The Music Industry Piracy

    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.

·      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.

·      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.

·      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.

·      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.

·      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.

·      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.

·      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.