Intro!

The act of copying, illegally downloading and selling music and movies is called Piracy. The introduction of the Internet and consequently file sharing sites has made it easier for people to access and download (for free) music and movies. In this blog I want to look at views expressed by anti Piracy and pro piracy supporters alike, look at ways to curb the amount of piracy conducted around the world and help make Society aware of the effects of Piracy in New Zealand and around the World.......

Itunes & Limewire

Its good to see time are changing.....

Slowly....

Itunes has been in most of our lives for a while now and has been my main source of music because of its vast collection and its legality. But now there is a new kid on the block that is (in my opinion) just as good and cheaper. The new Limewire Store is the new (legal) version of the famous original Limewire file sharing website. On Itunes a simple song costs $1.79 in New Zealand, but on the new Limewire Store, users sign up and can buy 10 songs for as little as $5 depending on the songs.

The CEO of of Limewire George Searle thinks he is on to a good thing and has just signed a partnership with Comedy Central to provide Comedy content to his store's users and is confident on building on that, saying: "The total number of songs available in the LimeWire Store is now over two million, and greater success will attract further partnerships."

I think he is on to a good thing! Nothing makes an industry better and more benificial to the consumer than competition. Although the Limewire Store is nowhere near as big as Itunes it is providing an option for the consumer and I think that Steve Jobs and the rest of his Apple buffins should be on their toes.

Go With The Flow!!

It is clear to see that the music industry is in a transition period. Just like the change from Vinyl to Cassette and then from Cassette to CD, the way we listen to music is changing. As a global society we are moving with the times and the music industry is now caught up in our whirlpool of change.

In this current digital age consumers demand a digital format so they can feed their Computers and Ipods with MP3’s and other files. The physical albums in CD and vinyl format are slowly becoming a thing of the past. The music industry needs to find ways to move with this trend to stay afloat..... It needs to work with Piracy.

Piracy can be good.....

Living in this digital age we have the whole world at our fingertips (literally). We are able to hear the latest song online by the click of a button and download it with a click of another. This makes it so easy to hear new songs, artists or even genres that we have never heard before are so easy to hear online. Little known artists and indie bands are benefiting from digital downloads because it gives them a platform to launch their product for a fraction of the price it used to cost. Consumers can listen to new music online and if they like what they hear in most cases will purchase the music because they can sample it first.

Some Bands have already embraced the music download world by releasing albums on their own websites to be downloaded. Radiohead were the first major band to do this with their album In Rainbows. Fans of Radiohead were able to decide how much money they wanted to pay for the album. This “honesty box” type of system proved to be somewhat of a success and paved the way for other bands and artists to do the same.

Small steps like this are steps in the right direction... It’s one small step for artists, one giant leap for the music industry.

NZ Film Piracy

As a New Zealander I am very proud to say that we make some damn good films! In a large part thanks to Peter Jackson directing the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, but we have had many success's without his help.
With the downloading of movies for free from file sharing sites or just copying a DVD from a movie Store, we are slowly killing our lucrative little industry.

According to NZFACT (New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft) the NZ film industry lost 25 % of its potential market which equates to 70.8 million dollars. This was thanks to piracy.
Because we are a small country with very few production companies to film movies, we rely on the sale of movie tickets and DVDs to keep making movies. In recent times these sales have dwindled.

There are very few ways to police this and there have been many theorys but nothing has been implemented that can have a major effect. Education about the consequences of piracy is already being seen at the start of DVDs and TV ad campaigns will be started shortly....

I don't think this is enough...

I believe that Piracy - not just in New Zealand - has become to advanced. With the technology that is availble to the public these days it is almost imposible to stop or even slow the spread of Piracy.
I think the answer is not to work on killing piracy.. We need to make friends with it because it is here to stay. The only problem is.... somthing needs to be done so the artist and the consumer are both happy....

What happend to the CD

Since the late 90s the Music Industry as we once knew it, has been spiralling out of control. File sharing sites like Lime wire have taken over from music stores as the port of call for most consumers.

I think this really sucks!!

Gone are the days where you would pop down to your local music shop and buy the latest album. According to a Rolling Stone article on the decline of the Music Industry; over 2700 record shops have closed since 2003!!! That's in the US alone!! For me part of buying an album is to have the Physical album - be it CD or Vinyl - not a file sitting on your hard drive!! How can you show off your music collection to your friends if its all hidden in the depths of your laptop?

I remember not so long ago I would turn up to a party lugging a full CD Case!! Other party goers would do the same. Now days we bring our Ipod along to conveniently plug in!! I know what your thinking! Ipods make our lives easier because you can take your music collection anywhere and hold it in the palm of your hand... Sure.... I'm not gonna disagree, but is this the death of the music that we once knew? Is the world of CD's and Records really going to be replaced by a non tangible file on a computer?

This is happening and we are moving with the change! Even I use Itunes, although I haven't downloaded illegally..... Yet...

References

Celcius Studios. (2007). On Piracy: On Piracy & The Future of Media. Retrieved September 03, 2009, from Google Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1720068211869162779#docid=3011602580477307231

Crum, C. (2009, September 02). Lime Wire CEO Talks Music Industry & Company's Future. Retrieved September 13, 2009, from WebProNews: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/02/09/lime-wire-ceo-talks-music-industry-companys-future

Ernesto. (2006, December 18). Why Most Artists Profit from Piracy. Retrieved September 01, 2009, from Torrent Freak: http://torrentfreak.com/why-most-artists-profit-from-piracy/

Hiatt, B., & Serpick, E. (2007, June 28). The Record Industry's Decline . Retrieved September 04, 2009, from Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline/2

Itunes. (2009). What Is Itunes. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from Apple NZ: http://www.apple.com/itunes/what-is/

Lime Wire LLC. (2009). LimeWire Store Help / FAQ. Retrieved September 13, 2009, from Lime Wire Store: http://www.store.limewire.com/store/app/pages/help/Help/;jsessionid=CE03415D61DA26F0666143A00EDC9588

Mason, M. (2008). Matt Mason on The Pirate's Dilemma. Retrieved September 04, 2009, from Google Videos: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6483543718966313073#

NZFACT. (2006). Movie Piracy and Copyright Protection. Retrieved September 03, 2009, from NZFACT: http://www.nzfact.co.nz/about.html

NZFACT. (2007). Whats Being Done. Retrieved September 03, 2009, from Stop Movie Piracy: http://www.stopmoviepiracy.co.nz/beingdone.html

Radiohead. (2009). Dead Air Space. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Radiohead: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Ramesh, & Ecophilo. (2005, July 16). Piracy - Why Some Of It Is Good. Retrieved September 03, 2009, from Blogspot: http://ecophilo.blogspot.com/2005/07/piracy-why-some-of-it-is-good.html