

Record industry faces liability over `infringement' - fogus
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

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gruseom
From the article:

 _It is difficult to understand why the industry has been so reluctant to pay
its bills._

I don't find that difficult at all. (Neither does Geist, of course. I find
myself enjoying quite a few of his posts; he's kind of a Canadian Lessig.)

If ever there were an industry that deserved sweeping into the dustbin of
history, I vote for this one. Their moral argument against file sharing boils
down to: "It's wrong for you to steal from artists. _We're_ the ones who get
to steal from artists!" When I think of all the stories I've read over the
years of great musicians being swindled out of their life's work...

~~~
cabalamat
> "It's wrong for you to steal from artists. We're the ones who get to steal
> from artists!"

Got it in one!

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wmeredith
The music distribution industry's relationship with fans and artists just
keeps getting more and more perverse. How were they able to operate with such
hostile policies in both directions (to both musicians and customers) for so
long? It's a serious question; does anyone around here have any answers?

~~~
aarongough
From what I have seen they were able to keep treating everyone badly simply
because there wasn't (and really isn't still) a viable alternative available
to bands that want large-scale distribution.

Sure, a band can distribute their work via the internet, but unless they are
already well known they are always going to have trouble finding an audience.

I hope that the situation is slowly improving now that there are more ways to
distribute your work, but it's still a sad state of affairs given that
'MySpace Music' is still the best known alternative distribution model...

~~~
DrJokepu
It's not just about distribution. Production is extremely costly. Renting
professional equipment costs a fortune every hour. You have to pay producers,
sound engineers, technicians, etc. Music videos aren't exactly cheap to
produce either. The costs of the production of an album can quickly reach five
zeros. Record labels invest a lot in artists (on not very friendly terms for
the artist, but that's a separate issue). Additionally, they provide them with
connections. They help them getting performances in TV shows, getting their
music played on the radio, etc.

These days a many bands chose the alternative route of becoming independent.
It's not impossible to succeed this way but if you go down that part you as an
artist have to invest a lot more time in marketing yourself than you would had
to if you signed up with a commercial label.

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aarongough
If there is such a thing as Karma, then this is a prime example of it
balancing things out...

~~~
sili
I particularly like how their own practice of overcharging thousands of
dollars for each infringed song has come full circle to bite them.

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blintson
This is the best news I've heard in a long time. I want to do something to
help their case if I can. To any lawyers on HN: are there any aspects of this
case that are likely to be amenable to crowd-sourcing/coding/anything I could
do?

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DrJokepu
As someone working in the recording industry, let me add my thoughts. First,
I'm not surprised at all to read this. This sort of stuff is pretty common.
Not because of greed or malevolence (at least not primarily) but because of
the utter incompetence and chaos in the music industry. The big four companies
(Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal) are enormous chaotic abominations where
one department has no idea what the other department does (not unlike
Microsoft or IBM in the software/tech industry). Corporate politics and ego
plays a great part. Despite them constantly whining about the hardships caused
by music piracy they grew way too comfortable as nothing really threatens
their business model.

Don't get me wrong; we need record labels and publishers. Someone has to
invest in discovering, coaching and marketing artists. This is not an anti-
recording industry rant but as someone who really loves music I'm infuriated
to see every day how incompetent the recording industry is.

Really I can imagine only two solutions: either a number of lawsuits like this
delivers the shock to shake up the industry or emerging new competitors with
better talent and more up-to-date views on the future of this business replace
the old ones. Perhaps the second path would be better but to be successful in
this industry, having money and being smart is not enough; you have to have
lots of connections. Lots and lots of them.

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blhack
$60 Billion!?

That's a preposterous amount of money! No way a court will ever grant that
sort of thing.

/oh, wait.

