[ga] [Fwd: [A2k] NYT: Music Industry Imitates Digital Pirates to Turn a Profit]

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,
  
  My, my, how change has taken hold, eh?  Or has it?
Can you say C O M P L I C I T?

As a veryinteresting FYI:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [A2k] NYT: Music Industry Imitates Digital Pirates to Turn a
Profit
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:09:25 +0000
From: Vera Franz <vfranz@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: vfranz@xxxxxxxxxx
To: A2k@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/business/worldbusiness/19digital.html?_r=1&sq=Music%20Industry%20Imitates%20Digital%20Pirates%20to%20Turn%20a%20Profit%20%20By%20ERIC%20PFANNER&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=printJanuary

19, 2009





  Music Industry Imitates Digital Pirates to Turn a Profit



By ERIC PFANNER

<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=ERIC%20PFANNER&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=ERIC%20PFANNER&inline=nyt-per>



CANNES, France � After years of futile efforts to stop digital pirates

from copying its music, the music business has started to copy the
pirates.



Online and mobile services offering listeners unlimited �free� access to

millions of songs are set to proliferate in the coming months, according

to music industry executives.



Unlike illegal file-sharing services, which the music industry says are

responsible for billions of dollars in lost sales, these new offerings

are perfectly legal. The services are not really free, but payment is

included in the cost of, say, a new cellphone or a broadband Internet

access contract, so the cost to the consumer is disguised. And, unlike

pirate sites, these services provide revenue to the music companies.



�Two thousand nine should be the year when the music industry stopped

worrying and learned to love the bomb,� said Feargal Sharkey, a former

punk rocker who now heads UK Music, a trade group for the British music

industry.



Previously, the industry largely insisted that legal digital sites sell

songs by the track, like Apple

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/apple_computer_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>
�s

iTunes, or through subscriptions to services that do no let listeners

truly own the music.



But over the last year, many people in the industry have become

convinced that such offerings will never replace the revenue from

plunging sales of CDs. Worldwide music sales fell about 7 percent last

year, said John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation

of the Phonographic Industry. Meanwhile, growth in downloads from

iTunes, the biggest legitimate digital service, came to a halt.



Perhaps the most prominent service offering unlimited downloads has been

Comes With Music, which was introduced in Britain last fall by Nokia

<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/nokia_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,

the world�s largest maker of cellphones. It lets users download as many

songs as they want, from a catalog of more than five million tracks,

when they buy certain Nokia phones.



Tero Ojanpera, who is in charge of developing entertainment services at

Nokia, said at an industry conference here that Comes With Music would

be expanded to Australia and Singapore during the first quarter of this

year, and to other European countries later in 2009.



Other services offering unlimited downloads are being introduced by

Internet service providers, which many people in the music industry say

hold the key to curbing piracy because of their direct relationship with

Web users. TDC, an Internet provider in Denmark, offers unrestricted

downloads as part of its broadband subscriptions, and broadband

providers elsewhere in Europe are rolling out similar services.



The government of the Isle of Man announced plans for a system under

which consumers with broadband subscriptions would be required to pay a

nominal monthly license fee. They could then legally download music from

any source, even peer-to-peer services that are outlawed currently.



�At the end of the day, we are not going to stop piracy, so let�s

embrace it,� said Ron Berry, the inward investment manager for the Isle

of Man government.



Music companies have balked at such arrangements in the past. But they

are showing a newfound flexibility in licensing their material as their

existence becomes increasingly threatened.



Internet service providers, which previously resisted calls for them to

take an active role in stamping out piracy are looking to offer music in

their broadband packages.



Governments are also moving in to require more policing by Internet

providers.



France is poised to enact a law requiring providers to shut down the

Internet connections of persistent copyright offenders.



Britain, meanwhile, has threatened to introduce further legislation if

voluntary measures to try to curb piracy are unsuccessful.



Music industry executives and Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the

Internet Service Providers Association of Britain, said they were

confident that they could soon reach a licensing agreement to make

unlimited music services available via Internet providers.



Cellphone manufacturers, meanwhile, are eager to add music services as

the battle of the smartphones heats up among companies like Nokia, Apple

and BlackBerry.



Mr. Ojanpera, of Nokia, declined to say how many of the Comes With Music

phones had been sold in Britain.



--

Vera Franz

Program Manager

Information Program

<www.soros.org/ip>

Open Society Foundation

100, Cambridge Grove

London W6 0LE

phone +44 20 7031 0219

fax +44 20 7031 0247









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