Administration's New IP Enforcement Recommendations Will Only Serve To Make IP Less Respected

from the they-don't-get-it dept

Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IP Czar) Victoria Espinel has come out with the White House's recommendations on intellectual property enforcement and, as you might imagine, they involve the same strategy as always: ratchet up the punishment. Now, a lot of the proposal is very narrowly focused on things like selling counterfeit products to the military. In situations like that, I don't have too much of a problem with what's being said. Those are clear cases of likely harm and potentially putting people in serious danger.

The problem, of course, is that the recommendations don't stick to these situations and start to stray pretty quickly. So let's look at a few points in the plan that raise some concerns:
Increase the Guideline range for intellectual property offenses committed by organized criminal enterprises/gangs;
Of course, who's going to be against that? After all, we keep hearing about how infringement funds organized crime and terrorism. Except, we don't, really. There was basically one such report, from RAND, which conflated a few issues and has been mostly debunked (including in the recent SSRC report). But, even if we accept that there are organized crime groups involved in these sorts of things, the main fear here is how the government will define "organized crime enterprises/gangs." We've seen those terms stretched before in various contexts to include just a group of a few kids hanging out together. How long will it take until just some kids file sharing with each other are somehow labeled a "gang" for this purpose?
Increase the Guideline range for repeat intellectual property offenders.
Again, something that sounds innocuous enough until you realize that pretty much everyone is a repeat intellectual property offender every single day. As such just wait and see how the government uses trumped up infringement charges against people to show that they're "repeat offenders."
Ensure that, in appropriate circumstances, infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony;
Quite vague and potentially scary if it's not clarified. Streaming is a felony? Is that for the end user who does the streaming or the host? Does this mean someone who uploads to YouTube could risk felony charges? We've already seen how the government is prosecuting a guy for embedding streams. Think of how many felons this rule might create without clear guidelines. And the "similar new technology" clause seems vague too. Does the White House really want to criminalize technologies before they even have a chance to see if they can help the market? For a White House that has been banging the drum on "innovation," this makes little sense.
Authorize DHS (including its component CBP) to share pre-seizure information about, and samples of, products and devices with rightholders to help DHS to determine whether the products are infringing or the devices are circumvention devices; and
Yeah, because that worked so well in these earlier domain seizures in which DHS shared songs that were being offered on websites and the RIAA mistakenly claimed they were infringing, despite being sent by the copyright holders -- even claiming one song by an artist not affiliated with an RIAA label was infringing, despite having no right to speak for that song. The government already relies way too heavily on extremely biased parties in these situations. Allowing them to lean even more heavily on them rather than independent third parties seems extremely dangerous.
Give law enforcement wiretap authority for criminal copyright and trademark offenses.
Considering that the government now considers linking to infringing files as a criminal offense, this seems like overkill again.

There's also a big section on dealing with counterfeit drugs. Here, again, there isn't necessarily an issue with trying to stop counterfeit drugs that are serious health risks. But, too often, the US and other countries have lumped counterfeit drugs in with perfectly safe grey market drugs imported from other countries. Not separating those things out is a problem.

Finally, there's one bit of oddity. Right at the very bottom, there's this:
Finally, we recommend creating a right of public performance for copyright owners for sound recordings transmitted by over-the-air broadcast stations
We've debated the performance rights tax for quite some time here. It's nothing more than a bailout for the record labels by taxing radio stations for advertising music. In what world does it make sense to force someone to pay for advertising someone else's work. Anyone familiar with the history of payola would know that such a performance right is completely anti-market. When left to their own devices, the record labels have always wanted to pay radio stations to play music, knowing that it helps promote the music. But the performance right tax flips that equation over, and says that radio stations now have to pay.

But, really, the bigger question is what does this have to do with enforcement? I'm fine with Espinel going beyond just focusing on enforcement, if she's going to look for ways to actually help IP live up to its Constitutional mandate of promoting the progress. But this recommendation seems completely out of place in a document focused entirely on enforcement with this one non-enforcement issue tossed in at the end.

The thing is, every time the government ratchets up IP laws in ways that don't match with the way most people view the world, the less respected those laws become. Rather than actually increasing enforcement, these moves decrease respect for those laws.
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Filed Under: copyright, enforcement, ip, laws, victoria espinel


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  • icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 1:20pm

    Great Summation

    "The thing is, every time the government ratchets up IP laws in ways that don't match with the way most people view the world, the less respected those laws become. Rather than actually increasing enforcement, these moves decrease respect for those laws."

    Agreed. If you look at nations where laws like this have been implemented you see they go unenforced. It would be a political suicide to actually enforce when 50% or better of the population infringes.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Joe Publius, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:02pm

      Re: Great Summation

      Even further, I think the reason why these draconian IP laws will lower the respect for those laws is that the moral dimension to those arguments are falling flat. Again, IMO, people are realizing that copyrights and patents, in particular, are business arrangements, and that the increasing scope of these arrangments smack more of greed than anything else.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:39pm

        The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

        I'm sorry, but they do. Half the joy of these kinds of announcements is watching pro-piracy outlets like TechDirt and ZeroPaid cry about it.

        These sites have been peddling the same "piracy is good", "piracy is here to stay", "all anti-piracy is bad" B.S. for years, and it's just lovely to see the government ignore them for what they are.

        Keep up the faith. It makes for great entertainment when all your continual piracy accomplishes is stricter and stricter laws.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:43pm

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          Which do nothing. Exhibit A: the last decade.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:50pm

            Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

            What about the last decade demonstrates anything except that the law needs updating? The DMCA is from 1998 and there's been no significant revision to Internet law since.

            You're getting exactly what you're asking for.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:28pm

              Re: Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

              No respect for copyright because its too draconian?

              link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:28pm

              Re: Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

              I asked for nothing. Get it!

              link to this | view in chronology ]

            • identicon
              Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 8:01pm

              Re: Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

              Oh and what is this then?

              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRO-IP_Act

              The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 ("PRO-IP Act of 2007", H.R. 4279), is a United States law that increases both civil and criminal penalties for trademark, patent and copyright infringement. The law also establishes a new executive branch office, the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER)

              Let me guess? It doesn't count?

              link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Steven (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:43pm

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          I much prefer to laugh at that small group of people fighting madly to get more and more draconian laws in place while piracy goes on uninhibited.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:48pm

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          ps. Pirates are the greatest enemies of freedom on the Internet. They are sowing their own seeds with their self-righteousness, entitlement, and arrogance.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:30pm

            Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

            Meanwhile, the world goes on while those at the top of the socioeconomic ladder complain for nothing.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:13pm

            Re: Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

            You know the old saying: The internet sees damage, routes around it?

            Piracy is a symptom of that. And once Internet 1 gets locked down, an Internet 2 will rise from that deadlock.

            The Internet got to where it is now because it is an open communication medium. No pirate or government will ever control it because, once they do, it ceases to exist.

            You know, the tighter the grip the more systems slip from their fingers. Pirates will keep on pirating and government will keep on pretending they can control basic human nature, and will continue to fail.

            In the meantime, while the "western world" is playing whack-a-mole with pirates, the rest of the world it evolving and crushing it economically. While we play with imaginary property, they are actually building stuff and putting it out there. Stuff that you can't pirate no matter how hard you try (because replicators do not exist yet). Have doubts? Flip your keyboard see where it was made. What about those shoes you are wearing? What about your monitor? You get the point.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:29pm

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          If you've been following this for years why do you still post on all these stories as an anonymous coward? Why not create an account? Easier to hide behind the AC tag rather than have people associate your endless IP protectionism posts with a name?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:54pm

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          "Keep up the faith. It makes for great entertainment when all your continual piracy accomplishes is stricter and stricter laws."

          You know what inevitably happens to a country where laws get more and more restrictive don't you? Or have you forgotten the prohibition era?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Hephaestus (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 6:28am

          Re: The tears of pro-piracy trolls always tastes sweet

          I have to say I am not crying about it, in any way, shape, or form. I am actually all for these laws, the more draconian the better.

          "It makes for great entertainment when all your continual piracy accomplishes is stricter and stricter laws."

          The reason the laws have gone so far is not enough people are paying attention. All these stricter laws will accomplish is to shine a light on IP laws as they affect more and more people. That is the last thing pharma, content, and patent types want. Right now in the US, as a guess, I would say 1-2% of the people on the internet actually follow IP laws. With the ICE screw up of seizing the mooo.com domain thats been increasd 84,000 web sites, and all the people that have visited. All of whom will remember this event.

          All that is needed for real IP reform in the other direction is for this to be abused so that people take note. So as I said, I really want more draconian laws. As events in the middle east, human flesh search engines, Anonymous, all the "Party Of We" types show is that eventually there is a backlash. We are approaching that point.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Hephaestus (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 6:33am

        Re: Re: Great Summation

        "Even further, I think the reason why these draconian IP laws will lower the respect for those laws is that the moral dimension to those arguments are falling flat. Again, IMO, people are realizing that copyrights and patents, in particular, are business arrangements, and that the increasing scope of these arrangments smack more of greed than anything else."

        Read my previous comment in this thread. At this point not enought people have taken and interest in IP laws. As these new laws affect more people they will. A threshold will be reached and a backlash will occur.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 1:54pm

    Again, something that sounds innocuous enough until you realize that pretty much everyone is a repeat intellectual property offender every single day.

    Citation needed for this broad statement.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      weneedhelp (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 1:59pm

      Re:

      Citation needed for this broad statement. - Really? Have you not been paying attention? Nahhh. Didnt think so.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:39pm

      Re:

      Citation needed. A phrase popularised by Wikipedia.
      By using it without permission, you've just infringed their intellectual property.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      vivaelamor (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:47pm

      Re:

      "Citation needed for this broad statement."

      How about this one?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 7:22pm

        Re: Re:

        For the two of you:

        Anonymous: "Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate" expressing his opinion, not fact, sorry.

        vivarlamor: A student paper? Only marginally better than a techdirt self-link.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          The eejit (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 2:44am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Ah yes, thae "you not an expert! Your argument is invalid!" argument. Cite to refute or GTFO.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          vivaelamor (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 10:37am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "vivarlamor: A student paper? Only marginally better than a techdirt self-link."

          The paper I cited was written by Professor of Law John Tehranian. Am I missing some technicality that makes it a "student paper" or are you being blatantly dishonest?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Justin Levine (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 7:42pm

      Re:

      Again, something that sounds innocuous enough until you realize that pretty much everyone is a repeat intellectual property offender every single day.

      Citation needed for this broad statement.

      Ok. Just off the top of my head? Here we go:

      Section 102 of Title 17 indicates that all literary works receive copyright protection and that emails qualify as "literary works" since they are fixed in a tangible medium of expression. See: http://www.quizlaw.com/copyrights/what_is_fixation.php

      Therefore, any time you forward an email to third parties without the express permission of the original author of the email, you are in violation of his/her copyright. Haven't we all done this?

      There's your citation. Do you genuinely need further legal citations regarding your cel phone camera capturing sculptures, billboards, photos or architectural works in the background without their respective creators' permission? Or are you just being obtuse?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:01pm

    It's totally going to work. Cranking up punishment totally solved the drug problem.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:05pm

      Re:

      "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

      WE NEED BIGGER HANDS!!!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:04pm

    Odd Headline

    In making IP less respected, one would need to have at least some respect for the concept to begin with. Unless this is being used ironically, it seems like saying, "could care less," when in fact most people couldn't care less about the idea.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:56pm

      Re: Odd Headline

      Don't you know? Haven't you been reading TechDirt? The solution to making IP respectable is to abolish IP!

      That way there's nothing to disrespect about it, and we can just respect it as a theoretical construct.

      Of course, we can't actually "abolish" IP overnight (because that's ridiculous), so the goal is instead to progressively eliminate IP enforcement, thereby accomplishing the same thing.

      This site is sharing genius-level insight with you and you're not even listening. Try to pay attention.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:29pm

        Re: Re: Odd Headline

        You are so boring, me things me is going to go to Jamendo now.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        velox (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:34pm

        Re: Re: Odd Headline

        "Don't you know? Haven't you been reading TechDirt? The solution to making IP respectable is to abolish IP!"
        Cut the bullshit.

        There are a few abolitionists around here, but most regulars are not abolitionists. You will be hard pressed to come up with very many posts advocating that.
        What you will find is a lot of people who think the principle of fairness has left IP law and IP enforcement a long time ago. The current laws are neither reasonable, nor do they promote progress and productivity.
        They do protect the income of a very small group of people. This group rarely includes the actual creative individuals, but instead is mostly "suits".
        Meanwhile a barrage of disinformation and lobbying continues in an attempt to maintain the status quo.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          vivaelamor (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 6:08pm

          Re: Re: Re: Odd Headline

          "There are a few abolitionists around here, but most regulars are not abolitionist"

          I'm probably the nearest thing to an abolitionist amongst the regulars. My stance is that IP law should be based on necessity and arguably benefits. Often those who take the middle road presuppose the necessity of IP law and struggle for an arbitrary number of years to reduce copyright to. If people aren't constantly asking the question 'do we need it at all', then I worry that the analysis determining what IP law gets reformed to will be aimed at keeping an effective status quo while placating those calling for reform.

          I'm happy to debate whether or not we should have IP law, but until that debate starts I'll pitch my tent on the side of getting rid of it. It's OK to call me an abolitionist, that is a fair label for where I'm coming from. However, it is not a fair label for Mike or the Techdirt community as a whole.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • icon
            Jay (profile), 15 Mar 2011 @ 8:23pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re: Odd Headline

            I'm still trying to figure out the entire thing about copyright apologists...

            To me, that's an unfair assumption.

            "Since you don't believe in maximizing copyright, you apologize because piracy is wrong. DERP!"

            First, piracy has already been proven not to cause major problems when someone finds ways to profit from it. Second, it's all about the price points of what you can gauge the market for. Not all songs are created equal at $1. Not all songs are worth $20. But when you find out how to make people buy other things, what's the problem?

            I've actually had someone comment about how an artist having a T-shirt sale supposedly cheapens their music.

            Now I'm not the smartest man in the world, but which artists DON'T have some kind of clothing/music/fashion line in ANY way, shape or form.

            "But it's about the music"

            No, no, it's not...

            It's about being able to support what you do by not pissing off your possible fan base. What every last copyright maximalist forgets (it seems) is that copyright can't guarantee income. That's what the artist has to figure out.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:08pm

    "Yes We Can" is old hat

    "Criminalizing The Future, TODAY!" does have a particular ring to it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 2:52pm

    Once they legalize pot, they'll HAVE to find a way to keep the prisons full.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:00pm

    Yes lets just keep making new felonies. Lock everyone up in prison for copying a song. Smart thinking there. We already have prisons overcrowded as it is for locking people up for non-violent drug offenses. Let's add file sharers to the prison population too. In fact lets piss off everyone to they don't want to give hollywood and the record labels a dime. Let them burn while we all rot in jail.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:18pm

      Re:

      Wouldn't it make more sense just to stop pirating? Are you that addicted to pirated media you can't? If so, you might want to re-evaluate just how valuable it is to you.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:30pm

        Re: Re:

        Agreed everybody should just dump the entertainment industry asses.

        Why pirate illegally when you can pirate legally?

        Use Jamendo people.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:12pm

        Re: Re:

        I don't pirate any media. I don't listen to RIAA music period. I got to sites like Ectoplazm that release free music legally. Stopping pirating is a fine idea. Making people convicted felons for streaming a linked video on their site is not. How about the US not turning into 1984 and respecting the constitution on which this nation was founded? Is that to much to ask of our federal government?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Hephaestus (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 6:39am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Thanks for the Ectoplazm reference. I added it to my bookmarks.

          "Welcome to Ektoplazm, the world's #1 source for free and legal psytrance, techno, and downtempo music in MP3, FLAC, and WAV format, no registration required! Here is the latest from the Ektoplazm netlabel family: Ektoplazm (psytrance), Drumlore (progressive/techno), and Omnitropic (downtempo/ambient)."

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Killer_Tofu (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 7:53am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Agree with Hephaestus. Thank you very much for another site from which I can get good free music.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:15pm

        Re: Re:

        I love how all these AC posters that are pro government abuse like this guy always assumes anyone not liking the feds ignoring their own laws and abusing US citizens means they must be pirates. It would make more sense to me for the federal government to be for the people and not for doing hollywood and the record labels bidding because they put money in their pockets.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:20pm

    Poor Masnick. 5 years ago, this simply isn't where he thought his precious piracy was going to end up. He was sure he was gonna be a bigshot in the music biz by now; explaining to everyone how you have to spend all that time in the studio and give it away, then really connect with the fan, and finally you will sell that coffee mug or koozie. LOL

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:32pm

      Re:

      Big shot in a failing industry. Great logic, guy.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:39pm

      Re:

      Don't know why you are gloating, the laws are changing for the worst but the underlying reasons just have grown, piracy is more popular then ever before, there is no signs that negative enforcement systems(punishment, if it was a reward of some kind it would be a positive system) worked, 3 labels shutdown, nobody is coming near the labels products because they hate them, almost all the markets that seem growth are pirate havens according to the RIAA reports, so really you are smiling about what?

      Further you can't win this fight, people will just go elsewhere and eventually they will find the legal alternatives.

      LooooooooooooooooooooooooooL!

      I hope you get every single absurd law you want, because that will drive people in droves to other places away from you people.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:41pm

    "We've debated the performance rights tax for quite some time here. It's nothing more than a bailout for the record labels by taxing radio stations for advertising music."

    Actually the way I see it is a type of payola. The record labels force the radio stations to pay tax on CERTAIN songs & artists, but can play artists the record labels want played for free.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:45pm

    This whole shite just means people will have to work harder to get what they want.

    Our own governments are working against us the people so we must organize and start meeting all their demands, because that means they also will have to abide by those rules and will have increased expenses, we can do it but with less expenses.

    We can produce medicine, we can make our own songs and movies and give it away for free and hopefully see the otherside bitch and moan on their way to irrelevance.

    This is actually a good sign, it means they want to make it difficult and scare people, but if people don't get scared and fight back they will be sorry they did such a thing.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 3:54pm

    This whole shite just means people will have to work harder to get what they want.

    Our own governments are working against us the people so we must organize and start meeting all their demands, because that means they also will have to abide by those rules and will have increased expenses, we can do it but with less expenses.

    We can produce medicine, we can make our own songs and movies and give it away for free and hopefully see the otherside bitch and moan on their way to irrelevance.

    This is actually a good sign, it means they want to make it difficult and scare people, but if people don't get scared and fight back they will be sorry they did such a thing.

    Ok Go news :)

    Quote:
    Without a label, OK Go, will have to find novel ways to make money — which is nothing new for the band. They've sold USB copies of their records at concerts for some time now, and sales of USB drives have outnumbered CD sales in the past, Kulash said. Each show is taped, and live recordings of that night's performance are available at merchandise tables minutes after the band's set ends.


    Nobody buys plastic discs anymore they buy USB drives LoL

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Mar 2011 @ 4:16pm

    I hope they get their radio tax. The reason is most stations will move to talk format where nothing has to be paid. How then will the music industry advertise their wares? Or how will they generate hype where no one hears anything?

    I congratulate ICE for shutting down those sites that infringed with having obtained legally mp3s. It ensures no one else will want to deal with music labels for the purpose of hype.

    Slowly but surely the music industry is painting itself into a corner it won't be able to come out of. Already most folks that know anything about music is treating the major labels as a lepper colony.

    The end can't come soon enough. I love the see the trolls squeal every time something comes up. I always get joy from the idea that is the best they can do for payment.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 16 Mar 2011 @ 5:14am

      Re:

      Yeah, I can't see how a radio tax will help the music industry at all. It will just force more stations to move away from taxed content.

      This has been a major failiing on their part. By trying to turn everything into a major revenue stream, they're killing off a great deal of demand for their product.

      It's like the NYTimes article recently about online services that said that music download sites are having a hard time making money. It's about the easiest business to set up and should be very lucrative. The ongoing costs are fairly small relative to potential income (other than the crushing license fees).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Hephaestus (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 6:49am

      Re:

      "Slowly but surely the music industry is painting itself into a corner it won't be able to come out of."

      Two things .... Its not the music industry, its the record labels. ... And they already have painted themselves into a corner. They have created a monolithic system that can't adapt. These new laws will only drive away artists as being associated with the labels and their view points becomes a even more negative.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MADelineWoe, 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:29pm

    Take away all internet music that is being exploited...

    When you have so many working class teetering poverty pay, you are going to have a bunch loving the fact that there are all sorts of free things to view on the internet. And with the MP3 player you got at Walmart..and the walmart special computer...you have a world at your finger tips at only the cost of your Internet bill.
    Bon Jovi may remember the pleasure of sitting down and enjoying paging through an album when he was young. I remember the countless cassettes I had with just a bleep of the DJ that I missed. Hours listening to the radio station to get them. Or going to a friends and playing their album and recording it. My first exposure to Hendrix, The Doors, and a bunch of rock bands was at my older cousin's who bought all the albums, but I was just a bubble gum soda drinking 12 yr old. Literally all the allowance I got was enough to keep me in bubble gum and soda! I would record over my dad's old reel to reels...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    MADelineWoe, 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:39pm

    Anybody using music like that is third party in the background of a slide show or AMV production is just the same as the Japanese Dojinshi. Fan respected imitation! When these people who make the videos use their movie makers (free with Microsoft since 4ever) they are advertising and respecting the artist.
    The culture has changed. No longer do people sit around at spin parties...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ted E. Bear, 15 Mar 2011 @ 5:50pm

    It's the Great Obama Compromise. The Republicans want a fence around the country and money for Wall street. So Obama puts up the fence and makes everyone he can an IP felon. Those convicted of IP felonies will work and give all their money to the labels..et al. The remaining law abiding citizens get to work and give all their money to wall street for bonuses. Fence is a win win. Keeps felons in and law abiding people from getting out. Now that is Compromise you can believe in. That's an economic model we can all live with.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    monkyyy, 15 Mar 2011 @ 6:57pm

    "Ensure that, in appropriate circumstances, infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony;"
    so does using the next version of utorrent count as a felony?

    is using an old version of utorrent running on window 8?

    that is extermly prone to abuse

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Shon Gale (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 7:13am

    I quote from Victoria Espinel who has come out with the White House's recommendations on intellectual property enforcement.
    'Ensure that, in appropriate circumstances, infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony;'
    A felony? Where's the law for that statement? What is considered appropriate circumstances?
    Who decides what is infringement?
    Are they trying to shut down internet radio and broadcasting now?
    Are they making streaming a crime?

    That is my business, Hosting and Streaming. All of my streamed internet radio stations pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC and those payments create a loss for that station. Every station I host loses money paying the powers that be. Even non-profit stations with no advertising have to pay.

    I also stream original Rock Bands and they have streams going of music that I know for positive hasn't been registered with either 1 of the 3. It is indie music and is being streamed by the owner of that music. No RIAA! They weren't invited to the party. We didn't even invite ASCAP and the other assholes who keep saying pay, pay and none of the artists we talk to ever get a penny.

    We also stream live concerts and we don't ask if they paid the right people. We will refer any lawsuit to the actual offender.

    It's ridiculous that we would be held responsible for anything any of our customers broadcast. We can only monitor or shut off the stream. We don't record it and we make customers use FTP to upload their programs for any storage. This is Private FTP. No one else gets access to that information unless it is given out by the user.

    This kind of rhetoric from the government is extremely scary at a time of such economic uncertainty. We have / had plans for capital investments of hardware and software this year and now are considering that maybe we had better wait until the government makes up it's collective mind on what the rules are. We have / had plans to increase our server capacity with new technology. This will also provide new jobs in our area. Since we are a company owned and operated by disabled people we will hire people that have disabilities first.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DannyB (profile), 16 Mar 2011 @ 8:25am

    55 MPH its the law

    Before 55 MPH in the 70's (that's NINTEEN-seventies) a lot more people respected the speed limit.

    At first people respected 55 MPH as an emergency measure. That is, until the emergency was over and it became permanent law.

    After that, people widely lost respect for the speed limit. It was no longer considered to be something related to safety. It was viewed as arbitrary. People in states with sparse traffic on long looooong roads where you can see the road in a straight line for miles viewed it as ridiculous.

    At some point copyright will be similarly viewed if it isn't already. A point will be reached where it is too late to ever get people to respect copyright ever again.

    It will be like Prohibition.

    It will be like when everyone was driving 70 in a 55 zone, and radar detectors were widely used by the common person to evade law enforcement of 55 MPH.

    The best way to get rid of unjust law is to enforce it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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