Comments on: Sharman witness: Tech can control illegal swapping

DRM, watermarking are options for controlling copyright infringement, former Napster expert witness says.

[WarpKat]

If Kazaa Goes, Free Gnutella Stays (and other gripes)

First of all, if Sharman Networks was ever taken out by a lawsuit, which is likely to occur due to the dangerous precedents set by the use of software to exchange files, others will take its place, and they have. Gnutella-based software, eDonkey, BitTorrent. All one has to do is read about them and there you have an instant switch to software that can access the same content. It's mind-boggling to see just how stupid people in legal departments can be.

This said, Tygar hit it right on the nose: it's not just software that has allowed this to happen - it's the mentality of people all over the world who say that they're sick of the stupid price mark-ups on lame music and movies. Over the past decade, the movie and music industry had put out so many movies which lacked as much substance that only recently I had started to go again simply because I am that damned BORED watching the news every day!

Let's see. $20 for a CD that only has one good song on it? Give me a BREAK! The 'artists' barely getting pennies per sale over that? ***!? Movies costing $10 nowadays? If the movie was any good (read "as good as 'Ray'"), then I can justify spending as much to see it. But come ON...Dumb & Dumberer? I wouldn't have paid $0.50 for it.

And yet the movie companies are wondering why people share pirated movies and songs or whole CD's? Because that's about what they're worth. Cluelessness smacks in the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry, yet they still complain because they feel they're losing millions.

Lawsuits + poor individuals (who can't afford decent entertainment, yet should have equal access to) = the high potential for bankruptcy and homelessness...all because the entertainment suits want to whine about file-sharing...riiiiiiiiiiiight...

The problem is...

The problem is if a law suite can take out this P2P then that is all it will take to take out the others.

As for music you are correct $20 is just too much. Poor quality music is the problem. What needs to be done is we need the music companies to release ALL of their songs for purchase and download from all of the online music stores for about $0.50 per song and in any format that is needed for the customer to make use of it. Only when that happens will song piracy stop. As of right now you have so many different online stores some offering some songs, some offering others, some with certain formats and so and so. Then to make matters worse you have special deals where only certain songs are available from say iTunes and other such crap. And they only offer the music in limited formats usually to work only with the music players that the company makes the most from. It seems that both the music industry and the online song stores are doing everything they can to drive people to piracy and think things like this needs to be taken in to account by the courts before they makes decisions. Otherwise it is just court sanctioned screwing the customers.

As for movies. There are lot of movies that I will pay $10 to see. Then there are many that I won't. I am most an action, sci-fi, adventure movie fan and those are generally the only ones I will pay to see.

As for the cost of DVD's I think the $20 price tag for the vast majority of them is quite far and I buy many DVDs. I do have a problem with studios charging $100 or more for a single season for an old show like the various Star Trek series from Paramount. Those prices are just outrageous considering the shows are re-run on TV ad nauseum. But overall I think the movie studios do a much better job than the music studios which interestingly enough are generally owned and run by the same companies as the movie studios.

Robert

[David Arbogast]

Gripe Gripe Gripe

The price of music is not the problem. Nobody is entitled to cheap music or movies. I agree that paying $20 for 1 good song on a CD is a real drag, but being unhappy with my purchase does not give me the right to demand an industry overhaul.

Music trading grew because it was an easy way to pick up stolen property. The trend data shows that the lawsuits and technological battles have slowly whittled away the P2P user base, and the number of people swapping songs is declining. Will it ever stop? No, of course not. Theft and other illegal activities are always present, but the risk associated with trading music illegally will continue to increase, and will serve as a deterrent for many people.

Although I detest most of today's popular music and have no fond feelings towards the music industry in general, I support their right to protect their industry from illegal behavior. I would like to see some serious competition, and perhaps online music sales is the right approach. Stealing is not.