Peer-meme, a daily gathering of news and commentary on the copyright wars and the file-sharing world.
Enigmax / Torrentfreak
UN: Disconnecting File-Sharers Breaches Human Rights
United Nations Human Rights Council set to approve report that finds laws allowing governments to disconnect Internet users for file-sharing to be disproportionate. Surprising to see something like this from the UN, but does provide further ammunition against 3-Strikes laws like HADOPI in France.
Owen Good / Kotaku
Capcom: ‘We Got it Wrong’ on PC Super Street Fighter DRM
Game publisher Capcom admits that DRM on their recent game Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition served to only degrade the legitimate users’ experience, while doing nothing to stop infringing. Of course they should have known that before hand, but still, progress.
Ana Garcia / Wall Street Journal
Spain to Clamp Down on File-Sharers
Report on the Spanish government, pressured by artist unions, is planning to pass new legislation to crack down on file-sharing sites, most notoriously Rojadirecta.es which is currently legal according to local courts. Of course, since Rojadirecta is not solely based in Spain anymore, it’s hard to see how effective any legislation is likely to be.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt
Lady Gaga Says $0.99 Albums Make Sense, Especially For Digital
Regardless of one’s opinion of Lady Gaga’s musical talents, there is no doubt she and her management team are extremely successful marketers, seemingly able to employ every avenue, both new and old, to bring her fans and revenue. As the recent Amazon $0.99 sale of her album demonstrated, she is very pragmatic about the role selling digital recordings plays in her overall business model. She, unlike so many of her peers, recognizes that there are many, many different ways to monetize the connection she has made with her fans, beyond just trying to sell such easily-copied items such as .MP3’s.
Chris Castle / Music Tech Policy Blog
Google’s Selective Human Rights Advocacy on the Protect IP Act
A self-proclaimed “creator maximalist,” Castle joins in the criticism leveled by the content-owning industries against Google and the allied public interest groups who have also attacked the COICA/PIPA legislation. Castle accuses Google of profiting wildly from piracy, and insinuates that the EFF and PK are merely front groups for the tech companies that also supposedly make money off the back of artists. It’s a silly argument, especially considering how poorly the MPAA and RIAA have served independent artists historically, but Castle is not alone in making it. From everything I’ve seen, Google does not make much, at all, from ads on infringing sites, and the sites themselves are far from lucrative, but are almost entirely done out of passion. File-lockers may be different though, I will admit.
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