Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 July 2008 13:14:41
Today Virgin Media and The British Phonograhic Industry (BPI) have sent out 800 letters to customers warning that they are breaking the law by downloading and sharing copyrighted music files. They are also warned that further downloading will result in the loss of their broadband account and possible legal action by the BPI.
The BPI are trying to pressurise other broadband providers to follow Virgin's lead but have already met opposition from the Carphone Warehouse, owners of Talk Talk & AOL UK. They have told the BPI that they want no part of this action.
Serial downloaders will tell you that they are in the right because they feel that music is too expensive; that they only download music to get a taste and then purchase the albums; that the music industry's business model is no longer relevant; that the big labels have enough money already and that the copyright laws need to be overhauled to meet the requirements of the 21st century.
The BPI will tell you that downloaders are stealing money from the artists; that they cannot invest in new music acts and that they need to recoup the money paid out for recording and releasing the material. Oh! They also need to make a profit for their shareholders and earn their bonuses.
Personally I think that we have alternatives to file sharing. By joining Napster and paying a fixed monthly fee you can download unlimited files to your computer or MP3 player and keep them for as long as you keep paying their fee.
Yes, some downloaders do go out and buy more albums; some discover new music that might otherwise have been missed; yet it is still illegal. It doesn't matter that the perceived victim is only a faceless music company and they have more than enough money already.
In addition musicians are looking at other ways of doing business. Some have foregone record company contracts and sell directly from their website. Marillion made history by becoming the first act to fund their recording via the internet and then sell the product directly to their fans online.
Then you have artists whose careers have been terminated by the record companies and whose only support is to sell their back catalogues to other labels or distribute everything themselves.
A good example of this is Midge Ure. He has sold his back catalogue of solo and Ultravox recordings to a music label and received an advance on this. His new material is recorded and funded by himself and distributed via his website. His back catalogue has earnt him X amount and the label then makes money on the resulting sales.
Yes, music downloading is wrong when you do not pay for the tracks. File sharing is also wrong as you are legally not eligible to do this but there is no real way of stopping this. Who could stop someone copying a CD to MP3 and then passing them onto my friends? The BPI definitely couldn't enforce this.
With the internet your activities are tracked and recorded by your ISP and the sites you visit. You can be traced back to your IP address. The BPI want to stop the large scale abuse that goes on but how do you do this effectively. How can they prove that it is you that is doing this and not your child or relative? How can they prove that someone else is not using your computer to access the internet?
At the end of the day their only course of action is to go after the account holder.
History Today :
1187 : Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, destroy's Jerusalem's crusader army at the Horns of Hattin.
1863 : The largest battle ever fought on the American continent takes place at Gettysburg. The Union forces are triumphant but only narrowly so. Abraham Lincoln provides everyone with the Gettysburg address so that they can send telegrams of congratulation, buy souveniers and visit.
1928 : John Logie Baird demonstrates the first colour TV transmission. So why did we not get proper colour TV's until the 1970's?
1938 : The Mallard sets the record for the fastest speed of a steam locomotive, reaching 126 mph. Thussetting a world record. Though it was broken later by diesel engines it still stands today for steam locos. It is odd to think that this UK record was not beaten by a UK diesel until the 1970's. The majority of UK trains still run at speeds less than this today - not enough investment in the infrastructure.
1940 : The treachorous Brits destroy the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, to prevent it falling into German hands. The French were not best pleased at our actions, despite us asking them to scuttle the fleet or sail to a British controlled port. They refused so we had to destroy the ships, c'est la guerre.