French Judges: Big Brother may NOT watch you!

[Elliot Kane]

The French Constitutional Council - the highest court of law in France - has just shot down President Sarkozy's attempts to monitor everything anyone in France does online as illegal.

Good for them! A victory for personal privacy, which is as it should be!

Full article is here

More from The Times here

I like the idea of access to the internet being a basic human right! ;D

[Glance A'Lot]

Some time from now, no publisher will make money on CD sales, so won't make any - singers will have to earn their money by live performances, just like in medieval times!

Isn't it a horrible thought?

Fact is, the media industry utterly failed to remodel their business model(s) with the upcoming internet - and I have me doubts that they will ever be able to catch up - they simply missed the starship to a new universe!

[Elliot Kane]

Honestly, I think they overplay the effects of piracy and significantly underplay the advantages they get out of massive, free, worldwide publicity.

I'm just one guy, and I have at least 100 albums on CD by people I would never have heard of if not for the internet, including a ton I could never have bought in a British shop. I'm sure a ton of other people have similar stories there, too. And that's without including the immense legal download market, which is good for several billion dollars a year.

The fact that the music industry is so blatantly dishonest in their dealings with the customer base really does not help them at all. I just wish govts would stop being so ridiculously gullible when dealing with them.

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

It's not over till the fat lady sings

[Elliot Kane]

Now THAT is a good idea! What a great way of addressing the problem of piracy in the music industry! Glance is right that the main problem has been the utter failure of traditional media to get to grips with new technology, but this looks like a great way of crossing that particularly boundary and in a way that makes sense.

[rhiian]

so basically a legal limewire?
i'd pay for that. i've always figured companies would make more money if people paid a certain amount a month rather than per product.

i get given £10 a month into my bank account from my mum, and with the prices on iTunes that lets me have like ONE album at like £8. even then my money goes on other things too.
if i could then pay £10 a month to have a download service, i'd be giving the company more of my money and be able to download what i want.
also at first you would download the most as you'll have things in mind for download, whereas after a month or two you'll only be buying new releases or new bands you've heard of, so less than in the begining.


---
slightly unrelated; but anyone remember when the frnech public broke in the french BB house and set them free?

[Elliot Kane]

No, but if it's anything like our version of BB, I think they'd have done better to lynch them ;D

[Elliot Kane]

We have movement on the music thing

Looks like it's all systems go!

[The Sonar Chicken]

This sounds better anyways. But it also depends on how many record labels are willing to embrace such concepts. Oh well, if they don't want to go with the flow, then the groups signed with them will face a fate of some sort. 'Cos p2p is not going away ever. And if the music labels try to kill p2p, then people will retaliate by posting the "content" in "video" on video-sharing sites like Youtube. And if they try to kill those video-sharing sites, then you end up with things like Rapidshare, Megaupload, etc. used for distributing files. And so on.

So it's moot: the fight against p2p is already lost.

[rhiian]

Jun 15, 2009 17:30:28 GMT Elliot Kane said:

We have movement on the music thing

Looks like it's all systems go!

BINGO!
gogogogogo

although saying that there aren't many artists signed to universal that i like :/
BUT BREAKTHROUGH nevertheless

[Elliot Kane]

It's a great start, I think. Hopefully it will thrive and all concerned will be happy with it. That way, more companies will join in