A burning issue: Music piracy and downloads

USA Today ^ | 6.4.02 | No byline

[rickyc]

Do you know of any really good ones for a Mac? Thanks!!

[nemo]

Is it possible that CD sales are down because music quality is down? I don't I've heard any decent new original music in the last several years.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

WinMX is very, very good and easy. Much like Napster was. I am going to try AudioGalaxy right now. It looks excellent.

[The Bored One]

They all have spyware ... except for Kazaa Lite www.kazaalite.com . I also believe the same people that cleaned Kazaa into Kazaa Lite may have removed the spyware from audiogalaxy as well?

[tdadams]

The reality is that the artist generally winds up with a net zero after a successful album...

You're preaching to the choir. This has been my business for 15 years.

You're talking about standard contracts though, which are only signed by foolish new artists, who hire their uncle the accident and injury lawyer to represent them with the label. Hardly anyone pays for "breakage" anymore. Many artist contracts are renegotiated after a hit album and the artist does get a decent amount of income from album sales.

Many of the biggest artists, namely Garth Brooks, Metallica, and Michael Jackson, have negotiated more equitable profit-splitting arrangements with their labels. This hasn't trickled down to smaller artists though and I can't see a day when this becomes SOP.

However, some ideologically driven record labels, like Subpop, have always done profit-splitting deals with all their artists.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Well, I guess we should stop singing in the shower and reading magazines in dentist offices because that technically violates copyright laws too.

Wouldn't singing in the shower be considered a First Ammendment freedom of speech issue?

[tdadams]

Not quite correct. If I bought a cd and made 1000 copies just to have a 1000 backup it is my absolute right under fair use.

No, that's not correct, at least not according to the law. The copyright law, as it's literally written, permits one personal copy. However, if you were to make 1000 copies and they were in fact for personal use (try proving that), the copyright police aren't going to come and knock down your door.

[tdadams]

Is it possible that CD sales are down because music quality is down?

Or that the economy is down and that other industries have seen even bigger dips in their sales?

[E Rocc]

KaZaA (Watch out for associated spyware with this one)

The stuff Kazaa bundled into itself is horrific. The Brilliant Digital stuff is more like a virus than spyware and is very tough to remove.

To get on the Kazaa system get Kazaa Lite instead.

-Eric

[tdadams]

Well, I guess we should stop singing in the shower and reading magazines in dentist offices because that technically violates copyright laws too.

No it doesn't. Copyright law pertains to music in a fixed format (ie - a CD, cassette, digital file, etc). You may get some hassles from BMI or ASCAP though. They're the performing rights organizations. And they mean business.

[E Rocc]

Audiogalaxy is excellent.

It's very good but is now getting sued.

Run Ad-Aware after installing any of these. If you've installed Kazaa Lite don't delete the "CTL - something".dll file, its a dummy that simulates the spyware.

-Eric

[steve-b]

I read the other day where an NBC TV exec accuses TIVO owners of theft by not watching commercials

Here's the main Slashdot thread, with links to other related stories.

[Greeklawyer]

Post a copy of the law.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I read that somewhere! It blew my mind. It made me want to hunt the money grubbers down and open their skulls just to see what kind of rotten putrifaction was living in there!

[Greeklawyer]

I agree, but I would change my legal perspective based
only on black letter law.

[rdb3]

Illegal downloading "definitely has the opportunity to become a bigger problem as more households have CD burners," Shalett says.

To be honest, whether one is pro or con in this issue, it's really all irrelevant.

The genie is out of the bottle, and he ain't going back into it no matter what anyone does or says about it.

[tdadams]

I'm not near my books at the moment, but if you have a copy of Shemel & Krasilovsky's book on copyright law, it's in there. If this thread is still going later today when I can get to my book, I'll copy it verbatim.