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.'"
The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:5, Interesting)
They may get to the point where lawsuits are the only real income they have left. When that day comes, and all their Congressional bribe money has dried up, I think we'll see the courts and politicians finally start to hit back hard and finish them off. And they'll die still clutching their outmoded CD's, like pathetic John Henry's fighting innovation to the bitter end.
Sounds familiar (Score:4, Interesting)
Now where have I heard that before... Oh, that's right. SCO. And look where they're at...
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:3, Interesting)
Shared Folder? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, the other problem they have is that even when they do make good gestures, many in the IT industry still see them as dicks. Can't please everyone, I suppose...
Heh (Score:3, Interesting)
The more I read things like this though, the more it seems the downfall of such companies could actually happen. I kinda like it, too. It rumbles in my belly...
Re:Shared Folder? (Score:3, Interesting)
Any letter drive under Windows. [google.com]
Re:Trade Associations Gone Wild! (Score:5, Interesting)
The inference people here seem to be drawing (that the labels are in trouble because of the lawsuits) resonates well -- we want to believe that kind of justice works in the market -- but really it has the cause and effect reversed. Sales dropped first, then the law suits started.
Now, the thesis is correct in so far as "sue the customer" is not a productive response to an adverse market. They continue to spiral not because they file the lawsuits, but because meanwhile they do nothing to address the orignal failure of their position in the market.
The "ripping mp3s is unauthorized" angle is FUD all around, though. FUD on the RIAA for using that wording in the first place (yes it's unauthorized, in the same sense that I'm not authorizing you to disagree with my post), and FUD on everyone who cites this as the moment where the RIAA calls all users thieves.
Now, sure, the bad press from the lawsuits doesn't help the RIAA... among the small part of the market that sees what's going on and cares. Don't get me wrong, I'm among that small part of the market (not anti-copyright, not convinced that everything the RIAA says is wrong, but on the whole opposed to their actions over the past few years); but don't be fooled into thinking that slashdot is the world.
As to the investment point of view... yeah, to a point, I wouldn't want to be putting money behind the major labels right now. But Sony? What would be the total impact on Sony if their record label arm spun off or died out completely?
Oh no! My money! (Score:2, Interesting)
The **AA can't afford any more attention like this (Score:5, Interesting)
My in-laws really don't care about the **AA and their ways, CDs and DVDs are JUST TOO EXPENSIVE. Never mind the lawsuits, their crap products are priced way out of order.
Time to start ePhoenix records I think....
Incorrect (Score:1, Interesting)
Here is what the RIAA's lawyer wrote in a supplemental summary judgement brief that ignited this firestorm and has been grossly misinterpreted by "pundits" on the net:
"Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs' recording into the compressed
they are no longer the authorized copies distributed by Plaintiffs."
This is a pretty unequivocal statement. If you make your personal copies available for distribution, they are no longer your personal copies since distribution is not the purpose, right, or intention for maintaining personal copies .
Here is what the Judge wrote in granting summary judgment:
"However, the question is not whether Howell owned legitimate copies of
some of the sound recordings on CD, but instead whether he distributed copies of the
recordings without authorization. Howell's right to use for personal enjoyment copyrighted
works on CDs he purchased does not confer a right to distribute those works to others
without Plaintiffs' authorization. 17 U.S.C. 106(3). As he admitted that the sound
recordings were "being shared by [his] Kazaa account," Howell is liable for distributing them
in violation of the recording companies' exclusive right."
i would like to suggest something unPC (Score:3, Interesting)
we all talk about "embracing new models", and anger at the industry for seeing napster and fighting them tooth and nail, rather than changing their business model. we yell at the music industry for not using the internet to their advantage... well what if the suits are right? there is no advantage in the internet. that it's simply death for them?
of course there is still money in concerts and movie theatres, those are real world venues. also advertising plugs. but everything that goes on media: movies, music, maybe there really is nothing but a black hole of no cash for the music and movie industries
not that the industries can do anything about it
and copyright of course means shit: it's simply unenforceable. you can trap a few scurrying mice here and there and extract a few pennies from soccer moms and college kids, but everyone will trade anyways, with just more and more bulletproof protocols and apps
not that i'm worried or complaining about this new world. one music exec assholes financial riches gone means our cultural riches greatly improved. there's more than one way to measure richness than just cash in the bank
it's a wonderful new world in fact
long live the death of the music and movie industries
this is really wonderful
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Interesting)
The record companies are a 20th century business that is rendered obsolete by the internet.
-jcr
Re:Heh (Score:3, Interesting)
The long-play was attractive because a) it wasn't that much more expensive to manufacture b) generally the costs of producing it were all up front and c) the record companies could charge a lot more money for it. Unfortunately the LP (and its truly overpriced descendant the Audio CD) is a rather difficult thing to stack with good music. A good portion of the albums out there really aren't all that good. A few good single-worthy songs with less impressive filler. But from the mid 1960s until today the record album has been the major source of revenue for record companies, with singles fading away.
Re:so, what would Fool say about our Friend (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course there is. It's known as "voluntary liquidation"... If it's timed right the business owners might even still have made a profit.
Mod Parent Up... (Score:3, Interesting)
The music industry does have one advantage that tobacco doesn't - the RIAA has a sizeable menagerie of pet congresscritters on both sides of the aisle (e.g. their lead lapdog, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)).
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Interesting)
What I'm talking about is sound quality, control over content and controlling how and where the music is played, rather than the label. Those are compelling reasons to switch, the labels have for many years tossed their formerly best selling artists out in the cold when they have released a couple of poorly received albums, and frequently there's a commercial viability clause in the contracts which allows for the label to not use albums that the label doesn't like.
Unfortunately, many of the best albums I've ever heard were failures compared with the normal standards. I love everybody - Lyle Lovett, Muswell Hillbillies - The Kinks, and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! - Devo, these were really good albums by any reasonable standard, personal taste in music not withstanding, and they largely went ignored. Worse, they aren't the only albums like that to not be particularly profitable in terms of sales.
The artists that recorded those albums could have far more control these days over how they market the albums and hopefully get better sales by using those new opportunities.
Re:CD/DVD is the consumer transmission medium (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Make a modified version of the iTunes software. That version will download music from all sources and mark it as "try out". It will also allow you to publish your music on the same terms. All this would be legal.
2. "Try out" music cannot be burnt on a CD or moved to an iPod. A splash screen appears when it is played. Removing the "try out" label without paying would be criminal.
3. You can buy the music easily, and the complete money goes to the rights holders (who distribute it in a fair way, or the rights holders might be the actual musicians). The music is then marked as properly owned by you.
4. This is combined with a rating system that lets you rate the sound quality of a recording and upgrade if you find a better version somewhere else.
The only thing that is problematic is how music should be handled that cannot be identified.
Look to wedding photography (Score:4, Interesting)
I suspect musicians will go the same route. Songs will be given away as free advertising, and they'll make their money by booking performances and concerts (and selling memorabilia at such). For all practical purposes that's the way most of the RIAA-contracted musicians work anyway right now, since the studios keep 95% to over 100% (the band owes them money) of all the proceeds from song sales.
Going After Network Shares... (Score:2, Interesting)
Every windows computer is sharing everything, unless specifically disabled to NOT do so. Does the standard consumer understand this? No... Is it even instructed... NO. Does MS want you to remove the administrative shares? NO...
Every computer by default, first install... C$ is open and available. Its a share.
I strongly believe the RIAA lawyers have run out of ground to stand on.
Re:The vicious last bites of a wounded animal (Score:3, Interesting)
People who've never heard the song (Score:2, Interesting)
Do I even have to point out this was not exactly an option?
John Henry was a man who took every opportunity and did everything he could to save his family until his heart literally burst. The arguments against him basically amount to telling a poker player, "Well, you should have made sure you got yourself dealt a Royal Flush on the first try..."
Careful what we say guys, 'cause if there's a Heaven, and we make it, we'll all end up working for the likes of John Henry....