US Gov admits piracy figures are bogus

[quarky]

I owe Joni Mitchell some money.

In fact, I can't remember ever paying for any music.

People shouldn't even be allowed to lend a record to a friend.

(I'm going to turn myself in.)

 

[pipelineaudio]

I am not denying the The RIAA and MPAA have been extremly heavy handed in their prosecutions.
The emphasis should be on stopping somebody who is DISTRIBUTING illegal stuff. The guy making backups for his own use should be left alone.

And in fact always has been. Though many sites claim otherwise, can you find a case where the RIAA sued someone for making a backup?

The dishonesty of the anti IP movement is rife with examples like the headline here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

"Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use"

And as is so often the case, reading a bit into it, you'll see personal use had nothing to do with it, and the charge was distributing copyrighted material to a filesharing site

 

[stilicho]

I think music companies should offer free MP3s of their music for anyone to download -- low sample rate mono MP3s, maybe with a very short beep at the end to remind the listener that they're listening to the free version. A high-quality stereo version would be available for purchase by people who like the music.

This would be a great way for people to be able to listen to unfamiliar songs before decide whether or not they want to pay for the high-quality version, making it a good form of advertising. People who can't afford to buy it could build collections of the low-quality MP3s for free. And the low quality versions would have a much smaller file size, reducing internet traffic.

Give it all away for nothing.

The thing is, you can do what everyone does and spend your money on a Casio (do they make those any more?) or a pawn shop guitar plus a bunch of cool effects pedals and make your own music. It's really not that difficult.

Music entertainment companies aren't selling music because that part is free (or at least it's really really cheap). They're selling the imagery and paraphernalia. It would be a better business model to give away the artist's CD and deduct the contribution margin from the clothing line.

 

[commandlinegamer]

make your own music. It's really not that difficult.

Indeed. With Autotune you too can sound like Britney Spears.

 

[MRC_Hans]

I think music companies should offer free MP3s of their music for anyone to download -- low sample rate mono MP3s, maybe with a very short beep at the end to remind the listener that they're listening to the free version. A high-quality stereo version would be available for purchase by people who like the music.

This would be a great way for people to be able to listen to unfamiliar songs before decide whether or not they want to pay for the high-quality version, making it a good form of advertising. People who can't afford to buy it could build collections of the low-quality MP3s for free. And the low quality versions would have a much smaller file size, reducing internet traffic.

That could be one way, but from what I hear, they are contemplating a different path: The full quality version can be downloaded for free, but it can only be played from the computer, it cannot be copied, and it will only play a limited number of times. If you like it, you can pay for a version that can be burnt on a CD and which has no time limit.

Of course, there will be cracks for this, but ig the price is reasonable, most users will pay.

Hans

 

[Brian-M]

Of course, there will be cracks for this, but ig the price is reasonable, most users will pay.

A very simple crack... Click "record" on your computer's audio recorder while playing the track.

Or, if they find some way of disabling the audio recorder while the music is being played, run a cable from the audio out of one computer to the audio in of another computer, and then record.

No amount of copy protection can prevent people from re-recording the raw audio output of a track/cd.

 

[quarky]

If I really want to hear a song for free, and it requires 49 clicks as well as some pop-up adds, I'd be willing to cough up 50 cents instead.

I pay when the hassle of not paying becomes cost-ineffective.

Meanwhile, the warning we are forced to endure with a rented dvd, and the maximum fine for copying it, hasn't changed in years...making it a bargain, in terms of fines and such.

I can barely take it seriously. There should be cost-of-living adjustments in these penalties. The $250,000 threat gets more hollow everyday.
I should get paid for making an illegal copy of a movie, especially if it sucks.

 

[rjh01]

Another way to sell music is to sell MP3s on CDs. This could be used for artists that are retiring or retired. Buy their entire collection on one CD. This would save people from downloading either legal or illegal copies.

 

[asmodean]

I know several people who ended up pirating games because of DRM or broken disks.

I came close with the 2nd expansion to NWN2. I bought original game, worked flawlessly, and was fun. I bought first expansion, it also worked well, and was fun. Then I bought the second... And the disk just would not read on my main box (laptop swalloved it happily enough, so the DVD was OK). After much cajoling (and having to reset my dvd drive back to DMA mode after it got set to PIO-mode after every try) I got it to install. But no longer.

Visiting Obsidians website didn't give much, neither did visiting Ataris. Some error hunting thread gave:

1) Do you have a SCSI drive? Then you're SOL. the DRM don't like SCSI-devices (seems most emulator SW mounts virtual devices as SCSI units).
2) Have DVD-RW unit? (I did). Same there, prolly SOL, especially if its a Plextor. DRM do not like combo readers/burners.

Advice for the 2 above problems. "Buy new HW". Sorry, not gonna go buy unescessary HW because of some overzealous DRm scheme.

Going further in the hints post.

3) Buy it as CD-ROM! Apparently the DRM system wasn't that picky when it came to CD. Not much an option though, having already bought the damn thing. Sheel out twice for the game due to.. overzealous DRM? Not an option

4) Buy it from D2Drive, no disks to get stuck in the DRM system! Which is pretty much the same as 3).

Luckily I found a workaround that did not involve having to go to some spyware infested pirate site and download a no-cd crack.

But, yeah. It got me turned off any game using that particular DRM scheme again.

 

[asmodean]

I think what bothers me most is that i'm a big fan of backups, and I rip my DVD's and CD's to a home server. I don't file share it, but by many standards I have read that's still pirating. Why am I (potentially) a pirate for protecting bits I have purchased?

Don't think you'll be branded a pirate, but it would be a violation of the DMCA which prohibits ANY circumvention of copy protection mechanism regardless of reason. Think EU is working on, or have already implemented, similar laws.

 

[Wrathernaut]

Oh, Me Me!!

I torrented Hearts Jupiters Darling a few weeks ago, and I bought the cd this morning.

Ditto for Eve 6 and Cowboy Mouth. - Partly because it's getting hard to find CDs out there anymore - only way to get uncompressed audio for sure.

Plus, I buy plenty of merchandise and every new album they put out (still waiting for the opportunity, Eve 6...)

 

[ThatSoundAgain]

When it comes to tech issues, ARStechnica and wired are the equivalent of prisonplanet

You must be joking.

I owe Joni Mitchell some money.

In fact, I can't remember ever paying for any music.

People shouldn't even be allowed to lend a record to a friend.

(I'm going to turn myself in.)

Most my CDs prohibit "copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting". Says so right on the disc.

It's preceded by an "all rights reserved" bit. Sometimes I get the impression that they're serious about the "all" part of that to the extent that I'm opening myself up to litigation by playing the thing.

 

[Wrathernaut]

Another way to sell music is to sell MP3s on CDs. This could be used for artists that are retiring or retired. Buy their entire collection on one CD. This would save people from downloading either legal or illegal copies.

Some of us demand uncompressed audio. I'll pay near full price for 320kbps MP3s, but the only thing worth a CD's price is uncompressed audio - FLAC.

 

[Wrathernaut]

Don't think you'll be branded a pirate, but it would be a violation of the DMCA which prohibits ANY circumvention of copy protection mechanism regardless of reason. Think EU is working on, or have already implemented, similar laws.

DCMA - or the "Yes, it is legal for you to drive the car you bought here to your house, however, going over the speed bump to leave our parking lot is illegal"-law.

 

[Policenaut]

http://www.dga.org/news/pr-images/2010/Joint-submission-re-IPEC.pdf

Take a look at the US media industry's proposal. Simply amazing.

 

[Robo Sapien]

Metallica would not approve. Fire bad!

 

[Meed]

They are just trying to make their stealing sound moral.

You mean copyright infringement, not stealing.

 

[Meed]

I don't really see what copyright laws add to our society. It basically amounts to people not being able to use the products they buy as they see fit. There will always be people making high quality music and software even if they don't earn a living from it.

 

[quixotecoyote]

I don't really see what copyright laws add to our society. It basically amounts to people not being able to use the products they buy as they see fit. There will always be people making high quality music and software even if they don't earn a living from it.

Society has decided that maintaining professional quality music & software is more desirable than having no professionals and leaving it to hobbyists.

I think that's reasonable.

 

[Almo]

And while keeping an MP3 from a CD I no longer own may be technically illegal, it doesn't cost the music industry a thing because if I deleted it, I wouldn't go out and buy more music to replace it.

BUT the person who now has your disc won't buy a new one. That IS a lost sale, if they would have bought it otherwise.

But this is only really a lost sale if you would have never listened to it again. If not, you'd have sold/given it away anyway, costing a sale.

I don't really see what copyright laws add to our society. It basically amounts to people not being able to use the products they buy as they see fit. There will always be people making high quality music and software even if they don't earn a living from it.

I would not be working on creating games if there were no remuneration in it. The games I make personally are quite good, and those would be lost were it not for the salary I earn for making them.