The music war… over, or just a truce?
Suing your own customers for always seemed to be a strange tactic by an industry on the ropes, but just before Christmas, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) announced that it would stop suing individual customers caught downloading (via Lessig).
It’s a tactic that wasn’t working, and clearly turning public opinion against them; PR stories of how multinational companies are suing low-income single mothers whose thirteen year old children have downloaded music is never a good thing for a brand. Plus, at what level do you need to sue to put people off; 10% of downloaders? 20%? 50%? None of it has been helping album sales…
Instead, though, the RIAA have started asking ISPs to warn, then eventually cut off, persistent file sharers. Whether that works is anyone’s guess; I’d have thought the innovative nature of filesharers will mean they soon develop ways to get around the tracking by an ISP…
…which leaves the industry in need, as ever, of a new business model; the Music Industry Manifesto gives a brilliant overview of the new principles behind music in the 21st century… building any sort of business model in music now can’t ignore these.
I wonder what will happen to all cases still going through the courts though? Or indeed anyone already found guilty and fined? I’d ask for my money back, if I were them…
Full article here, on the Wall Street Journal.
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