Warner Music, Nokia, piracy punch-up
p2pnet news | Music:- Warner Music, abandoned by Madonna and marked down as ’sell’ by a firm of New York analysts, is engaged in what Forbes is calling a ‘piracy spat’ with Nokia.
Says The Register:
“Nokia’s Music Store went live last week – but look in vain for anything by Led Zepp, John Coltrane, or Smokey Robinson. That’s because Warner Music Group (WMG) is refusing to license its catalogues to the phone giant, in protest at its Web 2.0 file swapping site, Mosh.
“WMG says Mosh is a hotbed of copyright infringement. Nokia has responded by saying it employs humans round the clock, as well as using Audible Magic software to weed out unlicensed content.”
Audible Magic?
heh
Anyway, “Warner sources have told Billboard that the two sides are far from a deal, and that litigation is a possibility,” says the story.
Warner, the smallest member of the Big 4 organised music cartel, the others being EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, “has refused to allow its content to be sold on a new Nokia website”.
Observes Forfbes dryly:
“So who loses the most from this?
“Well, the Nokia Music Store only works with a couple of handsets at the moment, so sales won’t be significant for a while—It’s possible Nokia needs the range to attract customers more than Warner needs the extra sales.
“But from a branding point of view it doesn’t make Warner look good, and it’s probably not the best way to approach digital distribution in general.”
Meanwhile, an official Canadian government study says file sharing helps sales, not hurts them.
Also See:
abandoned by Madonna – Madonna abandons Warner Bros. Records, October 11, 2007
marked down as ’sell’ – Message to Big Music: Music is free!, November 3, 2007
Forbes – Warner Keeps Music From Nokia Music Store Over Piracy Spat, November 1, 2007
The Register – Warner slaps Nokia for Web 2.0 swap site, November 5, 2007
file sharing helps sales – P2P file sharing boosts music sales, November 3, 2007
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November 5th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Once again, we have further evidence that these arrogant pricks will be their own demise.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:59 am
Let them self-destruct, the world will be a better place.