Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• More on the Music Industry's Slow Death

  This letter from a former customer further illustrates how the music industry is alienating its customers. While I would like to say I responded with something witty, I must admit to being completely flummoxed. There I sat, a loyal music fan who has shelled out actual money to a business that is supposed to be having financial problems, and the best they can do is tell me to wander the streets of Seattle looking for different internet providers who might allow me to download the music that I have already paid for, music that I have spent the better part of three house trying to listen to, and which is still unusable?” As I said before, sometimes piracy isn't about getting it for free . Given the choice of paying for crippled digital music in two months or downloading free, unrestricted music today, is it really any surprise that they choose the latter? You have record companies paying major labels for airtime, but putting arguably their best promotional vehicle out of business by jacking... Posted Mar 22 2007, 07:48 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright, Law, Audio, Social Behavior, DRM

• Steve Jobs and Apple telling half-truths about DRM

  This has already been covered ad nasuem , but I thought I should mention Apple's denouncement of DRM last week. Steve Jobs summarily dismissed Apple's DRM as a result of demands from the record labels. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices. I have no doubt that the record labels are concerned with putting unprotected music out there, but Apple is also in no rush to do away with DRM... Posted Feb 13 2007, 04:20 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright, Business, Apple, Law

• Surprise: RIAA trying to undermine important exceptions to copyright exclusivity

  After conceeding as much in Grokster arguments, the RIAA is reversing course and claiming that ripping a CD to your iPod is Fair Use. Fred discusses the recent filing made by the RIAA filing over at EFF Deep Links. They are not saying this behavior itself was unlawful in the past, but rather that it was lawful only because they allowed it. "Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use." This is an interesting way to frame the issue and seems to me like they're trying to weasel out of any potential estoppel issues. I do agree with Brad in that the RIAA is trying to move towards a pay-per-play system, which is of course is the exact opposite from what consumers... Posted Feb 22 2006, 04:00 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright

• Contrary to popular belief, CDs are not going away yet

  Contrary to popular belief, CDs are not going away yet... at least until we solve underlying problems with digital music. Part of that is a looming digital music shakeout that some are predicting, and part is DRM that doesn't work : Ninety percent of his customers own iPods, according to Cullen, and many call in after first buying the system, wondering where their iTunes songs are. But after the company explains it is Apple’s DRM that prevents the file from playing, users universally respond that they will go back to buying CDs that they can then rip into non-DRMed audio files, Cullen said. I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm going to say it again anyways: the average consumer is willing to pay for content, but they want to feel like they are getting something of value in return. Part of that perceived value is the ability to consume the content in ways that the consumer, and not the content owner, sees fit. At the end of the day, legal interpretations aside, that's how the consumer... Posted Jan 26 2006, 12:06 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Music, Copyright