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.