will sweden show the way? [about legalising/fighting torrents]

[japanesebaby]

about the ever-increasing and ruthless battle of the copyright hounds vs. illegal p2ps.
regardless of whether you thought file sharing/using p2p was a crime or not, i think it's obvious that the problem is the hopelessly outdated legislation (pretty much everywhere) which has been kept up and running by the more or less complete denial in which  record companies/movie studios/software houses still seem to live.
and thus so far the official "solution" has been just to tighten up the laws and maximize the penalties and send FBI to confiscate school boys computers and slam them $300 000 fines, as warning to all others. or to throw people in jail for even using p2p. although the common sense should have said that what they really should have done is to sit down and start figuring out how to update themselves, how to keep up with what's going on and stop living somewhere in the 80.
and so, i think this is getting really interesting, as swedish MPs are starting to stand up on the same side with the pirates...  :

http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-politicians-strike-blows-at-copyright-lobby-080110/

i'm really following this with great interest.

[Steve]

& I used to think the Swedes were all a little bit daft.
It's high time someone realised that pointing fingers & punative measures was going to make the slightest bit of difference.
The recording industry has had plenty of time to keep up with this sort of thing & I still find it incredible to see the copywright blurb printed on material in the vain hope that the buyer will only play that item for themselves & not for anyone else, constituting a public performance.
The recording industry has only got themselves to blame really & I really hope they see this sort of standpoint & catch up with the rest of us.
My only worry is that most of the online content that can be purchased is lossy crap.
It's sometimes perverse to think that the live recordings we share today are actually better in terms of quality than some of the official stuff avaialble for download.
I would also like to keep an eye on this. Very interesting......

[japanesebaby]

The recording industry has only got themselves to blame really & I really hope they see this sort of standpoint & catch up with the rest of us.

indeed. and what i have found to be really disturbing in this battle of the big companies vs. p2p users is that people get busted pretty randomly and the penalties are very grave. at least around here, p2p users often get a lot more harsher punishments than for instance rapists. a rapist can still very often get away with a suspended sentence only (which means he walks out immediately and never goes to jail for a single day) + some ridiculously small fine, whereas those caught using p2p can easily go straight to jail + also face penalties/compensations for tens of thousands of euros.
and whichever way you look at it, that's just completely out of proportion. it makes simply NO sense at all.

[Janko]

...THIS ISSUE IS SO OLD...INDUSTRY CAN ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO MAKE PROFIT, BUT I THINK SHE MUST MAKE SOME DEEP SHIFTS... I THINK LEGISLATURE SHOULD PROTECT ARTISTS...THEN AGAIN, THE TRUE ARTISTS WILL MAKE MONEY FROM PERFORMING...THE INSTANT INDUSTRY-MADE "ARTISTS" WILL HAVE TO DIE OUT...LAST WEEK NY TIMES HAD AN ARTICLE ABOUT HIP-HOP "PRODUCERS" LOOSING MONEY BECAUSE OF P2P, BUT THEY WERE DROPPING FROM 150 MILLION ONTO 100 MILLION DOLLARS PROFIT, AND THATS JUST LAUGHABLE COMPARED TO WHAT THEY INVEST IN THEIR "PRODUCT"...I THINK IF SOMEBODY IS GETTING HURT - IT'S THE SMALL ALTERNATIVE BANDS AND LABELS BECAUSE THEY ARE GETTING KILLED ON SO MANY FRONTS... I CANNOT THINK OF THE ARTISTS LIKE THE CURE GETTING A FAIR DEAL NOWADAYS...NO WAY!...

[Steve]

That's a good point Janko. I had a discussion on another forum about formats of downloaded music, as I was p!ssed off that there was not really a choice in terms of what I could download. It was either lossy or lossier.
There are some (albeit few) exceptions however (see burning shed downloads for details  )
The general consensus was that while it would be workable for bigger artists to offer lossless online content, the smaller, no-contract, just starting out artists would find it hard.
I personally think that is bullsh!t.
In a p2p scenario, you don't really rely on a hosting site like rapidsteal or megaupload.
It's a true network of people who genuinely want to share the content.
If the industry cottoned onto that ideal properly, then they could still recover their costs fairly easily.
In any case, what does it cost to host the content online Vs setting up a factory to press the discs, ship them etc etc.?
Methinks the industry has to get off its lazy fat @rse & do some work for its money, as the next time I see MTV Cribs, I think I might puke.

[Janko]

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Record label EMI, bought by private equity firm Terra Firma last year, is set to announce on Monday plans to cut as much as one third of its 6,000 staff, slash marketing costs and drop artists as part of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Most of the job cuts are expected to come from EMI's recorded-music operations, as opposed to its music-publishing business, the paper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the plans.

The plans come as the music industry has struggled to return to profitability -- and indeed to prove itself viable in the long term, the paper said.

EMI was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Megan Davies, editing by Jan Dahinten)

[japanesebaby]

and not only in sweden now:

http://torrentfreak.com/politicians-launch-pro-filesharing-campaign-080119/




meanwhile, in japan:
http://torrentfreak.com/virus-creator-threatened-080124/

“It isn’t illegal to write viruses in Japan, so the author of the Trojan horse has been arrested for breaching copyright because he used cartoon graphics without permission in his malware.”

s,o it's nothing serious if you threaten to kill someone - hey who cares... but you go violate the copyright laws and you're going to pay for it!!!
ok, i'm not sure if we should laugh or cry at things like these... 


another piece of news (i really don't like his books but he does show some attitude there):

http://torrentfreak.com/alchemist-author-pirates-own-books-080124/

[Janko]

  FROM:

http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=29530_0_2_0_C



There seems to be light at the very long and painful illegal download tunnel so it looks like. After the USA, Canada and France now also the UK government is looking into options to force ISPs to task over illegal downloading. A new UK Government proposal wants to sanction Internet service providers (ISPs) if they do not take measures against illegal downloading by their customers. ISPs would be asked to ban users from the Internet for downloading illegal files. As it is, ISPs are perfectly capable of monitoring who is downloading what, when and where and if it is illegally obtained or not.

It is believed that in the UK alone over 6 million people download music illegally, changing the people's behaviour could be a welcome boost to the music industry (both major and indie) which is going through some very troubled times.

The measure also opens the option to let ISPs create a workable business model via which each illegal download would be paid for using a portion of the monthly Internet subscription payments. Legal downloads would not be charged twice. Next to this there are already plans to start a legal peer to peer network holding only high quality downloads which would also be paid for via ISPs. This network would mean a sure death for many illegal peer to peer networks who would be condemned to live on a very small portion of illegal traffic including mostly child porn... Not exactly something entrepreneurs would want to be associated with.

Unfortunately these actions may come way too late for many labels, mail orders and bands who have been financially strangled by "the disrespect of both so-called music fans and governments" in the matter.

[melly]

so much for that 'Q TRAX" being up and running...what a bloody fizzer THAT was!!
maybe one day...

[Janko]

so much for that 'Q TRAX" being up and running...what a bloody fizzer THAT was!!
maybe one day...

?

[CureCrusader]

i don't like the idea of the sites like "rapidsteal', (as steve put it) & megaupload.
I want to have a c.d. in my collection, not to spend hours downloading crappy  stuff that 'invades' my computer. 

The record companies are robbers.
They steal profits from the artists, and are really, shooting themselves in their own feet!

[melly]

so much for that 'Q TRAX" being up and running...what a bloody fizzer THAT was!!
maybe one day...

?

I posted a while ago about a new site where people could download music legally.. it was supposed to be up and running by now, subsidised by advertising, agreements with large recording companies.. artists were supposed to get something out of it all...but so far, it's not working, and has been sitting, stagnant, for quite some time....it is in this, something else thread, under Free Music Launch... scroll down a fair way...

[japanesebaby]

http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=29751_0_2_0_C



Announced out of the blue and out since yesterday is the brand new Nine Inch Nails release "Ghosts I-IV". "Ghosts I - IV" is a 36 track instrumental collection with almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period in fall 2007. And as expected, Nine Inch Nails decided to take advantage of the current climate by presenting the release under various formats, including a free 9-track DRM-free, high-quality download or yet a deluxe $300 package.

The free 9-track version has been uploaded by the band itself on various torrent sites, because they believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method. They add: "We believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them. We encourage you to share the music of 'Ghosts I' with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc."

[Janko]

SO, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, N I N USES 9 FREE SONGS FOR A PROMOTION OF A 300 DOLLARS DELUXE PACKAGE...

[CureCrusader]

SO, CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG, N I N USES 9 FREE SONGS FOR A PROMOTION OF A 300 DOLLARS DELUXE PACKAGE...

WTF?  for $300 I would want a private concert in my own home, plus video, plus autographs from all the band members 

stop pulling my leg!     It hurts.