According to the HRRC, a new lawsuit brought by the recording industry's bulldog, the RIAA, is treating law-abiding consumers as "pirates" and violating the implied promise that they would not go after consumers who rip their own recordings for personal use. At the heart of the lawsuit is a new device released by XM Satellite Radio, the Inno, which allows consumers to record the programming broadcast over its network.
The RIAA seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by consumers onto the Inno. The suit is roundly being attacked as a desperate and evil move by an industry association that has already placed itself on everyone's most-hated list. The most succinct analysis, though, comes from Mike at Techdirt: "this is about the recording industry looking to squeeze more money out of a dying business model rather than recognizing these new services help make the recording industry's product much more valuable."
Either way, this could be very critical for XMSR (and similar products that Sirius might have in development) if it's taken at all seriously by the courts. The stock is down $0.12 in intraday trading, which saw the stock dip to its 52-week low, to $16.50, after a relatively huge drop yesterday.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-18-2006 @ 10:54PM
Sirius David said...
I listened to XMSR Prez yesterday (Wed. 5/17) on MSNBC after the bell along with a rep from the recording industry. What my take on the whole issue is this: the profit-per-song recorded is actually going way down, due primarily to the $.99 model from Apple's ITunes and other download services. Gone are the days we are forced to spend $15.00 or more for a compilation of songs to accompany the song we are only interested in. It's unfortunate that the recording industry has maintained the need for "albums" or lengthy CD's of unwanted filler material from here-today, gone-tomorrow "artist-of-the-month", rather than responding to what the marketplace is asking for, namely, the $.99 song download.
As far as XM goes, seems that the company is making one mistake after another which is not only hurting its own market value, but sadly, pulling down it's competitor, Sirius, too. While Sirius decided to negotiate this "problem" away back in March, so as to NOT be in a shake-down position with the recording mafia, XM has taken a more adamant stance, and shall now pay dearly for not acquiecing to "the man". This sort of "double-dipping" by the recording industry--Satellite Radio already pays a royalty for broadcasting music--is reminicent of the double-taxation we all feel when our earnings or income is taxed multiple times, thereby reducing our gross to a measly net. I certainly hope the recording industry meatheads will finally come to the realization that they can no longer offer to the marketplace, the fat of unwanted tracks on albums/CD's to a new audience who watches it's fat intake and prefers fine cuts of entertainment over bulk crap. If the idea of paying a monthly fee for music hasn't already hit the recording industry square in the face vs. paying more than a monthly fee for a lousy CD/album, then I think it's time for the whole industry to take a ride into the sunset, where the Satellites are seen rising in the western sky! As an investor in SatRad stocks, these pesky legal matters serve only to delay the inevitable--namely, the death of terrestrial radio as we know it, with it's unbearable commercial interruptions, useless repetitive playlists, and undue influence by recording industry punks who have no idea what the market is clamouring for.
My guess is that technology will replace many of the big labels as more and more musicians and songwriters will write, produce and distribute their product independent of the bigboys using portable, PC and Mac-based recording studios. These "indy" efforts will prove to be more enjoyable than the cookie-cutter approach to mass-marketing of musical entertainment currently being pushed on the listening public by the big labels. And, when these "indies" figure out how to negotiate with the SatRad players directly, then, and only then, will we begin to see the end of the undue influence these dinasaurs have enjoyed since the beginning of vinyl recordings.
What do you say?