Good Morning Mormon Church UK!
Unless I’m reading this html wrong it looks like adsense (google) helped serve your ad onto a Pirate Site against a film called “Sex of the Angels.” And this film is about?… well maybe you should watch it. Let’s just say it looks like there is some “plurality” involved. Pretty sure you didn’t intend this!
Worth repeating here from Digital Music News by Helienne Lindvall.
Lately, BitTorrent, Inc. has made a concerted effort to appear “legit”, courting both artists and their managers. It’s even managed to become a “tech partner” of the UK Music Managers Forum. But is partnering with BitTorrent – and its uTorrent client – really a good idea for artists?
READ THE FULL POST HERE AT DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS:
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/20130529bittorrentjustsaynoearbud
Last night in London, Google’s head of EU policy Theo Bertram participated in a debate with David Lowery and some others. You can read MuscAlly’s live blog about it here.
More about this later, but it’s important to note that Mr. Bertram speaking for Google came up with a brilliant idea for how to “white list” bad sites for advertisers:
Bertram said that it’s theoretically possible to have a dynamic list of the 500 top piracy sites, for use by brands when stipulating where their ads should appear – or for legal purposes.
“It’s not Google’s job to go around the web to declare whether sites are legal or illegal [false premise, no one asked them to do that], but if Coca-Cola comes to us and says here’s a list of 500 dynamic sites, and we don’t want you to place ads on those… that’s a slightly different…
View original post 89 more words
Quincy Jones is a living legend. We find it interesting that despite the common insights of some of the most respected artists, songwriters, performers and producers there are still those who claim musicians are better off in the post-internet world, and that piracy has not negatively effected them. Quincy disagrees, and rightfully so.
Q: How have you adapted over the years to the way the industry has changed?
A: The industry doesn’t change your production – you still do what you believe in. What’s sad is that there is 98 percent music piracy everywhere on the planet. It’s just terrible.
What if these kids (who download music illegally) worked for me for two months and then I said, “I’m not going to pay you.” That’s just not right.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/weblogs/atlanta-music-scene/2013/may/21/quincy-jones-talks-music-legacy-and-why-he-likes-l/
A full transcript of the debate is available at Music Ally. Here’s the set up…
The topic of ad-funded piracy has been increasingly prominent in recent months, with musician David Lowery, Beggars Group founder Martin Mills, music industry body the BPI and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Innovation Lab (among others) questioning why so many big brands’ ads appear on sites that are engaged in piracy.
Google agrees with David that Music Piracy is a for profit business…
Google’s Theo Bertram gave his company’s view, suggesting that he agreed with most of what Lowery had said. “It does seem to me to be an entirely sensible way to tackle piracy… most people doing piracy are not some guy in his bedroom altruistically sharing music with his friends. It’s people making money out of piracy, and it’s big business: some of these sites have 2m visitors regularly, and they’re not doing a bad business from advertising.”
READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT AT MUSIC ALLY:
http://musically.com/2013/05/28/live-google-david-lowery-and-the-bpi-talk-ad-funded-piracy/
Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains talks about another important issue about music piracy that effects both the band and it’s fans, the inability to safely share new material.
But with the advent of the Internet and sharing and shit going everywhere, you can’t do that anymore. We really haven’t been playing anything off the new record that’s not out yet.
We used to play new stuff all of the time. When we were touring ‘Facelift,’ we probably played half of ‘Dirt’ on the end of that tour. It’s a cool thing to be able to do, but you hardly have any control over your own music.
We’d rather wait until you get the best quality version of what we created before you start getting shitty iPhone versions from crappy gigs.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/jerry_cantrell_talks_music_piracy
BUY THE DEVIL PUT DINOSAURS HERE AT ITUNES:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-devil-put-dinosaurs-here/id622941441
Bit Torrent creator Bram Cohen is either one of the most misinformed people on earth, or one of the most intellectually dishonest… and here’s why… Remember this one?
BitTorrent: Bram Cohen Says ‘I commit digital piracy’?
I build systems to disseminate information, commit digital piracy, synthesize drugs, maintain untrusted contacts, purchase anonymously, and secure machines and homes. I release my code and writings freely, and publish all of my ideas early to make them unpatentable.
Uhmmmm…. So why this is surprising?
Only 0.3% of files on BitTorrent confirmed to be legal | Ars Technica
This report echoes similar results out of Princeton that were published earlier this year. Though the top categories were slightly different—Princeton found that movies and TV were the most popular, while music fell behind games/software, pornography, and unclassifiable files—that study found that all of the movie, TV, and music content being shared was indeed infringing.
Overall, Princeton said that 99 percent of the content on BitTorrent was illegal.
Oh and that Princeton Study…
BitTorrent census: about 99% of files copyright infringing | Ars Technica
It has never been a secret that the majority of files being shared over BitTorrent are movies and music that are likely being shared illegally.
But wait there’s more…
Census of Files Available via BitTorrent
Overall, we classified ten of the 1021 files, or approximately 1%, as likely non-infringing, This result should be interpreted with caution, as we may have missed some non-infringing files, and our sample is of files available, not files actually downloaded.
Still, the result suggests strongly that copyright infringement is widespread among BitTorrent users.
Fast forward to 2012…
Keen On… Bram Cohen: Has BitTorrent Killed The Music Industry?
His denial was categorical. Not only did Bram deny any role in shrinking the sale of recorded music, but he actually disputed that the music industry is in decline, claiming “data” showed it to be in a quite healthy state.
Well Bram, you might want to look at this, and this…
and… as another #SFMusicTech begins BitTorrent is one of the lead sponsors… To be fair, SFMusicTech get’s to run it’s event and do business with whom it chooses. Unfortunately musicians are not given the same choice of having their work “torrented.” So how about a little honesty?
This conversation is really just about consent and compensation. Two very simple fundamental principles that pretty much everyone can agree are the foundations of not just ethical business practices, but also the basis for a fair and just society.
Music Tech Policy explores the question, “Can 5 Billion Ads Served a Month Be Wrong”:
MTP : BitTorrent Profits from Piracy By Serving Ads To UTorrent Client
We highly recommend not just reading this post at MTP, but also don’t miss the hyperlinks!
RELATED:
Only 0.3% of files on BitTorrent confirmed to be legal | Ars TechnicaThis report echoes similar results out of Princeton that were published earlier this year. Though the top categories were slightly different—Princeton found that movies and TV were the most popular, while music fell behind games/software, pornography, and unclassifiable files—that study found that all of the movie, TV, and music content being shared was indeed infringing. Overall, Princeton said that 99 percent of the content on BitTorrent was illegal.
As galling as it may be, About.com actually has a post called “The Best Torrent Downloading Software 2013.” And who is the winner of the best client to use for stealing music and movies?
“Here they are: the most popular ‘music pirate’ downloading software for torrent file sharing. This list is compiled from hundreds of user comments and reader suggestions. Currently, the two most popular tools are uTorrent and Tixati. But definitely look at all the choices below for yourself.”
So what is “uTorrent”? Why the handy application from SF Music Tech sponsor Bit Torrent, Inc. of course. uTorrent has been downloaded over 20 million times from download.com alone, so you won’t be surprised to hear that the ad supported application servesover 5 billion ads a month.
According to Torrentfreak:
Based on the stats reported by BitTorrent, the uTorrent client serves more than five billion ads…
View original post 899 more words
Stop me, oh uh, stop me, if you think you’ve heard this one before…
The advertising industry took a major step Thursday in fighting rogue websites that steal copyrighted material and sell counterfeit goods. To cut off the financial support that keeps rogue sites alive, the nation’s two major ad industry associations recommended agencies and marketers take steps to keep brands’ ads off those sites.
While the debate remains contentious, there has been universal agreement that the key to shutting down rogue websites was to cut off the money that keeps them alive.
Recognizing advertising was the first line of attack, GroupM last year became the first ad shop to adopt a comprehensive anti-piracy policy, compiling last summer an updatable black list of some 2,000 websites that are cut off from ads from blue-chip clients like Ford, AT&T, Unilever and Dell.
READ THE ABOVE FULL ARTICLE HERE AT ADWEEK:
http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/ad-industry-takes-major-step-fight-online-piracy-140014
So the above is from May 3, 2013… and here’s an insightful article below from the advertising trade publication CLICKZ.COM on April 18, 2011… Yes, 2011…
What is the purpose of me bringing this up? To raise awareness and perhaps ask publicly that those involved in this industry become better corporate citizens. If you are running one of those exchanges or networks and feel that it’s only a “transparency” issue, please consider that you are funding not only these websites but organized criminal organizations that run them.
This is not a victimless crime, but instead one that is affecting musicians, programmers, artists, designers – and businesses of all sizes.
As an industry, here are some suggestions of what we can do:
1. Ensure every network that you work with has a no-warez/piracy/torrent policy. Ask around about the networks that do support this. Even if they claim that your ads aren’t going on there, be aware that many of these networks aren’t honest.
2. Put pressure on exchanges that you work with to ensure no network that has this type of inventory is on that exchange. If a few agencies call the exchanges and make it clear they won’t buy media until they are assured these sites are completely off the exchange, then maybe those in charge will consider it a serious issue.
3. Refuse to pay networks that you discover violate this policy and show your advertisements on those sites. Make it clear that you find this behavior not only illegal, but unacceptable for your agency, network, or product.
YOU CAN READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE (FROM 2011) AT CLICKZ:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2041366/advertising-networks-supporting-piracy
Accountability?
Responsibility?
Transparency?
Anyone?
Hello?
“This says It all”
I was supposed to speak at the SF Music Tech Summit Feb 19th 2013. A few days before my scheduled appearance I received a call from SF Music Tech and Fututre of Music Coalition co-founder Brian Zisk explaining that I would not be allowed to speak because I tweeted/blogged the above picture with the following caption “this says it all.” Further he noted that “certain sponsors” would not “appreciate” me speaking at this event.
I love the hypocrisy of the Silicon Valley. They are all for free speech until they aren’t.
The fundamental American right is Free Speech. SF Music Tech (and Silicon Valley in general) do not really respect this right. Especially when it begins to interfere with their bottom line.
So what do you say we just end the charade? SF Music Tech Summit is biased against creators/musicians and their rights. It’s a pro-tech industry event. It’s held in the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco. Because it is a giant Kabuki.
Three times a year you find Tech Industry “entrepreneurs” who’ve never turned a profit “debate” un-elected artists rights advocates who as it turns out work for opaque 501C foundations and organizations that are funded by technology companies like Google.
If it’s not clear I’m talking about you, Future of Music Coalition and Cash Music. Sorry guys/gals you had your chance to do the right thing and speak out publicly against me being banned and you didn’t. That makes you at best quislings and at worst shills.
SF Music Tech and Brian Zisk have every right to do whatever they want with their #SFMUSICTECH summit but I just ask them to stop pretending it reperesents anything other than the technologists that wish to exploit artists.
Have a good SF Music Tech. I’ll be off touring the UK.
The Trichordist 
You must be logged in to post a comment.