05 October 2007

The Music Label Business Model and Copyright

What is wrong with this picture?

Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, noted [in court testimony] that music labels make no money on touring, radio, or merchandise, which leaves the company particularly exposed to the negative effects of file-sharing.


Maybe there's something wrong with your business model if you don't make any money off most of the things that you do.

She also noted that you can steal a record you bought, even when you don't share it:

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'"


This isn't the "living law":

[T]he majority of music on portable music players like the iPod comes from sources other than download services. For most people, that music is comprised primarily of songs "ripped" from CD collections to MP3 or some other comparable format. Indeed, most portable music players comes with software (like iTunes) which is designed to facilitate the easy ripping of CDs. According to Pariser's view, this is stealing.


Content-related industries expressed the same view in the 2006 tyriennial review of the effectiveness of the DMCA.

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