Just Cause 2 Developer On Why It Won't Utilize DRM: 'It Treats Our Fans Like Criminals'

Australian Recording Industry Continues To Fight The Technology That Is Saving It

from the death-wish dept

Fri, Mar 8th 2013 7:19am — Glyn Moody

There have been many posts on Techdirt about the copyright industry's hatred for new technologies that eventually turned out to be important sources of additional revenue -- the VCR being perhaps the most famous example. Here's a splendid column from Adam Turner in the Sydney Morning Herald about the same thing happening again in Australia.

As he points out, last year Australia saw a 4% growth in music sales, which outpaced the rest of the world, whose much lower 0.3% growth we discussed recently. In other words, if anything, the Australian recording companies should be celebrating the present and optimistic about the future. Instead, they are once more frightened by some technological developments that will in fact help them: an upgrade to the country's Internet infrastructure. Here's how Turner puts it: As the National Broadband Network [NBN] rolls out across the country, it's going to make music and video downloads more accessible to all Australians. It's time for the music industry to learn the lessons of the past decade and seize the initiative. But it seems you can't teach old gucci-clad dogs new tricks.

"If more action isn't taken by the government and ISPs to curb piracy levels the NBN could have disastrous results for the local industry," according to a major report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. "All Australian content industries" will suffer if pirates are allowed to run rampant on the NBN, added Dan Rosen -- CEO of Australian Recording Industry Association.
It's really extraordinary that even in the face of figures that suggest digital sales are taking off, the recording industry is still demanding harsher measures against people who share unauthorized copies of files online, as if that ever worked -- or ever could work. For, as Turner rightly says: Ramping up the war on its customers won't see people start buying more music. It's a war the music industry can't win, but it seems determined to die trying.
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Filed Under: australia, business models, downloads, high speed broadband, technology

46 Comments

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out_of_the_blue, 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:34am

Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
Your wrong premise invalidates the rest.

Manifestly, copyright is basis of the industry view, and so long as people PAY for content on the new medium, that's ALL they want. -- But you pirates want something for nothing.

See this item for perspective:

Short version: "Congratulations, freetards: You are THE FIVE PER CENT"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/08/hug_a_pirate/
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Zakida Paul (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:39am

Why have so many people forgotten what music is all about?

Music is not merely entertainment, it is not even about making money. Music is about making a connection with people and sharing is an important part of that. I share my love of music with my friends all the time and I do not feel guilty about that. What is the point of music if we cannot share it with the people we care about?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:40am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
But there are other models that are:

a) less skeevy to consumers;
b) better, economically-speaking, for those who fund the content; and
c) more rational to positive legalities.

Note, that I did NOT say that there is a one size business model that is 100% guaranteed to rake in the money.

And frankly, that article is flame-bait of the highest order.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:41am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
Technology will always be used for illegal purposes but that is not an excuse to prevent the development of the technology to such an extent that it is rendered useless.

Technology is neutral, the Internet is neutral. So why are the entertainment trying to censor it into oblivion?
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out_of_the_blue, 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:52am

Riaa industry gets it wrong again fearing technology developments and improvements. No suprise there.
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Lord Binky, 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:56am

Re:
The point of modern music is to make money off of someone else's work.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:57am

the headline says it all, doesn't it! and it isn't just these thick Aussi entertainment industries, it's the ones in every country in the world! this fighting is ridiculous. it's like watching someone go from a to b in 10 secs when it takes you 10 minutes. you want to be as quick but are more worried about being unable to stop when you get there.
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PaulT (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 7:58am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
"Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE."

So, how do you stop the latter without crippling or destroying the former? Nobody's suggesting the latter is good, only that it can be vastly reduced without shooting yourself in the foot. Perhaps if drooling idiots such as yourself bothered to listen to suggestions rather than lying and name calling, then...

"you pirates"
"freetards"

Oh, you're still too stupid? Carry on supporting the destruction of the industry you love, you deserve it.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:02am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
I see you have yet to grow out of childish name calling. Why don't you leave now and we can welcome you back when you're not 7 years old.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:02am

Re: Re:
That's just wrong. (Not what you said but the concept).
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:03am

Glyn, with these tropes, your views are dismissed right out the box. It's really too bad.

Piracy isn't a technology, it's a behavior.

Is there a real technology you have in mind when suggesting they are fighting something? It would be nice to be able to take you seriously and not just assume you're writing talking points for some lobbyist.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:04am

funny how they never think of doing the obvious, isn't it? what is the point of wanting and working towards better, faster, easier to use internet and then worrying about how to restrict people using it? would it not be better to think about the best way for your business to utilize that new technology so as to take the biggest advantage of it and make a fucking great heap of money, without ripping people off, instead? to me it's a no brainer, but then that's probably why i dont have fuck all worth worrying about!!
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Zakida Paul (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:05am

Re:
Is there a real technology you have in mind when suggesting they are fighting something?
---------------------

Torrent technology?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:09am

Re:
That wall of text under the title isn't there just to spend pixels.

It's called an article. You should read it before saying something stupid.
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More like out of a cave ?, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:10am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
Wow I'm glad to know im the 5 % of the english people in the ABC1 demographic since the article is about australia and im from Switzerland.

I want something that i can't get by any other means than piracy or by waiting 1+ year for the serie to be translated and distributed in my country.

I want to listen to music that I am unable to find in stores and I want to pay the artists not the companies that take advantage of them.

I want to consume tons and I am able to do so with the piracy and to listen/watch/read things without having to pay 30-50$ for a dvd of an old movie put back in blue ray. And I will consume more than the average buyers and I will find myself buying a CD of an artist I love or 10 movies in salesstores but I refuse to compulsively support a broken economic model trying to shit on me and my that are trying to shit on my 5% crewmates and that prefer to use money gained from sale and stupid trials to breed people that thrive on the "hunt for pirates" when they should focus on innovating and making things more accessible.

I dont want something for nothing I want something for the right price.

Sincerely, fairpricebutnotfreetard.
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PaulT (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:18am

Re:
So, reading comprehension is still your biggest enemy? Fight that demon! One day you'll be able to understand what people are actually saying before launching your impotent attacks.
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Anonymous Howard (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:23am

Taking the bait..
broadband internet
BitTorrent (or P2P altogether)
Blank media
Printers
Ebook readers

Technologies maximalists would like to vanish.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:43am

The problem being faced by these industries is not so much piracy but the alternative ways that artists can make money, and often get a better income with fewer fans. The more artists that do this the fewer the sales that the record labels can make. The bottleneck/gateway role they used to have has been eliminated, and more and more artists are discovering this.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:44am

Re: Taking the bait..
Content providers don't want to vanquish any of these.

If you have a quote from any of them saying "vanquish ______", post it.

I'll wait.
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DannyB (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:48am

Re: Taking the bait..
Don't forget mp3 players.

The RIAA sued diamond rio for making the first mp3 player. Just as the MPAA sued Sony for the ghastly and evil VCR. But before that radio, player pianos, phonographs.

Now, while trying to destroy the internet, they claim they are not against technology.

Freakin' idiots.
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techflaws (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:51am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.

Like with everything you write I just gotta call BULLSHIT on this. What was illegal with the Diamond Rio? It's perfectly legal and morally ok to rip your own CDs to mp3 and play them songs on the go. Only the industry couldn't stomach this.
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Vic (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 8:59am

This is getting out of hand...
I have a solution... Ban ALL audio and video file downloads from the internet... Not illegal ones, not fileshared ones, ALL of them... They will be back asking for it to be allowed again in minutes...
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The Real Michael, 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:04am

Here is but one example of how the independent music scene in Australia has been rising.

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/Default.aspx

This is precisely the sort of site that the record labels would love to censor and shut down completely. The labels' ultimate end-goal is to control the entire market so that they no longer have to compete on even ground with independent artists, especially those who give songs away for free and ask their fans to share, shattering the entire premise of their argument for greater copyright enforcement.
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Ninja (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:14am

Re: This is getting out of hand...
Actually that's the MAFIAA's wet dream, to force people back to buying physical plastic discs.
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Ninja (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:37am

The bright part is that they'll be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. The bad part is that they actually have the deep pockets to survive their own stupidity and heap the fruits of what technology has to offer in the future while fighting against the new technology that will inevitably come to disrupt their business model. Oh well..
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:46am

Re: Re: Taking the bait..
We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry that is able to retrieve a surplus balance of trade and whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine. ... I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.
�Hearings before the Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the Administration of Justice of the Committee of the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-seventh Congress, Second Session on H.R. 4783, H.R. 4794 H.R. 4808, H.R. 5250, H.R. 5488, and H.R. 5705, Serial No 97, Part I, Home Recording of Copyrighted Works, April 12, 1982. US Government Printing Office.[14]
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John Fenderson (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:51am

Re: Re: Taking the bait..
Content providers don't want to vanquish any of these.

And yet, everything they do or have attempted clearly heads towards the end point of vanquishing all of them. Except maybe printers. Maybe.

If that's not their intention, then they're idiots. And I don't think they're idiots.
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Digitari, 8 Mar 2013 @ 10:18am

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
OOTB is a fucking freetard and ADMITS it

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/12500917012/riaa-doesnt-apologize-year-long-blog-cen sorship-just-stands-its-claim-that-site-broke-law.shtml
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Digitari, 8 Mar 2013 @ 10:29am

"We must....."
.........support buggy whip makers, they are a vital resource to the American economy..

think of the suppliers of the buggy whip industry, the tanners of hide, the ranches of cattle......

the cowboys that drive the cattle, think of the job loss.....

What??
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This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 8 Mar 2013 @ 10:30am

Re:
Here is the post that Techdirt censored:

"Glyn, with these tropes, your views are dismissed right out the box. It's really too bad.

Piracy isn't a technology, it's a behavior.

Is there a real technology you have in mind when suggesting they are fighting something? It would be nice to be able to take you seriously and not just assume you're writing talking points for some lobbyist."
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Atkray (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Re:
It begs for that elusive "Sad but True" button.
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n_mailer, 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:00am

Re: Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
The industries in question hate ILLEGAL USAGE, usage they CLAIM IS ILLEGAL without court affirmation, and usage that IS LEGAL BUT THEY HATE ANYWAY.

They lump all that and more under "illegal," which they can do because they're not lawyers and their word holds no weight. So I understand your confusion.

The "six strikes" program specifically encourages people to uninstall BitTorrent software. It does not teach people how to use BitTorrent in a non-infringing way. The US guys hate that new technology.
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Milton Freewater, 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:02am

Re: Re: Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
"they're not lawyers"

Some of them are lawyers, who argue for a living. But none of them are judges or lawmakers. That's what you meant. Otherwise, good points.
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n_mailer, 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:09am

Re:
Someone's views aren't dismissed right out the box because he's writing talking points for a lobbyist. That makes no sense. That's the only thing lobbyists do. What's next - ignoring every article written by a lawyer on principle?

"Is there a real technology you have in mind when suggesting they are fighting something?"

Here's a US example: The "six strikes" program specifically encourages people to uninstall BitTorrent software. It does not teach people how to use BitTorrent in a non-infringing way.
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Milton Freewater, 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:14am

Re: Re:
"Here is the post that Techdirt censored"

TechDirt didn't censor anything in any sense of the word. Users reported you as spam, so TechDirt KEPT YOUR POST ONLINE but behind a click wall. I read it just fine. And I reported this one, because you don't know what "censor" means.

When you lie in bed with trolls, people think you're a troll, and they may be right.
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Rikuo (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:26am

Re: Re: Taking the bait..
Wizard's Fifth Rule: "Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."

They don't need to out and out say "Vanquish X". Their actions have said that for them.
Blank media? That's got a "pirate tax" on it in several countries. A piece of technology is taxed straight out, as if by default, the blank media is automatically a tool for illegal activities.
MP3 players? They sued the makers of the Diamond Rio, and lobbied for (can't remember if they succeeded) to force all MP3 players to include FM radio.
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Rikuo (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 11:29am

Re: Re:
If it was censored, how come I was able to read it with but the one mouse click, without having to resort to any questionably legal means to do so, like I would with content that is actually censored?
If Techdirt wanted it censored for real, they wouldn't make it so fucking easy to read, now would they? Or just stand by and allow us to read it without so much as going "Nein!"
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JMT (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 3:40pm

Re: Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.
"Industry doesn't hate "new technologies" but their ILLEGAL USAGE.

Your wrong premise invalidates the rest."

Actually it's your comment that's invalidated because it's your premise that's quite wrong.

The content industries have a long history that proves without doubt how much they hate new technology, because those technologies so often reduce their own power to control the content we get. They have fought against perfectly legal activities, and sometimes even managed to have them made illegal to suit their purposes, i.e. anti-circumvention.
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JMT (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 3:43pm

Re: Re: Taking the bait..
"If you have a quote from any of them saying "vanquish ______", post it."

Nobody has used the word "vanquish" but you. Learn to read properly before commenting.
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JMT (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 3:45pm

Re: Re:
Why would you repost something that everyone can still see. Moron...
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 9:55pm

Hey lets give them a tiny sliver of credit... it appears they finally learned that they no longer have to put content onto a sailing ship for a 2 year voyage over the edge of the earth to reach Australia.
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techflaws (profile), 8 Mar 2013 @ 10:55pm

Re: Re:
Here is the post that Techdirt censored:

And it's "censored" right again. how does that work for you, jackass?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2013 @ 2:37am

Re: Re:
You should have said that the point of being a publisher is to make money off of others peoples work. That is where most of the money ends up.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2013 @ 2:42am

Re: Re:
Freedom of speech does not require others to listen, and many here do not want to listen to your ravings.
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PaulT (profile), 9 Mar 2013 @ 4:54am

Re: Re:
Still confused about the fact that words hidden here are merely hidden, and even an obnoxious moron like you can easily click and read them?

If you're offended by this, have you ever considered not being an obnoxious moron?
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latest technology, 9 Jun 2013 @ 9:26am

latest technology
Very useful once again, love reading your articles.
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