Friday, 27 April 2007

legal challenges to napster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster

Metallica discovered that a demo of one of their songs had been circulating across the Napster network, even before it was released. This eventually led to the song being played on several radio stations across America and brought to Metallica’s attention that their entire back catalogue of studio material was also available. The band responded in 2000 by filing a lawsuit against the service offered by Napster.

In 2001, A&M records was granted a preliminary injunction against Napster for engaging in, or facilitating others in copying, downloading, uploading, transmitting, or distributing plaintiffs' copyrighted musical compositions and sound recordings. Napster appealed this ruling by the district court on the grounds of fair use.

After a failed appeal, an injunction was issued on March 5, 2001 ordering Napster to prevent the trading of copyrighted music on its network.
In July 2001, Napster shut down its entire network in order to comply with the injunction.
On September 24, 2001, the case was partially settled. Napster agreed to pay music creators and copyright owners a $26 million settlement for past, unauthorized uses of music, as well as an advance against future licensing royalties of $10 million. In order to pay those fees, Napster attempted to convert their free service to a subscription system.

Feedback #2

Well done - this is evidence of thorough research. There are still some gaps - however some very interesting statistics

Lawsuits against illegal downloading

UK Record Labels Expand Piracy Battle, Sue File Swappers

"We have been warning for months that unauthorized file-sharing is illegal," British Phonographic Industry Chairman Peter Jamieson said in a statement. "These are not people casually downloading the odd track. They are uploading music on a massive scale, stealing the livelihood of thousands of artists and the people who invest in them."

many leading music industry groups in the UK and Europe have launched a barrage of private lawsuits against dozens of individuals they say illegally swapped copyrighted music.
The British Phonographic Industry filed 28 lawsuits in Great Britain.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said it had started more than:-
400 lawsuits in Europe
50 lawsuits in France
100 lawsuits in Austria
174 lawsuits in Denmark
100 lawsuits in Germany

the Recording Industry Association of America has sued more than 3,000 alleged music pirates in the U.S.
The BPI said this came after a public warning to all UK music swappers in March and some 350,000 instant messages to known file sharers.

Jamison said the organization "resisted legal action as long as we could. We have done everything we can to raise awareness of this problem"

however, some have questioned whether targeting 12 years olds, as one lawsuit did, is an effective way of targetting piracy.
Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan said the latest action was "inevitable" and puts all file sharers in the same boat.

He said "Digital youth in Europe and America are growing up with no understanding of music as a commodity. The perception that music is free and essentially disposable is one that spells long-term danger for the music industry."

However, only the users have been challenged rather than the file sharing networks. This shows the question of legality is stil not clear.

According to Jupiter, 19% of people surveyed said they would pay for song downloads over the internet, up from 16% a year ago.

Thursday, 26 April 2007

Write a list of general terms related to NMTs

Institution
technology
convergence
peer to peer files sharing




Write a list of key terminology related to your chosen technology



DRM (Digital Rights Management)



From your blog, select 10 statements (stats, quotations) that you have found during your research which relate to debates on audiences’ changing experiences, institutions response to technology, the future etc. NAME ANY SOURCES

“since the explosion of myspace, many bands have taken the opportunity to try to raise their profile in the public domain. fans can now listen to songs and leave messages for their favourite bands” see bands on myspace

piracy - illegal downloads.

BitTorrent tries to make customers pay

music and mobile phones

exam question examples

audience question:- how has new media technology changed audience consumption patterns? (advantages and disadvantages)

institution question:- how have institutions had to react to new media technologies?
(upgrades, convergence, etc)

Tuesday, 24 April 2007

digital television

1984 - sky channel satelitte tv and bidding wars for coverage of key sporting events.
1998 - digital statellite TV (DST) was introducedd with 200 channel service, internet and fully interactivity within two years
TV becomes a multimedia station
digital terrestrial television (DTT) has been heralded the future of television.
new advances include; remote control, plasma screens, surround sound etc

DTT - ITV digital, Freeview - picked up by set-top box
DST - SkyDigital, signals are recieved by satellite dish
DCT - Telewest, NTL - fibre optic cacling connected to subscriber television texts.

narrowcasting - opposite to broadcasting.
-specialist channels

Monday, 23 April 2007

films

What are the advantages of digital projection for the consumers?
better quality of sound and image. perfect copy.

Why has there been a slow take-up?

Why is 'Hollywood' driving this technological change?

What does digital projection offer in the way of the "future" for cinemas?

Extended question: how is digital distribution changing the way we consume other media?

piracy figures

CD piracy generates an estimated £77 million annually for criminal enterprise; increasing by 37% in 2004 alone.

Counterfeiters are increasingly using internet sites to sell their fakes; eBay piracy figures (infringing auctions removed) are below;

2001: 2,315
2002: 3,491
2003: 5,649
2004: 14,318
2005: 57,463
2006: 199,295

The problem is focused primarily around areas with high Asian populations, and at an estimated 70% the level of piracy in Bollywood film and music is far higher than the average UK rate of around 5%.

A raid in Southall in September 2005 uncovered the largest ever factory discovered in Western Europe - capable of producing more than 50,000 fake DVDs and CDs a day. It was concealed at a residential address in Southall, where officers seized a day's worth of production - worth £400,000.

Friday, 20 April 2007

Bands on Myspace

since the explosion of myspace, many bands have taken the opportunity to try to raise their profile in the public domain. fans can now listen to songs and leave messages for their favourite bands.
“Bands are going to MySpace because it’s free and they don’t have to know how to do a Web site,” said Tom Anderson, the site’s co-founder and president. “But the biggest reason is because there are 43 million people on MySpace.”
MySpace Music is the prime convergence point for bands and fans. Users can search for artists by name, genre, location or keyword. The section promotes new and well-established acts through exclusive content such as streaming audio and video.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11114166/

Hypothesis

how has the digitalisation of music changed the way we consume and buy music?
What does the increase in illegal downloading mean for record labels and ultimately musicians?
Why has there been such an increase in the number of music bands creating websites on operators such as myspace? Has this raised their profile?

BPI

The bpi promotes and protects its 300-plus membership. it represent hundreds of record labels in the UK. Its anti-piracy work is to protect the UK record companies against piracy. A BPI investigation showed that around 80% of counterfeiters are estimated to be illegally claiming benefits.

Pirate copies - duplicates of original sound recordings, which are then marketed on other labels with different packaging and graphics.
For years, downloading music has been mainly an illegal activity. But in the pst two years many new legal download sites have launched. This means UK consumers can be provided with the opportunity to access a diverse range of music legally.

Why is commercial piracy growing?

  • duplication equipment has become more affordable and is now easier to use
  • the low-risk, high-return aspect of counterfeiting has made it attractive

Copy-Protected CDs

Sony BMG's decided to use copy-protection software to prevent people ripping some 50-odd CDs - from internationally known artists such as Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys and Santana - to MP3s. however, this did not seem to be an issue here in the UK as none of the CDs issued here had the software.
  • however, the BPI, says "lost sales" caused by file sharing alone rose 35% from £278m in 2003 to £376m in 2004.
  • The UK's first copy-protected CD, Natalie Imbruglia's White Lilies Island (BMG), was returned en masse by customers in November 2001 after it failed to play on certain CD and DVD players - but compared to the US, and certainly the rest of Europe, the UK has remained almost unaffected.
  • Four years ago, there were widespread calls within the five major record labels to use it, but only Sony and BMG released any copy-protected product in the UK.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,1720882,00.html

BitTorrent tries to make customers pay

BitTorrent is now making moves to convert their current user base into paying customers. this article shows the interview between Ashwin Navin, the president and chief executive of BitTorrent, and Kate Bulkley of the Guardian.
Ashwin Navin says:-
"BitTorrent was never specifically designed for the purpose of stealing content, but it was designed to deliver content efficiently and if we can be a distributor of content using our tools we can be more efficient than all of our competitors"
"BitTorrent does have a lot of traffic and we make some money from advertising, but that's not where we think we'll be wildly profitable."

music and mobile phones

music can now be played through more modern mobile phones and also transferred between separate mobile phones via bluetooth. as almost everyone now owns a mobile phone, the mobile phone industry is extremley lucrative and many comppanies are trying to find avenues into the industry. hence, the development of the iPhone.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/02/happy_birthday_outrage/
Microsoft is apparently offering copyrighted music for free download and without regard for common IP decency and in flagrant breach of several, if not dozens, of international laws.

iPod

The iPod is a perfect example of convergence technology. you can now buy movies from the iTunes Store and sync them to your iPod as well as having music and games on your iPod.
An 80 GB iPod can hold up to 20,000 songs, up to 25,000 photos, and up to 100 hours of video. IPods are also now extremly personalised. they come in different colours, and there are now 3 different types of iPod, each of which has different features and facilities. Apple also provide the download facility iTunes, and are soon to provide Apple TV. They currently dominate the mp3 player market and are hoping to develop this further with their unveiling of the iPhone.
iPod was launched in 2001 with the the line-up consisting of the video-capable fifth generation iPod, the smaller iPod nano, and the display-less iPod shuffle by october 2005
On Monday, April 9, 2007, Apple announced that over 100 million iPods had been sold worldwide.
however, the iPod is known to be temperamental. the battery is known to run out after 18 months whilst the warranty runs out after a year. when the battery of an iPod needs replacing it cost more to replace the battery rather than have the battery fixed. also, when the iPod nano was first brought out, a batch had to be recalled as many of them had snapped.
however, by ensuring the songs downloaded from itunes can only be used on iPods and no other mp3 players, apple have made sure that their customers are less likely to download from another provider or buy another mp3 player.

iPod Sales
Since its launch, the iPod has gained fans from Downing Street to Hollywood and it has been reported that iPods take up approximately 60% of the mp3 player market. There are now more than 4,000 accessories for all the different versions of the iPod. Despite a brief dip last year, sales have picked up. In the three months to December, Apple delivered 21m players - an increase of 50% on the previous year's run-up to Christmas.

Tuesday, 17 April 2007

DRM free music

DRM free music means that:

  • record label can sell to customers without worrying about interoperability
  • iPod owners can buy from new outlets
  • Apple can sell to non-iPod users
  • music can be sold to people that couldn't be reached before
  • allows many stores to reach previously troublesome markets
  • other retailers can offers downloads from a big label
  • crucially, customers can hopefully stop worrying about interoperability

  • EMI said its entire catalogue would be available as unprotected tracks for any retailer who wants to sell them. On iTunes, these higher quality tracks will cost 99p, while lower grade, DRM-laden versions will cost 79p.

Steve Jobs predicted that other major labels will follow suit shortly and that half the iTunes music store's 5m tracks would be available as unprotected versions by the end of the year.