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I don’t know how Pandora works. I just know it does. Pandora is an online music service I’m sure most of you have heard of if not used. I started using it last year and I absolutely love it. It learns what you like as you use it. You pick a single song or artist when starting up and it
For years the RIAA has put themselves up as the champions of the poor music creators whose livelihood is being stripped away by piracy. This justification has been touted for every action they have taken, from litigating against their customers, to the restriction of customers fair use. I don't think anyone was naive enough to believe that their methods were altruistic, as they were paid by and obviously working in the interests of the large music publishers. The same publishers that, unlike the smaller labels, have never had a fantastic reputation for being generous to the talent.
If this article from The Times is completely accurate a new service backed by EMI, Universal and Warner called QTrax will launch in the next 24 hrs that may show that the music industry have been taking at least some of the criticism leveled at them seriously.
In a case against an unrepresented defendant the RIAA has included a statement into the brief for summary judgment
A study in Canada has been released that proves what many (myself included) have known for years, that on average people that pirate music are more likely to buy CD’s rather than less. The study was sponsored by the Canadian government and is a bit of a slog to read, but there is already some very good analysis of it on the Web.
Reports from the Capitol v Thomas case are starting to come in with the jury awarding $220,000 to the record companies. There is no mention of an appeal yet, but one would assume this is inevitable. An interesting fact that came up in the trial was that Thomas was a very large consumer of legal music. This backs up what
If you are interested in this trial, keep an eye on Ars Technica this week. They are giving this daily coverage, the first days wrapup already posted. The beginning has been predictable, with RIAA witnesses banging on about how much piracy costs them. The defence tactic to date seems to be around questioning the methods the RIAA uses to gather