KOAR News
Posted October 25, 2007 — in Music News
OiNK Raid Raises The Question: What Risks Are You Really Taking When Downloading Music? Experts say OiNK and other illegal-download site users may not need a lawyer yet, but legal consequences can be quite severe. Read the full article.
Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook: Microsoft has won the battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook. Microsoft would invest $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. The investment values the three-year-old Facebook, which will bring in about $150 million in revenue this year, at $15 billion.
According to Hits, Coheed and Cambria’s ‘No World For Tomorrow’ will sell around 60-65k copies in its first week, J Records Say Anything’s ‘In Defense Of The Genre’ could sell around 25-30k and Carrie Underwood will sell 450k.
Knoxville Tennessee rapper Mr. Mack has signed to Universal Republic. (coolfer)
Interesting, Mack doesnt seem like a young guy. It seems like the industry no longer is so obsessed with age. It’s all about the hits now.
myspace.com/jetblackstare (the lead singer is 30)
myspace.com/thelastgoodnight (next big thing! all in their late 20s, lead singer is 28)
And lets not even talk about James Blunt… I think Hits Magazine said it right:
“The consensus out there in A&R playland is that it’s now beyond desperation time. The current label mandate is that the act must have a hit song regardless of who they are, so that radio will play it. At this point, anything goes—if they’ve got a potential hit, sign ’em up, even if they aren’t young (i.e., under 20), or lack hipster cool, or don’t have a killer live show. And why not? The unofficial signing guidelines over the past years really haven’t proven to be successful anyway. As we’ve stated many times before, most of the biggest selling acts of the last few years have been low-key, non-bidding-derby signings that didn’t come out of Silver Lake, the Lower East Side or Williamsburg. At this point in the game, it’s really become the Wild West, which is both good and bad. On the rock side, we’re hearing that the younger A&R hitters (for fear of losing their jobs) have been spending more time scouting for Active Rock-leaning bands on the order of Nickelback, Hinder and Daughtry; i.e., acts that have the best chance of crossing over to Pop. But to disregard everything that’s left-of-center would be a big mistake, too.”
Comment by anonymous — October 25, 2007 @ 10:58 am
“It’s not that it’s illegal to use these services ó it’s illegal to do illegal things on these services,” he pointed out. “The services themselves are not illegal, in most cases; they can be completely lawful, so long as you are uploading files you have the copyright on.”
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It seems that a good portion of the press don’t seem to understand that oink itself was just a tracker. It only “provided illegal downloads” indirectly, by indexing what it’s users uploaded. It’s almost like the park where drug deals go down. The park is not the source of the drugs, & the drugs won’t go away if the park is shut down. Also a lot of legitimate activity is disrupted along with the illegitimate.
It seems to me that this case is no different than Grokster or Kazaa or whatever, who, as I understand it, weren’t the victims of a huge televised raid.
It seems like this is either a big scare campaign or those behind the “takedown” just really don’t understand what oink is. Given that this is a supposed two year investigation, I find that a little hard to swallow.
Oink was also a very unique community… leaked new releases were a very very small portion of what was listed on the site (though they were some of the most popularly traded files). If I want a flac version of Silver Throat: Bill Cosby sings, where am I going to go? I could spend the rest of my life searching vinyl bins for a copy in good condition & then do some research on how to best convert it to digital & then invest in some decent equipment… or I could hop onto oink, where maybe someone’s already done all that. A large part of Oink was committed fans of music who were, themselves, solving problems that the music industry cannot or will not solve for them.
Oink is being completely demonized by the press but it was also home to some of the most committed fans of music on the internet.
Furthermore, there is no legal alternative to oink… you cannot legally get most music in flac format, nevermind variable bitrate lame encoded mp3 (the standard… there’s absolutely no reason anyone should be offering anything less). If you could, I’ll bet that a lot of “oinkers” would pay (donations made to cover server costs is one glaring indication). But they’re too snobby for what’s offered (which is unnecessarily low quality). And actual CDs are overpriced, contain songs you don’t want, & are becoming increasingly difficult to find… inconvenient on the whole.
The lesson here is that top 40 is no longer what people are interested in. What used to be musical trends limited to the geekiest of music geeks are now inching closer & closer to the mainstream, & the demand for higher quality digital audio is growing at an even faster rate. (Just because you can’t hear the difference on your computer speakers doesn’t mean I can’t on my $1,000 car audio system. Just because you can’t hear the difference through your iPod buds doesn’t mean I can’t hear it through my Etymotic Research ER-6s.)
Comment by Jon Cole — October 25, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Oink is home to the most committed fans of music on the internet.
No, Oink is the home to thieves. Committed fans of music dont steal copyrights, they support the artists.
Comment by lilly — October 25, 2007 @ 12:03 pm
lilly, you’re clueless. Just like the record label. Wouldnt surprise me if you work for one. Jon said it perfectly, Oink was giving people something, itunes didnt, it gave them quality rips, even flac.
The real analysis of the situation is this:
A FREE WEBSITE IS DOING A BETTER JOB THAN ITUNES OR ANYTHING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY EVER TRIED!
Thats the real reality. Some smart kids came up with a great system, something the labels have failed to do… during the last 7 years! 7 years!!!
Yes, Oink users were downloading music for free. But why not stop a second, take a look at the system, and try to figure out why it’s working so well, and how you could monetize it (i.e. a $15/month all you can download subscription). But the labels are too ignorant to consider something like this. That’s why the majors will eventually die. It’s inevitable. The executives are stuck in a bubble where it’s still 1975, but outside it’s already a new millennium. TIME TO WAKE UP!
I’ll quote Lefsetz on this over and over on this, because he said it perfectly: “There IS NO CONTROL! Face it! The genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Deal with reality old farts.”
Comment by anonymous — October 25, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
I think the NIN mention of Saul’s record will generate some interest, but they’ve got it set up all wrong.
Pre-order for 5 bucks or pay nothing?
How about letting us hear it first, letting us decide if we like it and THEN letting us name our price?
Comment by Stu Gots — October 25, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
I’ll quote Lefsetz on this over and over on this, because he said it perfectly: “There IS NO CONTROL! Face it! The genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Deal with reality old farts.”
this is propaganda. This is a copyright issue. This wont last forever.
Comment by lilly — October 25, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
“this is propaganda. This is a copyright issue. This wont last forever.”
And this is ignorance. Keeping you eyes closed, refusing to deal with reality.
Comment by anonymous — October 25, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
“No, Oink is the home to thieves. Committed fans of music dont steal copyrights, they support the artists.”
Oh c’mon. I’m not saying everyone on Oink was innocent… not by a long shot. There’s no need to be such a bitch about it. What I am saying is that a lot of people spend all they can on music, & then they get the rest off of oink, whether it’s something obscure that they can’t otherwise find, something they never would’ve purchased to begin with, or something that they might purchase in a week or two if it’s good.
It’s really easy to stereotype the evil music pirate, but with something like Oink, it’s far more complicated than that. What ends up happening is that you make more enemies & LOSE MORE MONEY in the process.
Answer me this, honestly… would you rather the industry die based on principle, or return to health based on a compromise, with a renewed relationship with fans? …capitalizing on the most interest in music that there’s EVER BEEN. Is this a moral issue? Is this a legal issue? Is this an ego issue? Or is this about MUSIC?
I don’t know about you, but I live for music. Fuck everything else.
Committed fans support the artist? I should poll all of my favorite artists… ask them about those fat royalty checks coming in the mail. I mean… I’m absolutely sure they see those, right?
That should probably read “Committed fans support Clive Davis.”
I’m not saying “it’s totally cool to steal, since the singer in my favorite band won’t see a dime of my money,” but I AM saying your comment is bullshit.
You wanna talk about supporting the artists? Who do you think goes to shows? The 180,000 kids who use Oink, that’s who.
Comment by Jon Cole — October 25, 2007 @ 5:55 pm
Jon speaks the truth.
Comment by anonymous — October 26, 2007 @ 2:46 am
Sucks when the market changes, huh? This is like the reverse of when consumers bought their vinyl or cassette or whatever collections again when formats changed.
But, like with stealing cable from a black box, maybe enough lawsuits and scare tactics will work. Good luck.
Comment by Keith Freund — October 26, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
The scare tactics aren’t going to work. These users are far more savvy than the average Grokster user. If anything, the scare tactics will only serve to drive file sharing further underground, inspiring new services & users to go to further lengths to remain “more” anonymous. These are technological spheres wherein the RIAA is powerless. Ultimately they’re going to run people completely out of their own jurisdiction.
Without logs of the ip addresses, it is my humble estimation that the RIAA would have a tough time linking any information they received during the raids to any real people in court (donation info excluded). I don’t even think they’ll have a super easy time prosecuting Alan Ellis.
LITIGATION IS NOT THE ANSWER.
Comment by Jon Cole — October 26, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Yes, without the IP logs, the RIAA is fucked. But as previously stated, this entire investigation was amateurish anyway, since (almost) none of the statements made by the authorities are true (i.e. OINK members had to pay money to access the site).
Comment by anonymous — October 27, 2007 @ 10:37 am