From OregonLive:
Dorr, the 37-year-old owner of Imbibe on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, has been slapped with a federal lawsuit by companies that own the rights to a trio of popular classics that were performed at Dorr’s restaurant in 2005.
First it was illegal downloading and the industry had a point but instead of adapting to a changing marketplace they went with the new American way….litigation baby litigation. So, they sued 12 year olds….and then those evil kids sitting in their bedrooms trying to learn how to play their favorite riffs from the new Fall Out Boy song became to much for the industry to bear so they decided to shutdown the guitar tab web sites….BUT it was too late…some of those kids had already formed cover bands and were out there playing songs in public…well, the solution was obvious….yup, you guessed it…..sue the restaurant owner. Makes perfect fucking sense.
Really, when I first saw this story on Tiny Mixed Tapes I thought it had to be a copy/paste of an Onion article…..but it is the real deal…It is obvious to me now “the music industry” has decided the only way to prevent copyright infringement is to kill music completely. I wish I could say I was in disbelief but honestly….I’m not…
The married father of two, who opened Imbibe a couple of years ago, said bands typically start playing after 10. But after Friday, the restaurant will do without live music because of the lawsuit.
Somewhere, ASCAP execs are high fiving one another.
from Reuters:
The music industry has launched a fresh wave of 8,000 lawsuits against alleged file-sharers around the world, escalating its drive to stamp out online piracy and encourage the use of legal download services.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the world’s music companies, said on Tuesday the new cases were brought in 17 countries, including the first ones ever in Brazil, Mexico and Poland.
The trade group said more than 1 billion music tracks were illegally downloaded last year in Brazil, the largest market in Latin America. The country has seen record company revenue nearly halved since 2000, IFPI said.
The industry has now filed about 18,000 lawsuits in the United States, the largest market for music sales, and 13,000 in the rest of the world.
This paragraph really got me:
The group added that more than 2,300 people had already settled their case for illegally file-sharing copyrighted material with an average payout of 2,420 euros ($3,034).
3000 dollars? Is it really fucking worth it? How about concentrating on ways to adapt to the changing world instead of trying to strong arm people.
DreamHost, while not the host of this very blog, gentle reader, is my hosting company of choice* for several reasons, but one of those is their very keen attention to things like DRM. My respect for them just shot through the roof a few minutes ago as I read their announcement of a new music service called Files Forever!
What is it? I’m glad you asked. Here’s what they had to say in the DreamHost Blog entry, “iTunes Music Sore“:
It’s a new service (during the beta only open to DreamHost Customers) that allows you to sell your own digital files, a la iTMS.. but with a few key differences:
- No DRM is allowed.. period!
- Once you upload your file to sell, you pay a tiny one-time storage fee, and we serve it FOREVER at a nice, permanent, URL.
- Anybody who buys a file somebody offers via Files Forever get an online backup of it included.. that is, they may re-download the file as many times as they want, FOREVER!
- Any file you buy from Files Forever you can also “loan” to your friends via the service! They are then allowed to download the file as much as they want until you ask for it “back.” (This is awesome, trust me.)
- We handle all the payment processing / shopping cart stuff, and take just 5% + 50c for credit card fees. (We combine purchases to minimize these costs too.)
- You can even offer an “affiliate cut” for people who re-sell your files!
As the kids say, “that’s hot”.
Full quality, DRM-free digital distribution. The processing fee is slightly above average for the most closely-comparable services, but I’ll let that slide for now.
* I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but if you think DreamHost is hot shit now and you want to sign up with them, use the code FIDDY to take $50 off your first bill.
I’ve added a rather bold graphic to the sidebar today in hopes of spreading awareness regarding “digital rights management” and how it is a problem for music consumers.
Concise information ripped straight from stopDRMnow.org:
What Is DRM?
DRM stands for “Digital Restrictions Management,” though content providers will argue it stands for “Digital Rights Management.” DRM refers to computer technology, hardware or software based, that restricts what a consumer is allowed to do with a copyrighted work. If you’ve ever been annoyed that you cannot copy a CD, DVD, or other digital media, this is DRM at work. See also Wikipedia’s article on DRM.
Why Does DRM Exist?
DRM exists for the exclusive benefit of content producers and providers. Companies such as Disney, Sony, and Lion’s Gate argue that DRM is needed to prevent people from pirating music, movies, and other works on P2P networks or by other means. What they won’t tell you is that they are really trying to control who, what, when, where, and how you access your music and videos. For instance, when you purchase a song from Apple’s iTunes Music Store, you are purchasing a song that can only be played by media applications that support QuickTime or an Apple iPod. Suppose next year you want to buy a new portable music player? Instead of having choice, you must now buy another iPod if you expect to play music you’ve already purchased.
Why Should I Care?
Content producers and providers are erecting barriers that prevent legitimate consumers who purchased their materials legally from exercising fair use of copyright. See Video and Music for examples. Additionally, these barriers also prevent new companies from creating new and innovative products. Most importantly however, thanks to legislation passed by Congress, DRM is futher protected by laws which make it a crime for citizens to excercise their 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech!
Please support artists and labels who sell DRM-free digital music.
