Tag: DRM

Music, movie, and software piracy is a market failure, not a legal one

This comes as no surprise. From Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law:

Trademark and copyright holders frequently characterize piracy as a legal failure, arguing that tougher laws and increased enforcement are needed to stem infringing activity. But a new global study on piracy, backed by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, comes to a different conclusion. Following several years of independent investigation in six emerging economies, the report concludes that piracy is chiefly a product of a market failure, not a legal one.

Read more about the 400-page report commissioned by the Canadian government at thestar.com .

How eBooks and e-Readers Fall Far Short of Dead Trees

eBooks have been a great thing for me- I rarely think to carry a book along with me or have a bag for carrying one, but I always have a smartphone on me, plus an iPad at times. When I was in Spain in 2009, I read a novel on my iPhone that’s over 1000 pages long in paperback form. No, a 3.5″ backlit LCD screen isn’t the nicest reading experience, but I’d like to borrow a saying from the photography world that I believe applies here:

The best way to read a book is the one you have with you.

Continue reading How eBooks and e-Readers Fall Far Short of Dead Trees

Ghosts

Just another nail in the coffin of the monster that is the modern music industry…

Ghosts I-IV

Nine Inch Nails have made the surprise release of Ghosts I-IV, a 2-CD, 36-track release. Trent Reznor has the following to say:

We’re very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.Now that we’re no longer constrained by a record label, we’ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It’s licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

Ghosts I, the first nine tracks of the album, is available free from ghosts.nin.com or on popular BitTorrent listings. The full album is available in many forms:

  • A $5 download from ghosts.nin.com, in the customer’s choice of DRM-free formats:
    • FLAC lossless
    • Apple lossless
    • LAME MP3 320Kbps
  • A $5 download from Amazon MP3

As for the music itself, I have listened to Ghosts I and it makes great ambient, non-intrusive music.

This is just one more encouraging step to see music succeed without any need for greedy labels. Like this album, Deliver Me Seven’s debut album will be available DRM-free from iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic this spring.