Recordable Media a Bigger Threat Than Filesharing?

Matilda the Hun writes "The Register is reporting on the RIAA claims that recordable media is more of a source of piracy than P2P networks. From the article: 'The RIAA's chief executive, Mitch Bainwol, last week said music fans acquire almost twice as many songs from illegally duplicated CDs as from unauthorized downloads, Associated Press reports. According to Bainwol, in turn citing figures from market watcher NPD, 29 per cent of the recorded music obtained by listeners last year came from content copied onto recordable media. Only 16 per cent came from illegal downloads.'"

Comments

RIAA should address the cause

[bigwavejas]

It seems to me like the RIAA is stabbing blindly in the dark. They constantly shift their attention from one medium (for pirating) to another. Instead of focusing on the symptoms they should direct their attention to the cause. I know I'd buy more music (cd, mp3 or ?) if it was reasonably priced. $1 dollar/mp3 and $12.99 or more for a CD?? I'm sure they have some justification for the pricing, but... obviously something's amiss. I'm not advocating pirating music, but I do think until a happy "middle-ground" is found, this problem will not go away.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[overshoot]

I'm sure they have some justification for the pricing, but... obviously something's amiss. I'm not advocating pirating music, but I do think until a happy "middle-ground" is found, this problem will not go away.

So quit whining and act like an adult: if you don't like the RIAA's tactics, put your money behind someone who treats you better. I'm currently having a minor love affair with MagnaTune [1] but suit yourself.

Just quit pretending that it's someone else's job and that you can have it all without any inconvenience. [1] They don't do DRM, they sell you 100% recordable disk images, and they pass 50% of sales to the artists. Isn't that what we've been saying we want?
OK, they don't have your favorite payola-pumped band. That sets a pretty good price for your stated principles. Maybe if you took your money elsewhere that would change, eh?

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[nkh]

The "copyright infringement isn't theft" is my favorite, as it in no way justifies breaking of the law. I also hear that music sucks these days, and it's not worth buying. Yet the same people fill their hard drives with this "crap". That's hypocritical. Grow up.

How about the taxes I pay on every blank CDR and every GB of my hard disks? With these taxes, I help the funding of associations like the RIAA without listening to their crap.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[happyemoticon]

Certain technologies which the **AA's love attempt to tie your copy of Dirty Harry to your DVD player and your DVD player only. DIVX was the first implementation of this, and it was universally shunned, but don't think for a second that they're not trying to bring it back when the next generation of digital media comes out. I know for a fact that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have embraced digital watermarking - how it is implemented remains to be seen.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[SeeTheLight]

or if the player were to mechanically break down and scratch the CD (especially computers reading digitally at 52x)

Add to that list "or if the player were to completely shatter the CD while trying to read it in the drive.". I've seen it happen once.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[AthenianGadfly]

"... doesn't matter, you still can't legally copy them and distribute them."

Actually, as far as copying goes, you can legally make a backup copy under fair use - for just such an instance (the original media is lost or damaged). While you certainly can't go in for wholesale distribution of copies, if memory serves fair use also covers lending media to a friend.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[shark72]

"but I'm going to assert "complete and utter bullshit,"

Out of line.

"(For example, "The Very Best of Kenny Rogers" on Amazon: $5.95 on tape versus $9.95 on CD). Based on what I've seen, margins on CDs must top 50% -- unless record companies take a significant loss on cassettes."

Yeah, my guess is that the cassette version has been price protected (that is, the record company issued a credit to Amazon to help them sell it down). Not a huge demand for Kenny Rogers cassettes any more. Price protections are likely built into the margin model for record companies; the 20% guesstimate accounts for price protections. The record companies may very well be taking a bath on unsellable cassette inventory, but they make it back on the platinum-selling CDs. The recording industry is a speculative market and the 20% net margin estimate is an end-of-year average, but not typical per-piece net margin, if you know what I mean. You're probably correct that the big-selling CDs might net 50%, but those sales help pay for a lot of failures.

In case you're curious, Amazon makes about 12 - 15 points per sale and disti take about five points, so the net sell-in price (after price protection) was about $4.85. I'd count about $2.00 in royalties for Kenny and crew (he does a lot of covers and doesn't write a lot of his own stuff, so I'm sure there's a lot of mechanicals and compulsories in there) and maybe another buck for shipping and miscellaneous overhead (record company employees do not work for free). So, if the cassette cost them two bucks to make, you're correct that they're taking a loss after the price protection -- hence the sub-20% net margin even while they may make > 50% on some CDs.

FWIW, similar things happen in the computer industry. I manage a line of peripherals that everybody reading this has heard of (and might even own) and my net margins range from 5% to 50%. The average net margin from my brand is somewhere in the middle.

I hope this helps.

Re:RIAA should address the cause

[shark72]

"I am not arguing that piracy is ok. But compared to actually stealing something? It's not the same thing. It's even worse when you call it 'piracy', because piracy is a much worse crime still."

Copyright infringement and piracy are synonymous. I think you may be confused by the fact that piracy has multiple meanings, as do the word "bark" and "desert". The meaning to which we are referring is (per "dict piracy" in your Firefox address bar):

The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.

e.g. we're not talking about running a pirate radio station or taking things from boats. I infer from the .cx in your domain that you're not a native English speaker, so the confusion is understandable.

An interesting bit of trivia is that the use of the word "piracy" to describe unauthorized copying goes back some four hundred years; if that's not older than the word "copyright," then it's at least older than copyright law as we know it.

I hope this helps.

Music fans???

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe they meant to say pirates acquire almost twice as many songs from illegally duplicated CDs as from unauthorized downloads...

Private Copying 2003-2004 Decision

[JonN]

You can read about the Copyright Board's Private Copying 2003-2004 Decision here.

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

... Cause I certainly didn't pay for the right to listen to that crap-ass eminem song that my idiot neighbor likes to blast out his stereo at 1AM.

Independent music...

[utopianfiat]

There are a lot of independent bands out there that SUPPORT sharing their shows and albums just so they can get some widespread exposure.
I can say that ever since I was invited to a special private torrent tracker for non-RIAA-only music, I have gone to more concerts, bought more music, and supported more artists through purchase of swag than I ever had before.
I'm not going to link to the tracker here (for slashdot's sake, their bw bills are high enough...)

Re:CD-R tax

[Gobelet]

Well that's why we always say here in France, but they just tell us to fuck off. We have CD-Rs for almost 2$ a piece FFS!

Re:Hide your mix tapes!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Such a tax HAS been added to CD-R (Audio) discs. The CD-R (data) discs don't have the added tax, but arent' supposed to be used for music.

In fact, many of the dedicated CD copiers (the stereo component item, not the PC drive) won't work with CD-R (Data) discs... ...which is precisely why I WON'T buy one of the component items....

F the RIAA