AT&T Testing RIAA's Download Tracking Plan
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: AT&T, RIAA, antipiracy | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Music leechers beware: the RIAA has an antipiracy plan up its sleeve, and AT&T has signed on to test it out. Oh snap.
There's definitely something to be said about the RIAA: it's persistent. While many scoff at the entity's prior history in regards to taking action against consumers illegally obtaining music, the fact is that musicians, for the most part, have bills to pay, have mouths to feed, and ultimately are no different than the next door neighbor.
But there's no denying that many actions taken by the RIAA are over-the-top and simply--unnecessarily--harsh. When the company announced in December 2008 that it would no longer take action against pirates in a legal sense, many wondered just how the group would pursue its antipiracy quest. Rather than going to the courts, the RIAA instead turned to the ISPs, the actual heart of the matter. Without an Internet connection, pirating would become more of a gnat bite than a huge epidemic. Keeping that idea in mind, many "silent" broadband ISPs agreed to the RIAA's plan and signed on, two of which eventually reared their faces: Comcast and AT&T.
As of yesterday, AT&T is conducting a trial run according to Jim Cicconi, a senior executive for AT&T, speaking at the Leadership Music Digital Summit held yesterday. He said the company wanted to see consumer reaction although he did not specify exactly what the notices contained. Previous talks have revealed that offenders would receive warning in the mail; repeat offenders would see their Internet connections temporarily disconnected or shut off completely. According to CNET, AT&T told managers of the top record labels that the trial letters include "strong language about the consequences of illegal conduct," but do not contain termination notices.
It will be curious to see if the trial run actually works. ISPs have shied away from copyright enforcement in the past in fear of driving away revenue. After all, customers are the main source of income; shutting off the connection for good means one less dollar sign for the company. However, the RIAA's "graduated response" plan doesn't dictate termination until its the very last option; ISPs can temporarily disconnection for a short "time out" period if needed. If children are any example, a "time out" really doesn't work, but ISPs will have to figure that out on their own.
Are ISPs are slowly becoming copyright enforcers? It certainly looks that way, and if the current plan doesn't work out, it will only be a matter of time before the government grows weary of the whole antipiracy issue and regulate the North American access to the Internet.
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I am curious how they are going to know what material is being transported especially if it is encrypted. Like NiN uses torrents to transfer their (his) free albums to the net. Maybe this is the real RIAA's intent, to stop the artist from bypassing them as a means of getting their music to their fans. ISP want to join because if they can stop people from downloading (period) then they don't have to spend all those profits to update their aging equipment and actually provide the consumer with what they want (more bandwidth!). Not to mention there is a privacy issue here.
While I may or may not partake in the occasional piracy, I understand its negative impact on some areas of business.
I buy what I like; I support genuine artists, and I don't like buying garbage.
The RIAA should make a deal with consumers. If we stop the pirating, and raping of their current business model, they should stop the even more vicious rape of Artists.
The problem is that if I download some CD I'm only half interested in, I'm stealing from the record company first, and the artist second.
The reason that's a problem is because the incentive isn't just to download a free cd, it's partially to f*ck over some sleazebag corporate swine.
Give me less of a reason to want to screw you over (alter your business model) and maybe I'll buy more of your product.
fuck all of that
they will FAIL
What does the ISP do when you start informing them that whatever songs the RIAA is claiming you've stolen are on CDs you've purchased?
Giganews w/ SSL is my preferred downloading method.
What happened to Illegal Search and Seisure? They need to wake up an realize they cannot strong-arm their way out of piracy. Buy a CD and get a ticket to a show or maybe get a bad ass bumper sticker, poster, hat or key chain.
If the major labels took this approach and gave people a REASON to buy an retail packaged album, they would.
They will NEVER win ... whatever they come up with, people will circumvent within weeks. It's the inherent nature of SOFTware
The blind leading the blind, honestly. Just wasting millions of dollars, year after year.
Booo! I'm moving to Japan...
They can't be serious!? In most areas there is more then 1 choice for ISP.(assuming you pay for your internet in the first place) For example where I live I could go with Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon, ect. If I got cut off for even a second I would just steal another mac address and pirate more internet. HAHAH damn the man!!
Long live monopolies...
So I wonder how much the RIAA is paying AT&T for this. My guess is the "trial" is to see if the money the RIAA is paying them will cover the potential loss of customers.
This should be good. I wonder how in the world these ISP's are going to figure out exactly what file you are downloading? If this goes mainstream don't think for a second the pirate community is going to rest on its laurels and let the RIAA "win."
I also wonder if they are paying the ISP's to be doing this. I don't know why in the world any company would do it for free but you never know.
ISPs are treading on thin ice here. It is likely that the current administration will push for more consumer choice in who provides our access. Which means they won't have a monopoly anymore. It's also likely they view Internet access as a necessity. It also can have the effect of making the ISP liable for what is transfered if they do not stop it, it being anything illegal.
To be quite honest, I feel that the RIAA and the "big four" are all just digging themselves a nice little home six feet under. All they sell is music, and sell it at a premium.
Compare that to smaller, independent labels. For example:
1) Vinyl Collective(/Suburban Home).
I know vinyl is a small market, and most who read this aren't as avid about the medium as I am. But knowing their history is why they're about the only place I buy it from, aside from a local shop.
When internet piracy started becoming common, Suburban Home Records took a huge hit in CD sales. It got to the point that they actually had to move back into Virgil Dickerson's own home in the suburbs, with only three employees. At this point he began placing emphasis vinyl; a medium that, while not as popular, provided the user with an experience which transcends just the music. It was the mix of providing a physical experience and excellent customer service that brought the business back up to steam. Now, the company sells vinyl from dozens of labels. What's more is that about half of the albums sold on the site provide a free mp3 download of the album.
Top reasons why I love them:
a) Beer of the Week
b) Excellent selection
c) Song of the day, with free download link
c) On an invoice for a delivery to my college address: "You can get a job here with a degree from SUNY Potsdam. I did!"
2) Saddle Creek Records.
The label supports many good bands, but the one I'm infatuated with is Cursive. I'll just provide details for their most recently released album. Starting on March 1st, Saddle Creek had a deal to download the album (at 320 kbps) for the price of the day up until the album release on March 10th (ie. 3/1 = $1, 3/2 = $2, ..., 3/10 = $10). Luckily, I found this out on February 28th and got it for $1 the next day.
If the CD is purchased from their online store, you get an immediate mp3 download, a download card for bonus material, and a poster with hand-written lyrics from Tim Kasher (the lead singer/songwriter). link
The vinyl version (which I will download eventually) includes everything from the CD version (including the CD), except instead of the poster, there's a 15-page booklet, and it has a 180 gram disc (highest quality). link
Top reasons why I love them:
a) Always provide enough to make it more than "just a CD"
b) When they sell a "similar" product, it's generally higher quality (320 kbps vs 128 kbps for an mp3 download)
c) EVERY order comes with a handwritten note with your name on it. I know this is incredibly simple, but it makes a huge difference.
The basics are: If you appreciate the people and appreciate the product, then there's a greater chance of you actually caring enough to buy the product.
Sorry, that was a bit longer than I intended.
Oh no, I have AT&T. If they cut me off, I cut them off. Like someone said, there are plenty internet providers in my area. I only go with them because they provide the home phone service to me as well. But if they were to cut me off, they would lose that as well. The end result can't be good for the company
to bad i get my free music straight off of youtube. set your recording device to the sound card, and you can record audio straight off youtube. so it may not be 100/10 quality like some people require, it sounds perfect to me, and goes great on my ipod. they cant stop me. youtube downloaders work also, i can download my videos in mp3 format so i dont have to have the video with it
at&t i hope you fail, you cant take away my rights, big rich a** bi**hes trying to hog more money from themselves. like Lil Wayne, Brittney Spears or T.I. need a extra $100m each year
Come on...AT&T and Comcast both sell media files...cutting down on piracy is just a way to line their own pockets
Oh snap! I had AT&T for my iphone 3g and for my DSL provider. Maybe I'll switch to a different provider and if they pull something like that and make it all serious then I'm going to cancel all AT&T cr@p and hack into my neighbor ISP instead... They don't even have a password
Artists are only being hurt because the record labels are shifting the financial pain onto them, even when the label takes most of the cut from online sales where their cost of operating is actually pretty close to nil. The problem is that the concept of a "record label" is becoming outdated. The paradigm needs to shift more to the management, press, and marketing aspects of the music industry and let the artists profit from their art. Computers and the Internet have allowed more independant artists to gain exposure than a major label ever could have brought to light, and self-producing an album is no longer a pipe dream, but a necessity to start taking the first few fledgling steps into the musical world. The big labels know this, and they don't like it one bit.
Everyone (well, almost) knew what happened when other countries tried to pull this kind of sh!t. I guess R!AA is really too deep in their own wonderland to see reality (and explore more realistic options); and let's not forget the major ISPs.
I hope they get smacked so hard they continue to lose more "artists", customers, and whatever credibility they still have.
How to detect music piracy: Record company releases a new hit song with a short "signature" sequence of bytes in it that ISPs can observe in unencrypted packets. They aren't going to try to hit the users savvy enough to encrypt, because the cost is too high. They'll go after low-hanging fruit.
FWIW, I am against piracy. I agree with the author that these artists have mouths to feed. I also agree with one of the above posters that the RIAA and record labels in general take too much from the consumer and give too little to the artists. NiN sounds like it has a better business model; problem is, how to get the word out on good artists. Record labels are all about promotion, to the point that they lock radio stations into playing certain songs with certain frequencies. Come up with an internet-based business model that promotes music, generates ground swell and can support advertising, publishing, promotion and tours without gouging customers, and you've got a winner that will knock RIAA on its butt.
How to detect music piracy: Record company releases a new hit song with a short "signature" sequence of bytes in it that ISPs can observe in unencrypted packets. They aren't going to try to hit the users savvy enough to encrypt, because the cost is too high. They'll go after low-hanging fruit.FWIW, I am against piracy. I agree with the author that these artists have mouths to feed. I also agree with one of the above posters that the RIAA and record labels in general take too much from the consumer and give too little to the artists. NiN sounds like it has a better business model; problem is, how to get the word out on good artists. Record labels are all about promotion, to the point that they lock radio stations into playing certain songs with certain frequencies. Come up with an internet-based business model that promotes music, generates ground swell and can support advertising, publishing, promotion and tours without gouging customers, and you've got a winner that will knock RIAA on its butt.
word
Record labels are all about promotion, to the point that they lock radio stations into playing certain songs with certain frequencies. Come up with an internet-based business model that promotes music, generates ground swell and can support advertising, publishing, promotion and tours without gouging customers, and you've got a winner that will knock RIAA on its butt.
word (why can't we edit?)
I have had my internet shut off, not sure who it goes though. (Local company, but I would imagine they go through one of the large ones to get the pipe?) Anyway apparently a studio house complained about our download (Roommate downloading Stargate Atlantis episodes, haha!) So they shut it down. Had to call them to get it restarted.
What DSL ISP's are there now that don't spy on you?
Want to know why CD sales are falling. Just ask the pissed off consumer who paid $15 to buy Metallica - Death Magnet, only to find out that it sounds like crap and later finds out the guitar hero version actually sounds better.
How about hiring recording engineers that actually know how to put together an album with some semblance of fidelity.
... And, for the love of god, stop the "loudness wars." or at least have the courtsy to put a warning label on the CD:
"The sound on this CD has been processed by a loudness filter and buyer should not expect it to sound like real people or real instruments and BTW we are to cheap to hire a qualified sound engineer."
Over the years I have burned so many copies of original release CDs, from the 80/90s, for friends wanting to hear decent sounding albums that do not suffer from the loudening of many "remastered" releases.