German indies anti-DRM site
p2p news / p2pnet: Sony BMG’s catastrophic DRM spyware blunder continues to reverberate not only in on- and offline mainstream media publications, but also in the hallowed halls of the corporate music industry where the other three members of the Big Four record label cartel, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Warner Music, are also being heavily splattered.
The disaster is now being felt in Germany, BMG’s home country. There, VUT (German Association of Independent Labels, Publishers and Producers – Verband unabhängiger Tonträgerunternehmen) has launched a web site to, “disassociate disassociate itself from the music industry’s position” in a campaign it’s calling Respect The Music.
Most of the record companies and publishers VUT represents aren’t interested in, “prosecuting private individuals in the same way as professional pirates,” it declares. “In this sense, VUT members support a more moderate policy. policy.”
The campaign has three clear statements to make, says the site:
1. DRM and copy protection are [sic] not the answer to the problems of the music industry. They cause wariness in consumers which in turn drives them to piracy.
2. We need strong yet consumer-friendly copyright laws that support the new digital forms of music distribution and create a basis for modern compensation models. The amended laws must create fair terms for the creative industry and therefore require thorough revision.
3. The legal persecution of P2P users turns fans into criminals and does not solve the problem of piracy.
VUT says it plans to provide continuous information on the position of the independents, “concerning topics such as copy protection/DRM, new forms of distributing music, as well as copyright law”.
Copy protection devices punish honest fans instead of rewarding them, “which is why most indies do not use copy protection,” it states, going on:
“It’s about time that the independent music business and its artists respond to the misguided policies of the music industry.
But that doesn’t mean that the labels approve of the “illegal burning or free download of their productions,” says VUT.
“The goal of this campaign is to inform people that the survival of a diversified music culture highly depends on its being respected. Just in the same way that most labels and artists respect the rights of their fans.”
January 19th, 2006 at 1:03 am
I can think of a better slogan: Respect the costomer.
January 19th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Those producers finally understood what we all say here all year long…
October 21st, 2006 at 6:22 pm
The record industry, for some reason, is still living in the late 80s early 90s. They haven’t grown past that period in time. Even though the world and technology has moved along, they and their business models have not. The only thing that has helped the record industry advance slightly was iTunes built by a computer company…NOT a record label.
-Anonym97
http://www.slingslang.com
December 11th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
in times where moral, ehtic, belief and these unnecessary things become simply economic factors like a dow-jones or a marshmallow dollar, I doubt that “respect” is puffing farther than the “rastafari” and “boum shankars” sputtered by the already half-unconscious…
I guess, the only thing is to take our fingers out, get back to (net)work and distribute CD’s, because we like what’s on them!
Fizzè – musician/producer