AfterDawn: News

Sony BMG looking to cash in off P2P

Sony BMG is in talks with P2P Company Grokster about the prospect of a legit P2P service. The new P2P services would be "label friendly" and would also feature some form of DRM protection to protect label owned music. The service has been given the name Mashboxxx but it may not be called that because some clever person has already grabbed it, on October 29th. It seems the network will block some files from being shared but will allow others to be shared freely. Some programmed DRM rules could put restrictions on some things like CD burning, how many devices you could copy a protected file to and even how many times a file can be played. It seems likely that these extra features would require some form of payment.

So to any readers it may seem like a good enough idea by Sony BMG and Grokster as a way to form a legit P2P service and a new way of purchasing music. However, if you look at it from other ways, you have to become skeptical. What if this is only attempts by Song BMG to even further blacken the name of other major P2P networks like eDonkey? Consider what could happen if Sony BMG creates this P2P network then tell a court that they have proven DRM on P2P services works; would the other major networks be ordered to implement their own protections, or even be shut down? In my opinion, this new "P2P service" is another attempt to keep mainstream music dominant in today’s music industry.



Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 1 Nov 2004 8:29

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• 6 comments

• Nephilim

  Whoopee. Another lame DRM'ed music service.

  1.11.2004 12:16 #1

• A_Klingon

  This is just another one of the many latest examples of how major-label concerns are covertly admitting that:
  
  a) P2P works.
  b) P2P has always worked.
  c) If you can't beat 'em , join 'em.
  
  Despite the obsessive, horrific measures taken by the insufferably disadvantaged RIAA in rampantly suing everybody and everything in it's P2P path, P2P continues to Live long and prosper. [quote from 'Spock']
  
  People (downloaders) aren't stupid. No amount of lawsuits foisted on teenagers, college students, dogs, cats and pet fish ever did or ever will stop free, mainstream P2P downloading, and NO amount of advertising, hype, freebie giveaways, lame promises and other corporate bulls--- will ever change that fact. WE already knew it. The music bizz knew it all along too - they just prayed you weren't paying attention.
  
  And so now, finally throwing in the towel, come the inevitable "alternative" offers from the music bizz, which right now is so quagmired in financial losses it's not even funny, orchestrated to 'woo' you (separate you from as much discretionary spending cash as humanly possible), even though these services are a mere pathetic shadow of the software everybody already has at their fingertips.
  
  And From the rapidly-sinking mainstream music-bizz's point of view, why not? The various P2P search-&-download engines have been in place for a long long time. In my own experience, the free P2P services have always worked more simply, more cleanly, more efficiently, and more reliably than the multiple, glitch-laden paid services I've tried, with their added baggage, permissions, account setups, software installations, licensing, internal downloading "managers", user-restrictions and other bloated baggage one must use to access their various flawed systems.
  
  The bottom line still exists - DRM, any form of DRM - S*U*C*K*S. Period. Don't talk to me about protecting the artist's rights - musician's "rights" are the LAST thing on the Label's minds, and have been systematically abused and beaten-to-death by the RIAA itself for years unknown.
  
  Today's musicians are far better off IMHO without the RIA, RIAA, and other member organizations. The RIAA itself is slowly dying of a fatal cancer it justly deserves.
  
  I routinely avoid these 'noo-&-improoved' and soon-to-be services like the plague, which is exactly what they are. You and I need DRM fouling up our lives about as much as we need another hole in the head.
  
  Bye-bye Mainstream Music Bizz, it's been 'nice' [not] knowing ya. Your unsatiable greed has come back full circle to bite you in your overbloated asses.
  
  [Pink Floyd]: (Discourse between RIAA affiliates and upcoming musicians)...
  
  Come in here dear boy, have a cigar; you're gonna go far.....
  
  Everybody's just green... they haven't seen the charts..... it's a hellava start - it could be made into a monster, if we all pull together as a team.
  
  We're so happy we can hardly count. [$$$]
  
  ...And did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it "Riding The Gravy Train"....
  
  -- Klingy --

  1.11.2004 23:47 #2

• sly_61019

  DRM??? OK, i made a disc from itunes, what is stopping me from making copies of my burned disc?

  2.11.2004 22:40 #3

• Soulreave

  nothing should stop you from making copies since u legally own the mp3. it falls under "fairuse"

  3.11.2004 04:35 #4

• A_Klingon

  And that's the wisest thing you can possibly do, Sly: Always make a glitch-free, standalone music CD-R of your paid, downloaded itunes as quickly as possible, prior to any - inevitable - HDD failure, OS crash, viral infection, or other problem.
  
  Even if you just burn them to a re-writeable disc for now, please do so. Red Book (standard) music cds will ensure (and secure) your monetary investment permanently, without fear of future loss.
  
  As sexy and perhaps even useful as Apple's portable iPod players are, I would never, never permanently entrust my music to them. Making quick, accurate copies of your downloaded songs on standard, very inexpensive cdrs will permanently flush any and all DRM down the toilet where it belongs.
  
  

  4.11.2004 00:34 #5

• JovanN

  SPAM removed

  30.10.2009 02:22 #6