Mayhem & Chaos Blog

Hollywood

Poor Disney

First they lose Pixar, and now their 48-hour DRM EZ-Ds are being tossed off the shelves:

Ghertner said the decision was not made for environmental reasons; rather, company officials "made the decision strictly on sales."

"It just wasn't a good fit for us," she said. "It didn't turn out to be an item that our customers were looking for."

I take pleasure in seeing big companies waste tons of money on DRM schemes that everyone has predicted to fail. It just warms my heart. Especially when its an evil company like Disney.

Hollywood

Pixar is done with Disney

Good news! Pixar has stopped talks to extend the movie distribution deal with Disney. The deal that they had leading up to this was unfair to Pixar both in terms of money and credit.

While this is really good for Pixar, I'm more excited by the trouble it causes at Disney. Eisner's empire is crumbling and he is too inflexible/stupid to make the necessary changes to save Disney. After all the crap (think copyright extensions) they pulled in Congress, I have no love left for Disney and would like to see them fade into irrelevance.

Go Pixar!

Legal/Government

Intellectual property and innovation

My previous post about protecting databases and stifling innovation is keenly supported by Wired's "The Eagle Is Grounded" article. They draw a parallel between the US shipping industry and the intellectual property industry:

the Merchant Marine Act of 1970, which provided new protections and massive subsidies for the industry. As President Richard Nixon described it, the act would "replace the drift and neglect of recent years and restore this country to a proud position in the shipping lanes of the world."

It didn't work. Today, US carriers handle barely 2 percent of international cargo. The industry is dominated by nations like Panama and Liberia, so-called flags of convenience, where regulations are lighter and costs lower.

. . .

The US is in danger of repeating the mistake, this time with intellectual property. In the face of new technologies and competition, the US is toughening patent and copyright protections. It's leaning on other countries - and its own citizens - to play by ever tighter rules. But if it's not careful, the US will drive its intellectual property offshore into a shadow world that, like shipping, is replete with piracy and rogue states.

Wow. 2% -- I've long been talking about lots of IP business moving oversees. Steel production has left the US. Shipping is gone. Software engineering is being moved to India. R&D budgets are slim. Education budgets are constantly trimmed. I think you can probably get a better education in India than in the US.

I'm scared of what happens if you extrapolate this trend. The only thing I see is a total meltdown of the US -- invasion by the Chinese no longer seems so far fetched if they have the manufacturing capabilities and know-how that we've proudly shipped to them.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently -- I think it's almost time to write my thoughts down in some coherent essay.

Legal/Government

Database protection bill

C-Net covers the latest crap bill in Congress: "Tech firms fail to squelch database bill":

A congressional panel on Wednesday approved a proposal to curb database copying, ignoring the objections of technology companies that launched a last-minute lobbying campaign to kill the proposal.

. . .

The proposal, backed by big database companies such as Reed Elsevier and Thomson, would extend to databases the same kind of protection that copyrighted works such as music, literature and movies currently enjoy. Its supporters say that such protection is necessary to stop rivals from extracting information from proprietary databases like Reed Elsevier's LexisNexis service instead of going through the far more expensive process of compiling it themselves.

This bill is another classic case of companies wanting to change the law in order to protect their business models without regard to freedom of innovate. Currently facts are not copyrightable, which means that the data in a phone book can be copied at will, since phone numbers are facts. Changing this would allow database operators (including MusicBrainz) more control and legal choices for protecting the content in their databases.

However, there is an evil downside to this -- identifiers are facts and the upcoming semantic web (if it ever shows up) relies heavily upon identifiers. If these identifiers could all of the sudden be copyrighted it would make it illegal to link to a net resource that uses copyrighted identifiers. This would be a severe blow to the sematic web, especially in light of the current copyright climate where everything is copyrighted by default.

No bueno all around. I hope this bill gets tossed.

Music industry watch

Wal Mart and big stars

Kevin Laws guest blogs RIAA Enemy #1: Wal-Mart, Not Kazaa:

As I wrote before, music distributors are actually using their contracts with big stars to develop new acts that they've signed to long term contracts. They do this primarily through their control over the channels of promotion and distribution - basically, carry my new artist and you'll get a discount on the Rolling Stones. We'll get the Rolling Stones to use them as an opening act to get some publicity, we've got contacts and deals with MTV because of our big name acts, etc.

. . .

More importantly, they carry very few new acts, and don't accept money to feature new acts in prominent locations. This is destroying one of the big advantages of the music companies when signing new acts - the ability to push the new acts to discerning tastemakers who frequent the music stores. They can still do top-down buzz (MTV, concert tours), but have lost their ability to affect bottoms-up buzz from people discovering great new artists. Additionally, it removes their incentives to pay for the top-down buzz since they aren't on the store shelves at the moment a new fan tries to buy it.

Excellent article -- very good insights. I had always thought that the age of the mega star was doomed. I am hoping that the Internet is going to create more artists, and help fans find these new bands. More music selection would then broaden the taste horizon and give all artists less attention for each listener. This in turn would level the playing field a bit and knock the mega-stars off their pedestals.

But, I'm not convinced that this is going to be the case -- I think the concept of powerlaws in blogs also applies to music and megastars -- having a megastar is probably a natural phenomenom. WalMart squeezing the record companies is pretty cool, but what does the post-WalMart landscape look like??

Music industry watch

Issue roundup III

I think I need to get around to setting up a link-blog -- but in the meantime, have this:

• Rights issue dogs CD protection: Copyprotected CDs that have two sessions in them should really pay the songwriters for each copy that is put onto the CD. Not surprisingly, the record companies disagree.
• RIAA sues 532 'John Doe' file swappers: This move is also not surprising -- I'm hoping the results will be surprising to the RIAA when it turns out that they suing the kids of record label execs or congressmen. Who knows -- wouldn't that be fun?
• UK Music Industry Stomps on Imported CD Seller: Erm. International price fixing?? I'm not too educated on UK anti-trust laws, but this seems quite fishy to me. What jurisdiction does the UK have over a Hong Kong CD retailer? After 1997, I would've expected none, but I guess I was wrong.

That's all for now -- is it time to write code yet?

Toot your own horn

Real announces Helix Community grants

Real Networks has just announced the Helix Community Grant awards. I'm pleased to tell you that I was one of the recipients of this grant. My grant work will encompass:

A Helix Community grant was awarded to Robert Kaye to integrate the MusicBrainz metadata tagging capabilities into the Helix client. Unlike the MusicBrainz Tagger this tagging application will be geared to clean up the music metadata as a user listens to the music files in their collection.

As a user listens to their audio collection the TRM enabled player will automatically generate a TRM acoustic fingerprint for the audio file and look up the correct metadata on the MusicBrainz server. If the file is recognized by MusicBrainz, the new metadata will be automatically written back to the audio file. If not, the user will need to use the application to match the audio file to an existing track in MusicBrainz.

After the user has matched their local tracks against the MusicBrainz database, the TRM ids are submitted to MusicBrainz, so that others may benefit from the work that users before them have done. This commons approach to music metadata allows MusicBrainz to coordinate thousands of volunteers to build a comprehensive music metadatabase. In time MusicBrainz would extend the data it captures and branch out to subjective metadata like artist/album review.

You can keep track of this project at the MusicBrainz Helix home page. I really should stop blogging and continue writing code, but...

Music industry watch

Bleep music download service

I've really start getting down when I hear that yet another download service is starting service. Inevitably they use Windows only software, DRM or nonsensical audio formats.

Warp Record's BLEEP service stands out from the rest of the services:

• Uses normal MP3 downloads, encoded with LAME
• Uses no DRM.
• Can be used by anyone, not just people in the US

This is a service I can get excited about -- I wish you guys best of luck!

File sharing

Duelling file sharing reports

I've long been suspecting that for every report published there is a report that counters it. This is certainly the case when it comes to report about file sharing usage in light of the RIAA's sue the world campaign: The Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey report says that file sharing has dropped significantly, and the The NPD Group report shows that file sharing has risen since the RIAA started its campaign:

In a separate, bimonthly survey, 12 million individuals reported getting music on the free networks in November, up from 11 million in September, NPD said.

. . .

Russ Crupnick, vice president of The NPD Group, speculated the apparent increase in music file-sharing could merely be seasonal, as new album releases before the holidays heightened demand. He also said less media coverage of the recording industry's lawsuit campaign could have figured into the increase.

There were no details given on how this survey was conducted, but they did give a margin of error. I tend to believe the NPD group report more, since anytime you make a big stink about something, people will want to see what it's all about. Thus causing a rise in file sharing activities.

Legal/Government

Now what RIAA?? (part III)

Continuing the Now what RIAA? series (part I, part II), C-Net writes about congresscritters at CES:

Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., joined others in criticizing the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for suing alleged music swappers, calling the RIAA's legal tactics heavy-handed and against the intent of U.S. copyright laws, including the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

"The fundamental problem with the approach of the RIAA took is that it was based on legislation that created special property rights," Sununu said. "Suddenly, you had a private entity that's able to issue subpoenas, which is unprecedented."

"That's not what the DMCA was intended to do," he said. "We can't be writing legislation that gives holders of certain types of intellectual property special rights...We can't carve out special legislation to give special powers to certain types of content."

With the current trend of the courts giving the RIAA the cold shoulder, this could be significant. If something does come of it (mouthing off at a trade show is easy -- getting good bills passed is a lot harder) then it would further restrict the cache of laws that the RIAA/MPAA have bought themselves over the last few years. Let's hope that this is going to be the case -- I'll keep watching this space with high hopes.

Wasn't John Sununu involved in some using travel scandal a while back??

Music industry watch

Issue roundup II

There are simply not enough hours in the day to get work done and blog, so sometimes the blogging has to give. :-( Thus, I only have some links to share with you and I'll post about the meaty articles later:

• Slashdot: Sir Mix-A-Lot Using Weed To Distribute Music. The Weed file sharing system looks interesting -- it has some aspects of mediAgora. I'm in favor of such schemes, but I just don't see enough uptake yet.
• Salon: Online services give music industry hope. I wondered how online music services would do in a post-Napster world. It's still hard to compete with free but by making it easier to buy than steal some people are now buying music online. Will that extend the life of the cartel? Yes. Will it save the cartel? Probably not. They have committed too many sins to not get replaced by something better.
• CNN: Penn State launches Napster music service. Personally I think Universities should focus on providing education and not get into bed with commercial interests like Pepsi and Napster.

Music industry watch

The RIAA hires an army of rent-a-cops

The LA Weekly reports that RIAA has hired a bunch of ex ATFers to take enforcement to the street:

Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.

. . .

The RIAA acknowledges it all — except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they’re actual law enforcement, that’s a mistake.

. . .

Though Langley says he doesn’t know what tack his new boss will take, the recent hiring of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Bradley Buckles to head the anti-piracy unit has some RIAA watchers holding their breath.

While doing actual street enforcement sounds like a reasonable thing to do, aiming to look like cops is a bad idea. If these guys were hasseling me, I'd tell 'em to screw off and use due process. But then again, I wouldn't be selling CDs on the street corner.

Makes me want to go and download a bunch of Creative Commons (commercial use ok license only, of course) music, setup a shop on Sunset Blvd and wait for the RIAA cops to come hassle me. If they attempt to confiscate anything, I could stick the cops on them. Ahhh, to dream.

Music industry watch

Music sales rise

I should've blogged this a while ago -- its a great analysis on the current happenings in the music industry. Barry Ritholtz writes Music Sales Rise on Aggressive Discounting, Price Competition and an Improving Economy:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the industry's usually vocal mouthpiece, has been notably silent on this development. Given their typical penchant for publicity, one would have assumed the RIAA would be crowing about the sales improvement, claiming their much criticized litigation strategy was paying off in spades.

Their silence speaks volume.

I suspect the reason the RIAA has been so hushed on this issue is that the increase in sales has nothing to do with their aggressive litigation tactics.

Not surprising that file traders continue to be scapegoat... Barry's article talks in detail about the rising CD sales, dropping prices and where your money goes when you purchase a CD. Great work, Barry!

Cool ideas

Hacking drive thru speakers

Joe Gratz blogs about a news article where some teenagers hacked the Burger King drive through speaker system:

Policeman Gerry Scherlink said the pranksters told one customer who had just placed an order: "You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat. Pull ahead."

The offenders are reportedly tapping into the wireless frequency at the restaurant in Troy, Michigan. Police believe the culprits are watching and broadcasting from close range.

Officer Scherlinck said the men are telling customers who order a Coca-Cola that, "We don't have Coke." And when the customer asks what they do have, the hacker would say: "We don't have anything. Pull ahead."

Hahahaha. Serves them right for using an unsecured system!

File sharing

Sue the world is working?

Slashdot and Joe Gratz mention the Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey about P2P usage since the RIAA has started suing the world. The survey claims that since the start of the RIAA suing everyone and their mom, P2P filesharing has dropped significantly. They claim that the lawsuits combined with online music download services like iTunes and Napster have also caused people to use file sharing applications less.

As Joe Gratz points out the survey was conducted via the phone and the heightened press coverage about P2P sharing has probably made people weary of openly talking about their true P2P activities. Quite probably true -- but I think people are also defecting from the popular file sharing clients due to their increased scrutiny. The survey covered the Kazaa, BearShare, WinMX and Grokster file sharing apps. No mention of eMule, BitTorrent or silly systems like EarthStation 5.

I think these alternatives have been gaining in popularity in recent months -- especially BitTorrent. I tend to judge popular trends by how often I hear about these trends from my friends. When someone asked another geeky friend of mine as to what file sharing system he used, my friend replied: "Kazaa." and earned a: "Duude, you're so old skool" response. I take that as a sign that the times are changing.

I'm sure that the RIAA has caused some people to stop downloading. But I'm also sure that iTunes/Napster/et al, lower CD prices, BitTorrent & eMule are changing the landscape quite a bit. Are people sharing fewer files overall? I doubt it -- its just hard to quantify the entire picture. And calling people on the phone to get them to admit their sins is not the right way to do it.