Beat It?

Swedish lawyer Mikael Pawlo on the recording industry v the Internet:-

The music industry has so far devoted its talent towards banning the new technology. Very little has been done to embrace the Internet and make use of its benefits. Real One, powered by Musicnet, is one effort at introducing music industry-driven legal distribution of music. Warner Brothers, BMG, EMI, Arista and Virgin all joined the initiative, which made more than 75.000 songs available for download on the release. However, the use of the songs was strictly regulated through a digital rights management scheme demanding online validation of songs on every play plus the need to repurchase songs every other month in order to keep them on the hard-drive. When the music industry’s alternative is worse than Kazaa and also cost money, why should the user then submit to the worse technology?

In conclusion, RIAA and its European equivalents are wrong in trying to ban the Internet distribution. The Internet may pose both possibilities and threats and the music industry should not just focus on the bad things. Kazaa and its likes are equally wrong in profiting from the efforts of other in a blantantly piggy-backing way. Personally I find a combination of compulsory licenses and new business methods the most feasible way for the music industry, balancing the need for copyright proprietors to be rewarded for their work, fair use for the users and need to propagate new technology and innovation. It is time to reframe the debate and try to find constructive solutions that all parties benefit from, including the users. Time will tell if this is a naive assumption or not. The Internet is a new kid on the music industry’s block. Let’s try to make friends with him instead of beating him up.