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[...] Lunatic proposals involving governments regulating Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and then forcing them to disconnect users suspected of performing illegal downloads are gaining traction in the United Kingdom, France and Australia. (link) [...]

Save Music � Disconnect the Internet! | nerdd.net

Lunatic proposals involving governments regulating Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and then forcin

[...] If there is, in fact, some merit to it, then let’s go straight to the source — have governments regulate the production of microprocessors. Without microprocessors you cannot have a computer, without a computer you cannot connect to the Internet and ruin the music business. If you have read any of my previous posts on this topic, you know I have taken to task U2’s manager and UK ISPs, not to mention writing a bitterly sarcastic, Swift-like proposal to disconnect the Internet to save music. [...]

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The problem is that it has never really been proven that illegal downloads are hurting anyone’s actual bottom line. What percentage of pirated media would actually be purchased if only licit avenues were available? The answer is a very very small one. The RIAA/MPAA would have us believe that all the pirates would immediately become heavy consumers at industry-set prices if only file sharing were taken off the table. I think this is easy enough to prove: drastically lower prices and see if file sharing traffic dramatically decreases. I bet it would not. The truth is that the value that many people put on the vast majority of content is $0. Take away their ability to get it for free and they will do without. The real problem for the music industry and Hollywood both is not people stealing their content but increased competition for the consumer’s time and dollar from video games and various online activities.

Unfortunately Allan due to greed of both the Music Industry and the government coffers they line with bribes… sorry campaign funds, these types of laws WILL come into effect. I mean how else can the music industry sue unnamed parties and illegally hack into said parties own computers.

Apparently they are above the law.

Travis

Wow, you just lost a faithful visitor over this post.

@Jesse - yes, I agree that is hurting them as well and they are trying to use ill-guided laws to save their business. I agree that if they produced great content they would garner more of the consumer’s wallet. Instead, look for them to take more out of your wallet by using tax-money and legislation.

@TravisP - and what happens if we pass these idiotic laws and the revenues of the music industry don’t suddenly surge (like Jesse suggests)? Can we then legislate to take the laws off the books and not waste the taxpayers money?

@Jason - I assume you read the entire post to the end? :)

Fsckin awesome! I think thought experiments that bring ideas to their logical conclusion are really healthy. Yesterday, I had to buy some Claritin-D to ameliorate my allergies. To get it, I had to go to the pharmacy counter, give them my license, and record my signature. The woman behind the counter said: “We hate this just as much as you do. We’re just trying to help people with their medications and this turns us into police.” Amen.

Interesting and insightful as always. If the music industry spent half as much time helping their artists create albums that have more than two good songs, or finding REAL new hot talent (William Hung and the Heidi Montag don’t count), then a lot of their problems would be solved.

It seems you are taking the revenue that the music industry made in the 90s as the natural level. How about the 30s or even the 60s (yes, you can adjust for inflation)?

Music and creative musicians aren’t going away just because CDs cannot be directly monetized any more. Production costs are way lower than they ever used to be, so that CDs can serve as promotional material for concerts. In those concerts pop music artists already (and since at least 40 years) make way more money than classical musicians…

And why should drug addicts such as Britney or Amy and their management get more than an excellent opera singer? They probably could not even afford their drug habits with a “normal” salary.

Frankly, the music industry is way overestimating the value it adds to our everyday lives. I suggest you do not release any new pop music for a year and see whether your “audience” misses you.

@Mark - Amen indeed.

@Denise - thanks! I never did like William Hung either.

@Wolke - Good points - thanks.

you’re not doing it right.

you’re supposed to say something along the lines of “illegal downloads don’t actually make much of a dent at all in their revenues, so who cares?” or “the majority of users use paying sites for the sake of convenience anyways.” seriously, who paid you off?

not to mention that anyone who has a mild amount of network security experience will be incredibly hard to track and detect. thats if you go beyond just turning on torrent encryption, and that screws with the ISP’s tracking abilities to a large degree.

also, if for any reason your business model involves suing your customers for obscene amounts of money over trivial infractions, you probably need to reevaluate that model. or get out of the business. i’d vote the latter.

epic fail man… epic fail.

I have already been victim of this via Comcast… for “illegaly” seeding torrents. They shut my net down for 3 days and forced me to pull down the 2 torrents they had black flagged via summo torrent tracker…… so beware. The corruption of the interwebs is already at hand. We need a LARGE public outcry to stop these kind of outrageous acts. It’s our civil liberties at stake RIGHT NOW, and if nothing is done we will simply be shit on from now until the end of time. Hit me up at gottobekind(at)gmail-dot-com if you’d like to hear some more horror stories. Peace out and GL to all my fellow “pirates”

This is yet another nail in the coffin for a free and open internet that everyone can access. The easy way to stop this is to use another kind of network such as a sneakernet or private P2P, the music industry can not shut this down, they just need to think on a new business model that could profit from this like free band promotion.

You my friend are a complete moron. Disconnect users from the Internet…Jesus Christ.

The large record companies are the only organisations/businesses that at the moment want to remain unchanged but at the same time demand from everybody else to adapt to them. Piracy is indeed a very serious problem but we have so many higher priorities like the environmental problems, pollution, etc etc. Governments simply do not have the time to devote to record companies, they must eventually find a modern viable economical model. I think most of us are not worried about how we will get our music but how we will ensure that future generations will live on a planet that has deteriorated irreversibly.
(link)

The music business is the reason that the music business is falling apart. Just about any business that has been in business in the last fifteen years is doing business differently because of the internet. The music business either doesn’t know how or refuses to adapt.

Also, if the music business actually produced good music there sales would probably be better.

You really think downloading music is hurting the industry?

Then you are sadly mistaken!
Sure it doesn’t help boost more sales, but music shouldn’t be about the money to begin with. It should be about the art. Too bad everyone forgot that and it’s now about them silly little banknotes.

Is anyone of you whiners reading the whole page? Can’t you see he’s speaking ironically?

Yah let’s assume I download music and IP protected content.

For me a lifetime ban of internet would amount to a death sentence.

So what should I do - not download IP protected content, or make sure this music business is exterminated as quickly as possible? I think I should focus on the second. These people should be bankrupted as soon as possible to eliminate the threat they pose to me.

Wow, what a great idea. Give up everyone’s privacy and rights to save something from changing.

The music industry would not be destroyed, it is ignorant to think no one would make music if they wouldn’t become millionaires for it. If anything the music industry will just change to adopt a different business model.

I would have thought it was shite music that was damaging the music industry. Maybe we could have a three shite records and you are out policy instead!

@stygyan - Thanks - it may be irony that you are reading although I really was trying for sarcasm :) It is ironic that people are not reading the entirety of what I have written before commenting :)

So was I Allan.

Allan:

Beside the Swiftian fun you’ve had with this piece, I especially like all the Yahoos who missed the ironic point of your “modest proposals.” I wish more people were educated these days, or at least took the time to read a complete piece before responding in a trollesque way. I linked to your humorous piece in my blog entry today at the Innovators-Network so my readers could join me in having a laugh at a serious subject for a Friday bit of fun.

Disconnecting offenders for life? WTF is wrong with you? Access to information should be treated as an inalienable right in today’s world. I think the value of an informed society is worth WELL more than a “healthy” music industry.

I suggest you adjust your parameters for success in the music business. It is not to be measured solely vs. the excesses of the 1990s, but rather the entirety of human civilization.

Piracy is absolutely endemic, and record companies, “artists,” and musicians need to come up with a new business model altogether. That, or get a real job like the rest of us.

oh shite. lol, I got owned by irony. :(

information is free and it should be. all forbidding will do is anger the people that are preoccupied with stealing music, so they will go after the people that prevent them from downloading.

One thing (among many) that record companies and governmental policies forget is that you cannot demand (by way of legislation) that 21st-century technologies adhere to 20th-century business practices. The physical representations of music (the CD) will soon be obsolete. This is not a matter of scarcity anymore. They need to change with the times instead of lobbying government to back up outmoded concepts of property and distribution.

Instead, they should recall Larry Lessig’s observation that the ubiquity of the Internet will soon remove the need for p2p file sharing; “it will be easier, in other words, to subscribe [to content] than it will be to be a database manager. Content services will compete with content sharing,” (Free Culture, 298). Why be tied to your iPod when you can listen to whatever strikes your fancy? Invest in subsciption technologies instead.

Great post.

@master - I know, it’s all good.

@Anthony - thanks for the link, I did have Jonathan Swift and his “Modest Proposal” clearly in mind.

@nonasymou - yes, you got pwned, but then you got redeemed :)