Music Industry Wants BitTorrent Blackout

[lancelot123]

I think Blizzard might have a word or two to say about this. You know that little Blizzard download manager you use to download new patches for WoW? It's BitTorrent tech.

 

[jawshoeaw]

Good! Tired of the thieves and "everything should be free" crowd crying about having their shoplifting being blocked.

 

[fulle]

What makes these morons think that making piracy more difficult will increase sales? It seems logical, until you look at all the evidence that suggests otherwise. DRM, trying to ban BitTorrent, poisoning P2P, suing people... has any of their tactics worked for them? At all?

These IDIOTS need to get with the times. Look for new ways to generate $$$ from their IPs, because box CD sales aren't going to work as well anymore. Maybe they should be looking into ways to legally distribute music online (besides trying to ruin iTunes). Maybe BITTORRENT can help them do that more effectively.

What they're doing right now doesn't work though. I'm not compelled to go out and buy a cheap piece of plastic, of "meh" quality music, for an unfair price, with no extras, DRM, and no scratch resistance, that'll be worthless after a month of use. Give me the ability to buy lots of high quality music files for a fair price, and download them as many times I so choose after purchase, and maybe I'll buy their crap. But... since the music industry bullies artists into making cookie cutter, lame, thoughtless garbage... I'd still be hard to sell.

 

[vider]

jawshoeaw, I don't know where you live, but not everyone lives in downtown or near it. some people live so far a way from central cities that they can't afford to spend 10$ on a bus ticket just to get a CD for the same price. Not to mention that the listening booths are a JOKE! How can you make up your mind about a CD if you can listen to it only for a Half an hour?! Isn't a CD capable of holding 74 minutes of music? So I have to go trough the whole cd in Fast forward?! Or all this sites that offer you a small demos (15-25 seconds sample of a certain song).. do you think that this is the way to do it? I don't.

 

[JTWrenn]

I hope they do it...I hope they block every torrent site on the planet!! Then someone will come out with something that works even better, and makes downloading simpler.

Has happened in the past, and will keep happening.

 

[Tindytim]

I think they have every right to sue the Pirate Bay and try to get them shut down. It's one thing to shutdown someone providing a tool specifically to break the law, it's another thing to outlaw the tool altogether.

 

[mdillenbeck]

Here's the headline I am waiting for:

International Publishers call for banning of all photocopy machines due to their known use in replicating and distributing copyrighted material - wants all businesses to comply by 2010.

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Although Pirate Bay is contentious and controversial in its actions, what kind of laws do we want? How far do we want to pursue the facilitators of illegal acts versus the illegal actors themselves? For example, do we go after P2P software designers? Torrent sites like Pirate Bay? Software manufacturers who allow MP3s to be ripped from CDs? The internet service providers who provide network access? The hardware manufacturers who create the network cards that allow the access to happen in the first place?

Another example would be to discuss terrorism. Should sites that espouse terrorism be shut down? Should sites that are used by known terrorists be shut down? Should sites that have opinions or political viewpoints posted on them be shut down? Should someone who expresses even the slightest pro-terrorist sentiments have their site shut down, even if they are discussing only the need of political change while not advocating the violence of the organization? What does this mean for news feeds that discuss terrorism, should they be shut down? What if the "terrorist" organization is now a legitimate government party, should their governmental web site be shut down?

I guess what I am getting at is this: how far do we need to curtail rights in order to protect against crime?

Don't get me wrong - there are definitely times we need to do this. I think most of us agree that a web site that is used to facilitate "hitmen" or purchase other human beings definitely crosses the line, but these kind of sites are violating human rights. At most, Pirate Bay facilitates the deprivation of a human's right to make profit off of their activities, which is a very different class of crime.

 

[Guest]

The only way things are really going to change is if the artists revolt against the recording studios. Yeah, this may be an unfair burden to place on them, but so long as just a few studios control most of the recorded music the public will be at the whim of these studios. It is clear (esp in the US) that the gov't will, if anything, only make things worse in concentrating the power to these folks.

It is only when a significant # of well established stars stop dropping labels, that the studios will consider changing. If this does not occur, what impetus do they have to change? They will simply do everything in their power to maintain their grip on power. Yeah we could hope sales decline or piracy convince them the business model is flawed... but realistically the studio is going to spend more money combating these things rather than trying to fundamentally fix their business model (and we have clearly seen this).

If/when established stars start dropping the major labels (in significant #'s), I would not be surprised to see service based companies cropping up, where artist can determine costs up front and companies that can distribute music efficiently will thrive. Clearly a smart run business can distribute music WHILE lowering the price to the consumer, turning a decent profit, and probably giving the artists a larger piece of the pie.

The question I have is - couldn't an established band hire an advertising firm for CD/tour publicity and then pay a .com/service company to distribute it? I don't really see where the inherent competitive advantage of the music studios comes in, other than the contacts/network (which a good advertising/marketing agency should be able to overcome).

 

[Ezence]

Hmm, i wonder how this would affect buisness for and isp that blocks it when another isp isn't blocking it in the same region...

 

[Parrdacc]

teno77 nailed it. Good job!

 

[Parrdacc]

oops, tenor77 nailed it. Good job!

 

[christop]

CRAZY GOOD LUCK STOPPING A MUSIC HUB.... HA HA

 

[zuesacuatl]

It is not illegal to share an ISO of windows or any other file/product that is keyed. It is illegal to distribute the key you purchased. Products that are not keyed can not be distributed in any form, you only purchased the one license. Now if a friend bought the game, has the original box/disk case, and he breaks his disk some how, you could technically loan him the disk of a non keyed product since he has purchased it and has proof of that purchase, but most companies would argue cause they would rather have another 50-70$ put into their pocket.

If I am not mistaken, not only is blizzards downloader a bit torrent, but so is steam. I am sure if that is correct, you will see a counter from both big companies to blocking this protocol, or they will be the founders of torrent 2.

 

[bustapr]

Looks like its megaupload and rapishare from now on.

 

[Syranetic]

The IRMA are a bunch of freedom-hating Nazis.