Category: Artists Rights Watch

Hotfile’s Loss Will be Indie Filmmakers’ Gain | Vox Indie

Ellen Seidler at Vox Indie takes a detailed look at how the recent decision in the Hot File case will effect indie filmmakers and other creators.

MPAA victory against Hotfile is a victory shared by all content creators hurt by online piracy

The best news in the fight against online piracy since Megaupload’s demise came yesterday as the MPAA annouced a big victory in their copyright infringement lawsuit against Hotfile, a cloud-based cyberlocker website known to harbor pirated movies, music, books and more. Though specific details of the court decision won’t be released for another two weeks, the judge issued a summary judgement in favor of the plaintiffs.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:
http://voxindie.org/hotfile-loses-copyright-infringement-case#sthash.WB0oxGhx.dpuf

by Trichordist Editor

How piracy is Hurting Indie Artists | ABS-CBN News

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Jackie Chavez has been trying to make it big as a singer and musician for five years now. It hasn’t been easy.

“It’s tough when you’re just doing it independently and you don’t have connections. You rely on pure talent. It’s really hard,” she mused.

Chavez released her self-titled album in the Philippines in 2011, and she’s trying to do the same in the U.S. For now, she earns her money through gigs. But she said selling her songs online through iTunes and Amazon has been especially challenging, because of piracy.

“As artists, we put our dedication and hardwork to create music. It’s so sad that they’re just going to copy it. They’re just going to pirate it,” she added.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/09/23/13/special-report-how-piracy-hurting-indie-artists

by trichordist

Google attacked by MPs over failure to curb music and film piracy | The Guardian UK

Company accused of ‘derisory’ attempts to stop many illegal downloads amid concerns over level of influence in coalition

Google will be criticised by MPs for making “derisory” attempts to curb music and film piracy and using its “perceived power and influence” at the heart of David Cameron’s government to shore up its position.

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee accused the search engine of offering the thinnest of excuses to avoid taking action against widespread piracy, a problem that the committee claimed is costing the creative industries millions of pounds in lost revenue a year.

Tory MP John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said his fellow MPs were “unimpressed by Google’s continued failure to stop directing consumers to illegal, copyright infringing material on the flimsy excuse that some of the sites may also host some legal content. The continuing promotion of illegal content through search engines is simply unacceptable, and efforts to stop it have so far been derisory.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/26/google-mps-music-film-piracy

by Trichordist Editor

Kim Dotcom slammed as ‘chubby Che Guevara’ at music body the BPI’s annual general meeting | The Gaurdian UK

We’ve recently posted about the number of artists speaking out about being exploited by internet corporations. Here are some recent rumblings from across the pond…

Former Longpigs star and current co-CEO of Featured Artists Coalition Crispin Hunt calls for labels to reveal Megaupload mogul ‘as the self-interested privateer that he is’

“No artist with anything worth saying wants to live in a medieval world of cottage industry that Kim Dotcom and co prescribe, retraining as a plumber in the day and making bedroom albums, uploaded to an ocean of mediocrity along with the 10,000 other works of genius uploaded to SoundCloud every day, eking a living from selling CDs and t-shirts at poorly-attended gigs, peopled by an audience of well-wishing friends, who all crowdfunded their mates’ albums, exhausted at the choice of 30 gigs a night to see in Norwich alone, and bored by the endless tours of ageing dads on stage who would much rather be settled down watching Later with the kids than donning Paul Weller-style Indie Man Hair and flogging around the toilets of Britain in a splitter, whilst some kid rips the life-work of their youth from HulkShare because he wants to spend his money on Gran Turismo 25.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GUARDIAN UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/kim-dotcom-crispin-hunt-piracy-bpi

by Trichordist Editor

Franz Ferdinand call on David Cameron for Help | The Independnet UK

Franz Ferdinand’s 2004 debut album sold 3.6 million copies worldwide, including 1.27 million in the UK alone. Their fourth release, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, although critically well-received entered the charts at number 6, selling fewer than 10,000 copies. The decline is in line with a global slump in album sales over the past seven years, which has particularly afflicted guitar bands.

Kapranos added: “I saw an old photograph where all the women were working in a factory pressing up copies of Rubber Soul and putting them into sleeves. (The image of workers producing The Beatles’ album was taken at EMI’s Hayes pressing plaint in 1965). This music industry in the UK in the past has supported so many people’s careers and livelihoods. Nowadays it feels like people don’t give a s***. That’s not cool.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/do-you-want-to-save-the-music-industry-franz-ferdinand-call-on-david-cameron-for-help-8809231.html

by trichordist

The Lie is Falling – Dr. Price sizes the Piracy Universe | Illusion Of More

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch (Paul Newman) sits astride his horse outside the same boxcar of the same train he’s successfully robbed over and over.  Frustrated by the railroad owner’s ceaseless but futile attempts to thwart the hold-ups, Butch proclaims, “If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him!”  Of course it isn’t true, is it?  Neither the character nor probably the real Butch Cassidy would likely have given up the life he knew for something as boring as just money.

If you wanted to watch this classic film directed by George Roy Hill right now, you could do so on Netflix or Amazon Prime or rent it from iTunes for four bucks. None of these innovations existed just a few years ago, and those who have repeatedly insisted that they “only use pirate sites because affordable, flexible, online alternatives don’t exist” are starting to sound a little dumb.  This is especially true as of yesterday, with the release of a new report by Dr. David Price of London-based NetNames, entitled Sizing the piracy universe.

READ THE FULL POST AT THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
http://illusionofmore.com/piracy_universe/

by Trichordist Editor

Search Engines = G.P.S. for Online Piracy | Vox Indie

More great work from VoxIndie!

I don’t need a study to prove that search engines are an integral force in fueling online piracy, but since the piracy debate is awash in dueling studies I’ll happily chime in on the subject again.

Last week Google published a report–a characteristically self-congratulatory piece of fluff–declaring themselves to be a leader  in the fight against piracy and that took great pains to deny the significance of “search” in maintaining the online pirate economy.  The report repeated claims made in a recent study (published by a consortium of tech giants including Google) that it’s poor SEO techniques that are the problem–not search engines.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:

by Trichordist Editor

Online Piracy of Entertainment Content Keeps Soaring | The Los Angeles Times

The amount of Internet bandwidth used to illegally download movies, TV shows, music, books and video games has jumped 160% since 2010, a study says.

Despite the growth of Netflix, Amazon.com and other legal channels for watching entertainment online, the volume of pirated movies, TV shows, music, books and video games online continues to grow at a rapid pace.

The amount of bandwidth used for copyright infringement in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific has grown nearly 160% from 2010 to 2012, accounting for 24% of total Internet bandwidth, according to a study from NetNames, the British brand protection firm.

At the same time, the number of people engaged in copyright infringement has grown dramatically too. In January2013, 327 million unique users illegally sought copyrighted content, generating 14 billion page views on websites focused on piracy, up 10% from November 2011, according to the report.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-piracy-bandwith-20130917,0,1550997.story

by trichordist

How Google (Doesn’t) Fight Piracy | Vox Indie

Claiming to be a “leader” in the fight against piracy is Google’s first mistake

This past week Google issued a report, “How Google Fights Piracy,” in which the tech giant attempts to explain what a great job it’s doing leading battle against online piracy. After reading it I think a more accurate title would be “Why Google Shouldn’t Have to Fight Piracy Because it Offers so Much Other Good Stuff.”

In an effort to burnish their tarnished image, the authors resort to repeating well-worn and disingenuous Google-spawned memes (which I’ve repeatedly deconstructed on this blog). These include:

* YouTube makes money for artists so there’s no need to provide a transparent accounting

* DMCA abuse is a considerable problem Search is “not a major driver of traffic to pirate sites”

* Google is committed to “rooting out and ejecting rogue sites” from AdSense

* Google quickly and efficiently terminates Blogger websites that feature pirated content

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://voxindie.org/how-google-does-not-fight-piracy

by trichordist

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN: ‘The Music Industry Died Because Of The Piracy’

More and more artists, across more and more genres are recognizing the truth of the last decade. Musicians are more exploited and less empowered.

Classic Rock Revisited: The Internet changed a lot for the industry; piracy has certainly had a hand in changing the game. Do you think that piracy can be beneficial to some of those bands starting out? How has it affected you?

Yngwie: How could it possibly be positive? If you go into a store and you see a car that you like, you can’t just drive off with it. The cost and the blood and sweat and tears that go into making music is the same thing, it’s not free. Try telling the engineer and the producer that they have to work for free. It’s utterly bizarre. It’s like just going into a store and taking things off the shelves. It’s stealing. The reason there are no bands coming out now is that the money that was once there is not there anymore. So what happened was, in essence, by pirating music, you kill the music industry. The music industry died because of the piracy, and now all the fans will have no new music. Isn’t that wonderful? It’s a direct consequence of that.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT:
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/yngwie-malmsteen-the-music-industry-died-because-of-the-piracy/#1OZMq3k6ja5r60fI.99

by trichordist