A Copyfighter’s Musings

Audible Magic is up to its old tricks, this time with a firm called Palisade Systems. It’s a system designed for ISPs to monitor all your traffic, P2P, email or otherwise. As if that wasn’t enough, read on:

“Jacobson said the identification process would not work on an encrypted network, such as is used in several newer file-swapping programs. However, the Palisade software could act to block those applications from using the network altogether, instead of blocking individual song transfers, he said. “

Hurray for the technological arms race.

Filed by Derek Slater at 9:13 pm under General news
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UPDATE: Apple has denied these rumors.

Frank points to an article that says Apple will be raising its singles prices.  Before I believe it, I’ll need some other confirimation, because Steve Jobs has denied these changes so many times and the $.99 has been a central part of their marketing campaign and value.

I do believe, of course, that the record labels are pushing for such changes.  Probably, if they’re going to get them anywhere, they’ll have to start with iTunes, the market leader; otherwise, all the other services would only help iTunes grow even more.

But why would they want this?  Sure, the temporal price discrimination has a logic, particularly given the exponential decay in sales that most records go through after release.  But will consumers stand for it?  It’s not just a matter of price points, but one of principle.  After many consumers saw the record industry finally trying to produce a reasonable alternative to P2P, it seems they’re backtracking.  That seeming unreasonableness of this playing with prices will turn many people off.

Filed by Derek Slater at 3:00 pm under General news
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Ernest explains how DRM’s control may be useful to the content industries even if it doesn’t stop piracy.  I agree entirely with his analysis, though I know some people within the industries certainly believe that it will also stop piracy.

Filed by Derek Slater at 2:51 pm under General news
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I generally agree with sentiments expressed by many others (for example, Ernest) about Janus.  I’m uncertain how much consumers really want to rent their music such that it dies when their subscription lapses; the DRM/copyright/contract behemoth (as noted by Ernest) also has some frightening implications.

At the same time, I do think Janus certainly is important to the growth of the online music stores, if they are to succeed in their current form.  There must be some interest in the subscription market, otherwise Rhapsody and Napster 2.0 wouldn’t have any subscribers. The all-you-can-listen model certainly has appeal from a pricing standpoint on the business side, because you have lower credit card costs; from the consumer side, each listen feels like it has a marginal cost of zero and, in that way, perhaps the subscription format may feel more like P2P.  One of the major barriers has been that, unlike in the pay-per-download stores, you have to pay extra to move to a portable player.  Janus removes that barrier and should provide a boost to these services.  Of course, much also depends on how the record labels choose to license such copying.

Certainly, Janus doesn’t solve all the problems facing the online music stores.  But as far as short term growth, it will help. 

Filed by Derek Slater at 2:40 pm under General news
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