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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1689
CD Piracy: Now it's UPS-Net
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
February 13th 2003
>From sneaker-net to the postal service.
Your next ripped, mixed and burnt CD may not arrive via LimeWire. Now it's more likely
to be delivered by your friendly postal worker, says a story in the San Jose Mercury.
Music swapping on the net seems to have been around for eons. But the old
'share-a-tape' mentality is back: this time in the form of music lovers mailing mixed
CDs to each other.
Here's how it works: a bunch of people - maybe a baker's dozen - who either know each
other personally, or via the net, delegate one person per month to make a mixed CD and
mail it out to everyone.
"You know, it was great,'' says Bernard, a Bostonian quoted in the story. "I'm not
going out to get the entire Don Ho box set or anything, but it was a refreshing
exposure to music that I wouldn't necessarily go out and look for.'"
But how do the music industry react to this? Anti-piracy chief, Frank Creighton, who
works for the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), doesn't think it's so
great.
"t would be naive of us to say that we should allow that type of activity," says
Creighton in the Mercury story.
The mixers argue that bands which normally wouldn't get a lot of exposure receive a
lot of circulation this way, at minimal cost to them. Promotional opportunity for
artists? Yes, says one lawyer involved in lobbying against restrictions on consumers'
use of digital media. He's even a 'mixer' himself.
Mix sites are big as well. ArtoftheMix has 37,000 mixes. This isn't unlawful, of
course, as they're merely suggestions. Of course, it's perfectly fair use to mix CD
tracks from your own collection.
Analysis: ArtoftheMix isn't bad, although we're sure the RIAA, if pressed, would argue
it encourages piracy (i.e., puts actual ideas into people's heads). It's difficult to
see which way the music industry is heading; will they copy-protect all CDs? Some
labels have been burnt by consumers boycotting music CDs which won't play or rip on
their PCs. Some even jammed in slot-load iMac CD drives. So far, at least, the music
industry seem to be losing this one. But don't expect them to take it lying down for
too long.
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