Big Music mobile p2p attack
p2p news / p2pnet: A new kind of attack on kids is being planned by the Organized Music family, EMI Group (UK), Vivendi Universal (France), Warner Music (USA) and Sony BMG (Japan, Germany).
Children are already prime targets. Ask Briana LaHara. As Beverley Lumpkin wrote not long after the news broke that the Big Four was suing Briana, aged 12, you have to give the record industry credit: “It has shown far more creativity and imagination in screwing up this music download business than it has in the popular music it’s produced over the last 10 years. I mean, is it possible to blow a PR campaign worse than this?”
But that wasn’t enough. “Having made complete idiots out themselves, the powers that be at Recording Industry Association of America then tried to do damage control by announcing that it was ’settling’ the potential $90,000 fine with little Ms. LaHara for just $2,000. See, we’re not as hard-hearted as we looked. Great, so now the message is: we crush children, but don’t worry Mr Professional Downloader, we’re not really serious about all this. We’re just bluffing.”
Or ask schoolgirl Brittany Chan, who was 13 when OM first went after her. They tried to get her through her mother and when that failed, lodged a demand for a Guardian ad Litem so they could attack her personally. Brittany is now 14.
“It is not our intention to target children,” Peter Jamieson admitted almost exactly a year ago, “but [we will] if they are breaking the law on a very large scale.” Jamieson works for the Big Music-owned BPI (British Phonographic Industry).
So what’s new, and getting old?
Organized Music lobbyists are working hard behind the scenes to let mobile phone companies know exactly where their best interests lie.
“Children with the latest mobile phones are posing a new threat to sales of recorded music by illegally sharing songs, according to music industry leaders,” says the Guardian Unlimited.
“The spread of mobile phones capable of carrying hundreds of easily transferable songs has opened a new front in a war against piracy.”
The story has Martin Higginson, chief executive of Monstermob, a company “planning to sell mobile phone downloads” saying, “the piracy problem caused by mobiles could be worse than that caused by the internet. If piracy on the internet was a tidal wave, this is going to be a tsunami.”
The Guardian Unlimited goes on, “fears have been triggered partly by Nokia’s plans to release a phone early next year capable of storing 3,000 songs - enough for about 250 albums. The Sony Walkman phone, launched this month, has the capacity for about 500 songs and, although only 10cm (4in) long, sports built-in stereo speakers. With 900m tracks already available on websites for illegal downloading, the growth of mobiles that play music raises the prospect of millions more in people’s pockets which can be shared illegally without even connecting to a computer.”
Actually, it’s a hell of a lot more than 900 million. But who’s counting.
Bluetooth, “allows songs to be transferred between handsets at the touch of a button - but only one at a time,” says the story. “A greater threat stems from the falling price and expanding capacity of removable memory cards which allow hundreds of songs to be transferred simply by sharing the card.”
And then the punch-line:
“Both techniques are being used by schoolchildren.”
Stay tuned.
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
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
See:-
Beverley Lumpkin wrote - We gave up on Prohibition …
attack her personally - Big Music wants Britanny Chan, October 5, 2005
but [we will] - Sue kids in UK piracy suits?, October 10, 2004
Guardian Unlimited - Mobile phones open new front in war on music piracy, October 28, 2005
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
November 1st, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Cue up the Scooby-Doo ending. “If it wasn’t for them pesky kids we could have kept this business model going”
Sneakernet was always the best. Here’s some ideas:-
- Make up a handful of DVDs with the favourites from your mp3 collection. Then you can always listen to your favourite music in other people’s houses. What shall we say? 20Gb?
- Get a USB 2.5″ had drive and keep your MP3 collection on that. Dump it to other people’s hard drives, dump there collection onto your disk. 80Gb and a USB enclosure are around $100
Amazingly, Apple have got away with making it awkward to copy other people’s stuff on and off an iPod. But it’s possible. And other DAP manufacturers make it much easier.
November 1st, 2005 at 6:50 pm
One large leather whip, and one dead horse… Let them continue to whip this dead horse until everyone stops buying their crap!!! I wonder if Mr. Dickman’s suing little girls makes him feel really big? I wonder if he thinks about f**king them in other ways as well. I know that several artists who he claims to support have been in trouble for molesting children.
Everyday people like us are the ones that made America. The cartels, RIAA and MPAA are the ones who are working feverishly to pervert the minds and morality of Americans like us. As far as I’m concerned the RIAA, MPAA, and others of their ilk are what is DESTROYING America. Do victims have a website set up where they can receive funds to fight these bastards? I would be happy to contribute.
Victims need to have a sign on the back of their cars that says “I’m being ripped of by the movie cartel, please don’t buy DVD’s.”? Yes, the cartels are big and can squash any one of us like a bug, however if we swarm these cartels by the thousands, we can drive them out of business or at least to a more humble position. I know I am personally reponsible for creating over a hundred ex-cartel customers.
These people would really like to catch me sharing movies that they produce, but they will not because I do not use, like or even share their product. Their product is crap and would waste space on my computer.
I haven’t watched a movie (cartel produced) that I really liked in over 3 years. Since this “Sue them” campaign has been brought to my attention, I have not rented or bought a movie. The cartels lost me as a customer. I spend at least 30 minutes a day coming up with ideas on how to fight these media cartels. I do this because a have a pathological hate for any type of bully. Here are a few ideas that are on p2pnet.
http://p2pnet.net/story/4023 Fine them back!
http://p2pnet.net/story/6514 FreeWan
http://p2pnet.net/story/2141 Secure p2p (Sneaker Net)
http://p2pnet.net/story/426 Sticker campaign
http://p2pnet.net/story/6283 We’re Not Taking It Anymore
A couple of my own ideas include starting a file sharing pool of trusted friends, contributing a few bucks to defense campaigns, and
creating fake movie files, sharing them via peer to peer programs and only allowing those on peer guardian’s black list to connect to you filesharing program. This is WAR, and we need to rally the troops so that we can win it quickly. We will WIN if a lot of people put forth only a little effort.
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:04 am
ha ha ha, that’s just what I was thinking. The Scooby-Doo arch-villan’s are obviously parodies of the cartels. Or maybe the **AA and friends model their business ethics on those of Old Man Grissom - The 10′000 Volt Ghost and his cronies ;P
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:25 am
“…creating fake movie files, sharing them via peer to peer programs and only allowing those on peer guardian’s black list to connect to your filesharing program.”
That’s an interesting idea. Copybait. Is it illegal to spoof a copyright file? Keep in mind, if you are inviting scrutiny you best not have even a shred of “real” copyright material on your HD.
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:31 am
“Is it illegal to spoof a copyright file?”
As soon as I posted I remembered that P2P networks are being flooded with fakes by companys hired by Big Media, so it must not be illegal, at least for now. I can see it coming. Soon the fake files will be copyright so the public can’t share copybait on P2P, but if you made them yourself… I mean, you can’t copyright the name of a file, can you?
November 2nd, 2005 at 3:34 am
Actually, since Mobile phones are metered by the minute, if people traded all their files over mobile networks, that would present an opportunity to effectively “charge” for file trading. Then the music industry could try to horn in on that. Shhhhhh!
November 2nd, 2005 at 6:55 am
If the Sony walkman phone is advertised, as it is, as capable of music sharing, and Sony are at the heart of the **aa lawsuits, ain’t that entrapment?, I for one will never purchase from Sony again.
#Bri#
December 10th, 2006 at 3:09 pm