Comments on: Cloud Music Pioneer Glad Amazon Has Joined the Party

By: aep528

aep528 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:49:53 +0000

Of course this article and your arguments overlook one EXTREMELY important point – what if I utilize a cloud service as my ONLY source of digital content? Then the counterfeit argument is completely baseless because my ONLY copy of the file is the one in the cloud.

Actually, the counterfeit argument is already completely baseless, thanks to the music industry itself. Why? Because I have two LEGAL copies of every song I’ve purchased. One on my PC, and one synced to my mobile device, through LEGALLY PURCHASED AND MUSIC INDUSTRY APPROVED SOFTWARE AND DEVICES, iTunes and iPod in this case.

Also, since you felt the need to be funny with your definition of piracy, copies of music files are not counterfeit since they are not an imitation or false representation of the original, THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL.

By: Emmett

Emmett — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:05:27 +0000

Thanks kwyjibo for your thoughtful and good-faith response.

No wonder you and others think that counterfeiting is uncontrollable and you might as well give up. The way the industry has gone about trying to minimize counterfeiting has been wrong-headed. This is because every application or service has been using a method which either ignores counterfeits or sometimes even encourages its use, Amazon Cloud Player being this biggest offender so far, that I can see. (BTW it has nothing to do with so-called “piracy”, it is *counterfeit*. It has nothing to do with guys with eye patches and swords or anything in that image.) The problem is simply that when you introduce counterfeits into the stream of commerce, and you don’t control them, in fact you ignore them, you have a huge problem and you always will have that problem until you address it.

Now, to the solution. User registration and verification is no more difficult than entering your user ID and password. You do that for YouTube everyday. Is that DRM? As soon as you log into YouTube, YouTube knows who you are, what videos you’ve uploaded, gives you access to them to change them, what comments you’ve made, etc. Why is this a problem? The DCE works exactly the same way. No more or no less intrusive.

DRM is something entirely different. DRM refers to impregnating a “lock and key” on the disc itself or in the download stream. Does any of this strike you as DRM?

>>Do you honestly envisage the tech incumbents allowing that? Amazon clearly don’t care.

You think the “tech incumbents” won’t do that? How can you possibly know that? Would you invest in say, Amazon, if they announced they were going to persist in being a rogue player and not cooperate with the system that all labels, artists, publishers, used record stores, eBay, Redbox, Netflix, movie studios, book publishers, public libraries, had agreed to use in order to solve the monetization problem? How much future is there in that? Did you invest in Limewire?

If Amazon “doesn’t care” it is because they have not been made to care. They have not been made to care because all the players on all sides are greedy. The record labels want advances to get themselves through the next quarter, punters want their free music to be forward compatible with every new service that comes down the pipe. Nasrrow, short-term, self-interested thinking. No one wants to solve the problem.

But make no mistake, we are at a crossroads. To take no action on Amazon and to allow more cloud services without verification will remove the value of the copyright catalog forever. And you can tell the spouses of everyone on this list the good news that now that they are freed from trying to sell music they can start making money off of live performances and t-shirt sales:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_in_rock_and_roll

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:53:19 +0000

I am incredibly impressed with Michael Robertson. He is persistent: he’s been offering cloud music before there was a cloud. He has perspective: if Amazon wins, because it was only a decade or so late to the party (rather than even later, as in the case of Apple and Google), then so be it.

Andrew, using Amazon Cloud Player right now. If you’re curious: Mountain Goats; All Eternals Deck, which is $5 on Amazon right now, and the purchase gets extra Cloud Drive space.

Yes, I think that owning a store as well as a cloud player is a strong combination:
http://changingway.org/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-drive-and-player/

By: kwyjibo

kwyjibo — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:44:01 +0000

The exchange idea isn’t interesting because no one is willing to lock up their music in some cloud DRM system.

DRM can work, because easy can compete with free, as can be seen in app stores and services like Steam. The exchange idea seems to rely on every single player/service/device to verify user and content credentials every time media is accessed. Do you honestly envisage the tech incumbents allowing that? Amazon clearly don’t care.

If you offer the user the choice between verification/immobilization and piracy, they’ll choose piracy every time. That piracy door is not one that you’ll be able to close.

By: Charbax

Charbax — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:23:33 +0000

Hum, there are 2 billion people on the web, you don’t think there is enough users to use more than just 1 or 2 cloud services? Amazon, Google, Apple joining the party is excellent news for MP3tunes, that means consumers will get to learn about the idea, and the more people learn about it, the more demand, so Mp3tunes is likely to double, triple or quadruple their number of subscribers.

By: don

don — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:40:50 +0000

This entire discussion is bull feathers since my music can be where I want it to be. So-called record companies need to get over the fact that bought music belongs to the buyer, not to them. I don’t particularly like this idea because of the invasive nature of having everyone else in the same cloud and able to get into whatever I may have there.

By: Emmett

Emmett — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:14:43 +0000

That you think it has anything to do with Homeland Security proves u dont understand a single word of it. and thanks for your vote of confidence on the patent system. I am guessing you don’t have much regard for the copyright system either.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:45:59 +0000

The Exchange idea isn’t interesting if you’re not a member of Homeland Security and you don’t have a patent pending.

How about let people store their files wherever they want to, and exempt Amazon and others (under Digital Millenium something-or-other) from primary liability for what their users store with them?

By: Emmett

Emmett — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:12:30 +0000

Credit Robertson with humility and proper perspective. He had the wrong method and knows it now … as does Amazon. Neither thwart piracy nor monetize on behalf of all parties. The right method is to form a participatory Exchange. Add verification with immobilization and .. voila.
See here for more info:
http://digitalcontentexchange.blogspot.com/2011/03/amazon-challenge-music-industry-at.html
(The daily diary of the Digital Content Exchange (pat pendg. 10591416)).

By: hahnchen

hahnchen — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:01:39 +0000

I don’t know the current status of the case, but EMI are also suing Robertson personally for mp3tunes, totally disgusting.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091019/1848596602.shtml

It’s great that Terrafirma lost control of EMI. Let’s hope they lose, they definitely deserve to.