Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Category Archives: DRM issues

RIAA to cut Artist Royalties

This comes from the ‘let them eat cake’ department:

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/849/849695p1.html

Though the actual artists who make the music are presently entitled to just 13% of wholesale, the RIAA thinks they should receive only 9%.

Let’s not forget that ‘wholesale’ still means about $0.08 per song or CD.

As one user put it with the comments, “9% of a medium that costs bugger all to distribute?”

I wouldn’t be surprised if these folks started off with the argument that this is good because they will have more money to lobby governments to implement ISP-fee schemes, which will have two deliterious effects:

  1. Users will be paying for all content, regardless of whether they use it or not;
  2. This kind of monitoring will be a serious breach of privacy for online users.

Michael Geist: Locking Down the Internet

Originally from The Tyee (www.thetyee.ca)

Michael Giest’s articles with The Tyee can be found here:
http://thetyee.ca/Bios/Michael_Geist/

I admire what Mr. Geist does. He’s been very central to the discussion related to the Internet, DRM issues, downloading, and a whole whack of other issues that affect Canadian technology and privacy. He’s a leader and should be proud of his product.

I find this article very interesting because it exposes some of the challenges that the industry faces, particularly with respect to online distribution. The greatest fear: a lock-down on the Internet as we know it in Canada.

Say No to the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) Proposal for Downloading

Here’s a proposal from the Songwriters Association of Canada as it relates to recouping some of the losses they’re experiencing with internet downloads:
http://www.songwriters.ca/studio/proposal.php

The proposal is this: charge $5 per internet account per month. Based on the level of service across the industry, I’m going to guess that that would work out to the following:
$5 x 12 months = $60 per internet consumer
# of internet consumers in Canada = approx. 17 million
17 million x $60 per year = $1 billion / year

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS.

Judging by the links provided on the SAC site, the SAC looks like a bit of a mouth-piece for the music industry, which is in effect, the big 5 media companies that own most of anything related to pop culture produced in the 20th century.

With that kind of backing, consumers in Canada must be aware that this tax (and it is a tax) should not be allowed or acceptable.

If this kind of nonsense becomes law in Canada, it’s a shifty backdoor on a whole pile of ugliness for other industries, including TV, movies, the video my cousin posted on YouTube of him getting bashed in the nuts with a skateboard and countless karoake versions posted by really drunk college kids. They’re all going to have to have a piece of the action if musicians get theirs.

Within a couple of years, Internet subscribers will be subsidizing every failed digital industry, just when it had a chance to break away from TV and other media. A tax like this will stifle the Internet and these people know it.

They’re hoping for it.

This proposal is about as good a “A Modest Proposal” written by Jonathan Swift almost 300 years ago.

Paul (”I’m one of their investors”) McGuinness Calls for Greater Control on Downloading

It’s exceptionally annoying when people in the old school just don’t get what’s happening in today’s digital marketplace.

Paul McGuiness, long-time manager for a little Irish quartet called U2, wrote on their website about the need for more controls on digital downloads. Unfortunately, like many involved in the industry in its hey-day, he completely misses the point.

http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=2196

For nearly a decade, the recording industry has had an opportunity to do something with themselves beyond fleecing consumers of their cash for singles and one-hit wonders, but they haven’t. I’ve bought every single U2 album, I’ve paid for three outrageously over-priced (but great) concerts and hundreds of dollars more in fan related stuff, but he still wants more.

Sorry. I’m tapped out.
We heard this kind of rhetoric when Lars Whazziz Name from Metallica was in a constant rant about losing out on revenue when Napster and other P2P services went live. We heard about the plight of the distributors as more and more of them shut down (except the cool ones that actually have a little more selection than all x number of Jennifer Lopez CDs).

And yet, nobody stopped to ask me what I’d do if they stopped playing Britney Spears or Clay Aiken when all I really wanted to do was find a couple of funky groups like Caribou, The Acorn or Patrick Watson (all exceptional Canadian bands, I might add).

Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with this statement from Paul McGuiness:

“There is technology now, that the worldwide industry could adopt, which enables content owners to track every legitimate digital download transaction, wholesale and retail.

This system is already in use here in Cannes by the MIDEM organisation and is called SIMRAN. Throughout this conference you will see contact details and information. I recommend you look at it.

I should disclose that I’m one of their investors.”

What’s that you say? You’re not aware of any conflict of interest? Give me a break. I can think of a lot of ways to describe this blatant attempt to shut down a couple of billion downloaders, but the reality is, Paul, you’ve gone and shot yourself in the foot.

Why don’t you do something productive like Peter Gabriel? He’s taken this in stride and has started an exceptionally unique company called WE7. At least it’s an effort to make something happen in a positive way.

I know this sounds so obvious, but the media landscape has been permanently altered. Get used to it.