Does Privacy = Anti-Technology?
Declan McCullagh, Washington, DC correspondent for News.com, wrote another typically incisive column last week, analyzing the nature of privacy advocacy, particularly as it has been illustrated during the recent objections to Google’s Gmail.
"The objections lodged against Gmail are telling, because they illuminate two different views about how to respond to new technologies. The protechnology view says customers of a company should be allowed to make up their own mind and that government regulation should be a last resort. Privacy fundamentalists, on the other hand, insist that new services they believe to be harmful should be banned, even if consumers are clamoring for them."
Declan McCullagh. Gmail and Its Discontents. News.com. April 26, 2004.
File Sharing: The Sequel
Granted, the iTunes and iPod music distribution model is pretty decent for both consumers and artists. Let us forget, for a moment, that the downloading model turns what historically has been a music sale (which is covered by copyright law’s first sale doctrine) into a music lease (which is not covered by federal copyright law, and instead is handled as a contract between buyer and seller, often with no negotiation and take-it-or-leave-it terms.)
The current downloading model reintroduces the single to American music buyers, and, at least in the case of iTunes, gives buyers relatively free reign to transfer their leased songs across different players (i.e. from computer to car to home stereo).
What the iTunes model doesn’t really allow for right now, though, is capturing live performances. And many of the best artists — Clapton, Prince, Dave Matthews Band, Parliament — often give their best performances live. eMusicLive gives buyers the opportunity to capture these performances in an authorized fashion.
It will be interesting to see how much money the musicians make from this venture, particularly since it seems that live performances will again be the way that musicians make their money. Let’s face it: radio is so tightly programmed that it is virtually impossible for new songs to get play on the airwaves, although satellite radio ventures like XM Radio and Sirius may provide some opportunities. Further, most of the music is laden with samples of pre-existing work, making it harder for many songwriters to make a living by peddling tunes.
And theft, whether it be on the Web or on the street, always hampers revenue flow.
As a result, the live performance has become even more important as a way for musicians to earn money.
Associated Press. ‘Dude! This Thing Is Awesome!’. Wired News. April 29, 2004.
Shooting Spitballs May Be More Useful
The average Californian has many concerns these days: how to feed their families, the legal viability of same-sex unions, outrageously high gas prices, and how to afford college for Junior or Juniorette.
Stopping Gmail generally is not among those concerns.
But State Senator Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) believes that Gmail, the controversial new e-mail service from Google that is beta testing right now, is a scourge upon the earth that must be terminated with alacrity. And she has introduced a bill that would ban Gmail in the Golden State.
“Telling people that their most intimate and private e-mail thoughts to doctors, friends, lovers, and family members are just another direct marketing commodity isn’t the way to promote e-commerce,” said Figueroa in a prepared statement. “At minimum, before someone’s most intimate and private thoughts are converted into a direct marketing opportunity for Google, Google should get everyone’s informed consent.”
Apple’s Role in Spurring Social Software
Yesterday and Sunday, The New York Times on the Web published a pair of stories that deftly chronicle how the entertainment and computing industries are converging, as the proliferation of social software such as WiFi, peer-to-peer networking, and handheld devices continues to force both industries to evolve.
At the center of this convergence is Apple. The computer company, during the second tenure of Chairman Steve Jobs, has remained a distant second to Microsoft in terms of personal computer operating system market share. But recently, Apple has been at the forefront of several several social software initiatives that make the company vitally relevant. Through its AirPort system, Apple was one of the first companies to offer and simplify WiFi access through the personal computer. Apple is at the center of SubEthaEdit, a collaborative editing platform that allows all users to type anywhere in the text without locking parts of the text for other users. SNTReport.com was one of the first publications to cover this technology when Steve Arnold wrote a feature story about it in March.
And there is the iPod, Apple’s wildly successful handheld device. Apple now sells more iPods than it does computers, and the device (along with the iTunes Music Store) perhaps singlehandedly legitimized the market for downloaded music. The company introduced the iPod Mini, a smaller version of the iPod, in January to great industry acclaim and customer demand.
Perhaps most importantly, Apple has made its hardware and software easily compatible with the Windows operating system: the iPod runs on both platforms, and Apple’s computers generally interface well with networks that run the Windows platform.
Evelyn Nussenbaum. Technology and Show Business Kiss and Make Up. The New York Times on the Web. (Free registration required). April 26, 2004.
John Markoff. Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers. The New York Times on the Web. (Free registration required). April 25, 2004.
Steven Arnold. A Mac Collaborative Editor Breaks New Ground. SNTReport.com. March 2, 2004.
(n.b. The Times places stories in their fee-based archives after seven days.)
Music Downloads Rise
The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a report Sunday that suggests that the future of music distribution is through online means.
"The number of those who say they download music online remains well below the peak levels that we tracked in the spring of 2003, but there was some growth in those who reported music downloading in our February survey. The data also shows growth since last November in usage of some of the smaller file-sharing applications, such as iMesh, BitTorrent, and eMule.
In the most recent survey, we found that 18% of Internet users said they download music files. That is a modest increase from the 14% of Internet users who reported in a survey just before last Christmas that they downloaded music files online. But it is still considerably below the 29% who said they had done this when we surveyed in the spring of 2003."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. 14% of Internet Users Say They No Longer Download Music Files. April 25, 2004.
David McGuire. Americans Head Back Online For Music. The Washington Post. April 25, 2004.
DOJ Begins Sweep to Protect Entertainment Industry
Last week, the United States Department of Justice officially began assisting the entertainment industry in its fight against file sharing and peer-to-peer networks with its implementation of Operation Fastlink.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft describes Operation Fastlink as "the largest, most far-reaching and most aggressive enforcement action ever undertaken against the criminal core of digital theft, including theft of movies, music, games, business and educational software on the Internet."
Last Thursday’s sweep identified more than 100 people in the United States and nine other countries involved in the "theft" of more than $50 million worth of music, movies and software, according to an Associated Press story.
No arrests were made Thursday, but several arrests will be forthcoming, said Ashcroft.
Operation Fastlink is the first Justice Department enforcement action since Ashcroft announced the formation of an Intellectual Property Task Force inside the Department. According to Ashcroft, the DOJ sweep was made with the assistance and approval of private sector entertainment industry companies.
"These investigations benefit from the important assistance provided by various intellectual property trade associations, including the Business Software Alliance, the Entertainment Software Association, the Motion Picture Association and the Recording Industry Association of America," said the Attorney General. "We thank them for their cooperation."
Associated Press. U.S. Moves Against Online Pirates. Wired News. April 23, 2004.
Brooks Boliek. Justice Dept. Nets Pirates in ‘Fastlink’ Raids . The Hollywood Reporter. April 23, 2004.
Dinah Greek. Cyber-cops Arrest Trio in Piracy Crackdown. Computing. April 23, 2004.
The Hon. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Prepared Remarks: Operation Fastlink Announcement. Department of Justice. April 22, 2004.
Department of Justice. Justice Department Announces Internet Piracy Sweep. (Press release.) April 22, 2004.
Update: Matt Hines. Feds Convict Warez Pirate. News.com. Dec. 28, 2004. (The DOJ landed its first conviction against an American defendant trapped via Operation Fastlink. Jathan Desir, 26, of Iowa City, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in a criminal enterprise that distributed pirated software, games, movies and music over the Internet.)
Democrats Want to Expand Broadband Access
"Democratic candidate John Kerry has yet to release his plan for high-speed Internet policy, although he is widely expected to do so in an upcoming speech. But in an interview with CNET News.com on Wednesday, Reed Hundt, a Kerry advisor and former Federal Communications Commission chairman, provided an outline of issues that he said would likely form parts of a Democratic plan for broadband."
John Borland. Kerry’s broadband policy plans emerging. News.com. April 21, 2004.
COPYCENSE 