The Battle for Media Rights

Apparently some internet users in America have rights after all - Verizon's to aid Hollywood against piracy meant a triumph for user privacy over big business bullying. Though the move was also partly out of self interest, the rejection sends a strong message to the major broadband, record, and film companies worried about piracy. Verizon's refusal to jump on the information gestapo bandwagon shows just how desperate and ruthless some of the media companies are, being in the possible twilight of their existence.

Many people in the major media industries are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their market share, control, and profits. The music industry seems to be sinking fastest, making multiple acts of desperation. Labels are already notorious for their attempts to use the RIAA to target college students for copyright infringement, seeking compensation far out of proportion from the crime, using subpoenas to force ISPs to expose their clients identities. Among their latest brilliant ideas, record companies have decided to push the RIAA to lobby to decrease the already offensive artist royalties. Nate Anderson explains:

the NMPA wants 15¢ per track for the songwriters (often split 50/50 between the songwriter and the music publisher), but the RIAA only wants to pay 5¢ or 6¢ a track. DiMA suggests paying even less.
For streaming music, the NMPA suggests that 12.5 percent of total revenue would be a fair payment, while the RIAA thinks that 0.58 percent would be appropriate. DiMA has suggested that songwriters don't actually deserve any mechanical royalties at all for streaming music, comparing the practice of streaming to radio and arguing that radio's "performance royalty" should be used instead.

Because of iTunes popularity, some record companies are even considering forming a large conglomeration. Greg Sandoval explains how such talks between large companies raises a few eyebrows:

Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment have received requests for information from the U.S. Department of Justice about a proposed music site called Total Music.

Whether its screwing the user, the artist, or other companies, these acts look like shameless last attempts at staying. All these attempts will probably be in vain because of the changing nature of the industry. It would be easier if some of these people would just face the facts: Nobody buys records or CDs anymore. Format is almost exlusively digital. Artists can write, produce, and finance an entire album with a personal computer. The only area left to infiltrate is promotion and sales. The record labels were too slow to digitize, so they lost their sales power, and with the internet, their promotional ability just isn't enticing anymore - there is just no space for major labels anymore, and there shouldn't be. These companies make their profits by exploiting somebody else's talent and claiming it as their own property.

Artists have been taken advantage of for far too long. Though this may mean fewer triple-platinum megabands on world tour, it helps ensure that musicians will maintain not only creative control - but rights as well - and hopefully fair compensation of royalties. The power of music should be put back in the hands of the artists, not the businessmen. Even Europe acknowledges some of these problems, attempting to extend music copyrights to 95 years.

The film companies aren't in quite the same position as the music industry, though they are still theatened by piracy. The music labels should be weary of Verizon's rejection, as it could have implications with the RIAA in the future. Broadband companies cannot become the policemen of the internet. In fact, this issue has major implications in the net-neutrality argument, being that precedents set here may affect or determine user's rights down the road.