7m in UK 'use illegal downloads'

[tmcd35]

I think this is what the big 5 are ultimately afraid of and why iTunes were forced into using DRM's for so long. The internet and music downloading is severing the ties between artist and record label. The real money is coming from performing as far as the artist is concerned. Those who can actually play live will do well and I think a lot of established bands are doing well embracing the new formats/advertising models.

 

Paraphrasing Neil Finn (Crowded House) during their last round of concerts - "We don't mind if you record these (unreleased) new songs on your camera phones and post it on youtube! In fact we're proud of our work and are glad to give something back to the fans. The final polished album versions will be released soon enough (and no doubt you'll be buying the album anyway)". - They know they need to attract new fans to buy the albums and attend the concerts to make money!

[fiendishlyclever]

Remember the fuss over CD-Wow and grey imports? Ever been flummoxed by region encoding on DVD's? Ever been frustrated when you can't watch your new DVD on your ipod and iTunes wants $$ for a DRM protected copy of the film you already own? Seen the protection on blu-ray?

 

These are the reasons that a lot of people download illegally. For others it is habitual - it starts at school (remember swapping cassette tapes with your friends?) and carries on.

 

The message is slowly getting through - the new Zune store subscription services look pretty good, and some new US napster packages are moving in the right way. Although what's the betting that a $10 US subscription will become a £10 one in the UK, we'll be fobbed off with a cost-of-business excuse and the downloading will continue.

 

The content industry needs to wake up and smell the coffee. The cat is out of the bag and they need to embrace new technologies and business models, not try beating the us with a stick to try and get the cat back in.

[RabbieBurns]

TV shows - this is an odd one as you could see the download of a show which hasn't been broadcast in the UK as a victimless crime, but it isn't. Think about it, a company in the UK usually buys the rights to play a show, they then get advertising to fit into the breaks and make money from that. If you don't watch it on TV, and don't sit through the adverts, advertisers are going to buy less airtime, and less decent shows will come to the UK, which will affect the amount of shows actually produced in the USA.

 

NBC cancels 'Earl' and 'Medium'; CBS axes 'Unit'--The Live Feed

 

case in point?

 

Although, on the flip I dont really see how downloading it to watch is any different from recording it on sky+/freeview PVR and whizzing through the ads like most folk do anyway.

[Michael]

I'd love to know how they came up with a number of 7 million users. It's incalculable and I have no doubt in my mind the Pirate Bay is behind most of it and guess what, the website is still live! The recent court case of fining and jailing the founders has had no effect whatsoever.

 

DRM in my eyes has encouraged piracy and evidence of this are that many providers now offering material DRM free. Piracy is nothing new and inevitably a small percentage of people will always want something for free. The industry themselves are to blame. Greedy profit margins expecting people to pay £20 for a Blu-ray film? It's absolutely hilarious the industry believe this is an acceptable price.

 

If multimedia in general was at a more reasonable price they'd be little incentive to pirate and users would go down legal routes. There's no reason why an MP3 should be priced the same as a CD. The manufacturing costs are far lower, there's no shipping half way across the world anymore, there's just a server hosting files. The industry need to accept this and until they do, piracy will continue to rise.

 

As for the UK Government (as per usual) they're out of touch. This problem has been on-going for years to the point it's getting out of hand. Revenue is being lost, yet ironically, more money will be wasted taking people to court, fining them then giving them community service to clean up their acts.

[localzuk]

I'd love to know how they came up with a number of 7 million users. It's incalculable and I have no doubt in my mind the Pirate Bay is behind most of it and guess what, the website is still live! The recent court case of fining and jailing the founders has had no effect whatsoever.

 

Oh, I wouldn't say that! It has caused a massive increase in membership to the Pirate Party in Sweden, and revealed how corrupt the judges are in Sweden...

[Andrew_C]

If multimedia in general was at a more reasonable price they'd be little incentive to pirate and users would go down legal routes. There's no reason why an MP3 should be priced the same as a CD.

BINGO! Give that man a prize! How, though, do we get this across to the dolts in Westminster and Hollywood?

[DrPerceptron]

Make them stop claiming for it as an expense?

[FN-GM]

The Pirate Bay case has only fueled the fire. It is making people more aware of the site so people who have never heard of it now use it. I know of 3 people who never heard of it now use it.

 

Myself i do download some content purely because they are taking the mick on the prices they charge. Anything i do download i do not distribute again.

 

They have not got a cat in hells chance of stopping it. Torrent software is changing the way it works. Some software is using encrypted SSL VPN links to get the content across. This mean ISP's dont know what is going down the VPN tunnel and they can't block them. The only way they can block them is blocking port 443 that will also mean https sites wont work.

[enjay]

but for other shows which are on Commercial TV it does because we don't watch the adverts in between these shows. It was recently in the news that ITV is in serious financial difficulty and is having to run shopping channels through the night to survive.

 

Like many others, I record all my TV and fast-forward over the ads so even though I'm watching it legally, I don't see the ads either, so I fail to see the difference (not that I'm justifying downloads) - maybe that has more to do with why commercial channels are struggling than people downloading the shows instead...

 

Smart advertisers would be commissioning commercials which advertise the product even at 6x speed (as some do).

[localzuk]

Smart advertisers would be commissioning commercials which advertise the product even at 6x speed (as some do).

 

Smart advertisers use product placements in shows...

[Fridge]

Smart advertisers use product placements in shows...

 

Yeah that's a good point has anyone else noticed the recent increase in Dr. Pepper being drank in South Park? ^^

[jamesb]

Yeah that's a good point has anyone else noticed the recent increase in Dr. Pepper being drank in South Park? ^^

 

Well what's the worst that could happen with product placement?

[RabbieBurns]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

 

aye, I agree to an extent, but how many of us sit and fast forward through adverts when weve sky+d the show. And as for family guy etc, I downlaod the new eps of them too, but I also sit through all the repeats on Sky, Channel 4 and RTE.

 

As for the cinema pricing, well £7 isnt too bad if your close by. I bought an Unlimited Cinema Pass for a year, and had no qualms downloading movies that year, even though I only went to the cinema once or twice.

 

And I think ITVs problem is due to the crap that they show more than anything else. Whats on ITV worth watching? STV has Taggart. ITV has a Soap for the grannys. What else is there?

[ZeroHour]

Smart advertisers would be commissioning commercials which advertise the product even at 6x speed (as some do).

 

They have a feature in Tivo in the US which I dont think is active yet but it basically blocks you fast forwarding through the adverts or possibly shows an advert while you fast forward but I cant remember exactly.

Since Tivo sells there software (iirc) to sky which make sky+ epg sky may have the option to do that too but that would kill my sky subscription if they did.

 

I do buy music online and CD but I think tbh online needs to be all in lossless format now as I can get the CD and rip it for less then getting it online. I have several places that sell lossless wav etc to me a decent prices.

TBH as well there really needs to be a flat per month rate for music in lossless too.

[RabbieBurns]

I would just ditch the sky+ reciever and use my own. Ive got a Fortex Star reciever for one of my dishes and the CAM Ive got in that accepts the Sky card. A better model would have an pvr too.