record companies are Wrong!

How many people here at AO think that the RIAA and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCRA) are wrong and that p2p is not different from trading tapes back in the 80's and 90's?

Personally I think record companies are taking the wrong approach to responding to the p2p explosion. They are coming up with copy protection schemes that have some kind of workaround and sometimes cd's cannot be played properly in some equipment. This is an outrage because now music fans like myself who haven't stopped buying cd's are affected by this because it means that I will have to do some type of hack to rip my legitimately purchased album into my mp3 player. This solution doesn't fix the problem intended to solve because pirates in Asia, Latin America and Russia can still do some easy hack and sell their pirated copies on the streets or leak them into p2p networks. Copy protection is just an annoyance for legitimate buyers.

The latest of this is the Velvet Revolver cd, which when inserted into a computer with autorun enabled it automatically installs some software that allows the music to be played. This sounds to me like spyware or virus because it is installing software without the user being aware. A quick google search reveals workarounds to this problem. But I don't want to buy cd's and then have to search for some hack to put it into my mp3 player or burned cd. I don't want to have to buy a turntable and start buying vinyl. This is unacceptable!

Technology has made music exchange easier than ever but in essence it is exactly the same as creating a tape and giving it to a friend. The DMCRA states that it is illegal to download mp3's for financial or other "gains". Then they go on to define that just having an mp3 of a song is a "gain" and therefore illegal. This is BS! I didn't see anybody complain back in the day when somebody gave you a tape.
Record companies then try to make p2p users feel guilty saying that they are hurting artists. The ones that suffer the most from this are the companies themselves. Artists only receive a very small amount from each album sold, their main income is when they sign a deal with the company and they get a contract and get payed. But I do see a solution to this whole thing: lower album prices. Basic economic theory clearly states that lowering the price of a good that has few substitutes (ie: any given artist's album) will increase the quantity demanded of that good and will increase total revenue for the firm. Just imagine cd's priced at 5-7 USD instead of your usual 15-20. I would buy a lot more music. One can't fight progress and technology. If record companies keep trying to fight that battle they are sure gonna lose in the long run.
Comments, criticisms and opinions are all welcome.

cheers,

J

Some inspiration "dinosaurs will die" by NOFX:


Kick back watch it crumble
See the drowning, watch the fall
I feel just terrible about it
That's sarcasm, let it burn

I'm gonna make a toast when it falls apart
I'm gonna raise my glass above my heart
Then someone shouts "That's what they get!"

For all the years of hit and run
For all the piss broke bands on VH1
Where did all, their money go?
Don't we all know

Parasitic music industry
As it destroys itself
We'll show them how it's supposed to be

Music written from devotion
Not ambition, not for fame
Zero people are exploited
There are no tricks, up our sleeve

Gonna fight against the mass appeal
We're gonna kill the 7 record deal
Make records that have more than one good song
The dinosaurs will slowly die
And I do believe no one will cry
I'm just ****ing glad I'm gonna be
There to watch the fall

Prehistoric music industry
Three feet in la brea tar
Extinction never felt so good

If you think anyone would feel badly
You are sadly, mistaken
The time has come for evolution
**** collusion, kill the five

Whatever happened to the handshake?
Whatever happened to deals no-one would break?
What happened to integrity?
It's still there it always was
For playing music just because
A million reason why
All dinosaurs will die
All dinosaurs will die
All dinosaurs will die

Well,

I actually lost a job in the music industry due to piracy...................and I mean PIRACY............as in the deliberate copying and resale of materials for commercial gain.

I guess that American laws are not sophisticated enough to make the distinction between the act of counterfeiting, and breach of contract?

It is a somewhat different story over here............so far that there has been very little interest in swapping music.............just in piracy.............and the Trading Standards Office, Police and Customs & Excise are very vigilant.

At the end of the day, someone who gets a song from a friend isn't going to buy the media anyway? so no sale has really been lost? If they buy a pirated/bootlegged CD, then the industry has lost out?

just my thoughts

I like McDonalds approach. Get a free download when you purchase a Big Mac. I am assuming that in order to download the music, that you will have to register and run a custom application. Thus enabling the record industry to gather your MAC address and other personal identifyable information, that will help them track you down later when you download music illegally. But as I said, I have not looked, but it would not suprise me.

On the subject of swapping: If I remember correctly copying tapes was only allowed for personal use. You could record over the air stuff and share with your friends, but copying a purchased tape and selling/giving it to your friends was still illegal. Not to mention that we did not have the prevalent Internet access where you could share an artists song with the millions of others that like a particular sound. This is where the record industry is really loosing money.

Let's face it, just like the college kid that is working at McDonalds who dreams of success in the business world, the record industry and the recording artists have the right to earn as much money as they can. If they charge too much money, which I think they do, people will stop buying their music. Just because someone doesn't agree with the price of item, that does not give that individual the right to steal in any fashion or form. Especially when we are talking about something as fleeting as the "hot" hit of the day.