RIAA Unveils Net Tracking Tag for Online Sales 301
openbear writes "A story over at MSNBC talks about the Global Release Indentifier (GRid). It is a code akin to the Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code found on a CD or cassette tape in stores. Each track will be distributed online with an individual GRid serial number and will be reported back to rights societies and collection agencies sold or transferred."
Which side is MSN on? (Score:5, Insightful)
A music industry trade body launched on Monday electronic identity tags to keep tabs on Internet music sales in a bid to compensate musicians and song writers as more of their works become available online.
If that isn't leading I don't know what is. They specifically do not mention the RIAA and are trying to portray it as compensating the poor artists as opposed to saving music industry executive's asses.
This is news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure how they plan on compensating artists with this plan, since there doesn't seem to be a *payment* mechanism. It strikes me as a first step towards 'Music Audits' in which a hard drive is scanned for the works of particular artists.
--v
firewall. (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad Journalism 101 (Score:5, Insightful)
Industry "fact sheets" make reporting so much easier. Now I have time for another nap.
Don't any of you fools read the article? (Score:3, Insightful)
All this is is a way to track online sales of individual tracks. Nothing to do with CDs, P2P, etc.
this really isn't a threat to p2p music sharing (Score:2, Insightful)
the same folks who still can't develop a business model that allows for quick and easy digital delivery of songs.
the mp3s i make from discs i buy, on the other hand, will have no Grid tags, so this really isn't a threat to p2p music sharing as we know it; it means that we (theoretically) won't be able to trade tracks we've downloaded from sony.com.
well, who needs them anyway?
besides, this stuff is pointless, they'll never be able to close the anolog hole.
So... (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think so... (Score:5, Insightful)
These people seriously underestimate the resolve of teens.
My kid is 17. Here is what he tells me. He won't buy CD's because if a CD has a song that he likes there will be 12-15 songs on there that he thinks SUCK. In other words he's paying ~$15 for ONE SONG. He would rip that one song to HDD and compile his own CD to use in his car with only the songs that he likes.
But, at ~$15 each and being limited by law to only working a max of 20 hours a week at minimum wage he can't afford too many CD's.
Thus enter Kazaa. He can leech all the songs he wants for free and burn his own mixes for his car that suits his taste.
And forget that stuff about buying music online, he can't do that as a kid and I don't have or use any form of banking system. I live strictly by GREEN CASH ALONE and have nothing at all to do with any financial institute in any form. Despite that fact, even if I did have credit cards or bank accounts I would never use them online for any reason, ever. Nor would I permit him to use my accounts.
Kids are smart, far smarter than the people that try to maintain their grip on the music industry.
NOTHING that they can devise will stop piracy, ever. If something must be paid for there will always be someone that will find a way to get it for free.
The digital age is Pandora's box. It's been opened and there is no closing it now.
I predict to see a tool to strip the tags on freshmeat the next day..
Who's Taking Bets? (Score:2, Insightful)
I say 6 days from first retail release!
Re:Which side is MSN on? (Score:2, Insightful)
You call yourself a geek?!! (Score:5, Insightful)
He just wants to find out what nifty stuff he can do with it.
sheeeesh!
Seeing how the media companies solutions are always half-baked, it'll be quite interesting to see how this bites them in the ass. And who they point the finger at while trying to deny their own crapulocity.
Vegas Odds (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:too much... (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with electronic files (say MP3) as commodity isn't just piracy. A retailer could easily sell of 4 copies of a song and only report selling one. 3x free money. Or an interrupted download might be counted twice. Etc.
You would think there is a better way, but this is what they came up with.
Re:Bad Journalism 101 (Score:4, Insightful)
Solution without a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
It appears this is supposed to be used so that a retailer can be charged correctly for every download they offer. Meaning a standard method of keeping track of online retail sales. To do this they will encode some unique bits in every file sold online. Sounds bogus already. I do not see the connection between me having a unique coded file and tracking total sales from retailers. Where is the discussion about how my number is reported or disclosed to anyone? Seems to me the real goal is to track a specific file after it is downloaded. They find your file on KaZaa, track it to the retail source, they release your name and bingo, full swat team visit. Maybe you would become the retailer and they will charge you the original downloader for every instance of the unique indentifier they can find online.
I'm not some consipracy theory nut but I can not honestly see the connection between tracking sales and a unique number embedded in a file.
Re:firewall. Works great (Score:3, Insightful)
Best to wait for the crack.
Bobby Brown Is My Cousin (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:too much... (Score:2, Insightful)
Its the Economy stupid! (Score:2, Insightful)
Jane Fonda Is My Cousin (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Watermarking MP3's (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You're right....but could this be a compromise? (Score:5, Insightful)
They lost their right to have me give them the benefit of the doubt years ago.
How's this going to work? (Score:3, Insightful)
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a harmless number & metadata scheme that is intended to identify electronically distributed content since the existing identifiers (e.g. UPC and ISRC) have limitations that don't satisfy the needs of content owners, publishers, and retailers. I was involved in the project so I know first hand this has nothing to do with P2P or consumer tracking.
Re:Bobby Brown Is My Cousin (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes I did, and their explaination smells like week-old tuna. How is the GRid going to stop a retailer from selling more copies than they report back to the record companies? Why does the GRid have to be incorporated as part of the music file? Retailers will have to manage track ids externally to the music file to handle all the companies that don't use GRid. How does the GRid help track sales in any way?
Re:Tim Russert Is My Cousin (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like bullshit to me . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Bullshit.
Why would they have to "tag" a downloaded file in order to pay for that download? The Only thing this does is to allow the seller to provide a way to associate the buyer with a particular file.
People who swap copyrighted files are breaking the law. However, the RIAA is going to assume that the files were traded. It is also possible for files to be stolen from buyer's hard drives.
Yeah, right... (Score:2, Insightful)
Ahem, soapbox please!
First, the RIAA will lose this one to wise consumers and 120-IQ hackers. Now that we the
Secondly, support for so-called pay-per-download is very mimimal. Pressplay is one example. Countless other music industry-sponsored portals have failed miserably. There is no way this will become as popular (or acceptable) as the current retail system.
And, finally, we have Gnutella {BearShare | Limewire | Morpheus}, WinMX, and more already penetrating the online music "market." It's no wonder that I can download ANY -- and I mean ANY -- song I have ever so desired. The truth of the matter is...there will never again be a reason to purchase a copy-protected or DRM-restricted CD again.
Re:It's totally different from a UPC (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Similar to a Custom Watermark (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately the music industry is stupid and will insist on making this somehow do copy prevention. That has the totally counter-productive result of providing a pirate with a fast and easy and foolproof method of determining if they have removed the watermark (ie if it plays they have succeeded in removing it).
Compensation for Artists (Score:2, Insightful)
Repeat until you understand: Musicians DO NOT make money from music sales. They make money from performances. In a standard recording contract all production and promotion expenses are taken out of the musician's share, usually leaving them with ZERO. As Janis Ian has said, "I have never received a statement from a record company that didn't say that I owed them money."
Re:Compensation for Artists (Score:1, Insightful)
2. It probably never occurred to you, but -it does- depend on the label they've signed with. There are plenty of labels that do respect and (get this) -pay- musicians for their music. And you won't believe this - the musicians actually -like- it.
3. Before generalising about the entire music industry, it would be wise to -think- (and yes, that could be difficult for some people) about what you're talking about, so you don't wind up looking like a complete arse.