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UK ISP Hits Back At U2's Manager For Claiming That ISPs Profit From File Sharing
from the will-we-get-a-response? dept
One of the more ridiculous claims, made by the music industry lately, is this idea that ISPs are somehow unfairly "profiting" from file sharing, and that's the reason why they should be forced to act as the entertainment industry's police. The argument makes no sense, but has become quite popular in certain circles. It was one of the many fallacious arguments made recently by U2's manager Paul McGuinness in his quite silly screed blaming everyone but the recording industry for the industry's problems. Thankfully, though, some people are speaking up. Both ZeroPaid and TorrentFreak point us to a blog post from ISP Entanet's head of marketing, pointing out that this claim is not at all accurate:
Realistically speaking, this is yet another example of the industry's proclivity to overvalue the content and assume that any of the services or tools around the content are valueless. Similarly, it shows a very broadcast top-down view, assuming that the only reason people are using the internet is to download their content, rather than to communicate with one another. The internet is a communication platform much more than a broadcast medium, and the music industry still doesn't seem to grasp that simple fact.
Considering Mr. McGuinness proudly informs us he has been debating on this issue for two years, he seems to totally misunderstand the reasons behind broadband customers' demand for better broadband speeds and equally doesn't understand the current facilities available on the Internet. He asks "Do people want more bandwidth to speed up their e-mails or to download music and films as rapidly as possible?" Well, if he took the time to make an informed comment through proper research he'd see that, in reality, most broadband customers want to be better able to take advantage of 'legal' technologies such as online gaming, YouTube, iPlayer, iTunes, VoIP and a vast array of business oriented services that are currently available. It is simply naive to suggest that customers' desire for faster broadband and more bandwidth is driven solely by a desire to cheat music rights holders out of their royalties through illegal file sharing. Furthermore, without legal services such as iTunes music sales would undeniably decrease. Does Mr. McGuinness want to close down this a distribution model that has proven to contribute positively to music sales? Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!It's great to see people who actually understand this stuff debunking McGuinness' argument, though somehow I don't see McGuinness ever responding reasonably to this point.
Realistically speaking, this is yet another example of the industry's proclivity to overvalue the content and assume that any of the services or tools around the content are valueless. Similarly, it shows a very broadcast top-down view, assuming that the only reason people are using the internet is to download their content, rather than to communicate with one another. The internet is a communication platform much more than a broadcast medium, and the music industry still doesn't seem to grasp that simple fact.
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I would say
The reason I need the high speed is definitely for gaming. It is also why, even though I have a choice of Comcast or satellite I say I only have one choice. If I want to game I can only go with Comcast in my area. That is it. Anything else would remove the primary reason I get the high speed to begin with. Yes, there are plenty of other reasons I have high speed. It definitely saves time for everything else you can do on the net. Gaming is my number one cause for having cable though. If it wasn't for that I would consider satellite, but the satellite in the area also has a crazy 5 or 10GB limit per month, in addition to its high latency.
Just not enough broadband options around here.
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As I say to all of these misinformed
SHUT UP AND SING !!!
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Query
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Downloads
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http://www.telemedicineindia.com/
http://www.telemedindia.org/
Or to do some actual good work with GIS
http://www.mapcruzin.com/
Or to help science.
http://fold.it/portal/info/science
Or to help the government to make sense of their own data.
http://reboot.fcc.gov/developer
Or to use VoIP.
http://www.asterisk.org/
Or to have people work around the world in one cool project.
http://durian.blender.org/
Or to listen to free legal music
http://www.jamendo.com/en/
Or to listen to books
http://librivox.org/
Or to learn
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/NurdRage
Nope it is all about the MAFIAA and their greed, money, work and sorry ass, gosh how did I miss that?
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Re: Downloads
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Re: I would say
Now people probably don't even know what an lpb is anymore.
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Re: Re: I would say
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Re: Re: I would say
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Re: I would say
I watch Hulu and gaming. Some times at the same time. I also stream Movies to other people in my building though I don't think that goes through the internet. i think they just connect to my wireless network (yes its secure) but they have the option if need be.
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Re: Re: I would say
The funny thing is many lpbs really thought they were shit hot killing people with 10-30x their latency.
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Darren Farnden seems to be talking about DRM ...
We all know how well DRM works, its always broken with in a day or two.
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It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
The universe exploded 'cause of one man's lie
Look, I gotta go, yeah I'm running outta change
There's a lot of things if I could I'd rearrange
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Re: I would say
In fact I used to get better pings back when I was on 1500kbps ADSL than I do on my current 18000kbps ADSL2+ connection.
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Just a simple answer
But the answer to his question "Do people want more bandwidth to speed up their e-mails or to download music and films as rapidly as possible? is both.
Maybe he doesn't send video mail or large attachments, but there are a lot of us that do. Im sure he uses the phone all the time and has never heard of any of the IM clients that all seem to have voice and video now. I wonder if he can spell Skype. If he has kids, I would guess they don't know what WoW is or own an Xbox.
As the ISP rep pointed out, there are tons of high bandwidth applications now. Someone should mention to McGuinness that IPTV tends to require a huge amount of bandwidth. I wonder how the RIAA is going to convince the ISPs to cut off their source of income with a 3 strikes rule.
Im wondering... If I get caught for downloading music illegally 3 times, should I then be banned from buying music?
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Re: Re: I would say
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Re: Re: Downloads
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Re: Darren Farnden seems to be talking about DRM ...
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Re: in case
Bono and his bandmates were criticised in 2007 for moving part of their multi-million euro song catalogue from Ireland to Amsterdam six months before Ireland ended a tax exemption on musicians' royalties.[16][45] Under Dutch tax law, bands are subject to low to non-existent tax rates.[16] U2's manager, Paul McGuinness, stated that the arrangement is legal and customary and businesses often seek to minimise their tax burdens.[16] The move prompted criticisms in the Irish parliament.[46][47] The band later responded by stating that approximately 95% of their business took place outside Ireland, and that they were taxed globally because of this.[48] Bono was one of several super-rich figures whose tax arrangements were singled out for criticism in a report by the charity Christian Aid in 2008.[49]
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Re: As I say to all of these misinformed
SHUT UP AND STOP SINGING!!!11eleventyonezomgponies.
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