PC Mag Responds To Legacy Recording Industry's 'Complaint' Letter
from the hello,-we're-the-press dept
We recently wrote about a bizarre and mis-targeted complaint letter sent by the bosses of pretty much every old school legacy music industry lobbying/trade group, officially sent to Ziff Davis to complain about two articles concerning Limewire alternatives, suggesting that the articles were promoting unauthorized copyright infringement. Of course, as we noted, these old school recording industry bosses were so upset, they failed to notice that one of the articles in question wasn't even published by PC Mag (the target of the letter), but by PC World, a competing publication put out by an entirely different company, IDG.Apparently, in their haste to send a complaint to the wrong publisher, these geniuses of the recording industry also failed to leave an address for a reply letter, so PC Mag's Lance Ulanoff responded with a public response letter, which basically tells all of those organizations to learn what it means to be the press reporting on a topic, as opposed to an advocate pushing a particular viewpoint:
The story isn't encouraging or discouraging anything. That's not our role. PCMag's job is to cover all aspects of technology, which includes the products, services and activities that some groups and individuals might deem objectionable. We covered these Limewire alternatives because we knew they would be of interest to our readers. We understand that some might use them to illegally download content. We cannot encourage that action, but also cannot stop it. Reporting on the existence of these services does neither.More importantly, Ulanoff points out the same thing we did in questioning what the hell these industry groups thought they would accomplish in suggesting the press not cover a story:
We have, obviously, written about many online and offline services, including some that these groups might consider legitimate or "legal." However, the fact is that some users store and manage illegally gained content in music applications like iTunes. We would not stop covering these utilities simply because some users place illegal or even inappropriate content in them.
It worries me that the music industry took this action, because it reeks of desperation. The RIAA and other music industry organizations have spent the better part of the decade fighting the digital transition, with only a shrinking business to show for it. In recent years, though, the fist of anger has turned into at least one open hand as the music industry embraces the once shunned digital music industry. Unfortunately, that warm embrace, and the change that comes with it, are not happening fast enough. Clearly the music industry is still losing money to music piracy and even the recalibrated profit margins brought on by legal music sharing services.Not a particularly surprising response, but kudos to PC Mag for sticking to its principles, and not feeling bullied by these industry folks.
It's time for these music execs to pull their collective heads out of the sand and fully acknowledge and accept all the ways their industry has changed. They also have to understand that nothing will stop technology's inexorable march forward. Things will continue to change. Music downloads and sharing will never go away. These execs have to find a way to use all that technology allows and make a business that rivals the good old days of vinyl, cassette tape and even CDs.
We will continue to cover it all--as we must.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: complaints, pc mag, riaa
Companies: limewire, riaa, ziff davis
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It's time for these music execs to pull their collective heads out of... the sand.
You know what they wanted to say, right? :P
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A business can't compete in a market if there is rampant illegal activity skewing that market.
It is obvious to everyone on both sides of the issue that there isn't "another business model". That's why enforcement will be the avenue that is exercised.
If the pirates don't like that option, they're free to provide a valid alternative business model for the labels.
No surprise that hasn't happened yet.
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Saying otherwise reeks of willful ignorance.
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While not every illegal download is a lost sale, not every illegal download would not have indeed been bought if it were not for the fact that it could be swiped for free.
Denying that is either ignorant or dishonest. Your choice.
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I will ignore ridiculous statements and will be dishonest with dishonest people.
Artists don't make more money selling CD's people don't buy CD's they probably don't even have a place to play those things anymore.
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Examples of alternative business models have been posted here plus examples of big and small names successfully using them. It takes imagination, something you obviously don't have. Just don't go into marketing and you'll be fine.
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The RIAA reality distortion field.
> when people don't rip it off instead.
>
> Saying otherwise reeks of willful ignorance.
No. What reeks of willfull ignorance is this pollyanna attitude you have that eliminating piracy will increase sales.
The demand for a zero price product cannot in any reasonable way be compared to demand for the same product at a non-zero price. This is why even Pirates and Crackers have always made the distinction between commercial and non-commercial piracy and view bootleggers in much the same way that the labels do.
Musicians have to compete with everything else in the market that wants the consumer's buck. Those consumer dollars are finite. Magical pixie dust will not magically make consumers any richer or any more able to pay for your particular product.
You have to compete with $5 DVD movies, Wii Games and other legal leisure activities that are completely free. (time is also finite)
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the fact is that the middle man of the recording 'industry' is basically hosed unless they realise that their job is not selling shiny plastic disks, or even music, really. it's facilitating the Musicians ability to make money off their work. something this so called industry hasn't done in a Long time. (well, the larger and loud parts of it).
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I'm familiar with the largely unknown artists this blog tries to use in their drop-in-the-ocean examples.
Except they're all just using variations on the age-old "promotional gimmick" marketing angle.
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i find it interesting that anyone would say anything such as "as usual no alternative is provided".
it is not anyone elses job to provide alternatives to major corporations in order for them to stay relevant. its up to themselves to figure out how to market a product im willing to pay money for.
If RIAA,MPAA et al. dont like that option they are free to just close shop and go away. as much as this may shock you, their disappearance would in no way mean the end of music. for proof i present thousands of years of history prior to their existence and the concept of copyright.
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I see. And was it the job of automakers to teach horse carriage makers how to adapt their business?
A business can't compete in a market if there is rampant illegal activity skewing that market.
Except they can and do. All the time. Which is why the overall industries impacted most by file sharing -- music and movies -- are both larger today than they were in the past.
It is obvious to everyone on both sides of the issue that there isn't "another business model". That's why enforcement will be the avenue that is exercised.
Um. Except we see examples all the time of business models working.
If the pirates don't like that option, they're free to provide a valid alternative business model for the labels.
I see. I'm afraid you have a lot to learn about how markets work.
No surprise that hasn't happened yet.
Only for those with their head in... the sand.
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wow, really? You're going to trot out this old chestnut even though it was long ago shown to be a logical fallacy?
Horse carriage makers were faced with a new LEGAL product in their marketplace that gave people a choice. That's free market forces at work.
Music labels have their product ILLEGALLY taken without payment. That's not free market forces at work, that's crime. For which enforcement is finally catching up. Much to your dismay, I might add.
The analogy is retarded and makes no sense whatsover.
Which is why the overall industries impacted most by file sharing -- music and movies -- are both larger today than they were in the past.
The movie industry might be larger, but the music industry has been hemorrhaging jobs and sales for 10 years (despite your futile efforts to lobby otherwise).
At any rate, that still doesn't excuse illegal behavior. To moral people, at least.
Except we see examples all the time of business models working.
Models based in the age old concept of promotion.
Still doesn't excuse taking something without paying for it.
I'm afraid you have a lot to learn about how markets work.
Judging by your reaction to the enforcing of commerce and copyright laws that is starting to flood the internet, I'm gonna say you need to talk to the mirror on that one.
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No logical fallacy, though I see you seem to have a brain block for basic logic.
Music labels have their product ILLEGALLY taken without payment. That's not free market forces at work, that's crime. For which enforcement is finally catching up. Much to your dismay, I might add.
First of all copying is not "taking," but we'll leave your bogus word choices aside. We're talking about a new distribution system. How it's used is not the issue. The problem isn't the legality of how people use it, but that there's a new, more efficient means of promotion and distribution. That's what this issue is really about. You and your friends made money by RESTRICTING the market artificially. You act as gatekeepers, because being a gatekeeper allowed you to artificially keep artists down, keep them earning less money, while funneling more of the money that was made to yourself.
New technologies have introduced new distribution and promotion tools that make the gatekeeper business model obsolete. You still don't seem to recognize this. So you blindly lash out at "pirates."
It's sad.
The analogy is retarded and makes no sense whatsover.
Only to the willfully ignorant.
The movie industry might be larger, but the music industry has been hemorrhaging jobs and sales for 10 years (despite your futile efforts to lobby otherwise).
False. We've posted four separate studies looking at the music industry (using the industry's own numbers) and have shown that it has actually grown significantly in the past decade.
The *recording* industry may have lost sales and jobs, but that's different than the music industry.
Oh yeah, also, much more music is actually being produced. So, more money is being made and more music is being produced. Kinda hard to buy into your claims of doom and gloom when you're flat out lying or ignorant. Which is it, buddy?
At any rate, that still doesn't excuse illegal behavior. To moral people, at least.
No one's "excusing" illegal behavior. Why do you keep sucking on that irrelevant nut? Honestly, the whole "piracy" thing is a total red herring you keep throwing out there. What I'm talking about has nothing to do with piracy. We're talking about the new tools that let artists better connect, better promote, better distribute and better monetize.
Piracy is a red herring tossed out by those in denial.
Judging by your reaction to the enforcing of commerce and copyright laws that is starting to flood the internet, I'm gonna say you need to talk to the mirror on that one.
Heh. I'm sorry. Conversing with you is really a stunning exercise in talking to the deluded. I await the day when you finally come to your senses and realize we've been HELPING people like you for years to make more money, and your response has been to spit in our faces.
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The two things that the record labels have going for them are their back catalogs and their ability to promote. The back catalogs are going to be returned to the artists over time, and promotion is being figured out slowly but surely by netizens.
Let me say this clearly. The Record labels have no future.
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as for tv studios, Someone needs to actually Make things, so, again, possibly not screwed. networks though...
but yes, anyone who's business is based entirely around 'distribution' and uses copyright monopolies to restrict access in pursuit of that is in trouble.
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After that was posted it occured to me I should have gone down the "networks as containers" route and left the TV studios out of it. They do have embeded advertising and licensing deals with companies like netflix. So replace TV studios with networks.
"book publishes have a hope, due to providing more services than simple distribution already and the nature of the product."
For a short period book publishers have hope. But as the younger generation ages and brings totally digital up the age groups they will see less and less profits. We are at the beginning of the "data pad era". As the price of the pads drop so will the sales of physical books.
"but yes, anyone who's business is based entirely around 'distribution' and uses copyright monopolies to restrict access in pursuit of that is in trouble."
I totally agree with this.
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iTunes gave them a model and a distribution system but they just became jealous of someone else making any money..
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Fighting the Future.
So they create laws that make it illegal for companies to create the next iteration of iTunes for Video or any other format Big Content wants to declare "locked up" by applying DRM to it.
The more I can do with something, the more valuable that thing is. It doesn't become devalued. It actually gains value.
If you don't have to create your own homegrown solutions then everyone in the marketplace without a CS degree can take advantage of innovations that increase the utility of creative content. Stuff becomes more useful for everyone.
If you don't want to be treated badly by the general public then you should apply the Golden Rule yourself. There is nothing to be gained by alienating everyone who might be a paying customer.
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It doesn't need excusing. Downloading music without paying for it may not be particularly ethical but it is absolutely legal. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's on firmer ground both legally and ethically than the accounting practices the labels use to do everything they possibly can to keep from ever having to pay artists a cut from music sales.
You wanted a business model though, so here you go. Make money from live performances and quit worrying about the music itself. That's not only a viable business model for artists, it's one that's been proven over thousands of years by everyone from medieval minstrels to Metallica.
Wait though, you obviously don't particularly care about the artists since piracy never really has impacted them. You care about the middle-men and their business model. To which I say, iTunes seems to be making a fair penny and it's their own damned fault they were too busy throwing hissy fits over piracy to come up with it first. That's just capitalism baby, compete or die.
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You'd better check your history on that one.
In fact during the period when "horseless carriages" were just starting out the legacy industries of the time actually did contrive to make them artificially illegal (at least in the UK). Ever heard of the red flag acts?
Thae fact is that the red flag acts were eventually seen to be too much of an encumbrance (and unenforceable) and so were repealed - just like the laws that you are currently trying to hide behind.
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Well, not really. This particular law is in itself immoral; it is merely a commercial arrangement. It is wholly conditional and it is intended to serve the public. If circumstances change and the public no longer feels like tolerating its intrusion, they are essentially morally free to de facto dissolve it.
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"Illegal" doesn't always mean "immoral." See also: China, Nazi Germany, the USSR, etc.
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As the magazine is not a part of the recording industry, why should it know, or even care about, different strategies for the recording industry?
It doesn't take a naval architect or engineer to be standing on the Titanic and say "the ships sinking, do something about it". However it does take an engineer/other experienced naval personnel to work out how to fix it and to implement the fix. It is not the passenger's job, responsibility or duty to know how to fix the leak. But it's pretty obvious to any layman that there IS a leak.
So with the recording industry. While it's pretty obvious to everyone that it's broken and they need to do something to fix it, why should anyone except those IN the recording industry care enough to provide suggestions on how to fix it? Who outside the recording industry gives a damn? Especially when ideas are presented and get labeled immediately as 'unworkable' without even trying. When the ship is sinking don't form a committee to explore the possibilities of beginning an investigation into how to fix it, start working away. Try lots of things until something works or you sink.
Don't keep pretending the problem doesn't exist or that you fix the problem by forcing water to change it's behavior by ordering it not to pour into the hole!
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The only business that can't compete in a market is trying to sell something nobody is using, when was the last time you bought a discman?
If labels don't like that model I'm sorry, that is why Jamendo is great and EMI is chapter 11.
Have you noticed the trend? The more draconian things get the more open alternatives comes out of that place. Jamendo is French, Netsukuku and Osiris SP are both Italian, Winny is Japanese(Japan have some of the most hardline IP laws in the world really hardcore), sure you can see the trend and what that means. Innovate or die!
In your case it may be death or the soup line.
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This might've worked in the Soviet Union but a market is without mercy. Succeed with your business model or die. Can't think of anything new? Sorry, off to the compost heap with you. Not many buggy whip manufacturers left in the world these days...
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Why should PC Mag, Techdirt, or anyone else for that matter, present an alternative business model to anyone?
Your comment pretty much sums up the whole attitude the music industry has - someone else do all the work for me so I can make free money.
Too bad, those days are over. Get used to it.
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Giving "them" what they ask for nets the same result as criticism: some chump comes in here holding their hands on their ears singing "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA" as loud as their little girl lungs can possibly support. This pretty much mirrors their leadership's ongoing response to the collapse of their business model, so on that weak premise I would argue Techdirt write-ups get the most executive responses in the comments of any site on the Net.
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The music industry needs to figure out what people are willing to pay for at a price they are happy with and then address that market.
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\off topic
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> free to provide a valid alternative business model
> for the labels.
Since when does anyone other than the recording industry have an obligation to provide a business model to the recording industry?
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> If the pirates don't like that option, they're free to provide a valid alternative business model for the labels.
What abject corporate whining.
The role of business is to give people what they want. Work to come up with new ideas, and be rewarded with profits in return. And continually changing circumstance keeps the whole market rolling.
If anyone is not up to that, if they are not up to running a business, they should get out of business. You don't go whining for some kind of socialism for corporations, wanting to be spoon-fed their business model and spoon-fed their profits.
Everyone, right now, should be copying and sharing whatever they want as much as they want, and helping kill off these fat stagnant companies as soon as possible.
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Hey, it worked for the banking and automotive industries.
I totally agree with you, but in this day and age, with "companies too big to fail," it seems like government is there to make businesses profitable, even when they are stupid about it (case-in-point: AIG.)
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Only to the terminally stupid.
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Artists connecting directly with fans seems to be the future.
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Promotion, merch, meet and greets, etc., and all variations thereof, have been around forever.
The fact that no new model has appeared says everything that needs to be said about why the current model works fine- when market forces aren't skewed by illegal activity.
The clampdown on piracy isn't going to go away. In fact, it's just beginning.
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monopoly controls mask other natural market tendencies. copyright is a monopoly. the 'illegal activity' is the result of the internet treating a monopoly on information as censorship, assessing censorship as damage, and routing around it. the illegal activity here isn't skewing the market. the LAWS are skewing the market and reality, and thus the market, is neatly routing around it.
the technology no longer permits the ridiculousness of the 'old' model (which is crazy 'new' when compared to the history of Music.) it is, in fact, encouraging a return to older models, where musicians didn't become millionaires by winning the label lottery, but instead made a (fairly basic) living if they were any good, and a good one if they had other skills to combine with their artistic ability.
so, large corporations who serve little purpose but to screw all parties to pay disinterested and short term profit mad shareholders and executives fall by the wayside. so what? the skills of pretty much every worker other than the musicians themselves in that system carry over to other industries fairly well, and the Musicians are only getting screwed if they follow the label pattern of bitching and suing rather than looking at how they make their money and adapting.
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Nor has anyone claimed there was.
Promotion, merch, meet and greets, etc., and all variations thereof, have been around forever.
Indeed. But not in a way that was quite as efficient, cost effective and with the ability to boost recognition and awareness for such little cost. If you can't see that, you really should not be working in the business you claim to work in.
The fact that no new model has appeared says everything that needs to be said about why the current model works fine- when market forces aren't skewed by illegal activity.
The fact that you think the above statement is true is a sign of stunning ignorance of what's happening in the market.
The clampdown on piracy isn't going to go away. In fact, it's just beginning.
I have no doubt that you and your friends will make this last ditch dying grasp at stopping what the market works. I would ask if you can point to a single example in history where luddism and preventing what technology allows has ever worked.
I will wait.
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I'll also wait.
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Heh. It's really quite amusing to see you flail about like this.
You're correct that when massive groups of people do things illegally, they tend to not last. But what you seem to miss is the reason they don't last is that eventually government's LEGALIZE such things.
It used to be illegal to be homosexual. Now it's not.
It used to be illegal to drink. Now it's not.
You also might want to try reading the book "Property Outlaws" which highlights numerous cases of mass illegal activity leading to legalizing the activity.
Your focus on illegal remains a red herring of the willfully clueless.
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Either that or the people rise up and push legalization of said activity on referendums, such as Prop. 19 in California. Sure, that one failed, but with a rather large population of voters for legalization of Marijuana, how long before a similar referendum passes? I suspect that a similar referendum may be on the horizon to legalize personal, non-commercial use of copyright works (like what exists in Canada) in the distant future if not the near future.
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If you live in the U.S. you are living on the fruits of the forefathers that were anarchists who believed in living their own lifes without the crown, India also had their anarchists like Gandhi, Russia had theirs, China also, the beatniks are still around in one form or another, punks morphed into the EMO movement LoL
Talking about beatniks read On The Road-Jack Kerouc and then read Tropic Of Cancer-Henry Miller, maybe 40 years apart saying the exact same things, expressing the same sentiments much of the 90's and 00's reminds me of those 2, the "f. you" attitude the "I don't care" etc.
Oh and there is Nina Paley that is listed on Wikipedia as a anarcho artist WTF! LoL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anarchist_artists
You think you live in a society with law and order free of corruption, deceptions and chaos?
If that is the case you are not paying attention to the world.
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The United States of America.
Fuck you.
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(sorry, instinctive reaction to assumptions of the USA's awesomeness)
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Not breaking the law isn't luddism, sorry.
But since you asked...
Automobiles are capable of much higher speeds than what is allowed by law. People accept that and generally follow the law.
Because of enforcement. ;)
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Um. I don't know if you noticed, but it's pretty typical for most drivers to speed. Perhaps you live somewhere odd, but I can't recall anywhere I've been in the US where people generally obey the speed limit.
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There is no enforcement possible on the interwebz people do prove that all the time, there is no interwebz cops, besides people don't need the internet to pirate anything they can just record it and distribute it to their friends at will, will the government make a law to watch e-mails, IM, private networks, thumbdrives, HDD's?
I doubt, laws will be enacted like people tried to enact laws against squatting and in the end those laws get forgotten and new laws come into play favoring the otherside, it may take 2 decades but it will happen because people are not going to stop what they are doing. Take Michael Jackson and the USRR, when it got open and Michael did his first live show there he had thousands of fans already and that was a country where people got a bullet in the head for having that kind of music, it was a criminal offense and still they got the music, so you really think that any amount of legislation will stop people?
Right! I have some land on the moon I want talk you into.
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The copying of music is not anything like exceeding the speed limit. Please try harder, I know you can do it.
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/try again please
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of course, the drivers are terrible in other ways here instead, but whatever :D
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this is the Entire Point of the Internet, right from it's military origins.
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Haaahahahhaa!
More like: the takedown of copyright isn't going away, in fact, it's just beginning.
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And this is what has them crapping their pants. They have moved past denial and now are at the angry stage. Some never get past this.
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I have seen the light.
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Catchy name!
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Re: Catchy name!
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Wilful pirate who cannot be stopped, ever
So instead we'll have mostly already-rich people making sub-par "popular" music and expanding their fortunes, while the tortured souls who would usually be serenading us with their art are off working at car-washes and gas stations. As a music lover that bothers me, but as a tech fiend I'm gunna pirate no matter HOW you try and stop me. I will buy WHAT I WANT TO BUY...
Gone are the days when I'll spend money on an album full of garbage when I just liked the one song.
Anonymous: sign better artists, and send them on the road more. More gigs will be your cash-flow. But you will not beat piracy in the ways you THINK you can... I guarantee you, in 5 or 10 years when piracy is still commonplace and music is still free you'll look back and remember me saying this.
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One more thing
This will result in more varied music by more artists, with the music-buying public's money being spread across a larger group. There will be less REALLY, REALLY profitable artists as record companies struggle to turn their over-produced, over-hyped up-and-comers into cash cows like they used to.
No-one should be making millions from popular music. The music should be spread around to the other really good artists who, at the moment, are drowned out by the crap that kids are told they should like.
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Well that is a falacy too, since music labels are facing many LEGAL alternative like Jamendo, Magnatune do you think I download music illegally?
Furthermore trying to sell CD's on the MP3 era is just dumb, besides people can listen to music for free on the radio is that illegal too?
Besides who would by anything from people who call them thieves?
A YouTube celebrity can make 6 figures and they give it all for free, why can't you?
ps: YouTube celebrity is code for abuscure person that have somehow managed to get thousands of people viewing them.
Yay! victory is ours!
I hope every last one of you types end up looking for a new career, you are not fit for the new age, new blood is coming and they don't depend on the old tricks to make money.
Illegal is relative, you know.
The law says it may be or not illegal is not defined yet, but common sense says different.
What could be possible illegal in listening to music? People are not downloading every music under the sun to keep them, they don't have the storage capability to do so, not yet and if it gets bigger they wouldn't even know they have the song, they probably need to download it again, but to some EVERY possible use must be controlled, that is wrong and you will feel the pain for trying to do so.
Gee, you say like listenning to radio? people take the music and don't pay is that imoral too?
That is funny because you need to talk to the hand.
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With or without you, the world will change.
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Apart from that i agree with you.
I will without hesitation pay for a service like netflix, when it comes to music thought i am far from convinced that streaming is the be-all-end-all solution, with music i want the actual file so that i can play it on whatever device i own that can play music, including my car stereo.
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Sounds like you just came up with a good idea for a business.
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Pandora
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Finally
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There are SOME artists that figured it out years ago
It's not Gene's reality show that is selling KISS albums today - the musuc may be the hook that brings them in the door but it is the legend (the marketing) that makes them want to buy a piece of the legend.
Music (like weed, maybe?) is innitially traded between friends for free, just to spread the word of something new and interesting. If it's good, then the new party will look into purchasing (or obtaining thorugh other means) other works by the artist.
Like it or not, trading (borrowing, dubing, ripping, TORing...pick the tech of the day) is an integral part of the music industry. It's how I first learned of almost every artist whose works I now own. Not radio, MTV, or some crazy new website, but FRIENDS that are the best marketing.
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I control the money and I'm telling you guys, you will see not a dime from me ever!
I rather look at LoLCats the rest of my life.
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