Apple plus Motorola
p2pnet.net News:- The deal forged by Apple and Motorola could turn Apple into the “Microsoft of music” and make the iPod the “de facto standard in digital music”.
The statement comes from Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich, quoted in a NewsFactor Network story here.
But far from indicating a glittering alliance which’ll ultimately brighten the lives of music lovers everywhere, it’s further proof that the corporate sector has absolutely no idea: that there are two digital media worlds - the Real and the Unreal which are, respectively, what’s actually happening and what Big Music and entities such as Apple wish was happening.
In the first world, millions of people share music not only from the corporate music ‘industry’ but also from a staggering range of artists and cultures from around the world. It’s a world the Big Four labels and their wholly owned enforcement organizations such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) are unable to suborn and are therefore trying desperately to destroy.
Its people - artists and music lovers both - would happily interact on financial and creative levels with the music industry.
In the second world lying, deception, slander, libel, cheating and theft rule. Here, the inhabitants, a small cartel of venal copyright owners, want only to possess and seek to gain total control of the emerging commercial p2p industry, and how people handle music and other digital media online. They maintain their failing grip on music sales with the help and cooperation of the mainstream media and international government administrations and politicians, with America’s to the fore.
Apple’s presence in the Real world of digital music doesn’t even register, help from the labels with their tremendous financial power and political clout notwithstanding. There, last month 8,324,299 people were on p2p networks at any given moment with one billion files (at a conservative estimate) moving among computers around the world. And there, Apple’s iPod is just another mp3 player.
In the Unreal world, the Big Four record labels use applications such as Napster II to try to pass a mere 700,000 or so examples of similarly priced, mass-produced cookie-cutter ‘product’ through corporate music sites supported and supplied by them. iTunes is only one such.
Back to the NewsFactor story, it has Yankee Group analyst Michael Goodman saying, “calling Apple ‘the Microsoft of music’ is like putting the cart before the horse. It is premature to give Apple this accolade before the big guns have even entered the digital music market.”
Big Guns or Damp Squibs?
In fact, the Big Guns entered the market years ago. They succeeded in shooting down Napster and AudioGalaxy and are currently in a David and Goliath battle where Morpheus (StreamCast Networks) and Grokster Ltd are taking on no less than 28 heavyweight movie studios and music labels over the question: Can commercial (or any other, presumably) companies be held responsible for what people do with their software?
Last year US District Court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled the owners of the p2p programs Grokster and Morpheus couldn’t control how people use their apps and so couldn’t be held liable for piracy by third-party users. Wilson cited the 1984 Sony Betamax case where Hollywood tried to have VCRs banned. However, the Supreme Court ruled that use of new technology to infringe copyrights didn’t justify such an action.
“Grokster and Streamcast are not significantly different from companies that sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights,” he decided.
Predictably, ably assisted by the ever Hollywood-helpful senator Orrin Hatch, the entertainment industry is currently attempting to ram its INDUCE act into law. As part of the deal, US Register Marybeth Peters wants the Betamax case (under which the movie studios tried to keep the first consumer VCRs off the market) re-opened.
The entertainment industry Big Guns have spilled a lot of blood, much of it is their own. And judging by Big Music’s ’screw you all’ attitude towards the people who were once its customers, things won’t improve in the immediate future.
However, at the end of the day, p2p file sharing is far more a part of the Net digital music scene than are the Big Four labels and their plastic music sites and the corporate entertainment sector will eventually be forced to concede that p2p is the solution, not the problem.
But until that happens, as in any major war, untold thousands of innocent victims will be caught in the cross-fire.
July 28th, 2004 at 10:14 pm
Is it file sharing or just plain theft. Go to Wal-Mart and steal a CD and call it CD Sharing because you really intended to return it. I am tried of the p2p people trying to justify not paying artists.
July 28th, 2004 at 10:19 pm
Can software companies be held responsible for what people do with the software. Let’s not kidd ourselves, millions are using p2p to avoid having to pay for their music. It is simple as that. In the process the artist does not get paid and in the long run it is the artist that suffers. Yes, p2p can be held responsible because Congress should and will pass laws to discourage thiefs.
July 29th, 2004 at 2:56 am
“But far from indicating a glittering alliance which’ll ultimately brighten the lives of music lovers everywhere, it’s further proof that the corporate sector has absolutely no idea: that there are two digital media worlds - the Real and the Unreal which are, respectively, what’s actually happening and what Big Music and entities such as Apple wish was happening.”
With all due respect… 5 billion files times $0.00 is ZERO
What Apple is doing 110 million files sold X $.99 is A LOT better than anything the P2P networks has ever done for these artists you’re apparently defending.
(They get a small cut of that $.99 song)
Explain to me exactly how Apple is evil and p2p networks are some wild, organic fuzzy happy place?