[ILUG] A win for us

[Ivan Griffin]

Yup, it just means that the music rights holders need a few more legal 
instruments to be bullied through legislature before they can get the 
verdict they want.

ACTA still hasn't gone away, with Wikipedia claiming that 'negotiations 
reached "agreement in principle" in early October 2010'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

What we have so far is not a victory in terms of a "war", but the outcome 
of an early skirmish in Ireland, with both sides establishing the playing 
field.

Next for the music rights owners in Ireland is to sue the government for 
not enacting its European obligations in law.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/courts/music-giants-fail-in-bid-to-block-illegal-downloading-2374660.html

Anyone remember Pirates Bay? How they gave the two fingers to all and 
sundry until pressure was applied internationally on Sweden to sort them 
out?  Although the website is still alive, they are a shadow of their 
former selves in terms of courting publicity.

Justin Mason has a great comment on the inaccuracy of facts in this case, 
on his blog - http://taint.org/2010/10/11/231501a.html

The moral of this seems to me to be that if you persevere in coming into 
court with a whole pile of "facts" (or rather, numbers, makey-uppy or 
not), and steer the conversation towards piracy, the lost jobs, protecting 
the children, terrorism, and what not - pretty soon they'll all agree to 
remove this internetworking gubbins lock stock and two smoking routers...


Which to my way of thinking is all rather unfortunate. I don't condone 
theft, and I fully agree that the content producers deserve a right to 
remuneration for their work. However, technology begat recording industry, 
and gave music (and media) producers a way to sell a product that was 
previously dependent on attendance at life performances. Now, it appears, 
through filesharing technilogy is taking away that business model, or at 
least severely impairing its viability.

Perhaps the content producers would be better served dreaming up more 
compelling content, and more innovative ways of monetising it (through 
concert sales (going full circle), through merchandise, through branding, 
whatever) rather than trying to resist the tide of change and clinging to 
their obsolete business models for dear life.

Of course, this doesn't help the existing music rights holders - Sony EMI 
etc. - as they are effectively being dis-intermediated by the almost 
cost-free  distribution mechanisms enabled by the internet.  Think 
Radiohead "In Rainbows" and Nine Inch Nails "Ghosts I-IV" as early 
musical experiments in this, with Whedon's "Dr. Horrible" and Felicia 
Day's "The Guild" as the tv/film equivalents.

Whom would you rather directly support? An artist whose work you 
appreciate and enjoy? Or those involved in its distribution/promotion?

Cheers,
Ivan.



On Tue, 12 Oct 2010, Nick Geoghegan wrote:

> This is NOT a victory, merely a postponement of the inevitable.
>
> Read the ruling thoroughly.
>
>
> N
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ilug-bounces at linux.ie [mailto:ilug-bounces at linux.ie] On Behalf Of
> Shane Tuohy
> Sent: 12 October 2010 11:59
> To: Braun Brelin
> Cc: ILUG Users Group
> Subject: Re: [ILUG] A win for us
>
> Fair play to UPC, I was delighted to see last year when they came out and
> said they wouldn't roll over for IRMA and I'm glad to see that their stance
> has been justified.
>
> Kinda makes you torn though... Their quality of service sometimes leaves a
> lot to be desired, and their customer service is infamous, so what's the
> judgement? Are we supposed to 'like' UPC now??
>
> Shane
>
> On 12 October 2010 11:46, Braun Brelin <bbrelin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=15717