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ACTA : Why You Should Be Concerned

February 6th, 2010 Kathy McGraw

ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is  an international trade agreement that would standardize intellectual property rights (IP) enforcement amongst all signatories.

The problem with ACTA is that it is being hammered out in complete secrecy and some of the information that has gotten out about it points to some very scary stuff. Why is it scary? It’s scary because some of the provisions would pretty much violate civil liberties, the right of privacy and the presumption of innocence that constitute the backbone the judicial systems in most modern democracies.

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Yes, You Can Make Money Giving Away Songs For Free

January 25th, 2010 Kathy McGraw

Music Energy (+clipping path, XXL)

 

While the RIAA may have you believe that every single file-sharer out there is nothing but a dirty pirate who just wants everything for free, there are some artists and labels out there who embrace the concept of file-sharing and are using it to bump up revenues.

The most noted example is Trent Reznor, the front man for Nine Inch Nails. He has easily made $1.6 million on his last release, all the while giving away his music for free. How has he done this? By connecting with his fans and giving them a reason to buy his albums by offering something unique and at a reasonable price. For example, you can get a two CD set for just $10, or a boxed set for $75, which includes the CDs, a DVD, a Blu-ray, and a photobook. 

Reznor doesn’t worry about licensing or DRM and he’s not busy making enemies of his fans by suing them or calling them pirates and thieves. Instead, he embraces his fans and encourages them to connect with him and each other. Read more about Reznor and other artists like him here.

Now think about the RIAA and pretty much how universally hated they are as an organization. If they would just take a page out of Reznor’s book, they could be laughing all the way to the bank, too.

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Piracy = Climate Change, Says Music Industry

January 22nd, 2010 Kathy McGraw

Ars Technica reports that the IFPI, a music industry group has released its annual report in which it likens copyright infringement with climate change and as such calls on governments around the World to legislate against it.

The report notes that physical CD sales continue to drop  and attributes all of this to piracy, even as it admits that digital music sales went up in 2009. It also failed to mention, as reported here, that file sharers are more likely to purchase digital music and will spend more money on digital music subscription services than non-file sharers.

The IFPI wants governments to enact legislation similar to the three strikes law that will soon go into effect in France. This law will create a new agency known as HADOPI which will monitor alleged file sharing activities and will cut off access to the Internet for repeat offenders.

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Watch An Ad, Download A DRM-Free Song

January 19th, 2010 Kathy McGraw

internet_music

 

Ars Technica reports that FreeAllMusic.com, an ad supported  music downloading service, signed an agreement with the music label EMI.  Read the article here.

My first reaction to the idea of having to watch an ad to download a song was a rather harsh “no way, dude!” But then I thought about it and it didn’t sound that bad. I mean, for the mere inconvenience of watching a 30 second ad, you get a free song that is free of any sort of DRM, you know, that stuff that makes it hard to back up your music and to transfer your music to your mp3 player, etc.

The songs that FreeAllMusic will be offering won’t be from unheard of bands, or poor knock-offs, either.  With signed contracts with EMI and Universal Music Group, it will have an assortment of songs by many of today’s popular artists.

We’ll have to see how this plays out, but it sounds pretty promising. The trade-off of a little bit of time to be able to download digital music with full ownership rights seems pretty small.

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