For the past decade, with the introduction of  the illegal downlaoding music service, Napster, the music industry has been forever changed.  Over the past decade , the introduction of mp3 players, i-pods, i-tunes, zunes and digital delivery within the industry has slowly diminished the importance of the cd.  However,  aside from diminishing cd sales, is more importantly the role of laws that play in protecting  what artists create, that being the music content itself.  The industry has suffered but still has found ways to make money, through downloading through legal sites, however,  laws and how it is enforced will be the means to ensure music is protected.

One such law that exists currently in the United Sates is ‘”The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act”.  This law seems to cover more of a broad spectrum of proetecting music  and replicating in any means as  it will be deemed illegal unless for personal usel. The code states as follows “The U.S. Code protects copyright owners from the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound recordings, as well as certain digital performances to the public. In more general terms, it is considered legal for you to purchase a music CD and record (rip) it to MP3 files for your own use. Uploading these files via peer-to-peer networks would constitute a breach of the law.”

Although in the eyes of most downloaders and music fans, laws are still broken.  Illegal sites such as bit torrent which is file sharing between users instead of a central location, is a grey area, in wich laws may not protect.  While it is still illegal,  it has yet to be stopped, since it is sharing amongst people for “personal use”.  Although the act in-itself, downloading is illegal, once people own it the grey area begins.  That is where the  Recording industry of america  beings to decipher between, criminals and non-Criminals.

According to the RIAA the penalties for breaching the copyright act are different depending upon whether the it is for commercial or private financial gain. In the United States,   the online infringement of copyrighted music can be lead up to three years in prison and may include $250,000 in fines for committing the crime. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned up to six years.  Even those individuals who may not have gained any financial benefits  a may be held civilly liable for their actions. Regardless of whether the activity is for profit,  the act in itself will be reprimanded for actual damages and or lost profits and even r statutory damages. All these charges can lead  up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.   No small fee considering,  every song a  u download in the long run does hurt an artist.   The following,  the digital Millenium Copyright Act,  which as breaks down what is protected in music by the law. Its excpetions for using downloads are as follows on top of existing law

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law by

1. Nonprofit library, archive and educational institution exception

(section 1201(d)). The prohibition on the act of circumvention of

access control measures is subject to an exception that permits

nonprofit libraries, archives and educational institutions to circumvent

solely for the purpose of making a good faith determination as to

whether they wish to obtain authorized access to the work.

2. Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits

circumvention, and the development of technological means for such

circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a

copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and

analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability

with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under

copyright law.

3. Encryption research (section 1201(g)).  An exception for encryption

research permits circumvention of access control measures, and the development of the technological means to do so,

in order to identify flaws and vulnerabilities of encryption technologies.

4. Protection of minors (section 1201(h)). This exception allows a court

applying the prohibition to a component or part to consider the

necessity for its incorporation in technology that prevents access of

minors to material on the Internet.

5. Personal privacy (section 1201(i)).  This exception permits circumven-

tion when the technological measure, or the work it protects, is capable

of collecting or disseminating personally identifying information about

the online activities of a natural person.

6. Security testing (section 1201(j)).  This exception permits circumven-

tion of access control measures, and the development of technological

means for such circumvention, for the purpose of testing the security

of a computer, computer system or computer network, with the

authorization of its owner or operator.

Each of the exceptions has its own set of conditions on its applicability, which

are beyond the scope of this summary.

These six exceptions  allow people to utilize files downloading in any way they please,  and realize, all are without file sharing and through illegal means or  financial gain as well.  The ramifications, although enough to make most people no download illegally, torrent sites, and smaller versions of downloading programs are still illegal and still a problem.  Europe, which is home to some of the words most renown hackers,  has some countries taking a different approach to combating piracy of music online.  TNO, the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association has  launched a  Web site  to raise awareness about the content it offers legally through its network of members.   this is meant to decrease the amount of piracy occurring in Europe.   Even countries like France are threatening criminals and repeat offenders a  3 strike rule, where you lose all access to your internet.   Regardless, the internet and music has been a bittersweet partnership that has allowed artists to spread music, but perhaps at the cost of the money which is rightfully theirs.

Links

http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

http://www.articlebiz.com/article/312681-1-use-only-legal-music-downloads-say-no-to-piracy/

http://www.downloadinglegally.com/

Music Laws/Copyrights

As artists are constantly at odds with those who download, a legal issue is copywriting music.  While thats the easy part, combating piracy is another.  I-tunes makes it virtually impossible to file share, withough purchasing, napser isn’t the free site  the late 90′s teens and college kids grew to love and reek the benefits from.   Copyright laws exist and are constantly being chanted and reevaluated. Here are some interesting tidbits that have revolutionzed copyright law in music as a whole.  Fines up to thousands of dollars and jail time are the penalities for the act of downloading, even on a small scale.

The following is the exact definition of Music Copyright

“Music copyright law has separate copyrights for the vocal or instrumental recordings of a composition or performance and the copyright of the written lyrics and music. Standard music copyrighting practices usually entail that the writer of the song retains the rights to the right to the music composition which the studio that did the recording of the music holds the rights of the recording. Music copyright law can get very complicated. It can involve negotiations with the writers, producers, agents, heirs and more.”

• Every time a new technology comes along that affects the music industry it changes the industry. Piper Jaffray found 72% of teens own an MP3 player, and 79% of those are iPods.
• Unfortunately, copyrights eventually expire and the owner has no exclusive rights.  This is public domain, which also leads to downloading anything for free for public domain as well.
• US copyright law is found in Title 17 of the United States Code and is administered by the US Copyright Office.   ” Terms for Copyright Protection”, a U.S. Government publication, summarizes the current duration of copyright protection for published works as follows:
  • Works created after 1/1/1978  -  life of the longest surviving author plus 70 years -  earliest possible PD date is 1/1/2048
  • Works registered before 1/1/1978  -  95 years from the date copyright was secured.
  • Works registered before 1/1/1923 – Copyright protection for 75 years has expired and these works are in the public domain.
  There is alot to keep in mind when it comes to copyrighting and laws surrounding music.
  A broad topic I hope to narrow down. 

Music Delivery Systems

   In the past  eight years alone,  Music sales as a whole has dropped substantially.  Although according to  Apple’s annual SEC  

 

Apple’s annual SEC 10K filing showed that music-related sales increased by US$844 million (or 34%) to $3.34 billion in fiscal 2008, up from US$2.5 billion in 2007. Apple cited “heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content” as the reason for the hefty increase.  However    according to the RIAA, 85 percent of cd’s released this year alone, did not see  big numberts in units moved.  Primarily it was  downloading from  third party users.

   With the introduction of the i-pod,  mp-3 players and  third party  download websites, most wich do not require  payment for downloads the music industry as a whole has been hurt.  In 2007 alone it saw a total of 500.5 million albums sold, including “hard copy” media: CDs, cassettes and LPs. This is a 15% drop from the unit total for 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan.  However is this in itself is hurting the music industry.

One detrimental aspect to  music sales and promotions is when  labels, send promo copies to other promotion companies,  journalists and bands.   These copies of albums are usually  advances of what will be distributed out in market in the comings weeks.  Lately , companies, such as Nuclear Blast Europe,  Metal Blade among others have utilize I-pool which allows companies to directly download lbums, while  using a sign in/tagging system to keep track of people using the albums to play on air,  promotions or people with acess to it. This is to prevent piracy within the industry and thus monitoring bands music.  The great aspect of this it that it obviously saves money for  the costs of shipping out physical copies,  creating them and paying print companies to print artwork.   These are all aspects of spending that save thousands in the long run in order to promote across the United States alone.   At the rate of sales being down by nearly 40 percent since the 90′s, bands tht used to be shoe-in’s for gold records, are merely selling  80.000-200,000  units now days.   Music promotions,  isn’t as lucrative as the days of seeing  Motley Crue  going 4 time platinum. 

Radio and music is not necessarily dying, however it is not in the best of shape if you are indie.  Tours, merchandising and sponsorships are where your money will be made if lucky.   Cutting costs does in fact have it’s benefits. However,  many digital artists,  print companies are already  struggling to find work and  this basically eliminates alot of middle men work,  i.e. printing artwork or  even finding cheaper methods to create artwork through  freelancers as well, which is always cheaper than contracting big names to do so, like sons of nero, or even a personal H.R. Giger design which some bands/labels  do in hiring big names.   

Piracy would also be harder to do, granted, there are always ways around trick and trades of the establishment, but this is yet another mean to prevent piracy. Piracy is one ,if not the biggest reason why record sales have dropped. .Napster,  i-tunes are now legal means to download, but according to the RIAA, most downloading is still illegal.   I-pool is only a means to combat that and if that prevents from smaller labels from folding, music sales to maintain, it will only help promotions, and labels but cutting down costs, while technologically  promoting and being financially smart.

Music Delivery Systems

I-pool and several other types of software, such as edge cast have started to bear the new standard for digital delivery of music, even video within the industry.  Even within a struggling economy , entertainment is usually the first hit.  However, with companies no longer sending out physical copies of albums to stations, promoters and journalists, it is a means to cut costs, while promoting their product within the industry weeks before the general public gets their hands on it.

 

Benefits:

• With logins and id’s, it stamps all music .
• Cuts down costs of sending promo copies ( including sending cd’s with cases and full artwork, mailing costs,manufacturing)
• Easily accessible
• Low damage rate

However with music sales going down, it may also be helpful, yet harmful.

• Although inter-industry , it may hurt the need for cd sales as a whole
• RIAA may reevuluate standards in an already struggling market
• manufactors may lose profit
• there is still a means to get around the id part of the system
• some stations, promos are not set up to play mp’3 via primitive  radio systems (seriously!)

WIth all that said there is alot to look into, however, good or bad, it will revolutionize promotions and how cd sales even more so now than ever,

the i-pod has done it already, this will only add to the streak of evolution the music industry has to face in coming times.

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