OT: Recording Industry Ripoff

[Makinus]

Baron Munchausen said:
Not just Bittorrent. All of the P2P networks are adapting to the threat. A new peer cache for the WinMX network is being developed in 'real time' while the machines online when the original Frontcode sites went down try to hold the network together. They've got it partly working already. And of course lots of people are just going to other networks. The Kazaa/WinMX generation of P2P developed after the original Napster was sued out of existence. Now a new generation of even more decentralized P2P will be developed that doesn't need a central server. (I think at least one program already has this 'completely independent' system. Gnutella? Sharezaa? One of those newer ones.)

If you view the situation from a darwinian point of view, the BC´s (Big Corporations) are forcing the developlment of more advanced software that allows free sharing of information in the world.

Piracy is only the most famous (and bandwidth hungry) use of these programs, but they can be used to share information freely and wthitout any kind of censure, so, forcing the development of newer and better sharing software by the pirates worldwide, the BC´s are in fact creating better tools to ensure the freedom of information for everyone.

Of course, the BC´s don´t have a clue of that their actions will ultimately cause...

[Baron Munchausen]

And yet... as long as they have those long lists of captive 'artists' they will be a problem. They can claim to be 'defending the rights of the artists' and request more changes to the law and more hardware hassle to 'protect' their artists even while everyone (including the artists) know very well that they are defending their own )(*$^(^@$ profits. Recording artists usually end up owing money to the music companies because they structure all the fees and business risks to protect themselves not the artists. They have little choice but to sign the contract that the company offers because almost all new artists start out relatively poor. Then the artists make their own profits (if any) on tour following the publicity generated by the album and (sometimes) promotion by the music company.

So, if more and more artists start to realize they can just release tracks on P2P to 'promote' their tours and they don't need the exploting music companies then the end will truly be near for the suits. That is what they are afraid of, even more than the immediate losses of piracy of some of the works of their currently contracted artists. They are terrified that a new kind of music business could grow up that they aren't even part of and when the contracts run out, the artists just walk away...

[Atrocities]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Hey - Anybody want to list places to get independant music?

Not here Narf, it would violate the rules of the forum. Unless you were talking about legal independant music downloads approved by the artists and their lables.

[Atrocities]

A long while back I posted about how the RIAA had copied KaZaa software and had released its own version in order to "gather" evidence against people who happened to use their P2P program. I was laughed at but later that year the developers of KaZaa sued the RIAA for doing it and the RIAA sued a great many people for piracy. I think one of them was an 11 year old girl and her destitute Grandmother. Way to go RIAA, make those examples.

[Captain Kwok]

There's nothing wrong with seeking out independent artists, which in most cases by defination are 'label' free. Anyhow, most P2P networks actually try and promote the legimate use of their networks for downloading approved files for these sorts of artists.

In most cases, a given genre will have websites where you can download independent artists of that style. Usually an interweb search will bring up said sites. Some have fees per song, while others allow free downloads hoping that you might some of the artists' albums.

[Baron Munchausen]

Atrocities said:

Not here Narf, it would violate the rules of the forum. Unless you were talking about legal independant music downloads approved by the artists and their lables.

Most of the online services like iTunes make at least some room for new artists. There are also completely 'Indie' enterprises. The most famous is CD Baby, where you can buy CDs with samples of many artists on a single disk. There are others with some rather obvious names.

http://www.cdbaby.com

http://www.indie-music.com/

http://www.indiemusic.com/

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Yes, I did mean legal.

[El_Phil]

Atrocities said:
A long while back I posted about how the RIAA had copied KaZaa software and had released its own version in order to "gather" evidence against people who happened to use their P2P program. I was laughed at but later that year the developers of KaZaa sued the RIAA for doing it and the RIAA sued a great many people for piracy. I think one of them was an 11 year old girl and her destitute Grandmother. Way to go RIAA, make those examples.

Looking at it first off, well yes its awful. BUT and it is a big but, she was breaking the law. Either the law applys to all or scrap it. Complain about the entire system all you like, but the girl wouldn't have been in trouble if she wasn't breaking the law.

I'm not condoning the RIAA or their actions, but if people didn't pirate they wouldn't be in trouble. When you can get legal music from Hong Kong imports at £6 or so each then I start to lose sympathy. Yes in a standard retailer music is overpriced, but at ~50p a track on legal CD you can't say that is a ripoff.

[TurinTurambar]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Yes, I did mean legal.

http://www.mperia.com/

... if you create a user-account (no charge) and browse around a bit, you can even sign up for them to tell you when new stuff comes out that you might like, or new stuff is available from a band you've found that you want to keep track of. Lots of great stuff there.

[Atrocities]

We should outlaw greed and regulate the Recording industry. Any proofit over X amount would go to the Federal coffers to help pay for computers in every house hold.