Thursday, 23 July 2009
Google Accused Of Invisibly Deleting Blog Posts On The RIAA's Say-So
The fight between music bloggers and record labels reached its most visible point when a guy who uploaded a leaked copy of the latest Guns N' Roses album to his site got arrested by the FBI. But many music bloggers are now fighting a much more invisible menace, with posts they've written suddenly disappearing from their sites (via Tyler Hellard) hosted on Google's Blogger platform. An RIAA source says that the group sends Google a list of URLs it doesn't like, and Google "then deals with the problem." Google says that it notifies bloggers after their posts have been taken down, in accordance with the DMCA. But it should hardly be surprising that many of those affected say they've gotten no such notice, nor that the offending material was either legally posted and/or supplied by the labels themselves. So two possibilities emerge: the RIAA is filing false DMCA takedowns, and/or its legal right hand doesn't know what the labels' promotional left hands are doing. The upshot of this is that lots of music bloggers say the threat of landing in legal trouble -- particularly for posting music supplied to them by labels and artists -- is having a chilling effect on them, and could eventually stop them from blogging, shutting down a valuable promotional tool for the labels. That sort of shooting itself in the foot, though, seems to be the record industry's specialty.
From 'Techdirt'
From 'Techdirt'
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Nice to see that you no longer get told when you get a DMCA take down notice...
Interestingly enough I just discovered this. a translation by 'Pyrolse Bred' of an article in French from Jan 2009 here.Is the music business in crisis?
If by “crisis” you mean something similar to the steel industry in the 1970s or the automobile industry now, then the answer is no. The music industry had its heydays at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, when people replaced their vinyl records by CDs, while still buying new releases. Those exceptional days are over, but the industry is still doing well. In France, money collected by the Sacem (the main institution responsible for collecting and redistributing royalties) increased from 600 millions € in 2000 to 750 millions € in 2005.
This “crisis” is in fact a crisis of the CD, their sales declining steeply (by 20% in 2008). But this decline is offset by an increase in revenues from live shows and public broadcasting. The sales of digital music (like ringtones and so forth) are fast increasing (+ 26.8%) and music on demand has increased by 85%.
Are illegal downloads responsible for the decline in CD sales?
There’s actually no proof of that. One downloaded song doesn’t mean one lost sale. First, because the song might not have been purchased otherwise. Second, because the discovery of an artist thanks to a free download may induce the purchase of albums or of derived products (ringtones, concert tickets, video games etc).
Are CDs and DVDs the main source of revenues for artists?
No. The sales of records represent only a fraction of their revenues. In 2007 they represented (only) 16.5% of the money collected by the Sacem. Artists earn more money from live shows and public broadcastings (radio, TV, nightclubs).
How many artists suffer from the decline of CD sales?
If we imagined a sudden collapse of sales, only a few music writers would seriously suffer: the ones who never get played on the radio and never give any concerts. Others would see their revenues go from very comfortable to comfortable. In fact, in their vast majority, artists sell too few CDs to be hurt financially by illegal downloads. Only 5% of artists could be earning money from the sales of records. The issue for the remaining 95% of artists is to be known, not to fight piracy.
How come so few artists live off the sales of CDs?
Major record companies are largely responsible for this situation.
From the year 2000 onwards, they focused their marketing strategies on a small number of “safe” artists. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of artists who had a contract with one of the 4 majors has strongly decreased. The result is that by 2006 less than 6% of the artists represented 90% of the market.
Radio stations have also played a big role in impoverishing the market. A 2006 report by the “Observatoire de la musique” stated that on 31 radio stations (making up 92% of the audience) less than 3% of the songs played represented ¾ of the broadcasting time. And on radio stations aimed at young people the situation was even worse: the presumed 40 most popular songs represented 60% of the broadcasting time.
Who is the biggest loser of the decline in record sales?
The record companies: Universal (25% of the market), Sony BMG (21%), EMI (13%) and Warner (11%). They’re the ones who collect the biggest chunk of money from the sales of records. Off the price of 15-20€ for a CD, 19.6% is VAT, 21% goes to the distributor and 50% is collected by the record company. The main artist, writers and musicians collect together about 9%. In theory. Because record companies often deduct the costs of recording, marketing and shooting the video(s) from those 9%.
Could music be cheaper without ripping off artists?
Yes. Right from the start CDs were sold at a price 50% higher than vinyl records. But the manufacturing costs have quickly dropped below that of vinyl LPs. Moreover, in 1987, VAT on records went from 33.6% to 19.6%. The price of CDs on the other hand has only dropped by a mere 8%, and it subsequently never decreased further. Needless to say, artists are still not being better paid now than in the 1980s …
O Rappa - Minha Alma
Bonus:Audio
The original studio version of this from O Rappa's album 'Lado A Lado B' was produced by Bill Laswell
The original studio version of this from O Rappa's album 'Lado A Lado B' was produced by Bill Laswell
Illinois:Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids, threatened one with sodomy
A shelter for adolescents in southern Illinois is suing the local sheriff’s office for what it describes as an unprovoked attack by two police officers on four children, three of whom were tasered, and one of whom was threatened with sodomy by a sheriff’s deputy. The Southern Thirty Adolescent Center near Mount Vernon, IL, filed the lawsuit on behalf of three children in its custody, who the lawsuit says were tasered by Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies who had been called to help subdue two misbehaving children, aged 11 and 12. Neither of those children were among those who were tasered during what one news service described as a police “rampage.” The incident took place on July 4, 2008. The federal lawsuit was filed in an East St. Louis court on Friday. In the suit the children are named only by their initials: B.B., R.E., and Z.P. According to the legal filing, quoted in the Mount Vernon Register, one deputy “physically pushed R.E. towards his bunk and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. … R.E. was tased multiple times to multiple locations on his person, including, but not limited to, his neck. Deputy Bowers shouted to B.B. to lie down in his bunk and physically forced him to lie down. “Without physical provocation and/or physical gestures from B.B., Deputy Bowers held B.B. down on his bed and shocked him repeatedly with a taser. While he was tasing B.B., Deputy David Bowers threatened to sodomize B.B. As a result of this repeated and excessive tasing, B.B. urinated and defecated himself. Deputy David Bowers was aware that B.B. urinated himself after the tasing.” The filing goes on to say that a 17-year-old female visitor to the center, who had pleaded with police to stop the attack, was grabbed by an officer, choked, and locked in a closet. From the Mount Vernon Register, quoting the legal filing:
“As Z.P. was being repeatedly tased, [17-year-old] Megan Geisler pleaded with Deputy David Bowers and Deputy Lonnie Lawler to stop. Deputy David Bowers ordered Deputy Lonnie Lawler to handcuff Megan Geisler. … Deputy David Bowers grabbed Megan Geisler by her arms, lifted her off her feet, and carried her through the male dormitory to a nearby closet. On the way to the closet, Deputy David Bowers lifted Megan Geisler off the ground, pressed her against a wall and choked her. While choking her, Deputy David Bowers said, ‘do you want to live or die bitch’ to Megan Geisler. Megan Geisler was then thrown into a closet. At this time she began vomiting and heaving.”
According to AP, no criminal charges have been filed in the case, and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says the deputies “acted appropriately.” The Illinois Department of Family and Child Services told southern Illinois’ WSIL-TV that “shocking children with Tasers can result in serious physical and mental injury. Use of these weapons is especially troubling in cases where the children involved have committed no crime and have not even been charged with wrong doing.”
@ 'Raw Story' via 'Renegade Futurist'
To protect, serve, choke, shock and sodomize.
Asia swathed in darkness with the longest total eclipse of the century
Solar eclipse is seen in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, at 8:33 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, 2009. Photograph: Wang Peng/AP@ 'The Guardian'
Watergate Hotel attracts NO bids
An attempted auction of the Watergate Hotel, part of a Washington landmark made famous by a presidential scandal, has failed to attract any bids.The opening price on the hotel was $25m (£15.2m), but none of the 10 people registered to bid did so.
@ 'BBC'
Israel's internet war
The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems.
Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.
Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.
“To all intents and purposes the internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.
The existence of an “internet warfare team” came to light when it was included in this year’s foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.
Full story @ 'Counterpunch'
(Thanx Paul)
Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.
Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.
“To all intents and purposes the internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.
The existence of an “internet warfare team” came to light when it was included in this year’s foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.
Full story @ 'Counterpunch'
(Thanx Paul)
'Death of Neda'
Death of Neda A finely detailed portrait bust of Neda will be presented at a massive rally in front of San Francisco City Hall on July 25th. More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the event.
Story here.
Green Brief 35
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