Stating the obvios, computer scientists working for Microsoft say that its impossible to stop filesharing

[Czar]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2502399.stm

In essence, say the researchers, file-swapping systems have already won. The only way for music companies to compete is on the same terms by making music easy to get hold of and cheap to buy.

Evidence gathered by critics of the music industry has shown that CD prices have steadily risen over the past few years and may have contributed to the slump in sales as much as the rise of file-swapping systems.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

There's always hope that MS will give up on Palladium ...

- M4H

 

[GoodToGo]

Ya I hope they dont make Palladium. Otherwise I will have to start learning Linux.

 

[Cuda1447]

Palladium? Brief summary of what exactly that is please? Im imagine something to do with security and stopping P2Ping.

 

[Lonyo]

Finally people are realising that it's CD;s becoming crapper that has made them less popular. There was a time when a CDsingle has the original track, the radio edit, a remix or two and a B-side or two, possibly with a remix, sometimes 6 tracks for £4, rather than 3 tracks for £4 (in the UK at least). CD singles are certainly much worse now than they used to be. Albums that are only 44 minutes or so are also poor, especially when the songs sound the same (I mean on the album, but quite a lot of artists sound the same as well!).

The Prodigy once had an album that had too much time on it! They had to shorten it to about 77 mins, then I go out into shops a few years later and buy, say 3 albums, and get about 45 minutes on each. Its the artists, not the users and filesharers that need to buck up their ideas. I may share some files, but I recently bought 3 Nightwish albums, only because I was able to hear their songs, and indeed find out anything about them, through the internet. If an artist is good, I buy the proper media as well as having it on my computer, but if a song sucks, I may download it, but that doesn't mean they lose money, because I wouldn't have bought the CD cos it wouldn't be worth it.


Not only that, but with some CD's I'm more likely to download songs, even if I would like to buy the album, simply because ym computer speakers are better than my poxy stereo, and I won't be able to listen to a copy protected CD through my computer., so I download it so I can. In some ways these measures are making it worse (for people like me at least)

 

[KeyserSoze]

Originally posted by: Cuda1447
Palladium? Brief summary of what exactly that is please? Im imagine something to do with security and stopping P2Ping.

A really quick Google Search brought this up. But there's plenty of sites on it.


Palladium






KeyserSoze

 

[mithrandir2001]

The music industry will have to learn that the ballgame is different now and they can't cower beyond copyright laws to get their way. What they want (Lock everything up with DRM, sit on their @sses and let the revenues flow in until infinity) is not what consumers want (Music now and on any device) and consumers rule. If the industry wants their sales figures to increase again they need to provide a more appealing value proposition, whether that means reduced prices for pressed CDs or added bonus content.

Consumers use P2P because they can acquire content that they could never afford to buy outright. I don't think file sharers are trying to be complete thieves but basically the music industry hasn't given them a pathway to affordable, very-low variable cost music acquisition. It's one thing if pirates are duplicating physical CDs and liner notes and passing them as genuine product but I think it's quite another if people freely send compressed sound files around.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: Czar
Stating the obvios, computer scientists working for Microsoft say that its impossible to stop filesharing

Are you sure they aren't rocket scientists?

 

[wolf papa]

There's also a lot of music that was released on vinyl LP years ago, that was never released on CD, or briefly released but now out of print. Maybe not enough profit to satisfy the music companies.

 

[coolVariable]

They will probably impose a royalty on computers. (like they do on VCRs, CD-Burners, CD-Rs, ....).
And to be honest that is okay with me.

 

[tcsenter]

Stating the obvios, computer scientists working for Microsoft say that its impossible to stop filesharing

This is essentially an empty and meaningless statement. It is like a panel of top criminologists coming to the conclusion that "its impossible to eliminate crime from society". Of course, but "elimination" isn't the realistic goal, not in practice or theory. Reduction is the goal, and so to with piracy and file sharing.

Can you "stop" it? Hell no, and no one entertains any delusions that they can. The goal is to reduce file sharing and piracy, not 'eradicate' it.

The only realistic way to reduce it is to up the technical difficulty involved in circumvention to a level where the average computer-using individual isn't going to bother with the time and effort it requires to circumvent the protection or learn how, even if technically savvy computer users are able to.