Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
When is someone going to fix this?
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.
The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.
[us album sales]
Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take.
Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.
The RIAA said it has agreements in principle with some ISPs, but declined to say which ones. But ISPs, which are increasingly cutting content deals of their own with entertainment companies, may have more incentive to work with the music labels now than in previous years.
The new approach dispenses with one of the most contentious parts of the lawsuit strategy, which involved filing lawsuits requiring ISPs to disclose the identities of file sharers. Under the new strategy, the RIAA would forward its emails to the ISPs without demanding to know the customers' identity.
Though the industry group is reserving the right to sue people who are particularly heavy file sharers, or who ignore repeated warnings, it expects its lawsuits to decline to a trickle. The group stopped filing mass lawsuits early this fall.
It isn't clear that the new strategy will work or how effective the collaboration with the ISPs will be. "There isn't any silver-bullet anti-piracy solution," said Eric Garland, president of BigChampagne LLC, a piracy consulting company.
Mr. Garland said he likes the idea of a solution that works more with consumers. In the years since the RIAA began its mass legal action, "It has become abundantly clear that the carrot is far more important than the stick." Indeed, many in the music industry felt the lawsuits had outlived their usefulness.
"I'd give them credit for stopping what they've already been doing because it's been so destructive," said Brian Toder, who represents a Minnesota mother involved in a high-profile file-sharing case. But his client isn't off the hook. The RIAA said it plans to continue with outstanding lawsuits.
Over the summer, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began brokering an agreement between the recording industry and the ISPs that would address both sides' piracy concerns. "We wanted to end the litigation," said Steven Cohen, Mr. Cuomo's chief of staff. "It's not helpful."
As the RIAA worked to cut deals with individual ISPs, Mr. Cuomo's office started working on a broader plan under which major ISPs would agree to work to prevent illegal file-sharing.
The RIAA believes the new strategy will reach more people, which itself is a deterrent. "Part of the issue with infringement is for people to be aware that their actions are not anonymous," said Mitch Bainwol, the group's chairman.
Mr. Bainwol said that while he thought the litigation had been effective in some regards, new methods were now available to the industry. "Over the course of five years, the marketplace has changed," he said in an interview. Litigation, he said, was successful in raising the public's awareness that file-sharing is illegal, but now he wants to try a strategy he thinks could prove more successful.
The RIAA says piracy would have been even worse without the lawsuits. Citing data from consulting firm NPD Group Inc., the industry says the percentage of Internet users who download music over the Internet has remained fairly constant, hovering around 19% over the past few years. However, the volume of music files shared over the Internet has grown steadily.
Meanwhile, music sales continue to fall. In 2003, the industry sold 656 million albums. In 2007, the number fell to 500 million CDs and digital albums, plus 844 million paid individual song downloads -- hardly enough to make up the decline in album sales.
The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.
[us album sales]
Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take.
Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.
The RIAA said it has agreements in principle with some ISPs, but declined to say which ones. But ISPs, which are increasingly cutting content deals of their own with entertainment companies, may have more incentive to work with the music labels now than in previous years.
The new approach dispenses with one of the most contentious parts of the lawsuit strategy, which involved filing lawsuits requiring ISPs to disclose the identities of file sharers. Under the new strategy, the RIAA would forward its emails to the ISPs without demanding to know the customers' identity.
Though the industry group is reserving the right to sue people who are particularly heavy file sharers, or who ignore repeated warnings, it expects its lawsuits to decline to a trickle. The group stopped filing mass lawsuits early this fall.
It isn't clear that the new strategy will work or how effective the collaboration with the ISPs will be. "There isn't any silver-bullet anti-piracy solution," said Eric Garland, president of BigChampagne LLC, a piracy consulting company.
Mr. Garland said he likes the idea of a solution that works more with consumers. In the years since the RIAA began its mass legal action, "It has become abundantly clear that the carrot is far more important than the stick." Indeed, many in the music industry felt the lawsuits had outlived their usefulness.
"I'd give them credit for stopping what they've already been doing because it's been so destructive," said Brian Toder, who represents a Minnesota mother involved in a high-profile file-sharing case. But his client isn't off the hook. The RIAA said it plans to continue with outstanding lawsuits.
Over the summer, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began brokering an agreement between the recording industry and the ISPs that would address both sides' piracy concerns. "We wanted to end the litigation," said Steven Cohen, Mr. Cuomo's chief of staff. "It's not helpful."
As the RIAA worked to cut deals with individual ISPs, Mr. Cuomo's office started working on a broader plan under which major ISPs would agree to work to prevent illegal file-sharing.
The RIAA believes the new strategy will reach more people, which itself is a deterrent. "Part of the issue with infringement is for people to be aware that their actions are not anonymous," said Mitch Bainwol, the group's chairman.
Mr. Bainwol said that while he thought the litigation had been effective in some regards, new methods were now available to the industry. "Over the course of five years, the marketplace has changed," he said in an interview. Litigation, he said, was successful in raising the public's awareness that file-sharing is illegal, but now he wants to try a strategy he thinks could prove more successful.
The RIAA says piracy would have been even worse without the lawsuits. Citing data from consulting firm NPD Group Inc., the industry says the percentage of Internet users who download music over the Internet has remained fairly constant, hovering around 19% over the past few years. However, the volume of music files shared over the Internet has grown steadily.
Meanwhile, music sales continue to fall. In 2003, the industry sold 656 million albums. In 2007, the number fell to 500 million CDs and digital albums, plus 844 million paid individual song downloads -- hardly enough to make up the decline in album sales.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Swipe It
I drove by the Green Hills Mall this past Saturday because it is situated directly between the house I live in and the nearest Walgreens. Given the state of the economy - 534,000 losing jobs over the last month (Nov), I expected the mall to look more like a set out of an old Western movie - mostly abandoned with the exception of drunks hanging from the doors of Cheesecake Factory at midday and the passing tumbleweed - than the mall of, say, 2004.
As I got closer I began to see the Christmas lights hanging in the three story atrium from across the hill. I could already see the unavoidable, impenetrable ring of cars all drooling for a parking spot like sharks circling their prey. I was shocked! Isn't everyone out of money? Didn't everyone get fired over the last 30 days? Something doesn't add up.
But wait, even if I'm out of money... I guess we could all just put it on the card. Great Idea! People use their cards for different reasons. Sometimes we want the airline miles. Sometimes it's the Marriott Rewards. But a lot of times it's because we don't have cash. Not just, "I don't have cash at the moment." BUT "I don't have THE cash." There's a difference. When a majority of America is spending money it doesn't have and will soon owe most of it at a sky high interest rate, something bad will happen. Multiply that with inflated house prices and money tied up on Wall Street in inflated stocks and the last 3 months happen. Poof! Gone. Our economy built on fake services and fake investments was over-inflated. There was no real wealth there. The country's productivity did not increase. But back to the mall...
It is strange to me when my usual 4 minute run to Walgreens turns into a good half hour trip. If things are supposed to be this bad across the country, then why is everyone shopping? It doesn't add up. People must be spending money in there. I can only hope everyone is making deposits in the ATMs. So here's the warning: Don't go to the mall and spend your "disposable (slash non-existent)" income on an LV Purse or a Burberry Suit and expect to get bailed out. What do you think you are as big as GM?
Monday, December 8, 2008
Because I Like Songs
Skinny Love - Bon Iver; These Long Summer Days - She's Spanish, I'm American; So Easy - Royksopp; Love is No Big Truth - Kings of Convenience; Ain't Gonna Lose You - Brett Dennen; Impossible Germany - Wilco; A&E - Goldfrapp; Crying - TV on the Radio; Closer - Kings of Leon; Big Chair - Travis; Bruises - Chairlift; Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen; Reckoner - Radiohead; Give Me Your Eyes - Brandon Heath; Momma's Boy - Chromeo; Plastis Wafers - Of Montreal; Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show; Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg; Far Away - Cut Copy; The Country Life - Silver Seas; We Are All Forgotten - Paper Route; Flashing Lights - Kanye West; Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes; Two - Ryan Adams; Librarian - My Morning Jacket; New Soul - Yael Naim; You Appearing - M83; I've Seen Enough - Cold War Kids; Cure For Pain - Jon Foreman; Mansard Roof - Vampire Weekend; Bixby Canyon Bridge - Death Cab for Cutie; Naive - The Kooks; Lost! - Coldplay; Video Killed the Radio Star - The Presidents of the United States; For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Responsibility
25 November 2008 - Word For the Day
Taking personal responsibility
"If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you."
Proverbs 9:12 NIV
To display the kind of responsibility that makes you successful in life: (1) Recognise that gaining success means practising self-discipline. Every time you stop yourself from doing what you shouldn't, and start doing what you should, you're increasing your capacity for responsibility and the rewards it brings. (2) What you start, finish. There are two kinds of people: those who will and those who might. Responsible people follow through. And that's how others evaluate them. (3) Don't expect others to do it for you. Paul writes: "Each one should carry his own load" (Gal 6:5 NIV).
Addressing students at the University of South Carolina, Chief Judge Alexander M. Saunders said, "As responsibility is passed to your hands it will not do...to assume that someone else will bear the major burdens, that someone else will demonstrate the key convictions, that someone else will run for office, take care of the poor, visit the sick, protect civil rights, enforce the law, transmit value, maintain civilisation and defend freedom...What you do not value will not be valued, what you do not remember will not be remembered, what you do not change will not be changed, what you do not do will not be done. You can, if you will, craft a society whose leaders...are less obsessed with the need for money. It's not a question of what to do, but simply the will to do it." Sometimes we don't take responsibility because we believe others are more qualified. No, those who make a difference in life don't do so because they're the best qualified, but simply because they decided to try. Plus: God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called!
Taking personal responsibility
"If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you."
Proverbs 9:12 NIV
To display the kind of responsibility that makes you successful in life: (1) Recognise that gaining success means practising self-discipline. Every time you stop yourself from doing what you shouldn't, and start doing what you should, you're increasing your capacity for responsibility and the rewards it brings. (2) What you start, finish. There are two kinds of people: those who will and those who might. Responsible people follow through. And that's how others evaluate them. (3) Don't expect others to do it for you. Paul writes: "Each one should carry his own load" (Gal 6:5 NIV).
Addressing students at the University of South Carolina, Chief Judge Alexander M. Saunders said, "As responsibility is passed to your hands it will not do...to assume that someone else will bear the major burdens, that someone else will demonstrate the key convictions, that someone else will run for office, take care of the poor, visit the sick, protect civil rights, enforce the law, transmit value, maintain civilisation and defend freedom...What you do not value will not be valued, what you do not remember will not be remembered, what you do not change will not be changed, what you do not do will not be done. You can, if you will, craft a society whose leaders...are less obsessed with the need for money. It's not a question of what to do, but simply the will to do it." Sometimes we don't take responsibility because we believe others are more qualified. No, those who make a difference in life don't do so because they're the best qualified, but simply because they decided to try. Plus: God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called!
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