Next Big Sound (a/o May 24th):
Makes you wonder how solid those Google Music licensing agreements are, after all. Now, the major labels are pointing a stern barrel at Google, and making their opinions very clear on issues like search-driven piracy and SOPA advocacy.
This is a relationship that seems to be deteriorating, fast. And SOPA could be tearing these partners apart. "While professing to agree that copyright infringement is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, Google raises alarmist, self-serving criticism to any legislative proposal to deter or thwart rampant copyright infringement," the labels blasted in a collective 'report card' on the company, issued yesterday by professors RIAA and IFPI. 'Google should stop engaging in destructive rhetoric and come to the table with constructive proposals to address this problem."
Yes, a report card, as we first alluded to yesterday. It's extremely condescending stuff, but unfortunately a familiar approach for the majors (though Google execs aren't angels, either).
And the grade? 'Incomplete,' based on mediocre progress on things like YouTube infringement, an excess level of complaints from copyright owners, and major problems with piracy in the Android Marketplace. "Google should screen mobile applications, as Apple does, before allowing them to be made available in its Android Marketplace, to prevent pirate apps from being posted in the first place," the report card criticizes. "Several of these apps, such as MP3 Music Downloader Pro, have Google-served ads embedded in the application."
Outside of the 'report card' ridiculousness, there is a lot Google needs to do to improve relationships with content owners. And there's certainly a discussion to be had on the effectiveness of laws like the DMCA. But it's easy to wonder if the intensifying standoffs around SOPA and related legislative proposals will make it more difficult to cooperate.
The interests just seem diabolically opposed, simply because people demand pirated stuff - a lot of it. "Google has persistently resisted requests by the music industry to prioritize sites with authorized content over unauthorised sites," the RIAA stated in a purposefully-naive way. "The simple fact is that Google continues to both (i) receive financial benefits from sites and applications that engage in piracy and (ii) place artificial road blocks in rights holders' efforts to protect their content online, contrary to the DMCA."
The complete 'report card' is here. /paul
Cliff Baldwin Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Let's see... Every song known to man is available for free on YouTube, on demand, and often in hour-long+ playlists with other songs by the exact same artist or others from the charts. About 10% of these songs are legit and label-sanctioned. The rest are UGC or downright pirated. How is Google going to make a business out of selling music when they are simply giving away the farm? P.S. All those illegal songs are heavily monetized with ads. None of the money goes to the labels or artists. It all goes to GOOG/YouTube. GOOG is laughing all the way to the bank.
nessup Saturday, December 24, 2011
That's not so true anymore. Content ID is YouTube's copyright policy enforcement tool, which has a revenue-sharing mechanism built into it. Any money made off an ID'd work will have a percentage of it shipped off to the proper copyright holders (and the payouts typically are much greater than that of a single 'stream' on Spotify). AFAIK labels all over the world have made positive use of this technology. From a major label perspective, it is a very conscientious response by Google to the YouTube copyright problem.
The problem with it though (having worked with small independent labels myself) is that it's locked out from the rest of the world interested in protecting their interests. I've spoken with various YouTube employees and they tell me that the CID team has a huge backlog of IP owners who are looking for an in to the system. Unfortunately many of them are simply turned down. Either way, my point is that major labels should no longer complain about revenue lost to YouTube. It has great IP payout mechanisms in place. I wonder how the majors would feel about a CID system for Google search.
brooklyn habitat Wednesday, December 21, 2011
This is just a game of attrition as far as music goes. Let the RIAA die out eventually, you win.
But Hollywood? Not sure if that works there.
Martijn Tjho Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Why not deliver Google a feed with data of the music and who offers it with a license. Any other result will be filtered out. Simple solution, to big problem. Google won't like this, they make serious money telling people where they can find free music. Everytime they do, they make money. A first step could be to put legitemate results on top and for illegal/unlicensed you need to dig deeper in search results.
@sebastianperez Wednesday, December 21, 2011
OUCH!!
Damned If You Do Thursday, December 22, 2011
The RIAA & Google of course bioth suck bigh time and I refuse to defend either sickening establishment.
The much more important discussion, I'm sure (I hope), most visitors understand is the even more over the top illegal SOPA legislation itself. Enough with using an axe to kill a fly. I like the semblance of living in a free land. I do say semblance though...
Nice redesign of the site! It's clean and easy to move around.
I see Thursday, December 22, 2011
Do you care enough to explain to us why do you consider SOPA to be "illegal"? Surely you must have some very solid thoughts behind this, let's hear them.
(I mean your own thoughts, of course, don't bother replying with a link to EFF or any other Google-financed "organization".)
@Tampa_Rick Thursday, December 22, 2011
Ain't they greedy?
yes Friday, December 23, 2011
I agree with you, Google is very greedy. They make most of their profits from ads and yet they avoid going through their AdSense websites' list...
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