RIAA Sues Audiogalaxy 292
Frizzled writes "The RIAA has struck again, this time filing suit against Audiogalaxy's "Satellite" file sharing program. (Nevermind that Satellite is loaded with spy-ware ... good riddance)." News.com has a story. The RIAA's press release links to their complaint.
Control vs. Cash (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that they would rather have the cash.
Its more that they don't understand either the technology (which is probably unstoppable), or their own customers.
In particular, the major music labels don't seem to understand that:
1) Some people will pay money anyway for CD's if they like them enough.
2) Alot more people would buy the music if they sold them directly over the internet.
I personally believe that their sales would rocket up even at the same profit margins if they just dropped the cost of producing and distributing the CD's from the price of an internet download. This might only be a few dollars cheaper than what you pay to a major music store for the CD.
So what I think is happening here is the equivalent of what happened to encyclopedia salesmen with encarta. They were so locked in to a large existing sales network with high production costs that they could not bring themselves to cannibalise their own networks to maintain sales. This nearly destroyed the companies (such as britannica) before they finally did a U turn. People were happy to buy an inferior (M$ Encarta - not that it was bad, just less information) product because it was so much cheaper, and almost as good.
The analogy here of technology hitting an established high premium sales network is pretty tight. And I believe that the outcome will be the same. Eventually the networks will recognise this, and sell music tracks online for alot less than they currently do. They will prosper under this arrangement, although much of their distribution network will have to die in the process.
For the record, I can see the same thing ultimately happening with video, and a similar process of technological change is occuring with cameras and film. Our home computers will take on all of these tasks. We will still shop, but for production tools (printers, cameras) and 'raw' materials (blank CD's, DVD's high quality paper). Companies that get on this bandwagon will do well (ask Kodak), and those that pretend it isn't happening will go towards the wall (ask britannica!).My 2c worthMichael
Oh well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let them fight to the death! (Score:3, Insightful)
--Rick
Re:Control vs. Cash (Score:2, Insightful)
That is very, very true. And they won't be selling JUST to geeks, either. I know a guy, in his 50s, who uses his computer for e-mail, web browsing, word processing, and music. He's signed up for some music service over the internet where he pays about $1/song. He LOVES it. And he's a "joe sixpack", only a little older.
Riaa suit of the week (Score:4, Insightful)
They need to make better CDs (Score:2, Insightful)
is it me... (Score:2, Insightful)
ISPs have the power (Score:3, Insightful)
The best way to kill file-sharing -- along with the baby in the bathwater (i.e. VOIP, gaming, and other legit uses of broadband) -- would be if the MegaISPs (who don't have to play nice by sharing their lines) started capping and/or metering bandwidth at obscene overage rates to make serving anything extremely cost prohibitive.
For added "protection" they could also start blocking any traffic that doesn't look like "good consumer" behavior. e.g: "Dear Joe Suspect: Even though you paid our insane rates for the 1.4Gigs of bandwidth you used last week, we noticed that it was all encrypted. This simply won't do. Consider yourself on notice buster!"
Good thing wireless can't be monopolized...
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Why AG? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see how the RIAA can claim, with a straight face, that the copyrighted-song blocking was 'not as good as a first year CS student'. They've done the best you can realistically do with keyword blocking, without blocking others in the crossfire. For example:
The Cars, Drive = blocked.
According to the RIAA, if the band "Drive" releases a song called "Cars", it should be denied. Given the combinations of keywords, you'd be blocking pretty much everything that isn't obscure and unique, like "the Crucifucks", "Tumor Circus", "Cockmonger" or "Republican Buttocks".
They also have some light content-based filtering. I haven't researched this, but I think it goes by the ID3 tag. It seems to be used mostly to combat misspellings. Obviously, the RIAA's example was the worst-case scenario.
They've really done a fair amount of filtering, and enough in the other areas to show they aren't just a napster clone (which wouldn't be a bad thing by my standards). It seems they just want any type of music far away from computers, because it's easier to control than to just come up with cooler ideas and incentive for people to buy. I suppose it's also easier than releasing something better than the pussified swill I hear booming by from people's car radios.
--
PS: both AG for linux, and the other linux version called xsatellite are spyware free. The official AG linux binary is still supported.
Re:I like AudioGalaxy (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Control vs. Cash (Score:1, Insightful)
Actually, if I'm remembering right, M$ did a good job with the free version of Encarta - Too Good. They did tons of market research to determine what content 90% of the people said they wanted, and put that into the OEM Encarta. The full Encarta included more content, but the OEM version was plenty to have little Johnny doing his homework with some pretty impressive content. They wiped out an entire industry with cd's they were distributing for free.
This precedent is why RIAA is battling tooth and nail over valid (IMHO) self-preservation concerns, like Napster (PLEASE don't flame me - I didn't like what happened to Napster either, I'm playing devil's advocate here), and invalid (again, IMHO) concerns, like copy protecting CD's. This is just the first little hole in the dyke, me droogies. Look for the theatre of the fantastic to unfold in the coming months.
They will prosper under this arrangement, although much of their distribution network will have to die in the process.
I agree... record stores (or CD stores, whatever you kids call 'em these days
My
Cry me a river... (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair most the focus of the segment was mostly about how it prevents smaller labels/artists from getting radio play regardless of how good their music may be, which is a bad thing.
Personally I think its great that the RIAA is taking a stance against this. Lets see, first the RIAA pisses of geeks, then consumers, now they piss off the radio stations, if we get lucky they'll shoot themselves in the foot and piss off the artists and labels too.
Wow. Now they're being just plain stupid. (Score:2, Insightful)
Who's running the show? The Purple Id Frog?
I imagine the RIAA board room conversations are something like this:
Lawyer: "Well, we've defeated Kazaa. All that's really left is a couple of unstable and small programs that are really ineffectual."
RIAA: "WAR! SEX! COOKIES!!!!! [crackfiend.org]"
Lawyer: "What's left to defeat?"
RIAA: "WAR! SEX! COOKIES!!!!! [crackfiend.org]"
Laywer: "Well... there's still audiogalaxy but..."
RIAA: "WAR! SEX! COOKIES!!!!! [crackfiend.org]"
Lawyer: "They've done everything we've asked them to! What're we gonna charge them with?"
RIAA: "WAR! SEX! COOKIES!!!!! [crackfiend.org]"
Lawyer: "I'll get the work order."
The software is innocent (Score:3, Insightful)
The lesson for *any* pure-play tech company (Score:4, Insightful)
Follow Kazaa. Set up a shell company on some Pacific island, and when (not if, when) the Big Lawsuit hits, sell the name and assets, and fold the US operation. Rinse and repeat until there are no US based technology companies left.
Sad, sad situation, but when the [MPA|RIA|BS]A can buy (nearly) any law they like and change the rules of the game whenever they feel like it, the only way to win is not to play in their schoolyard.
But what about the struggling artists... (Score:2, Insightful)
How can she survive if no-one is buying her music? I try to tell her she is getting valuable exposure by being traded on Kazaa et al, but she is not really keen to get exposure if it only leads to more people illegally downloading her music. It doesn't seem to encourage many people to her gigs.
She is unlikely to ever gross dollar one, but at one time people like her could still make some money on the side through their music to help earn some money while she is at university.
Is file sharing supposed to make music only for the elite, who can afford to have people steal their creativity?
I can't believe the RIAA is going about this the right way, given that since they began their campaign file trading has been steadily increasing, but something has to be done.
I constantly hear the the RIAA doesn't have the right "business model". Can anyone tell me what the right business model might be for my friend?
Careful what you wish for (Score:5, Insightful)
They came for Napster, and I did not speak up, because I did not use Napster.
They came for Audiogalaxy, and I did not speak up, because it had spyware.
They came for Limewire, and I did not speak up, because I did not like the Java client.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up.
Re:But what about the struggling artists... (Score:4, Insightful)
Whoever modded the above as insightful or interesting is an illiterate idiot.
Read the rest of the thread. Even on 4+, there's at least two comments talking about AudioGalaxy's promotion and review system for independant artists. The parent post seems to rather conveniently ignore this. If your friend wants to make money off music, maybe she should try contacting them and see what they can do. Or try one of the other sites that does stuff like this. (Allowing artists to sell albums directly to fans)
For the struggling artist -- struggle. (Score:2, Insightful)
And the thing is, that still might not work!
But the questions, as she develops her business model, are: what are her goals, how much will she give and how much is she willing to forsake. Staying in the game is the best approach to gaining opportunities.
One other comment, people trade her mp3s but don't go to the shows and buy the cd. So why no connection? Are they the wrong audience (and so they weren't going to buy the cd any way) or are they paying attention but still haven't heard "it" yet? There will always be people who want to take, and the real fans give. Go develop real fans. Indifference is the real career-killer. Someone listened -- a start was made.