad guy here. Well, I've got news for you. The RIAA and MPAA (both of whom you think are blameless here), brought this whole thing upon themselves. It started with a cartel attitude they got long before Kazaa even existed. The RIAA has spent years screwing the consumer, the songwriter and the individual artist, while at the same time reciting a mantra that it claims to be HELPING them! The MPAA does the same with actors. They are trade and lobbying groups who only seek to benefit their members. I work in radio and based on your statement, the NAB is good for radio and TV. I'm sure if you ask my unemployed friend, he might give you his impressions which run quite contrary to yours (and he's a conservative republican!). Kazaa should be looked upon as the digital equilavent to the VCR. If you recall, the MPAA wanted to kill that golden goose too. Once they were smacked back by the Supreme Court, cooler heads prevailed over the rantings of Herr Valenti and now the movie industry makes OVER HALF of their income from video rentals and sales. The same could be true of p2p. P2p has the ability to make the music and movie industries TONS OF MONEY! Even 'evil' Napster wanted to cut them into this golden gravy train and their pure ignorance resulted in them again killing the golden goose! But based on your logic, a new entertainment source that had 45 million users that paid for their own storage, marketing and transportation can only be used for evil purposes..right? The bottom line is this: Given a place to BUY MP3's at reasonable prices, people do..IN DROVES! Same is likely true of movies too. Look, when CD's first came out, they cost about 3 bucks apiece to make (mostly because of the huge amount of failures that had to be tested out of each batch - they virtually had to test every individual CD). That alone justified their (almost triple) cost over vinyl. Now they stamp out CD's for a couple of pennies - yet charge more for them. I remember my friend buying an LED digital watch for 300 bucks in 1974. These days, digital watches cost 99 cents! YET the CD hasn't come down a penny! At the same time, the artists and songwriters get less (real) money then they did 25 years ago! Why? Simple greed. Nothing more, nothing less. What the RIAA wants is to kill this threat to their existance...nothing more. Why the MPAA lets Herr Valenti rant again escapes me too... What the record and movie industries don't seem to realize is that they're essentially becoming redundant. Their product isn't necessary for life like food, heat, transportation, clothes and shelter are. In a bad economy (like we have right now), those things take precedence over music and movies. Restaurants are taking it on the chin too...last week I went to my favorite one (after almost a year) and the normally full restaurant was almost empty. Car sales are so in the toilet that that they are throwing out 0% financing for five years now, hoping that someone buys! Yet, I don't see Congress passing laws making supermarkets or busses illegal. Plus, there is a huge fight for the entertainment dollar out there. Video games, digital TV, DVD, Satellite TV and radio, paint ball, fishing, camping and about 100 other things are competing for it. The RIAA and MPAA should be kissing the ground that their consumers are still loyal after them calling them criminals, rather then intimidating them in court!.
Greedy providers of a product of dubious legality from an overseas legal loophole-protected island who riddles user's computers with spyware/adware and the like
Greedy non-providers of product which is sold at artifically inflated prices, monopoly destroyers of competition, and wishes to install spyware on the computer to prevent you from fair use and privacy.
Well, they do at least have alot in common.
What the hell is the difference?
Ryan O'Rourke
And hence the downloads degrade nearly every generation. IMHO Kazaa is the most comprehensible source for incomplete and corrupted files.
--- Eat my sig.
> Kazaa has basically made it's reputation spitting in the face of media companies.
.001% of the profits and if the user downloads anything but approved RIAA content we do a pop-up warning. After the second warning we wipe their drive. Deal?"
Perhaps, but they also share a complete disdain of anything that gets in the way of profits. I doubt kazaa would have any problems pushing the most draconian DRM app in their newest update. I can picture the hypothetical conversation right now...
"Okay, so we agree. Kazaa gets
"Umm, can't you do a little better?"
"Okay before we wipe the drive we'll do 20 wipes on their My Documents folder and media files so they can't recover them."
"I like, but its missing something..."
"It'll post their SSN and any personal info we find during install to a newsgroup too."
"And send a 'I quit letter' to their boss and a 'You were never a good mother' email to their mom?"
"Deal. No one reads these EULAs anyway."
KaZaA: Now Distributing All the Porn and Warez the World has to Offer for Only $19.95 a month!
And, if you order now, we'll also include a free 5-warez trial of UniversalKeygen v1.0!
This offer is not available in stores! However, the first 50 callers will receive a free plastic keyboard cover, mouse cover and even a monitor cover! NO MORE CLEANING UP THAT MESS AFTER VIEWING THAT FAKE BRITNEY SPEARS HARDCORE ACTION FLICK!
Just call 888.PIE.RACY
Trent Polack
www.polycat.net
KaZaA to media organizations:
"Either get in business with us or we'll continue making it dirt-easy to steal your content."
See also:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/87/E0298700.html
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
"Is it always this bad right after a story is posted? Or perhaps the subject just brought out the loonies.."
:)
You're new here, aren't you?
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
Phase 1: Create platform that allows people to easily violate copyright laws.
Phase 2: Switch sides and join with copyright owners.
Phase 3: ??????
Phase 4: Profit!
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
So who gets my money when I download a pre-coitus pic of some jilted lovers ex partner?
Would this not be like the grocery store not letting me leave after my grocery purchases until I bagged and carted 5 or 6 of the customers behind me in line? Listen people, if you want to sell a product and make a profit -- pony up your product, disk space to hold said product, and your bandwidth to distribute the product. Why should I have to make a purchase and then wander around the cyber store why you sucked my bandwidth AFTER I have opened my wallet, to sell to the guy behind me. Damn -- brokers.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
What a complete piece of flem! Not only does KaZaA infest computers with spyware, the sleezebag company is lobbying to impose a tax on all internet users to pay for their theft.
Personally, I can see no reason why people who do not partake in file sharing and are very concientious of others intellectual rights should end up having to pay the price for KaZaA's actions.
Isn't it interesting how people who are theives at heart tend to so quickly look to taxing others.
Of course, the whole point of P2P is to push the cost of your entertainment on othe others. So, demanding that others pay a direct tax is really not a stretch.
Since most politicians are theives at heart, it might pass.
Now the RIAA and MPAA have seen an alternate model that actually works. KaZaA is making their bid now because they know that Apple, Microsoft, and a host of other players are jumping into online distribution with both feet.
It was easy to be the poster child for disgruntled consumers before the music industry made the deal with Apple. Hell, KaZaA could get away with all kinds of bullshit that nobody would put up with from an established software company.
KaZaA's moment of maximum impact on the industry has already been passed. They're scrambling to be relevant in an industry that is finally moving into the future.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Not as a type of pay system. The brand name is far too entrenched in the 'free' mentality.
I don't care how you market it, or how you spin it....the brand Kazaa cannot coexist with the concept of "money changing hands".
If you want to use a P2P type system, that's OK (kind of once you get around ISP personal account bandwidth restrictions). But don't attempt to call it Kazaa, or Napster, or any permutation thereof. Give it some rational name.
We don't need industry middlemen jacking up prices so they can continue to take a slice anymore than we need buggy whips.
Unfortunately, we do. Those are the guys that front the money for producing and promoting the album. How many bands out there have enough cash upfront to buy serious studio time?
Now....te question is...do those middlemen take too much for their cut? Probably. That is what needs changing.
"Moral upbringing" is irrelevant, because there's no question of morality involved.
What's the moral difference between recording to analog cassette off the radio which is explicitly legal and recording to MP3 format? What's the moral differnce between tape swapping and file swapping?
Perhaps your RIAA propaganda has an answer for that. Hint: Don't try "perfect digital copy" bullshit here, you can't do that with 128K MP3 which is basically broadcast quality when ripped if everything goes right. Analog information gets lost when a 50 meg file is compressed to about 5 megs. If you were into music, maybe you'd know the difference. The difference is why people buy CDs instead of MP3s.
Most parents are of a generation that grew up recording off the radio to reel-to-reel and later casettes. They are NOT teaching kids that the slightly modernized version of what we did when we were kids is wrong, because they don't see any moral difference.
That's because there isn't any, and not all the RIAA propaganda in the world, not even that parroted here by "useful fools" and people on the RIAA payroll will cause anybody who understands the issues to see a difference.
Why have record companies paid radio stations to play back their materials for generations despite the fact that people will STEAL IT!!!? Because the only value a broadcast-quality audio track has is to promote the actual product, which is a CD album, and nobody will buy the product outside of RIAA label suit fantasies. So the record labels give away free reduced quality samples to induce people to buy the product.
Why aren't the labels thrilled to distribute their promos via P2P and Internet Radio on the dime of the listener?
They have no control over distribution, everything that hits the network has a chance that people will listen to it and buy the CD. Whether the track comes from a bedroom studio or the latest "hot new discovery" (aka n'Sync clone). And they don't have enough confidence in their ability to do a better job of making stuff people will want to hear than a no-budget indie to tolerate a level playing field.
The only difference between "stealing" via digital and legitimate tape swapping is simply that the RIAA paid to get digital recording by end users without DRM illegal back in 1992. (Audio Home Recording Act)
So leave off with the moral bullshit, the RIAA bought the law fair and square and now are openly discussing getting cyberterrorism (you want to explain how "destroying user computers" can be called anything else?) to attempt to enforce the law.
As to why CD sales are dropping, there are lots of reasons starting with the fact that fewer CDs are distributed per album, the market is fractionating into niches too small for record labels to exploit via FM radio (know how many kinds of metal there are?), the economy, etc.
P2P isn't one of the reasons. It's just another promo distribution channel. If people hear tracks they really like on P2P, they'll go buy the CD because it sounds better.
Ask Eminem. His album was prereleased via P2P and went straight to #1... notice he isn't whining about P2P cutting into his sales.
I suspect Eminem himself pre-released it. . . being smarter than the people he and perhaps you work for.
Madonna cut a track whining about EVIL PIRATES and got that into P2P channels. Her album went into the toilet and her career is following it.
As a published writer, I don't favor copyright violation. However, I don't favor making xerox machines and PCs illegal to keep my stuff from getting copied, either. I just get pissed if it gets resold. People copying it for their own use... unlike you, I get the concept of fair use.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Take any of the posts you see in this thread and replace "Kazaa/KazaaLite" with "Napster" and you have almost the exact same story...
You cannot legitimize something that is illegal. Abuse it while it is still here, because anyone who thinks that Kazaa will be any different from Napster ("dead man walking") is sadly mistaken.
User logging on... 300 baud... 300 BAUD?!? (Click!) NO CARRIER
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Every year it is getting cheaper for musicians to produce themselves, this trend shows no sign of letting up. Plus, there are options to the "5 major label" system for distribution of music on the net right now. The only piece missing is promotion ....
p2p is showing us the power of grassroots word of mouth to the max. If one of you geniuses could tie an opensource p2p app with an open source jukebox app that spits out true favorites charts, and pays the content creators 0.05 dollars per download through micropayment schemes, using performance rights organizations as a model (bmi, ascap), you could create the majorist of all music labels. And get your music way cheap without "stealing". A penny for your thoughts, a nickel for a song, and forget corporate control of music ever existed.
maybe the meek will inherit the earth. maybe the stars will realign. maybe the true stars will shine without the hollywood filter
Hey, there's no ELP on the iTunes Music Store! What's up with that?
:-)
John Peel once said "ELP are a waste of talent and electricity."
Their critics were less kind.
(Finally, a chance to use one of my favourite quotes
Slashdot looked deep within my soul and assigned
me a number based on the order in which I joined
Instead of waiting for the [MP|RI]AA to kill them, they decide to commit suicide.
They push viruses. They (try to) push spyware. They (try to) sell my CPU and bandwidth. Now they want me to pay them for the priviledge of receiving content from Bob. And they expect me to give that content to Sally when she pays them.
In other words, they want us to pay to commit (in the [MP|RI]AA's eyes) piracy, with only their say-so that it's above board.
Here's a better idea. When I want to download from Bob, I pay Bob and trust him to pass the money on to the rights holders. When Sally wants to download from me, she pays me. Kazaa can go screw themselves, and die penniless and alone. Hell, I'll cheer on the [MP|RI]AA when they finally bring these fuckers down.
You think that a company that's asserting that the technology (peer to peer) is here to stay would realise that the moment they try to turn that technology into Kazaa-to-slave, they'll be dropped faster than SCO shares.
I walked away from Kazaa (lite) a long time ago. eDonkey (well, eMule) is where it's at today. When that goes darkside (maybe tomorrow), there's always gnutella. P2P is here to stay. Rosen and Valenti can't stop it. Kazaa can't sell it out. They need to realise that the days of obscene profits from music and movies are over. It will be lean days ahead, and while that sucks for the working Joes in those industries, well, if you're still making buggy whips when the first automobile drives into town, you belong to the past, not the future.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
We seem to be getting off topic in this thread, going back to defending/attacking filesharing itself. I'm puzzled reading the news article. Why is Kazaa doing this? They give no real mission statement or reason for wanting to become an 'official' distributor of media, whatever that is. There's nothing on their website.
There can't possibly be a good outcome from Kazaa's efforts to reach this Faustian deal. Even if an agreement is reached with record companies, it will be so tailored to their interests that users will quickly migrate to whatever new free filesharing utility is out, and they'll be in the history bin along with Napster.
Then why does Kazaa want to do this? If they feel the future is in paid-for file transfers, they betray the principles they had in launching the software (they don't approve of transferring copyright materials--Please!). Do they honestly expect to make money off this? Or are they suddenly filled with conscience and a yearing for industry respect?
We can debate all we want about the ethics of file transferring. It will go on until the day the internet is shut down, and after then we'll trade burned mp3 CDs with our friends. The only way we'll see 'official' file-transfer sites is when they're free, or so cheap that people will pay to avoid the nuisance.
I still think it's possible for record companies to make money off free music; radio stations do it for them every day. But for this to happen, there will have to be a quantum leap in how record companies view this technology, and Kazaa for now is wasting their time and credibility hoping for that to happen. Or am I missing something?
Ken:> http://keneckert.byus.net/wabbit--- You can click here to listen to mp3s from my band. Maybe it's awful music, but it's free, and no focus group told me how to record it.:>
Again I'm stuck trying to ponder why I would re-purchase something I've already purchased? Just to have it in the newest media/technology with the little extras that the production house decided to add-on for good measure so that they can sleep better knowing that they've somewhat bettered the product?
Well all of you know that's bullcrap...
Send me your money -Suicidal Tendencies
Afterall, isn't exactly what we're supposed to be paying for? New technology with sharper this and crisper that? In which case it's not really the material that's new and only the media that's improved is it not?
Everybody is out to make a dime anyway. How many people have gotten jipped by buying something that they had already on Vinyl or Tape only to find out that whatever new media they were getting their material on, wears out just the same after normal use.
So to resume, aren't we stuck in a consumer circle where the technology gets improved but not enough to outlast time, for a few new frills? With the advent of DVD and newer movies I would agree that you get more bang for your dollar, but for the older material? No way.
In which case you have old bands comming out with new stuff which is fine for the newer technology, but just remastering something over and over to sell something to some poor fool that needs to spend money on a simili-product.
It also bothers me that this new technology is being produced on the sweat of the previous products and that the market will turn around and choose to discontinue any media that they find redundant or not market conscious. What do you say to that?
Everybody together now: FUCK
QD p.s. how's that for being sheep?
Razor911 wants to be a legal distributor for the PC Gaming industry.
Frog