The Music Industry Piracy
DRM (Digital Rights Management)- it is the practice of imposing
technological restrictions that control what users can do with digital media.
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The agreement between BPI and six major UK
Internet providers to caution illegal downloaders.- these providers were
Virgin, BT, Sky, Orange, Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse. They all agreed to
send advisory letters to those who had illegally downloaded. They were also
working with OfCom to work out what to do about serial offenders.
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New Deals- Recently record companies have been
talking to media providers about creating new bundles or collections of media services
packaged together to be sold for a monthly subscription. These bundles would
include TV and Broadband and legal unlimited downloads. However both Sky and
Virgin who were looking at this approach are believed to have stumbled because
major labels did not think they would generate enough money from agreeing t be
part of such a service.
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Earlier release dates- Record complaints used to
release new music on the radio up to 6 weeks in advance of releasing it in a
format that people could buy. Many are now releasing it to buy the same day
they release it to be played on the radio. They hope this will stop people
wanting to own the music so much that they have to resort to illegal downloads
when they are actually willing to pay for it.
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Creative Commons- Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit
organisation head quartered in Mountain View, California, United States,
devoted to explaining the range of creative works available for others built
upon legally and shared. The organisation has released several copyright
licences known as creative commons licences free of charge to the public. These
licences allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which
rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy to
understand one-page explanations of rights with associated visual symbols. This
explains the specifies of each creative commons licences.
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The digital economy bill- the government passed
The Digital Economy Bill in 2010. This bill allows the courts to demand ISP’s
cut off broadband service form alleged downloaders (3 strikes and you’re out).
This is controversial because you only have to be accused of illegal
downloading and not be found guilty in a court of copyright infringement.
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Prosecution: Pirate Bay- In April 2009, the four
founders of Swedish illegal download site, Pirate Bay, were sentenced to a year
in prison and fined 2.4 million pounds. They claimed, in defence, that they
were not guilty as they did not host any of the copyright music that was
“traded” on their own computer- they simply acted as a hub for people to locate
music on other people’s computers. They were convicted for facilitating illegal
downloads.
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Ad-Sponsored Streaming Sites- Another recent
development has been to allow users to legally stream songs for free if the
streaming of the track was preceded by an advert. Some of the ad funding is
paid to the record company. Sites like Spotify and Pandora have performed well
on this basis. They can have the same service minus the ads for a premium fee.
This is called freemium model. Listeners do not download the track but can
listen to it as often as they like.
