Investors, "Beware" of Record Companies 301
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Motley Fool investment Web site warns investors to beware of 'Sony, BMG, Warner Music Group, Vivendi Universal, and EMI.' In an article entitled 'We're All Thieves to the RIAA,' a Motley Fool columnist, referring to the RIAA's pronouncement in early December in Atlantic v. Howell, that the copies which Mr. Howell had ripped from his CDs to MP3s in a shared files folder on his computer were 'unauthorized,' writer Alyce Lomax said 'a good sign of a dying industry that investors might want to avoid is when it would rather litigate than innovate, signaling a potential destroyer of value.'"
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft, the last I heard, pays no dividends.
So I think MS is probably a "stock for fools". If you buy a stock with the expectation of its price rising, you're gambling, not investing. That's not to say that gambling that Mars won't explode in the next two weeks isn't a good bet; some gambles are worthwhile.
As to the record companies, DUH! You don't need an expert to tell you that a company whose sales have been falling for over five years is a turkey.
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:5, Insightful)
RIAA: track record of suing their own customers, based on "evidence" gathered via pretty shady means
MS: doesn't regularly sue their own customers (their competitors, sure, but not random joe off the street)
Failure of vista: Not the only money maker that MS has. Also not their only market.
Failure of music sales: only thing the riaa has.
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft, the last I heard, pays no dividends.
No longer true, I believe because they got sick of answering the questions you pose in your post. ;)
From http://www.microsoft.com/msft/FAQ/dividend.mspx [microsoft.com]: "Microsoft pays a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2005, Microsoft shifted from paying an annual dividend to a quarterly dividend."
So I think MS is probably a "stock for fools". If you buy a stock with the expectation of its price rising, you're gambling, not investing. That's not to say that gambling that Mars won't explode in the next two weeks isn't a good bet; some gambles are worthwhile.
As an aside, I think TMF has moved away from that sort of stance. Look at it this way - if I'm a long term invester (and it's better to be), then I don't need the dividend now. What would I do? Probably re-invest it. If I believe in the company enough to own their stock, I'd rather they didn't pay me the dividend, which I'd just re-invest, because (I think) if my investment isn't tax-protected that's actually better from a tax perspective. I don't want to be taxed on the dividends now while I'm working and presumably in a higher bracket, I'd rather be taxed on them later at the long-term cap gains rate.
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd say yes, but I think it's been dying for a long time now. More than a decade perhaps. Since the advent of mp3.com (the original - R.I.P.) and the ability for independent musicians to completely circumvent the rigors of major-label-pole-smoking. In terms of recording, production, and distribution bands have quickly adapted to the medium by which they can deliver the latest to the masses literally years faster than most major labels can. In almost all cases, faster than what a label can provide due to legal mumbo-jumbo that bands are required to go through before any thing moves forward in terms of contracts, tour support, and record sales projections and demands. Unless your 'label-made' like 99% of top 40 artists - born in the offices of label heads and marketing strategists, the wait has been over for a while now. The stone chunks are being taken out of the proverbial great wall of music put up by labels that had essentially created their disgustingly comfortable niche. It's close to being fully dismantled. For the sake of good Music, the sooner the better.
Music industry is big business. Huge in fact. It's laid many a great band to ruin in it's wake. And any thing that can crop it off at the knees is okay in my book.
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:5, Insightful)
The parallels with SCO are amazing, especially given the sizes of the companies we are talking about. That they could fail to see the future coming at them and more importantly read the trends (i.e. Napster) and react to them in a positive, money-making fashion, is an indictment of the corporate system, where over-priced CEOs sit in their glass-lined offices looking like suit-wearing fish and providing just about as much value to their company. When you start treating your customers as criminals, you have slipped over the edge and down the slippery slope toward oblivion.
This is probably the best thing to happen to them (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Shared Folder? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll take a wild guess and say that they define a shared folder as the shared files folder used by your P2P client.
Not like John Henry (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but they didn't have much to market and a very small group that they could actually market their products (invented or real) to. SCO had to invent the "Pay us for Linux or we'll sue later" shit in order to have something that some companies would actually be willing to pay them for.
Those involved with the RIAA still have a product that is mass marketable and that plenty of people will continue to purchase. Just because the Slashbotters (me included on this one) refuse to support RIAA music doesn't mean that anyone else really gives a shit. Yes, artists are starting to come around and going around the RIAA by distributing their music online, and it's working, but it's still not to the point where it's a 100% viable method to get your music out.
It will be at least 5 years and more like 15 to 20 before we really see the fuckers die off -- as unfortunate as that is.
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:3, Insightful)
Because they own copyrights on already recorded music that people like and will continue to buy for the foreseeable future, they will continue to have viable income for at least another 125 years. So while they might start faltering in 20 they won't be dead until the copyrights run out. Problem is that they will never run out because we'll never get those douchebags in Washington to fix the mess they were paid to create.
Stock shares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Many companies have been proclaimed dead or dying while their shares kept going up, and they keep going up still. Some portals were proclaimed to be dead because their percentage market share vaned comparing to Google, but they actually gain users as the net grows, and they actually grow and note profits each year.
So how's it for the record industry?
Still curious (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shared Folder? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's also been the definition they used in other cases. I don't know whether they think the term explains itself, or whether they're deliberately using vague wording for some reason... or maybe they do define their meaning clearly somewhere and I haven't seen it.
In any case, I think in the long run it's in their own interest to be clear and to use a narrow definition that requires not only shared access but also indexing / notification of availability that facilitates unauthorized copying (in the "actually illegal because it's unauthorized" sense).
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:5, Insightful)
While I agree with the sentiment, are artists really leaving in "droves?" Other than indie artists maybe never pursuing a label to start with, how many already-signed artists are leaving the labels? Can you list more than 10? More than 20? Even if you listed 1000, I'm sure it would be something like a tiny single digit percentage (or less) of the total artists on labels, hardly qualifying as droves.
I think it *will* happen, and hopefully at an exponentially increasing rate. But for now, they still have the stranglehold on the artists.
Re:Not like John Henry (Score:5, Insightful)
If America were full of John Henry's, we'd have become a third-world backwater a long time ago.
CD/DVD is the consumer transmission medium (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Heh (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to see the total devaluation of the "song" and instead a resurgence of routine live performances in public places (stores, plazas, etc.) This is the way it used to be. You never went into a large store (and even most small ones) or a good restaurant without seeing a live performer. I think that would really help the industry transition from this plastic-stamping model to a more service-oriented model where the product isn't a thing, but a performer.
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Insightful)
A long time ago, the tobacco companies saw that eventually, their product would be regulated, lawsuits would ensue, and their profit margins would eventually shrink.
They diversified into food products so heavily that they're making more money on food than they do on tobacco. (They keep most of their holdings in food so they can't be sued for it as well...)
The music companies could have diversified into so many other directions... If only they hadn't been so stubborn...
Re:Not like John Henry (Score:3, Insightful)
No, he was a damned fool for not realizing that the era of hand-mining was coming to an end and looking for a new line of work. My great-grandfather was a coal miner back when it was booming. When it started to go out and the continuous miner came in, he went to work in a local textile plant--eventually rising to a pretty high level there before he retired. He made it possible for my grandfather to go to college. He didn't kill himself in a romantic stunt, he just adapted. That's the can-do spirit.
John Henry is a romantic bit of fiction, nothing more.
Re:Not like John Henry (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess I miss your point.
I see nothing wrong with a machine taking over for jobs...especially such as those in the automobile industry. It makes it where cars can be made more efficiently and with more build quality/consistancy. (No more worrying about buying a car made on Mon or Fri).
Sure a person has to put food on the table, but, no one can ever consider their job is going to be around forever, especially today. You have to keep on the ball, and learning new things all the time. Chances are you will have to change jobs and careers more than a few times during your lifetime. That's just a fact of life.
failing to adapt (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, but copyrights don't. Only artists that retain their copyrights can walk away.
Too little, too late (Score:3, Insightful)
And by the same time, MS brings OOXML to the table.
If they want to become nice, they need to do that in a consistent way.
Yup. MS is the primary supplier of the tool... (Score:1, Insightful)
MS has very deep pockets too, and up till now has been either a sacred cow that nobody dares stick a knife in, or a sleeping 900 pound gorilla that nobody dares wake up, or both. But the times are getting dangerous, and the **AA are getting desparate so who knows what will happen.
Re:The music industry is being killed by pirates (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah it was a stunt alright. And now they understand full well how much money they could earn just by doing what's right for them.
As for piracy killing the market and business... No. Piracy only accounts for about 20-30% sales loss, and its always been present, in all shapes, forms, and is an age old issue all persons have had to deal with throughout history. Technology has accelerated it, but it didn't make it worse.
The problem is that the industry didn't keep up with technology. End of line. They failed to grow with the rest of the world, and now they either find a way to grow rapidly and regain the edge, or it fades away and is replaced with another group that will basically do their old jobs better and more refined.
Its the way of life.
Now stop posting as an anonymous coward, RIAA Rep
It ain't just slashdotters... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:3, Insightful)