Techdirt. Stories about "groupm" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories about "groupm"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 8 May 2012 10:11:00 PDT Ad Industry Is Already Getting Ads Off Of 'Rogue' Sites; So Why Did We Need Legislation? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120507/02570318801/ad-industry-is-already-getting-ads-off-rogue-sites-so-why-did-we-need-legislation.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120507/02570318801/ad-industry-is-already-getting-ads-off-rogue-sites-so-why-did-we-need-legislation.shtml statement of best practices as part of an "International Anti-Counterfeiting Conference." The best practices say that advertisers and marketers should be explicit that they don't want their ads on "rogue" sites. This leads to a bunch of thoughts.

First up, as Dan Mitchell at Fortune points out, the companies that already advertise on "rogue" sites aren't the major advertisers. For all the talk by copyright maximalists of how big companies are getting rich off of rogue sites, that shows they don't know much about how advertising works. The ads that show up on most of those sites is the crappiest of the crappiest of advertising -- the pure bottom-filler type crap that doesn't pay very much at all. While Mitchell uses this to suggest that such a best practices won't "staunch the flow of revenues" to these sites, he totally ignores the more important point: that it shows that these sites aren't making very much money in the first place because all the advertisers who actually pay decent ad rates have already made sure their ads don't show up on these sites.

Second, this raises questions about why the MPAA was so insistent on the need for SOPA. It sure looks like the major players in the industry are already doing things like blocking ads from "rogue" sites voluntarily. It's amazing how the entertainment industry likes to pretend that companies would never do such things without a law, when they do it all the time anyway.

Finally, the Adweek article (first link above) notes that ad giant GroupM already had put in place a blacklist. But what the Adweek article unfortunately left out was that the "list" GroupM came up with was a complete joke -- listing all sorts of perfectly legitimate sites, like the Internet Archive, Vimeo and Soundcloud. Oh yeah, and a bunch of hip hop blogs... and 50Cent's personal website. It's great to declare that they won't let ads show up on "rogue" sites, but it gets worrisome when they define "rogue" sites so broadly.

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]]> just-saying... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120507/02570318801 Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:19:58 PDT One Of The Most Successful NY Startups... Is Dedicated To Infringing Activities (According To The Entertainment Industry) Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111005/03082016203/one-most-successful-ny-startups-is-dedicated-to-infringing-activities-according-to-entertainment-industry.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111005/03082016203/one-most-successful-ny-startups-is-dedicated-to-infringing-activities-according-to-entertainment-industry.shtml hip hop blogs it wanted power over ended up on the list (along with other non-infringers like the Internet Archive, Vimeo, SoundCloud and personal websites of Universal's own artists.

As we noted in the article, one of the sites listed as a "pirate" site was the site Complex.com, which is a rapidly growing popular "lifestyle" site, focused on young men. What I didn't realize was just how big and successful the site is. Business Insider recently ranked Complex as one of the most valuable NY startups, pinning its value around $140 million. It also has two of the most respected VC firms around backing it: Accel and Austin Ventures. This is not a fly-by-night operation.

And this is a big issue. We keep hearing from supporters of PROTECT IP that people shouldn't worry about it and similar legal attempts taking down legitimate businesses, because it's only designed to go after sites that are dedicated to infringing activities. But as this shows, according to folks in the legacy entertainment world, successful new media companies, like Complex, can be harmed by falsely accusing them of being "dedicated to infringing activities," and seeking to get advertisers or payment processors blocked from the site.

This is why so many tech entrepreneurs are so worried about legal changes like PROTECT IP. We've seen how the old industry likes to accuse anyone who does anything new or interesting of merely being "pirates," and using that to harm them. Why should we then allow Congress to pass new laws that will only come back to haunt the successful new generation of startups that are growing, creating jobs and actually innovating?

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]]> but-of-course http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111005/03082016203 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:30:07 PDT Did Universal Music Declare 50 Cent's Own Website Is A Pirate Site? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110620/16364214774/did-universal-music-declare-50-cents-own-website-is-pirate-site.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110620/16364214774/did-universal-music-declare-50-cents-own-website-is-pirate-site.shtml public war of words with his record label, Interscope (a division of Universal Music Group), concerning his upcoming album. 50 Cent claimed that differences would mean that the album was delayed. At the end of the week, it sounded like he had patched things up a bit and worked out the major differences, but he might want to take another look at what his label is doing.

As you may know, yesterday, we wrote about Universal Music's involvement in putting together a list of "pirate" websites that ad giant GroupM would place on a big blacklist of sites. GroupM would use the blacklist to bar its ads from appearing on any listed site. We noticed many oddities on the list, including a bunch of websites that are considered the top of the top in the hip hop world when it comes to promoting new works. However, some in our comments noted an even odder site on the list: 50 Cent's own website: ThisIs50.com.

Now, there may be some confusion, because it appears that there are two different "official" 50 sites. However, one of them, 50Cent.com is owned and run by Universal Music. ThisIs50.com is 50's own site and is the one linked from his own Facebook page (which, in turn, is linked from his verified Twitter account). There seems to be little doubt that ThisIs50 is 50's own website. In fact, if you look at the Universal-run 50Cent.com, it very prominently links to ThisIs50:
Furthermore, Universal Music and Interscope regularly linked to ThisIs50.com. Seems pretty odd to then put it on their list of "pirate" sites. Of course, in a bit of odd recursiveness, ThisIs50 now has a discussion going about the fact that it's on the list. Perhaps this is some sort of "punishment" for 50 Cent's earlier claims that "piracy" is just "marketing" and that he'll make up the money elsewhere?

But, honestly, since supporters of PROTECT IP and other such legislation keep claiming that it's so easy to figure out what is and what is not a "rogue site," can someone explain how Universal recording artist 50 Cent's own site gets on the list, which was apparently put together in part by Universal Music? I have a question in to folks at Universal Music, but once again, I doubt I'll hear back.

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]]> fact-checking http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110620/16364214774 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:22:34 PDT Universal Music Goes To War Against Popular Hip Hop Sites & Blogs Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110620/01370314750/universal-music-goes-to-war-against-popular-hip-hop-sites-blogs.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110620/01370314750/universal-music-goes-to-war-against-popular-hip-hop-sites-blogs.shtml "adopted an aggressive new anti-piracy policy" for its digital media buys. What that meant was that it prohibited vendors that it worked with from putting ads on any of a giant list of sites that it had declared were "pirate sites" -- defined as "sites that support piracy or contain any illegally distributed content." That's pretty broad. In fact, TorrentFreak got their hands on the list and noted many rather bizarre entries, including the Internet Archive (archive.org) and BitTorrent's corporate page -- neither of which have anything to do with "piracy" at all. There are some other shockers on the list, including the popular web video site/YouTube alternative, Vimeo, which is about as far from a "pirate" site as you can find. Stunningly, there's also SoundCloud, which has become one of the most popular tools for musicians to promote their own music these days. That's the site where the Beastie Boys streamed their latest album. A pirate site? Are they crazy? You can see the full list embedded below.

While there are many oddities on the list, we wanted to explore one aspect of the list, which is that it appears to show that Universal Music has decided to declare war on the online hip hop ecosystem that promotes its music in a big way -- and some of those sites are hitting back. First of all, it's worth noting that these blogs and sites are considered instrumental to promotion in the hip hop world, and Universal Music knows that. In talking to some of the folks at sites involved, you learn pretty quickly that they get sent tracks and other promotional info from insiders at Universal Music -- including high level execs -- all of the time. On top of that, hip hop artists themselves regularly rely on these same sites, and link people to them via their own blogs and twitter feeds. And yet, a whole bunch of these sites are on GroupM's list... and they got there because Universal Music told GroupM to put those sites on the list:
GroupM's own content producing clients -- such as Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal Music and Summit Entertainment, which produced the popular Twilight series of vampire movies -- have shared their own lists of pirate websites to help create a master copy.
While I don't know which of those companies may be responsible for some of the other headscratchers on the list, the attack on hip hop sites is being pinned squarely on Universal Music by many of the sites involved, and they're not happy. Among those on the list, for example, is Vibe.com, the online site for Vibe Magazine, founded by Quincy Jones of all people, and still considered one of the key sources for news and information about the hip hop and R&B worlds. And yet it's on the list as a pirate site? Really?

Back in 2009, Vibe produced a big list of the "50 hottest rap blogs." This is basically a who's who list of the top sites in hip hop, and the places that most music producers want to see their music appearing, because it's how they get attention these days. Yet, if you run down that list, you start to notice a pattern. An awful lot of those sites are on GroupM's "banned" list. I went through the top 12 sites on that list, and seven of them are "banned" as piracy sites, despite being some of the most popular promotional vehicles for artists and labels alike. Also, a bunch of the top hip hop blogs teamed up a while back to form what was called the New Music Cartel -- and every one of those sites is on the "banned" list.

And, of course, that Vibe list is a couple years old. There are plenty of other top music/hip hop sites that for unclear reasons were also put on the list, and they're not happy about it. For example, there's Complex, an up-and-coming and incredibly popular lifestyle magazine for the 18-34 male demographic. Somehow, they're on the list, and the magazine/site's editor-in-chief recently took his frustration to Twitter, calling out Universal Music and saying this means Universal Music will get less coverage:

Other sites on the list are similarly pissed, though not everyone's willing to talk about it publicly. The ones who should be angry are the musicians who rely on these sites to get their works heard, to build up a fan base, and to become popular, because Universal Music is making that more difficult for them. There are mixed opinions as to why Universal Music is attacking the hip hop blog ecosystem. There's the "left hand/right hand" ignorance theory, in which the lawyers at Universal Music who helped put together this list are so disconnected from reality that they don't realize they're trying to shut down the very sites that the promotions side of the business (and the artists themselves) rely on. There's also the more nefarious theory that Universal Music is sick of having to rely on such sites for promotions, and is seeking to shut down a bunch of them to limit where it can focus its promotions efforts -- perhaps even trying to prop up a few "friendly" sites that it wants to rule the market, over the competition.

Either way, this seems like more evidence of how ridiculous it is to claim it's easy to define "rogue sites." Given the chance, it looks like Universal Music has defined it as sites it doesn't like. The fact that this list includes all sorts of sites that clearly are not piracy sites should give anyone who supports bills like PROTECT IP pause. Defenders of these laws like to say that it's obvious what is and what is not a rogue site -- yet here you have Universal Music and GroupM showing how that definition can be quite broad, and extremely questionable.

No matter what, it seems likely that this move is going to backfire on Universal Music in a big bad way. It's like what would have happened if a record label suddenly declared radio as "piracy" and said that its artists couldn't appear on radio any more. It suggests a company so out of touch with how people find out about new music these days that it has no business being in the business of promoting artists. It also should serve as a warning sign to any artist thinking of signing with Universal Music. Why would you sign to a label that is actively working to kill some of the best sites for promoting your music? I reached out to Universal Music, asking for some comments and answers to a few questions raised in this article, and (not surprisingly) have heard absolutely nothing in response.

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