RE: digital Beatles -- the mother of all licensing

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

Uh, well, yes, one reason might be that it is illegal, and that 
with the ability of computers to search these days for files 
anywhere they exist, the copyright owner can track down a person 
who stores an illegal download. Remember how litigious the RIAA 
has been in going after individuals? How a Harvard student is 
faced with a very stiff fine for illegally downloading some 30 
songs?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/07/o-tenenbaum-riaa-wins-675000-or-22500-per-song.ars

I'd think twice about taking that kind of risk....

Sandy Thatcher


At 5:13 PM -0500 11/16/10, Ken Masters wrote:
>Hi All
>
>While this is wonderful news, I think, one really has to wonder
>if the people who worked out this strategy are even vaguely aware
>of how people (especially the youth) access digitised music
>today.
>
>The newer generations pretty much take this approach: why pay for
>a song when simply, by going to Youtube, you can get a free video
>download of it? (e.g. Hey Jude is at:
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoBWW3OAhgw)
>
>After that, there is plenty of free software that can extract the
>audio from the video, and convert it into any known format for
>playing on any known audio device.
>
>Whereas, if you go the legal route, you have to pay, and then may
>have to jump through any unknown number of legal hoops if you
>decide to buy a new and different audio device, and hope that the
>company doesn't suddenly change its licensing conditions after
>you have purchased the music.
>
>Perhaps the idea was just to announce the deal, hoping that
>newspapers would pick it up, and run what amounts to free
>advertising.  After all, DJs and the like still go the legal
>route (perhaps).
>
>So, a mother of all licensing deals?  "That'll be the day." "I
>don't want to spoil the party" but, "Do you want to know a
>scret?" Perhaps it was, "Yesterday," but now they need some
>"Help."  Now I'll just "Let it be." :-)
>
>Regards
>
>Ken