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Music Media

Trying to Stop Music Piracy in China 20

Posted by Roblimo from the catch-flies-with-honey-not-vinegar dept.
Lorgo_Numputz writes "Salon Magazine has an article on an MP3 crackdown in progress, with an interesting stab at a solution. (And RIAA thinks they have it bad in the U.S.). It's not a "crackdown" in the U.S. sense, with lawyers and courts, but rather an appeal to the public's sense of fairness. But it's an interesting tactic, and whether it works or not, it's certainly a nicer way to deal with online music piracy than the RIAA's.
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Trying to Stop Music Piracy in China More

Trying to Stop Music Piracy in China

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  • ... the last time I checked, China was a communist country -- an system where money isnt _supposed_ to be meaningful.

    The notion of mp3 trading as being "theft" seems out of place in that sort of system, doesnt it?

    Dear, dear, what would Chairman Mao have said about MP3?

    Regards,

  • Its long past due for market pressures to start forcing music publishers to sell for a reasonable price. There is no way a music CD, which costs a quarter to make (including case), should sell for 6000% its value. At most, we should be paying $5 for them.

    Maybe chinese music publisers will realize that they can undercut the cost of CDR blanks (and the pain of burning copies and distributing them) and start selling Cd's for a few bucks (in much greater quantity).

    But nah, that would make too much sense. And it would also fulfill the promise the music industry made to us so long ago (cd's being so much cheaper to make than cassettes). And last thing they want to do is act responsably.
  • They're just another third world dictatorship.

    Just happens to be VERY big one and have a couple
    of nuclear bombs laying around.

    That's all. No less, no more.
  • Less of the third world - they're going to be THE big world power in 30 years time I am prepared to bet lots of money on this.

    They will almost certainly end up doing brutal things to peopel who get caught doing this. Don't forget what happened to those Chinese crackers/script kiddies.
  • Wow... I just had a spiritual experience.

    After reading the message intended for the Chinese masses, I must confess I have seen the light and must repent. It is time for me to delete the 10 gigs of MP3s I have downloaded from the web.

    However, a new Quandary now arises. What do I do with the 10 gigs of MP3s I've made from my own music collection? Since I use legally obtained software that uses a pirated algorithm (Which IMHO should not be patented) I'm confused if I've seen enough light to delete them too? I think not.

    And since it's going to be too hard to figure out which songs are in which category... I think I shall have to turn off the light again and live in blissful ignorance and with great Music!

    Power to the Music!

    Quack
  • My beliefs, and a little reality check.

    I firmly believe in supporting Artists. The recording industry doesn't, they only firmly believe in extracting as much of your hard earned money as they can, and paying the artists as little as possible.
    While I feel strongly about artists getting paid for their work, I can't continue to support the artificially high prices of CDs. Plus the fact that most of that 13 to 17 dollars U.S. doesn't go to the artist gives me little sympathy towards the RIAA and recording companies in general. They are causing there own problems.

    MP3, Quicktime, MS Media player format and the internet now offer Artists the opportunity to take control of their destiny, control their sales channels, and communicate directly with their fans. It also lets fans avoid bad music too.

    I encourage all artists or all genres(Music, Film, whatever...) to include a sharp web developer as part of your production team, not an afterthought in the sales and marketing process.


    Check around to see how many bands have been screwed by unfair contracts (espcially those that couldn't afford a good lawyer to go over it). Patty LaBell once said that her initial contract was so bad, that when her songs were riding in the top ten of the charts (back in the 70's), she was sleeping on an uncovered matress in an unfurnished aprartment, because she was absolutely broke. Many artists over the years have yet to see any real money from the so called 'great deals' they were offered by various recording studios (unfotunately all them legal too). If the internet and the new media formats had been around then, I'm absolutely sure their stories would be different.


    So please, if you like the artists' music,film, still art, literature, or what ever, and they are offering a fair price (when compared to CDs and DVDs) please support them. they enrich our lives so much.

    The recording execs are just a bunch of vampires, they deserve to be put on welfare, permanently.

    Just my .02
  • So you'd be wanting to place that bet in Renminbi?

    Or in HK dollars?

    My bet:

    Short term: it looks like the PRC eats HK and Taiwan.

    Long term: HK & Taiwan eat the PRC from the inside like some kind of Japanimated transforming fungus parasite monster.

    -bonkydog

  • Re:Call me crazy, but... (Score:3)

    by SimonK ( 7722 ) on Monday August 02, 1999 @03:07AM (#1771049)

    I think you should check again. Look up communism in the dictionary, and compare it with modern China. Lets see:

    communism \Com"mu*nism\, n. [F. communisme, fr. commun common.] A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all. Note: At different times, and in different countries, various schemes pertaining to socialism in government and the conditions of domestic life, as well as in the distribution of wealth, have been called communism. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

    Equalising conditions of life ? no. Eliminating inequality of property ? no. Holding all wealth in common ? no (they don't even have universal state ownership any more). Not that anyone has ever come close to acheiving these goals, but the Chinese aren't even pretending to try any more.

  • Hmph. I guess that means Microsoft software is going for about what it's worth in China. :)
  • WOW, and I thought China were real nasty people that rectally probe web servers in other countries. Maybe they have softened up.

    NOT! Gimme a break. The MP3 industry is SO powerful over there, they don't have a CHANCE of cracking down on them, they are far to busy cracking down on peoples minds.

    What a bunch of crackheads.
  • ...considering it's a place where you can be shot for theft. I wonder what happens to pirates?

  • Maybe chinese music publisers will realize that they can undercut the cost of CDR blanks (and the pain of burning copies and distributing them) and start selling Cd's for a few bucks (in much greater quantity).

    Coming from Hong Kong (where piracy is just as rampant as mainland China, and where most of our shipments come from China), it's very tough for music publishers to beat the price of pirate CDs. Right now, you can buy a pirated CD album in Hong Kong for around $12.5 HK dollars, which is ~ USD $1.60 (software is a bit more expensive, around $3.20 per CD - so Visual C++ 6.0 was around 3 bucks :) And if you make the effort to take a train to China, you can buy CDs for at least half the price in HK (one CD for ~ 80 cents US)

    Pirated DVDs cost a little more, but nothing more than a dollar or two US.

    Considering how pirates in China actually employ huge commercial CD stamping machines, and how they don't mind to make only several cents of profit, it will be hard for music publishers to undercut them, sadly enough : (

  • Piracy cannot be stopped by goon squads, even in this country; piracy is too easy, and the number of pirates can easily number in the millions. You cannot use force to stop it.

    I heard a story on NPR a while back, saying that 10% of the jobs in this country are protected only by copyright, and it makes sense. Certainly my company, Hammerhead Productions, is dependent on people paying money to go see movies.

    The movie business is in for a terrible fall, though, if they don't work very hard to make people want to respect the copyright. I see no effort whatsoever being expended in that area. The financial articles about movies today, if anything, would encourage piracy -- as they tend to describe the fabulous fortunes being made by the top actors, producers, and directors. Nothing will make one want to pirate more than feeling that one's hard-earned money is going to fatten some undeserving persons wallet. Studios are going to have to find ways to demonstrate the
    contributions made by the huge majority of the people who work on films, other than just racing their credits by at the end of a film. The carpenters in the world might identify with the grips, the advertising writers with the script supervisors... There has to be an identification with the people involved.

    If the film industry is as clueless as they appear, though, we'll end up unable to finance films with budgets of millions of dollars any longer. Perhaps we'll end up with a film industry like the current porno [video only] industry.

    To take another lesson from the Chinese, we live in interesting times.

    thad

  • Re: movies (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nah, the movie industry is not only protected simply by copyright. No matter how many bootlegged digital or analog copies of movies are passed around, the boxoffice is not really affected. If that were the case, video rental would be killing the movie industry. But that ain't the case. People are still willing to shell out ever-increasing amounts to see movies in theatres. That's what protects the movie industry.

    And that's why porno went all video. How many people want to go see one at a theatre when they can watch a video at home?


  • Re:Market Pressures.. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "There is no way a music CD, which costs a quarter to make (including case), should sell for 6000% its value. "

    Interesting point, but flawed. Not that I don't think $15 is a bit expensive for a music CD.

    Sure, it probably costs a quarter to make a CD, but you aren't really buying the medium - you're buying the content. Computer games are often $50 per CD and many professional software packages cost hundreds of dollars per CD. And those CDs are still probably "worth" around 25 cents. Should they also be sold for $5?

    In fact why should you pay anything for software or music. Hang around the correct newsgroups and surf the web and you'll be able to download just about anything for free.

    If you think about it you'll probably agree that most of the cost & value of these products is not in the physical medium itself.

    And what's $15? A so-so dinner at your local chain bistro? That's not worth trading for the magnum opus of your favorite musician?

  • On a recent behind the music, TLC said they only get 56 cents for every 16-18 dollar CD that is sold. If you drop the CD price to 5 bucks, there wouldnt be any musicians to make the music, unless the bloated half of the music industry started taking in REASONABLE profits from each CD, not ~95%.

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