What Took So Long For Unauthorized Ringtones To Get Noticed?

from the slow-pokes dept

Nearly two and a half years ago we suggested that those in both the music and wireless industries who thought that selling ringtones was going to "save" their business were being ridiculous. It wasn't hard to see that it was only a matter of time before people worked out how to set up a "Napster for ringtones" or some other method for getting unauthorized ringtones on a phone, and then the business that survived on selling snippets of songs for a few bucks (usually much more than people could download the full song for) was going to face the same sort of economic pressures facing the traditional music industry. The only surprise, honestly, was that it's taken so long for this to develop. However, MocoNews points us to an article about the recording industry in India suddenly getting upset about unauthorized mobile ringtones. Of course, rather than doing anything constructive about it, the blame is being placed on the mobile operators who are told to "lock" up the handsets they sell so that this can't happen any more. The operators, of course, point out that it's got nothing to do with them, but that seems unlikely to make the recording industry particularly happy.
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  1. identicon
    Stoned4Life, 9 Jan 2006 @ 4:20am

    Stick it to them

    We're downloading music, they want to lock our computers too? Huh? They have nothing to do with our computers? That's right! Stick it to them, mobile operators!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    forgiste, 9 Jan 2006 @ 5:24am

    Re: Stick it to them

    If you think about it, yeah, they are trying to lock our computers to prevent us from downloading music. What do you think DRM is all about? Especially the new Windows DRM that prevents people with unauthorized monitors from downloading and viewing a video at full size. http://marvngrad.com/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    haggie, 9 Jan 2006 @ 10:22am

    No Subject Given

    I would love to see the RIAA sue cell phone companies to force them to lock-out ringtones unless the cell phone and the ringtone has a DRM solution, just so I don't have to hear another whigger's cell phone playing 50 Cent.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    agodel, 9 Jan 2006 @ 11:44am

    Re: No Subject Given

    Racism is so 50s...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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