Music piracy - archive for August 2008

Music piracy ('muziekpiraterij' in dutch) is a very complex phenomenon to comprehend. These pages wishes to address all of you who are interested in music piracy in a broad sense. You'll find articles related to music and video piracy (with special attention to articles from Belgium and the Netherlands).

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Archive

Gadget van toen: eerste mp3-speler

(...) En nee: dat was geen iPod. En ook geen apparaat van Sony, Creative of Microsoft. Het Koreaanse bedrijf SaeHan Information Systems was de allereerste die in maart 1998 een draagbare mp3-speler op de markt bracht, de MPMan F10.

Date: 2008, August 31 | Source (NL): Dag.nl

US blogger arrested for leaking Guns N' Roses online

US federal police on Wednesday arrested a blogger for posting songs from a yet-to-be released Guns N' Roses album titled "Chinese Democracy" online without the rock band's permission. Kevin Cogill, who uses "Skwerl" as an Internet name, is charged with violating copyright laws by putting nine of the band's unreleased songs on his www.antiquiet.com website for visitors to hear.

Date: 2008, August 27 | Source (EN): AFP

[VIDEO] Openingsceremonie Spelen is topper op piratenwebsite

Het Internationaal Olympisch Comité (IOC) heeft de Zweedse minister van Justitie gevraagd om te beletten dat videoclips van de Olympische Spelen op de website The Pirate Bay belanden. Vorige week werd het filmpje van de openingsceremonie meer dan een miljoen keer illegaal gedownload, deze week is dat aantal nog verdubbeld. Sites als The Pirate Bay en BitTorrent, waarop deze week ook al andere filmpjes van de Spelen te zien waren, hebben geen toestemming om de beelden te tonen.

Date: 2008, August 21 | Source (NL): De Standaard

Brits advocatenbureau bereidt 25.000 p2p-zaken voor

Het Londense advocatenbureau Davenport Lyons werkt aan rechtszaken waarbij tot wel 25.000 Britse filesharers zouden kunnen worden gedagvaard. De aanklachten tegen hen zijn afkomstig uit de gamesindustrie. Eerder werd al bekend dat een Britse vrouw wegens het uploaden van het flipperspel Dream Pinball 3D 16.000 pond moet ophoesten. De zaak tegen haar kwam ook van Davenport Lyons en het succes in deze zaak heeft het advocatenbureau gesterkt in de overtuiging dat ook andere zaken te winnen zijn.

Date: 2008, August 20 | Source (NL): Tweakers

Pirates tell developer why they steal his games

Indie game developer Cliff Harris has been trying to crack into the mind of a software pirate, calling for those who steal his work to confidentially come forward and explain themselves. Promising an amnesty of sorts, Cliff wants to know exactly why a vast amount of people take issue with paying for his game: I know what I don't know. And what I don't know is WHY people pirate MY games. I might be able to get a general idea as to why people pirate stuff *in general* from reading warez forums, and every other story on digg, but I'm not interested in the general case. I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it would be mad to sit in the corner and ignore the opinions of that section of the public who pirate my games.

Date: 2008, August 17 | Source (EN): Destructoid

Dell vs. Apple: Why It May Be Personal

The idea, which Dell plans to unveil as early as September, is to create a broad standard, more open than Apple's, that will give people greater choice in how they buy and consume music, movies, and podcasts. Dell will give other companies the software to help establish the standard and will make its money selling PCs and other hardware. "Customers want access to content from a broad variety of sources—how, when, and where they choose," says CEO Michael Dell.

Date: 2008, August 14 | Source (EN): Business Week

Open deur: Haagse rechtbank oordeelt dat downloaden van illegale content illegaal is

Op 25 juni 2008 oordeelde de rechtbank in Den Haag dat het illegaal is om een privé kopie van illegaal aangeboden content te maken. Dat lijkt een open deur maar toch had de Nederlandse regering besloten om downloaden voor privé gebruik van illegaal aanbod toe te staan. De rechter heeft nu bepaald dat dit regeringstandpunt in strijd is met de wet. "Het maken van een privé kopie van illegale bron is een illegale handeling" aldus de rechtbank. Het toestaan van kopiëren en downloaden van illegaal aanbod voor eigen gebruik is in strijd met de zogenaamde drie stappen toets uit artikel 5.5 van de Europese Auteursrechtrichtlijn. Onder die toets mag een uitzondering op het auteursrecht niet schadelijk zijn voor de normale exploitatie van het beschermde werk en geen afbreuk doen aan de gerechtvaardige belangen van de rechthebbende.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (NL): Stichting Brein

Sony buys Bertelsmann out of joint music business

Japanese electronics group Sony is buying its partner Bertelsmann out of their Sony BMG music joint venture, in a deal worth $1.2bn (£614m) to the German media group. (...) The sale, which needs regulatory approval, is part of Bertelsmann boss Hartmut Ostrowski's plan to dispose of under-performing or non-core businesses. Last year, online piracy helped push music sales to their lowest level for a decade, down 8% globally to $19.4bn, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (EN): The Guardian

7Digital Comes Up With Free Music For UK ISPs In Anti-Piracy Scheme

iTunes competitor 7Digital has a rather cunning proposal for UK ISPs which could not only allow millions to listen to unlimited music without incurring litigation costs, but would also see it become a major online music outfit overnight. What 7Digital is proposing is in essence setting up the infrastructure necessary for the process of white labelling to take place. This means that broadband consumers would be able to purchase music files straight from the ISPs or subscribe to DRM protected music libraries and even allow ISPs to create their own download service like iTunes but without a heavy initial outlay.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (EN): ITproPortal

DVD buyers disappear futher as illegal downloads boom

According to Verdict, the percentage of shoppers who regularly buy music has fallen from 48.8pc in 2004 to 43.2pc in 2008. Piracy and illegal downloading are partly to blame. A weak release schedule over the last 12 months is also blamed. Two of the four best selling music albums in the UK in 2007, Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and Take That's Beautiful World were released in 2006. Over the last year, people aged between 15 and 24 bought less music than previously. However affluent AB1 shoppers visited record stores more.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (EN): Telegraph

Google offers free music downloads in China

After months of negotiations, Google announced last night the new service would be supported by advertising revenue that would be split between the music industry and Chinese music download website Top100.cn. Google's first music search service will allow internet users in China to search for songs on Google.cn by singer, song or album title and then download and stream licensed music for free. If successful, the venture could curb the rampant culture of illegal music downloads that has been crippling the growth of the legitimate digital music industry in China, the country with the world's largest number of internet users.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (EN): Guardian Unlimited

Downloads match French cinema ticket sales: study

French movie buffs are illegally downloading at least as many films as they pay to see in cinemas, a study showed on Wednesday. Alpa, a cinema industry group that fights audiovisual piracy, commissioned the study to compare the numbers of films downloaded on the Internet using peer-to-peer technology with cinema ticket sales. People in France illegally downloaded over 13.5 million films in May, according to the study, while the National Centre for Cinematography recorded cinema ticket sales of 12.2 million for the month.

Date: 2008, August 06 | Source (EN): Reuters

Aim for united front to survive digital evolution

The obituaries for the traditional music business have been written and rewritten since digital piracy first began to hit CD sales at the start of this decade. The same period, however, has witnessed a succession of music-based commercial phenomena, from Apple's iPod digital music players and Disney's Hannah Montana franchise to the Idol and X Factor television talent shows and, most recently, video games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Star. While recorded music companies such as Sony BMG have tried to jump on such promising business areas, their share of the value created has so far been insufficient to offset an accelerating decline in their core physical product, the CD.

Date: 2008, August 05 | Source (EN): Financial Times

Judge may retry RIAA's Thomas case

A ruling in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may be overturned and set a precedent for file sharing, according to remarks made by the presiding judge in the case. District Judge Michael Davis now expresses doubts over a decision which fined defendant Jammie Thomas $222,000 for allegedly trading 24 songs through KaZaA, arguing that a closer review of the US Copyright Act used as the foundation of the case suggests that a retrial may be necessary. The Act requires actual proof of an illegal transfer rather than the simpler act of exposing the content through a public folder. Without the former evidence, the previous decision against Thomas may no longer hold weight, according to Judge Davis.

Date: 2008, August 05 | Source (EN): Electronista

Internationale overeenkomst tegen piraterij nabij

Als de plannen van een aantal grote landen doorgaan, kan de douane in die landen vanaf volgend jaar zonder enige reden electronica doorzoeken en in beslag nemen als ze vermoeden dat er illegale media op staat. Ook komen internetproviders onder toezicht te staan en moeten ze desgewenst persoonsgegevens afstaan aan autoriteiten. Privacy-groeperingen slijpen ondertussen de messen. Afgelopen mei van dit jaar werd bekend dat een aantal grote landen werkt aan de Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), een overeenkomst die bedoeld is om meer grip te krijgen op het illegaal downloaden en delen van muziek en films. Het plan is in grote lijnen bedacht door de Amerikaanse Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab en inmiddels uitvoerig achter gesloten deuren besproken door het Amerikaanse Congres. Volgens de berichtgeving kunnen de plannen van de Amerikanen echter ook rekenen op steun van de Europese Commissie, Japan en Zwitserland.

Date: 2008, August 04 | Source (NL): Techzine

Illegal downloading is here to stay

Music companies need to stop resisting and accept that illegal downloading is a fact of 21st-century life, according to a new study by music rights holders. Researchers analysed the downloading of Radiohead's In Rainbows – which was made freely available through an official website - and found that a majority of fans still pirated the music. "These non-traditional venues are stubbornly entrenched, incredibly popular and will never go away," said Eric Garland, co-author of the study by the MCPS-PRS Alliance and Big Champagne, an online media measurement company. Speaking to the Financial Times, he explained, "It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want".

Date: 2008, August 04 | Source (EN): The Guardian

The true cost of free music downloading

Why do people illegally download music? Because they can. The Government recently announced that it has persuaded the internet service providers (ISPs) to sit down with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and thrash out measures to curb illegal downloads by creating a voluntary framework that might work within anticipated tighter legislation. This has been welcomed by most musicians, industry organisations and fair-minded consumers. Reasonable people agree that musicians should be paid for their work. I declare an interest, as deputy chairman of the BPI, although I am writing this in my private capacity as a songwriter, performer and label owner.

Date: 2008, August 01 | Source (EN): Times Online

Mixed reviews for illegal file-sharing on campus

On Thursday, the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass the Higher Education Act 2008 (H.R. 4137), a law first established in 1965 to govern the nation's universities. Despite its five-year reauthorization schedule, the law hadn't been reapproved by Congress for 10 years, or about the same time it's taken the Internet to pervade college campuses nationwide. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation in the coming weeks. Among its new provisions are rules asking universities and colleges to develop "plans to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including through the use of a variety of technology-based deterrents." And to "the extent practicable," offer students legal alternatives for peer-to-peer file sharing as "determined by the institution in consultation with the chief technology officer," according to the act.

Date: 2008, August 01 | Source (EN): Cnet