Satellite radio new RIAA victim
p2p news / p2pnet:- It won’t come as a major surprise to you to learn that, according to Reuters, the Big Music cartel is about to, “aim its legal guns at satellite radio due to a dispute involving new portable players that let listeners record and store songs”.
“[…] led by major labels such as Vivendi Universal, Warner Music Group, EMI Group and Sony BMG,” the recording industry believes the fact you can record from satellite radio represents a, “clear copyright violation and could take revenue away from paid download music services,” says the story.
Of course, far from being “led by,” Vivendi & CO ARE the recording industry.
And it’s always been possible to record from radio. So what’s the particular problem now?
Reuters goes on to point out that, “Illegal song trading has been blamed by the record industry for declines in sales, and labels have become increasingly aggressive in their legal battles to defend their product” and that “Now that focus includes portable players.”
There are all kinds of reasons for the declines, but file sharing isn’t one of them. The claim is no more than normal Big Four cartel equine excreta, with no factual basis. In reality, the cartels have never come even close to being able to demonstrate that a file shared equals a sale lost and to the contrary, sales are falling because of poor quality ‘product’; over-pricing; the fact the labels themselves have significantly reduced output; ongoing victimization of the ‘consumer’ base; and so on.
But JP Morgan analyst Barton Crockett says there might be conflict in store.
"Based on recent talks with execs at record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, we see potential spats ahead. RIAA may file a lawsuit this fall to stop a new feature for upcoming wearable satellite radios," he states in a report quoted by Reuters.
Even if the conflict winds up in court, Crockett said in his report, he did not believe such a suit would succeed because so-called ‘fair use’ laws allow users to record songs for their own use. He said it could pose a "headline risk" for satellite radio and prompt a lobbying push by the recording industry as the two industries wrangle over a new music rights contract.
Crockett said the RIAA may seek $1 billion or more in music rights fees for a new contract covering 2007 to 2012 to replace the current $80 million pact that expires in 2006, says Reuters, adding:
“But the record industry expects these contract talks will wind up in arbitration, one source said.”
(Thanks, Russell)
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
See:-
Reuters – Record labels, satellite radio in conflict, October 06, 2005
October 7th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
“Crockett said…he did not believe such a suit would succeed because so-called ‘fair use’ laws allow users to record songs for their own use.”
Where has this Crockett guy been? Fair use is DEAD. The DMCA was the first major blow, and any life that may have been left in it after that was sucked out by the music/movie industry pirates. By pirates I mean the “studios” and major labels, NOT file sharers.
“…So-called ‘fair use’ laws…” So-called indeed.
October 7th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
didn’t they go through this back in the 40’s with regular radio?
October 7th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
It’s this sort of attitude that has lost them at least one faithful customer and I have been buying since the sixties. I can’t understand why these crazy capitalist maniacs don’t appear to appreciate how many more customers they must be losing because of the way they have been conducting themselves over the past few years.
Along with their current substandard output , those of us who have become totally disenchanted with this ridiculous attitude must be losing them piles (and giving them piles with any luck! – very heavily bleeding ones!).
For quite a while now, I have been sticking to pre-used products specifically because of their boorish ways . Anything other than handing my money over to these stupid, self-important, worthless, little jerks.
Hopefully many more will take this stance and then perhaps we can ruin the little twats!
October 8th, 2005 at 2:19 am
This is probly nothing more than a bluff aimed at scaring the satellite radio biz’s into paying more than they should in royalties.
I’m sure they’ll ignore it tho.
October 11th, 2005 at 12:36 am
“And it’s always been possible to record from radio. So what’s the particular problem now?”
Te problem is that soon, with hacks being first and others following, digital satellite radios will be connected to computers. From there, sharing. Can they stop it? Of course not, unless they start producing good music at reasonable prices, so as to competes with home copying. After all, who, other that brainwashed consumenrs, wants to buys the low quality, high priced music most labels produce?
“Illegal song trading has been blamed by the record industry for declines in sales, and labels have become increasingly aggressive in their legal battles to defend their product”
Ever since magnetic tape recorders appeared, much copying and sharing has ocurred. As a result, the price of records for new release has gone up to the $15-20 range. If copying and sharing did not ocurred and more people purchased label recordingd, the prices would have been lower. So in a way, the buyers have been subsidizing the non buyers and the cost to the labels have been none.
Still, the vast majority of copies and sharing did not reduce sales at all because the copiers would have not purchased anything in all events.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
October 11th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
XM Radio used to sell a receiver called the PCR that they discontinued in august 2004, this little device with time trax could enable you to record on your pc the satallite feed, so the RIAA, although they deny it, put pressure on XM radio and the product was withdrawn, now second hand PCR’s sell for up to 10 times the original price on ebay etc.
There are ways to record from the feed these days, not simple but there are ways, and the new myfi players such as the pioneer has a 5 hr inbuilt memory function, go figgur
yours
dj drew