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RIAA Admits SOPA Wouldn't Have Stopped Piracy
jfruh writes "One of the arguments against the now-dormant SOPA legislation was that, in addition to eroding Internet freedom, it would also be ineffective in stopping music piracy. Well, according to a leaked report, the RIAA agrees with the latter argument. The proposed laws would 'not likely to have been an effective tool for music,' according to the report. Another interesting revelation is that, despite the buzz and outrage over P2P sharing, most digital music piracy takes place via sneakernet, with music moving among young people on hard drives and ripped CDs."
Don't.
Make the labels feel guilty for making such a system possible by not upgrading their ways.
They are the ones who actually came out and straight-up said they don't give a damn about the digital age and won't support it, and will do anything in their power to destroy it.
Megaupload was the most successful thing they have ever had against such a digital service.
Of course, now the evidence is piling up that the entire case was illegal to begin with and not a single shred of evidence was in their favor in the slightest.
Just keep spreading around that the labels are corrupt, make as much noise as possible and let the artists themselves know about it.
They are the ones who need the most help.
They are the ones who are duped in to thinking the labels are even needed anymore. It was true over a decade ago, not so much now.
The labels job as-is is completely useless for any artist. You could take them out and artists, choreographers, singers, bands, CG modellers, stores, printing companies and so on could still find each other pretty damn easily.
Maybe one day we will have a world where creative content is free of these restrictions and it is loyalty that is rewarded.
I get most of my music via free, legal downloads from artists and labels that offer them for promotional reasons. But I don't see this on the chart at all. Am I unusual, or was this deliberately left out of the RIAA's calculations?
The labels are not needed for the artists, but they are needed for the entertainers. Do you really think Justin Beiber would have gotten anywhere without a billion dollar marketing machine? With independent artists, music would be about the music and people would find the music they like. The marketed entertainment industry dwarfs the music industry, and that is what they are fighting for.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
The RIAA wants us to repurchase our media collection every few years to change formats so they can include DRM. It was bad enough that my 500+ cassette tape collection needed to be repurchased as CD audio. I was pissed, but the difference in audio quality really did matter to me for most of them. OTOH, my Judas Priest tapes weren't repurchased.
Around 1996, I converted my thousands of music CDs bought during the years of BMC Music club membership into MP3 files. It took me over a year doing about 5 CDs every day to finish. Usually 2 before work and 1-3 in the evenings. Computers were much slower back then, so doing a rip/lame was about 45 minutes per CD. It was like eating an elephant one bite at a time.
Every few years, I need to move those files to new storage media. Of course, they are backed up too - there's no chance that I'll be redoing all that time and effort again. When I need to move the data, I don't use a sneaker net. I have a real network, thank you.
I was unhappy with some of the prices of those CDs, but at least I "own" it. Clearly I was confused. I'm unhappy with current pricing for electronic music and don't believe I "own" anything afterwards. It isn't exactly "property". It feels imaginary. At least the question whether a music file will play on my systems today or in 50 yrs from now has finally been answered - no DRM.
SONY's attempt with a rootkit convinced me to never put a music CD into a mainstream OS again AND it proved to me never to trust big content companies AND never to buy software or hardware that is required to support their business failing DRM models.
I've tried a few different DRM-encumbered music files over the years through free samples.
The "Plays-for-Sure" stuff never played.
The Apple stuff never played.
Those failures convinced me to never buy music electronicly.
RIAA - "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
I'm not "breaking the law" here.
The title of the bill will feature both "child pornography" and "terrorist".
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Once again the "Free Market" prevails. We have Justin Beiber instead of good music. Thank God! Who would want a world in which talented creative people are well rewarded for their work and untalented teen age boys were simply teen age boys instead of semi-iconic sex idols for prepubescent girls. I for one happily bow to the marketing overlords.
No sigs in BETA. Beta SUCKS.
Call me paranoid, but sometimes I think that some of the anti-piracy proposals are not about stopping piracy. SOPA, for example, could have made it impossible for a site like YouTube to exist, which in turn would make it difficult to share user-generated content. Because it made it dangerous to host user content and content from independent sources, it would risk forcing sites to only allow content being distributed from major corporate sources who could be verified to own the content.
It's not certain, but it could have been viewed as pushing us back towards broadcast networks where ISPs and large media companies act as gatekeepers on what information and entertainment you have access to.
Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
People do not want good music. People want to be popular. Entertainment marketing is about convincing people they will be popular if they like (and purchase) a particular kind of entertainment. The trick is producing entertainment watered down enough that you can get a large number of people to not hate it.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
Not only that, but Justin Beiber (going from info on his movie) actually had to go around the standard labels and get popular by putting videos up on YouTube and touring around the US doing concerts at highschools and county fairs as well as doing radio appearances. This is because the labels didn't think music from a 16 year old boy would sell, especially from a person that was previously unknown for anything. By the time he had an album released, he already had quite a following. There's a million examples of artists that are the result of the music industry marketing machine. Justin Beiber is probably one of the worst examples you could pick.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.