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The reasons of the digital-download divide is only going to widen
:: 06 October, 2007
Even on a run-of-the-mill day, a debate over the perceived rights and wrongs surrounding digital file swapping gets readers worked up. And I mean really worked up.
But ever since the Recording Industry Association of America prevailed late Thursday in its copyright lawsuit against a 30-year-old single mom with a couple of kids, all hell has broken loose.
I'll leave it to you to debate the relative merits of the case, but there's no denying that the recording industry sometimes can be its own worst enemy. It's almost as if the industry's hired guns were on a mission to justify everything critics say is wrong about the copyright system.
Check out the comments responding to the blog authored by my News.com colleague Declan McCullagh, reporting why the jury decided Jammie Thomas of Minnesota must pay $220,000 to six of the top music labels. Here's a sampling:
"These big record companies are pure evil, with a history of doing everything they can to screw the consumer and squeeze every penny out of them, just to buy Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his pals more yachts and limos."
Or:
"I don't think P2P networks, and uploading or downloading, is stealing but (rather) more of an alternative method to acquire art for your own listening pleasure. If someone is "profiting" from downloading/uploading art, then that is stealing. How is today's digital format different from recording a vinyl record onto a cassette? For yourself or for a friend? However, back in the '70s, the RIAA didn't sue people for doing this, and EVERYBODY did it!"
That was predictable. The recording industry argues that the law is on its side. But then it's goes out and backs up its claim by suing individual music listeners. Hello? Did anyone at the RIAA consider that this may not be the best strategy to win hearts and minds? Slash and burn, yes--but this isn't the Mekong Delta, folks. I found myself closest to this poster, who argued:
Back in the '70s, everybody did it--it was no less stealing, but it was also much more difficult, and the quality typically wasn't nearly as good...If I wanted to make 50 copies for my friends, it would take hours and hours.
If I want to give 50 copies to my friends now, the e-mail group takes seconds...It's a different environment, and RIAA had to evolve in strength and ability to meet that environment...Sharing only goes so far--and it's much easier to share the property of others...Were someone to move into my garage or living room, and start taking my leftover pizza from my fridge, "share and share alike" ain't gonna be the first thing on my mind.
The last time I looked, these folks were still debating the finer points of this dispute. I don't want to get stuck in the legal weeds, but my immediate problem with the verdict is that the punishment is disproportionate to the crime. If my math is correct, we're talking up to $150,000 per willful act of infringement when the purchase price of a music download is 99 cents.
The bigger question is the absence of any consensus in this country about the proper rules of behavior governing digital downloads. When it comes to digital music, what constitutes fair use, and what constitutes theft? I know what the law says, but most people don't bother consulting the U.S. Code.
The recording industry won a controversial copyright conviction, but this is a brief chapter in a endless saga. The only safe bet to make for now is that the divide about what we ought to do will only widen.
News inside news:
A digital download (also known as a digital single or a paid digital download) is an official and legal music single available for purchase through an online store. Popular examples of online music stores that sell digital singles and albums include the iTunes Store and Napster.
Digital downloads are often encoded with DRM that restrict making additional copies of the music or play purchased songs on a playing device from a competing hardware manufacturer. For example, songs purchased from iTunes will only play on an iPod. A way to get around DRM is to burn purchased songs to a CD, then transfer them onto the computer again from the CD in the desired unprotected format. This potentially results in a loss of sound quality due to additional encoding or decoding of the music (called transcoding).
Legal music downloads have existed since 2000. Paid digital download may suffer from the development of techniques enabling the digital extraction of songs played on the radio which, although offering lower quality sound, is also legal.
Current status
United States
Legal music downloads were first compiled by Billboard in 2003, but they didn't gain mainstream acceptance in the United States until around February 2005, when digital sales for singles started to be included in the Billboard Hot 100 and other Billboard charts. In the year before, the Hot 100 chart was similar to the Hot 100 Airplay chart, because only minor CD-single sales affecting the chart. The inclusion of digital singles has immensely helped many songs chart and peak higher, including Jessica Simpson's cover of "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" which became her second-highest peaking Hot 100 single thanks to digital sales. Another example is Britney Spears's "Do Somethin'" which wasn't released as a radio single, but charted in 2005 due to top-fifty (number forty-nine) digital sales.
RIAA certification and American records
Single certifications were introduced in February 2005. Songs that sell a certain number of copies are often certified by the RIAA with the permission of the artist and the record company.
In November 2005, the record for the bestselling digital single in the United States was held by Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", which has sold over one million downloads, making it the first song to achieve diamond download status. Since then, "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter has overcome it in terms of sales to become the bestselling digital single. The highest week sales was held by "Gold Digger" by hip-hop star Kanye West. (It is now held by "Fergalicious" by Fergie when she sold 295,000 downloads one week in January, certifing her platinum in just one week.) The single beat the previous record holder, Gwen Stefani, in the week of September 8, 2005, and has sold enough copies to be certified quadruple platinum. The song also is responsible for ending Mariah Carey's fourteen week run of her come-back single, "We Belong Together". The underground dance music scene has not been left out either with the digital download network Beatport.com hitting its one million download mark in 2005.
United Kingdom
The UK Official Download Chart was launched on September 1, 2004, and included any Permanent Digital Download track, under 10 minutes long, being sold for a minimum price of 40p (0.4 GBP). In January 2005, downloaded tracks outsold physical singles for the first time in UK music history, prompting The Official UK Charts Company to incorporate downloads for the first time into the UK Singles Chart on April 17, 2005.
On December 16, 2006, the winner of The X Factor, Leona Lewis had her single "A Moment Like This" released for download. 50,000 tracks were downloaded in under 30 minutes, believed to be a record.
Japan
Japan has the highest amount of digital downloads sold in the world. The highest selling digital single there, and the world, is Flavor Of Life by Utada Hikaru with 5.58 million paid downloads. The runner-up is Keep Tryin' also by Utada Hikaru with 2.5 million paid downloads. The third is Koi no Tsubomi by Kumi Koda with 2.3 million paid downloads.
Computer industry
In the computer industry, software purchased and downloaded from an online store is called a digital download. Often the download will be available immediately after the buyer's credit card has been charged. The benefit of digital downloads is thus the little time it takes to receive a desired product. The drawback is that the buyer does not get any tangible product (no disc, box or manual, for example).
Release link: http://www.mp3.com/
