Music Industry Drafts Code of Conduct for ISPs

An anonymous reader writes "The Register is running a story about how the music industry is trying to get ISPs to sign 'code of conduct' agreements to cut people off for excessive bandwidth usage, to turn over details of users on demand, and to block certain 'illegal' websites." From the article: "According to the draft, the duo want ISPs and network operators to 'enforce terms of service that prohibit a subscriber from operating a server, or from consuming excessive amounts of bandwidth where such consumption is a good indicator of infringing activities.'"

Comments

Sounds like a good deal

[Anonymous Coward]

And so what do the ISP's get in return?

Customer satisfaction?

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[Ubergrendle]

Deep down, ISPs know that widespread consumer adoption of high speed internet is ONLY fueled by three things: video, music, and games. Yes there's lots of legitimate uses for high speed, but tech-savy folks do not make up the lion's share of the consuming public.

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[tomhudson]

Of course, the high speed connection isn't used for too long--just until the server melts down...

That's the reason to have an ISP in between - this way, your net connection acts like a fuse, and IT melts down before your server does ...

Now, how about a code of conduct for the music industry?

1. No more "pop tarts" (that means you, Britney)
2. No more re-re-re-re-releasing material with slight changes in format/mix, etc
3. End payola/free drugs once and for all
4. Guarantee a fixed percentage of every dollar earned goes to artists
5. Tickets for everyone to the "cattle prod vs RIAA masters" event.

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[stlhawkeye]

Deep down, ISPs know that widespread consumer adoption of high speed internet is ONLY fueled by three things: video, music, and games.

I'd says porn and games are interchangeably #1 and #2. And the rest is clearly and unquestionable and overwhelmingly illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

Remember - just because YOU and YOUR FRIENDS buy what you download, most people do not.

Regardless, they're not going to win this way.

Before refridgeration was a household technology, people who needed ice had it delivered. There were lots of companies that provided this service. There were also lots of dairy-delivery companies too. My grandfather used to deliver milk.

Anyway, enough people had refridgeration in their homes at a certain point that the death of dairy and ice delivery was inevitable. Some companies tried to fight this. Some tried to point out the flaws in home-made ice. Some tried to point out the expense. Some even appealed to consumers on the grounds that good hard-working men were losing jobs because the evil consumer was making his own ice rather than buying it from a good ol' fashioned American company.

It all fell on deaf ears. Only one ice company survived the collapse of their market. It was the company that opened a new type of store - a combination service station/grocery. You could buy ice there, sure. In blocks or bags. You still can. They became 7-11, and not only did they survive the death of the ice market, they went on to insane profits that were never possible in the ice industry.

Now, making ice in your home isn't illegal. Downloading copyrighted music that you haven't purchased is. So the analogy falls apart there. However, the RIAA's approach to solving his is akin to the ice delivery services trying to get in-home freezers banned because it's screwing up their business model.

Well, tough shit. Agile companies that spot trends and capitalize on them survive. Bloated bureaucracies of self-serving directors eventually die. That's capitalism, and that's how it ought to work. It's a shame that their business model is failing because of massive copyright infringement, and not because of a legitimate new business. It's even more of a shame that stuff like iTunes came along as a solution to the piracy problem, when it should have predated it.

They missed the boat on the Internet. Napster was there before iTunes, and the idea of free music is now forever ingrained into the social consciousness of on-line culture. Sometimes companies can divorce a culture of this link, but usually not. All photocopiers are the "Xerox" machine, all tissue is "Kleenex", all flying discs are "Frisbies" all adhesive bandages are "Band-Aids". Even RollerBlade was only partially successful in protecting their brand from being synonymous with the product. These companies would be foolish to spend money on a campaign to break this association.

And that's why the RIAA is foolish. It's too late to stop this. It can't be stopped through legislation, legeal threats, copy protection schemes, the DMCA, or anything else. The only thing that can stop it is for them to find a way to make it more convenient for people to get the music they want at a cost so marginal that paying for the added convenience is worthwhile.

Until and unless you run a very significant risk of getting caught and prosecuted, it won't stop. And people will suffer the eroding of their rights only so much in an effort to protect the revenue streams of millionaires.

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[zaphod123]

And if they are not going to let us make a backup copy of the media, they should provide a lifetime warranty on the media. This includes cd's, dvd's that are out of print.

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[Dhaos]

Not only are you right, you are -so right- it hurts.

As has been mentioned before, ISPs currently enjoy the status of "common carrier", the same status afforded to telecommunication companies, and even, i believe, postal services.

Being a common carrier works as follows: You are not liable for damage done due to communications over your network. If Osama uses Pacific Bell (or whatever phone service) to plan his next attack, Pacific Bell is not liable.

But the rationale for common carrier status is that you -do not know- what traffic is being carried over your network. The second you begin filtering out sites and noting suspicious people as a business, (the government could probably do these things to your network, but thats another story) you're putting youtr common carrier status in jeopardy.

So yes, they likely would pick up a ton of liability. Which is why they will likely politely decline to acquiesce to this request.

Re:Sounds like a good deal

[stlhawkeye]

Probably not. Nearly 100% of competitive [wfdf.org] discs are discs [discraft.com] and I'm willing to bet that competitive disc sales outweight recreational Frisbee [wham-o.com] sales.

You misunderstood. No matter what kind of disc I buy, I call it a Frisbee, and so do most people. No matter what brand of tissue I buy, I call it Kleenex, no matter what kind of bandage I buy, I call it a Band-Aid, even if our photocopier is a Canon, I tell people to go "Xerox this document." The sales figures are irrelevent. These brands are irrecovably associated with the product type rather than a specific brand of it. The point was to provide an illustration of unbreakable social consciousness. In classic Slashdot form, you've missed the point and instead attacked ancillary data.

Re:More information

[The Real Andrew]

And there I was thinking it was the porn industry that was the driving force on the internet

What about

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is drafting a 'code of conduct' for
the record companies that sign 15 year olds
to lifetime exclusive contracts?

Censorship

[Richie1984]

I can understand the record companies from their perspective thinking that this is a good idea, but to what I hope to be the majority of outsiders, it seems a lot like asking ISPs to censor what their customers are trying to view.

Regardless of how you view file sharing, I think it's quite obvious that the record companies seriously need to update their business model before they are totally overtaken. Trying to censor the web, or suing people left, right and centre will just lead to negative publicity

This is actually a good thing.

[pclminion]

It gives me one more criterion to use when filtering out ISPs I don't want to use. Signed this agreement? Then I won't be your customer.

It really shortens the list.

And in other news...

[Samurai Cat!]

ISPs are banding together to insist the record labels stop putting out shitty music. :)

Dear RIAA,

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Thank you for your interest in the well-being of our customers. Or perhaps in the well-being of non-customers; specifically, you. Remind us again who pays us? Oh yes ... our subscribers. Thank you for your consideration. Now please go away.

Sincerely,
The ISP industry

Drafting

[dynoman7]

What a cowinkedink!!!

I am currently trying to get the music industry to sign a code of conduct too! In a nutshell, it says that the music industry will supply us with quality music (down with Britney!) at a resonable price ($5 a cd anyone?) and fair use rights (cd mixes for my *cough* girlfriend!). I'm having trouble getting them to sign. Please advise...

And how...

[Gr8Apes]

would they separate those using Video conferencing tools, or sharing their personal pictures, or playing online games, or downloading a BitTorrent of a Linux distribution or seeding it, for that matter, podcasting, or any other number of legal activities that "could appear to be infringing" by bandwidth only metrics?

Seriously, these folks need to be laughed out of court.

Better Option

[Pieroxy]

I think they should ask ISPs to stop people that use the Internet altogether. That way: No Internet piracy!

Wait a minute...

Re:Better Option

[glesga_kiss]

I think they should ask ISPs to stop people that use the Internet altogether. That way: No Internet piracy!

You meant it as a joke, but I think we all know that they would if they could. Like some other industries that have already been decimated*, and some others that are yet to come (e.g. broadcast TV)...

These are the same folk that tried to ban the VCR; the problem with the internet was that it was too rooted by the time it started to cause them problems.

* travel agents, postal services and so on

Re:Better Option

[orangesquid]

Seriously.

If the music industry tries to say I can't run a server, I'm gonna say that they better distribute my music projects FOR me since they won't let me distribute my independent music on my own.

Not like they'll care.

Re:Better Option

[MikeFM]

I personally would drop any ISP that signed this agreement (or that even followed these ideas). I'm already pretty pissed off at most ISPs and have dropped several for misbehavior. I think what we need is a user union that can teach companies who screw with us who is the paying their bills. Something akin to a large religious group or parent group but with a non-religious freedom-oriented set of goals.

Re:Better Option

[starrsoft]

I work for a travel agency. We haven't been decimated by the internet. We have adjusted. We have gone from mainly domestic (20/80 international/domestic ratio) to mainly international (90/10). International is not offered as well on the internet because it is so complicated. We also have numerous special contracts with the airlines, as well as consolidators and wholesalers. We have found our niche and adapted as a result of changing technology. **AA should too.

Re:and pretty soon

[mrscott]

Ok... could ISPs that don't sign this be called CoC blockers?

Funny Metallica quote

[Anita Coney]

I was watching a movie about Metallica's history on VH1. (It was late and I couldn't sleep, that's why!)

As you probably remember the drummer for Metallica, Lars Ulrich, came out strong against Napster and P2P. He called it stealing, theft, and other bad words.

But the VH1 show had an early interview with him and he was asked about how the band initially succeeded. He claimed "We made a demo and I gave ten copies to ten friends. They each made ten copies for their friends. As did those friends."

In other words, sharing is great when it helps you. But it's criminal when it hurts you.

Re:Funny Metallica quote

[stratjakt]

He was way wrong, because he forgot who his fans are (well, were) and where he came from.

Metallica couldn't get a record contract to save their lives. In those days Van Halen was risky. Noone wanted to touch them.

It was people like me, passing around bootleg tapes, saying "Dude!! listen to this shit! These mofo's are HARDCORE!"

I traded a bunch of Metallica on Napster and others. None of the studio stuff. Every fan already has a copy of Master of Puppets, Ride, or Kill 'em All. Most of the Metallica trading was live shows (especially stuff with Cliff, or even the way old stuff with Dave), rarer stuff like Green Hell. The same bootlegs and live shows that made the band.

I'm not justifying the legality of any of it, but that's what pissed off the fans. It was a big "fuck you, we don't need you anymore now that we're rich!". I *made* them rich, by going to the concerts, buying the T-shirts, picking fights with Megadeth fans, and hyping them to everyone I knew.

While I still like the older music, I'm no longer a Metallica fan. They should have let someone else be the industry bitch. They blew it, big.

Re:Funny Metallica quote

[drxenos]

"If Microsoft made toilet paper it would be called Butt Wiper." Brian Briggs

Shouldn't they call it "Anal Explorer"?

Bandwidth consumption

[thewiz]

consuming excessive amounts of bandwidth where such consumption is a good indicator of infringing activities.

This is a very bad way to determine if someone is sharing or downloading songs, movies, etc. I pull down patches for my Linux, AIX, OS X, and Windoze boxes on a regular basis. I easily exceed several gigs a month just doing this not to mention web surfing, viewing online videos, animations, NASA TV, etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ISPs are only supposed to provide a way to access the internet. They aren't supposed to provide services for companies that want to snoop on the ISPs users; i.e. they provide bandwidth not Deputy Dawg services. I hope that the ISPs are brave enough to stand up to this and tell RIAA/MPAA where to stick their agreement.

As long as the publish the list.

[LWATCDR]

So I can get a new ISP.
Actually I would love it if the music industry would sign a code of conduct as well.
Lets see.
Any employee caught providing drugs or sexual partners to performers would be fired and turned over to the police for criminal charges. If not the Board of Directors are help criminally responsible. If football players have to take drug tests why not employees of music companies. I would love to see them declared a "drug free workplace". If you want you can let the artists off the hook. I want the A and R men, execs, and producers tested:)
The music industry would provide 401k, medical, and health insurance to performers.
If a record is not publishes and made available for sale for a period of one year all rights are returned to the artist.
Accounting standards and full disclosure of those standards.
If they want to write "codes of conduct" they can start at home.

A comcast rep once called me

[stratjakt]

And very politely started tiptoeing towards bitching me out, asking a bunch of questions about my net usage.

I'm really not a bandwidth hog, I don't run P2P 24-7, once in a blue moon I'll fire up bittorrent for some reason or another.

I do use OpenVPN, I get my email from work, my kid brother connects to my LAN via OpenVPN, mostly so we can play games (much easier than forwarding umpteen billion ports for whatever we feel like playing that day).

Well, the customer service guy calls because they noticed the VPN traffic. Or rather, SSL traffic on port 1194.

It says in the AUP that I can't run a VPN or servers of any sort (does that mean I can't host a two player game of quake?). He started dancing around the issue, and as soon as I saw where he was going we had this exchange:

"Is there a problem with my network usage?"

"Umm, well maybe"

"Am I abusing the network, hogging bandwidth"

"Well no, but we noticed a lot of traffic on a port known for VPNs"

"OK, well go ahead and cancel my account. I've been meaning to go with satellite and DSL for a while now, I just couldn't be arsed to climb up on the roof and install it."

He apologized and hung up. I couldn't believe that I threatened the cable co and they backed down.

Anywho, I'm fully prepared to follow through. SpeakEasy and Dish Network are but a phone call away.

Slashdot, since you're completely in cohoots, will speakeasy be signing this agreement?

Re:I don't think so

[Proney]

I honestly don't think that the RIAA/MPAA expect one single ISP to sign something like this. What they're trying to do, in my estimation, is to create a portfolio of 'goodwill attempts' to combat online copyright infringement. Once they have enough of these attempts thrown back in their faces, they'll be able to go to court and say "See? We tried, we really really tried, but they just aren't willing to compromise. Please step in and help us!"

Scary part: It'll probably work.

How about Code of Conduct for Music Industry?

[Morgaine]

"Music is Driving Growth in Digital Commerce"

That's pretty hilarious just in its title. Music may be popular, but the restrictions on growth have come entirely from the music industry. Digital commerce tried to take off by itself as soon as MP3 appeared and bandwidth allowed, and it was very forcefully blocked.

The title is disingenuous in that it implies kudos to the wrong party altogether. It should have tacked "Despite Music Industry" on the end.

Re:I work for an ISP

[Big Mark]

Who'd really be stupid enough to fake a judge's signature?

Re:More information

[frikazoyd]

Okay, so I only skimmed the article, but it seems like John Kennedy is trying to guilt-trip ISPs into signing an agreement. He's saying "We spend nearly 66% of our income on research and development, so we're the reason that people have high bandwidth now. So, help us police the internet and we'll keep dumping money into R&D."

Then he goes on to say (and has the audacity to title this argument "Music is Driving the Digital Revolution") "Selling digital music is a good market". Okay, how is the success of the iTunes Music store "Driving the Digital Revolution"? Really? I'm waiting... That's what I thought. It isn't. In fact, he doesn't even have an argument for this. All he can say is "Selling songs online is getting us money again." That's hardly revolutionizing. Revolutional would be "Musicians sell their own music online." No, this is just the old business model with new technology, the same technology they're trying to stagnate and police.

In related news...

[Anonymous Coward]

RIAA is trying to get a bill passed to prevent companies from selling and shipping modems faster than 300 bauds. Anything faster is an indication that the consumer is engaging in piracy. When told that the consumers suffered long waits when accessing websites, the RIAA spokeperson retorted that Lynx was a very good and capable browser.

RIAA is als*#$%(@)(@)^(_!_)~&!@^ NO CARRIER

Re:More information

[Reziac]

ISPs are like highway departments; they each maintain a stretch of highway (internet), which is used in common by a lot of drivers (users).

And the fact that you happen to be driving home from robbing a bank (downloading naughtyware) IS NOT THE BUSINESS OF THE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT (ISP), nor of the Society For the Prevention of Road Noise (the **AA and their kin), nor of the bank that got robbed (the infringed artist).

Crime is the business of the *police* (gee, it's STILL the business of the *police* in cyberspace, imagine that), not of any common carrier, business association, or individual.