Posted on 02/02/2003 9:51:50 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
He understates the downside: DRM == Big Brother Inside. The RIAA is foisting a surveillance state that the Stasi could only dream of on us in order to protect music copyright. We have to decide which is more important: copyright that is strictly enforceable, or the rights spelled out in the 4th Amendment.
For $9.95 a month you can paly any or all to Warner and subsidiaries music with on demands streaming audio. The software is well designed and makes handling playlists simple.
If you want to burn a CD, it costs $0.99/cut. I think what most of us object to is paying $13 or $14 for a CD with only one or two good cuts on it.
I expect to see the prices come down as other major labels begin to compete, but it is a start.
So9
A very bad argument. An equal number of Germans thought it was OK to kill Jews.
Didn't your Mom teach you that "Just pecause others do it doesn't mean it's right."?
If you want to change the RIAA and its affiliated companies position on this topic, organize a one year, world wide boycott of all RIAA member music products. Send the sales of the members of RIAA to zero. Then they will be willing to negotiate, on our terms.
After all, music is not like food. It's not required to sustain life. We can subsist on all our existing CDs, LPs, MP3s, etc. until we bring the RIAA to heel.
Anyone remember the digital format that successfully implemented copy protection? Digital Audio Tape. Made everybody rich, right?
Who wrote the current perverted version of copyright laws? The founding fathers, or lobbyists for the big media conglomerates?
Who wrote the current perverted version of copyright laws? The founding fathers, or lobbyists for the big media conglomerates?
The original intent of copyright law was to provide income to the individual who created a work for a limited number of years. The current version provides income forever to lawyers and the corporations who own them.
Neither. Congress did it, as dictated by the Constitution and as recently affirmed by the Supreme Court.
Will the Supreme Court affirm it when the current versions are repealed because they are unenforceable without resorting to a police state? Or are you one of those people who is all for a police state?
I never used to read the EULAS but I'm much more careful these days. Here's the DRM part which sounds like they can invade your PC, update itself at will, delete unprotected content etc. Somewhere in the agreement it says they can "remove" "unlicensed" material from your PC. Amazing.
Once I'd read the EULA - available for review ONLY during the install - I cancelled the install and called to cancel the sale which they did - reluctantly. 8. DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ("DRMs"). a) The Software includes a DRM called the RealSystem Media Commerce Update Software ("Media Commerce Software") and may include third party DRMs as Plug-in components, which are subject to their own license agreements. DRMs are designed to manage and enforce intellectual property rights in digital content purchased over the Internet. You may not take any action to circumvent or defeat the security or content usage rules provided or enforced by either the DRM or the Software. DRMs may be able to revoke your ability to use applicable content. RN is not responsible for the operation of the third party DRM in any way, including revocation of your content. RN is not responsible for any communications to or from any third party DRM provider, or for the collection or use of information by third party DRMs. You consent to the communications enabled and/or performed by the DRM, including automatic updating of the DRM without further notice, despite the provisions of AutoUpdate defined in Section 6(c). You agree to indemnify and hold harmless RN for any claim relating to your use of a third party DRM.
b) Content providers are using the digital rights management technology contained in this Software to protect the integrity of their content("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Owners of such Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may, from time to time, request RN or its suppliers to provide security related updates to the DRM components of the Software ("Security Updates") that may affect your ability to copy, display and/or utilize the Software. You therefore agree that, if you elect to download a license from the Internet which enables your use of Secure Content, RN or its suppliers may, in conjunction with such license, also download onto your computer such Security Updates that a Secure Content Owner has requested that RN or its suppliers distribute. Unless notification is provided to you, RN and its suppliers will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or other information, from your computer by downloading such Security Updates.
c) The Media Commerce Software allows you to receive and playback content that has been digitally secured by a content provider. The Media Commerce Software interacts with your computer in the following ways:
1. Hardware information: In order to download the appropriate software, RealOne Player must send certain anonymous information about the hardware on your computer to the RealNetworks download server. Once the software is installed, information about your hardware will not be stored on any server. Hardware information will also be sent for content passes, as described below.
2. Content passes: When obtaining passes for playback of content (such as a music or video file) in RealOne Player, information about your specific Media Commerce Software installation and hardware will be sent to the content provider for inclusion in the pass. This installation and hardware information will be scrambled a different way each time it is sent, usable only for inclusion in your pass.
3. Personal information: Media Commerce Software will not associate itself with any personal information in RealOne Player or anywhere else on your computer. RealNetworks' use of any personal information is governed by the RealNetworks privacy policy (http://www.realnetworks.com/company/privacy/index.html). RealNetworks does not share with third parties any personal information you provide in connection with our products without first obtaining your informed consent.
4. Financial information: Media Commerce Software does not interact with the process of secure financial transactions, e.g. credit card transactions. These transactions are handled by the website providing the content and are governed by that party's privacy policy.
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Sheesh!!! What the author said was;
"The customer is always right. In this case, the customer is everybody who listens to music, even when that music was obtained in ways that the RIAA doesn't like. Music companies and Disney will adapt or die."
Nobody is interested in the tortured legalities manufactured by lobbiests and politicians.
I'm a teacher, and I can tell you, my students just grin whenever someone mentions buying a CD. "Why would you spend that much money when hardly any of it gets to the singer?" Whenever I ask them if they'd be willing to pay $.50 a song to the artist who actually created the music, almost 100% of the answers are in the affirmative.
Twenty years from now the RIAA's self-destruction will be studied in college courses as the red-letter example of how not to treat your customers. The RIAA, of course, will long since be dead.
When is the RIAA going to figure out that file-sharing is a fact made all but inevitable by the invention of the Internet, and that they will ultimately be hurting everyone - artists, consumers, and themselves - unless they abandon their vain efforts to preserve the old ways and start coming up with new ideas for how music is sold that make it possible for artists to recieve their rightful profits even in a world with file-sharing?
Those statistics are staggering and goes to show that the attempt by RIAA to stop file-sharing is doomed.
They need to change their antiquated business model and fast.
A nice plan but flawed. How will you know what the "good cuts" are unless you can first download and listen to them as MP3s? Don't count on hearing them on the radio because PD's have such a narrow playlist that they can only play a fraction of the music that is out there and usually it's the watered down crap that nobody feels excited about buying. Even if radio stations were more adventurous in their programming, there is no way they could play them all - there are hundreds of new albums being placed into the marketplace every week!
MP3s offer the best marketing tool the recording industry has. Many people are passionate about their music and will go out of their way to buy the official release of music they like - IF THEY KNEW THE MUSIC EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Imagine if a record company promoted a new artist in the following manner: They set up a website and make all their recordings available for free online as MP3s. The only catch is that whoever signs up for the downloads must give a legitimate e-mail address. The record company can then track what each user is downloading and e-mail them special offers to buy the CD of the artist they recently downloaded. They can also determine what genre of music that each of their customers prefer. So, for example, if this record company is promoting a promising new jazz artist, they can e-mail all the people who have downloaded jazz MP3s with a link to download the MP3s from this new artist. Let's say that this record company e-mails 3,850,000 jazz fans with the offer to download the MP3s and 1,825,000 do so. And out of that 1,825,000 people who download the MP3s from this new artist, 535,000 buy the CD.
Well, now the record company has just produced a "Gold" record for their new artist at a fraction of the marketing cost that they used to pay in the old days.
Why would people buy the CD if they can already download the MP3s for free? So that they can can get a professionally burned CD with artwork and liner notes that look much better in their collections than those homemade jobs with the artist name scrawled across it with a Sharpie pen!
And if the recording companies were able to reduce their marketing costs, they could reduce the price of the CDs and sell even more of them. If they can get the price of a CD to the $5-7 pricepoint, people will find it easier to just buy the CD than to burn a homemade copy themselves (which is really too much of a bother for most people).
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