Spore's DRM So Effective It Was The Most Downloaded Game Of The Year

from the nice-work,-EA dept

It never really made sense for EA to be so insistent on having draconian DRM on games. Before the company even launched Spore people made it quite clear the plan would backfire, but EA went forward with it anyway, creating a PR nightmare. And all for what? Turns out (not surprisingly) the DRM didn't do squat to stop unauthorized file sharing. Spore has now been declared the most downloaded video game of the year. And, even though the year's not over, no other game is going to catch up. And, it's worth noting, the game only launched in October, so this is only over a couple of months. In other words, EA's "antipiracy strategy" backfired almost completely. The company got a huge PR blackeye which probably only encouraged more people to download the game via file sharing. Can someone explain, again, why any company thinks DRM works?

Filed Under: downloads, drm, piracy, securom, spore, video games
Companies: ea

If You Can't Beat Them... Almost Join Them; Warner Offers Cheap Movie Downloads In China

from the but-nowhere-else-of-course dept

Well, at the very least, you have to hand it to Warner Bros. Studios for recognizing that pretending that it didn't have to somehow compete with pirated movies wasn't going to succeed as an overall strategy. The major Hollywood studio has now unveiled plans to offer a variety of movies for download in China priced at a dollar or less. Of course, it's unclear if the movies will have annoying DRM or any other inconvenience as well. Considering that unauthorized movies are already available pretty much anywhere, if Warner makes it difficult or annoying in any way, people are going to just stick with the unauthorized copies that don't create such problems. Still, this is definitely a step in the right direction: realizing that it isn't effective to pretend you can ignore unauthorized copies and still charge high prices.

Filed Under: china, downloads, movies, piracy
Companies: warner bros.

Copyright Royalty Board Keeps Download Rates The Same; iTunes 'Saved'

from the compulsory-mess dept

I tend to think the whole concept of compulsory license rates in the music space is rather backwards. There are a bunch of different rates for all different participants, and it's basically the opposite of letting a market work. It's the government setting a handout rate for many different groups who don't want to create their own business model. The whole process serves to significantly hold back a number of new and innovative business models by letting many to rely on the government to effectively set their revenue for them. That said, one of the worst things is that a single decision by whoever sets the royalties can completely change how an industry works with a single vote. Earlier this week, we noted that Apple was threatening to shutter iTunes if the Copyright Royalty Board raised the rates for publishers on downloads. The threat was probably pretty baseless, but apparently it worked. The CRB has kept rates the same, which is going to upset many songwriters and publishers.

Filed Under: compulsory licensing, copyright, downloads, itunes, music, publishers, royalties, songwriters
Companies: apple

Another Author Has A Book Leak, And Offers Up The 'Oopsie' Version For Sale

from the another-good-response dept

We recently wrote about how the band, The Dears, responded to its album being leaked online, and compared that with author Stephenie Meyer who decided to punish her fans by stopping work on her series of novels, after a draft was leaked. However, an even better example comes to us from Geoffrey Kidd, who points us to the news that author David Weber accidentally leaked his own latest novel. He had been sending out "snippets" of the work to keep fans interested, but at the beginning of the month accidentally sent out quite a large snippet: the entire work-in-progress quarter-million-word novel. But, rather than complaining and punishing fans, Weber and Baen Books (his publisher, who has long supported offering up content for free as a part of a larger business model) are now selling the "Oopsie" version of the book, while making it clear that this is unedited and probably not the version you want:

For those who want it--and we stress this is an early, un-edited, incomplete version--we will sell the "oopsie" now for $10. We are not asking you to buy this version, we do not recommend you buy this version, but if you gotta have it, come and get it.

What better way to respond to such a leak. They've basically made a joke out of it, in a way that's endearing to fans, and which might actually net them some additional money from fans who actually want to contribute to the cause.

Filed Under: authors, david weber, downloads, leaks, stephenie meyer
Companies: baen

Baidu Expose Suggests That It's A Lot More Involved In Music Downloads Than It Lets On

from the not-so-much-of-an-innocent-bystander dept

More than three years ago, when Chinese search engine Baidu first filed to go public, we noted that it's huge advantage over Google in China appeared to stem from its very popular music download search engine -- and we wondered if going public would force that to go away, potentially damaging the company's bottom line significantly. In fact, we were surprised that it appeared that the investors in the site hadn't done much due diligence to understand what was going on. The recording industry wasted little time in suing Baidu. While Baidu won the first case on a technicality and quickly sued again.

At first, this did seem like a typical situation seen with other online search engines, such as The Pirate Bay or even Google, where it's not really clear how Baidu could stop the searches for unauthorized music. However, a new investigative report by The Register found evidence that suggests Baidu is actually a lot more involved in the music download business than it lets on. Specifically, the search results mostly link to a mysterious network of sites that are only reachable via Baidu searches. You can't just go to the sites directly. The sites themselves have a long (and potentially growing) list of random domain names such that the songs constantly move around, and any time Baidu receives a "takedown" it can claim it complied, while the music almost immediately shows back up on the next domain in the list. Also, Baidu almost never links to other, legitimate, download sites -- preferring to point people to these sites that are unreachable outside of Baidu instead.

All in all, it certainly sounds like Baidu is a lot more involved in providing the actual downloads than it would as just a search engine.

That said, The Register's report includes a variety of unsupported statements about how this has "destroyed" economic activity in the music business. As we've seen, the music business has actually adapted to the expectation that the music itself is free in China. I recognize that it's popular for the RIAA and IFPI to make claims about how downloading is destroying the music industry, but you would think that the Register would know better.

Filed Under: china, downloads, music
Companies: baidu

Woman Fined Nearly $30,000 For Sharing Pinball Game Software With Friends

from the punishment-fits-the-crime?!? dept

Last month we wrote about how the UK law firm Davenport Lyons had sued over 100 people for supposedly file sharing a silly pinball video game. As we noted, Davenport Lyons has been accused of some questionable practices, such as sending out threatening pre-settlement letters based on extremely faulty evidence from Logistep. Various other countries in Europe have sanctioned lawyers for relying on the same evidence that Davenport Lyons uses, and both Italy and Switzerland have said that Logistep's method of identifying file sharers is illegal -- but that hasn't stopped the firm from continuing its efforts.

And now it's announcing a victory. A woman that it sued has been fined about $30,000 for file sharing that same pinball game. Apparently, UK courts have no sense of making sure the punishment fits the crime. Everyone involved notes that the woman wasn't sharing the game for commercial purposes, but wanted a few friends to be able to play it as well. For that she now needs to pay $30,000?

Oddly, Davenport Lyons used this news to announce that it was suing 100 people for sharing this game... even though it had already announced that last month. Unfortunately, the reporter for the Daily Mail in the UK only takes Davenport Lyons' side of things. The report quotes a lawyer talking about all the evils and losses from file sharing, without any quotes from those who know those numbers are bogus -- and never once questioning why it's reasonable for someone sharing a simple cheap game with a few friends to be fined $30,000. The reporter mentions Logistep, but not the troubles it's faced in other countries (or the trouble lawyers who rely on its evidence have faced). It's time reporters stopped simply parroting this story, which is based on faulty premises, faulty numbers and faulty evidence.

Filed Under: downloads, file sharing, fines, pinball, pre-settlement letters, uk, uploads, video games
Companies: davenport lyons

Blockbuster CEO Is Still Confused By The Long Tail

from the have-you-taken-a-look-at-your-competitors? dept

In 2004, Chris Anderson wrote his feature article for Wired Magazine in which he coined the term "the long tail" to describe the business possibilities made possible by digital distribution. Four years and one best-selling book later, the CEO of Blockbuster is still confused by the concept that has been utilized by Netflix to wreak havoc on his business model. Yet, in a recent interview, the head of Blockbuster, Jim Reyes, misses the entire point of the long tail.

In response to a question regarding the small catalog of Movielink, Blockbuster's digital download service, Reyes responded, "When was the last time you watched 10,000 movies, you know? I don't care how many movies are available to me. As my personal taste as a customer, I want to watch the new stuff so whether we have 10,000 movies or 200 movies it doesn't matter if I don't want to see any of the movies that we have." The point of the long tail is not to ignore the hits, but to make available more. While Reyes's quixotic opinion may appease viewers with very limited tastes, when distribution and content creation is exceedingly cheap, it makes no sense to limit content. In his original article on the concept, Anderson noted that one-fifth of Netflix rentals are outside the top 3,000 movies. Clearly, a sizable minority of movie-watchers want to see films outside Movielink's inventory that "is heavily weighted toward newer releases and mainstream staple titles."

Filed Under: downloads, long tail, movies, rentals
Companies: blockbuster, movielink

Universal Music Playlist Your Way: Not Really A Playlist, Not Really Your Way

from the this-isn't-burger-king dept

It's so cute when the big record labels pretend like they're embracing the digital era sometimes. Check out the latest effort from Universal Music, which the company has dubbed "Playlist Your Way," and which it purports is a new sort of physical/digital hybrid for the internet era. It does have a few good elements -- but it wraps it up with plenty of bad elements, most specifically the name. This isn't a Burger King "Have it your way" type of thing. You don't get to select the tracks you want in order to create your own CD or anything. No, you're buying a ready-made greatest hits CD (from artists who almost all already have out existing greatest hits CDs), plus a few digital extras.

Jess Hemerly over at the Institute For The Future breaks down both the good and the bad of this idea, noting that doing "podcast liner notes" definitely makes sense. These podcasts do sound interesting:

The biographical download brings alive the artist's history, including archival interviews and commentary from journalists, friends and family members. Each audio documentary runs approximately 15 minutes.

Yes, that absolutely could be quite cool, but it comes tied to forcing you to buy another greatest hits CD. If anything, all this really seems like is Universal Music trying to convince you to buy the same music you already own by adding a few random extras.

And, then, of course, there's the totally misleading name. It's as if Universal Music thinks its customers are stupid. If it advertises something as a customizable playlist, people are going to probably expect a customizable playlist -- but that's not what you get. You get a set playlist on a greatest hits CD, and then the option to download some extra stuff: "Consumers may choose six additional tracks and/or a full-length original studio album." Of course, if customers really want a playlist "their way," they're going to do it the way so many people do it these days: they're just going to download the tracks they want, and not feel suckered into buying the packaging, even if it's "designed to be digital friendly, with more color and new impactful designs." As Hemerly points out: "How does "impactful" design make a physical CD more "digital friendly?" What does this sentence even mean?"

The idea of including a podcast about the artist is a good one. It's just too bad Universal Music is basically only using it to get you to buy yet another greatest hits album, and then making a bunch of boastful claims that either don't make sense or simply aren't accurate. At what point do the big record labels realize that they should offer people real options to get what they want, rather than trying to hype them into buying a bunch of crap they don't care about to get at the tiny nugget of stuff they do want?

Filed Under: business models, digital, downloads, music, podcast
Companies: universal music

Allman Brothers Sue Yet Another Record Label Over iTunes Royalties

from the all-for-the-artists dept

Reuters is running an article about how the Allman Brothers Band is suing Universal Music for apparently not paying the band royalties owed for iTunes downloads. This seemed like yet another example of a record label squeezing its artists, while insisting that it's always looking out for the artists' best interests. Of course, then I remembered that this isn't the first time this has come up with the Allman Brothers. More than two years ago, we wrote about the Allmans suing Sony over the same issue. At that time, there was a dispute over how the label was counting iTunes downloads, and which clause iTunes downloads fit under in the band's contract. This recent lawsuit seems like a similar dispute with Universal, but it does make you wonder why the band sued Sony back in 2006, but waited until now to sue Universal?

Filed Under: allman brothers, copyright, downloads, itunes, music, royalties
Companies: universal music

Totally Misunderstanding Movie Downloading In France

from the so-many-mistakes,-so-little-time dept

A bunch of folks have sent in this report from Variety about a study talking about what a big deal unauthorized movie downloading is in France. Specifically, it points out that movie downloads are "reaching box office levels." Except... that means they're basically counting every download as a lost sale, which we (as well as those putting the study together) all know isn't true. Even worse, the folks behind the study (who go by the already biased name: Association Against Audiovisual Piracy) seem to totally miss the most obvious point from their own report: that movie piracy doesn't seem to have a major impact on movie ticket buying. After all, their own report points out that the most popular movies at the box office in France are also the most downloaded. If it were really true that movie downloads were harming the box office, then wouldn't that mean that the most downloaded movies ended up with fewer tickets sold? The fact that the two correlate suggest that (as we've seen over and over again) lots of movie downloading just shows tremendous demand for a movie, and it's likely to do quite well at the box office.

Filed Under: downloads, france, movies, piracy, statistics