Monday, April 4, 2011

Amazon's Cloud vs. the RIAA

Last week's "Next Big Thing" was Amazon's Cloud, and it's offer to freely host not only 5 GB of anything, but also all of the music you buy from Amazon (which doesn't count towards the 5 GB).  The idea is that you can access the "Cloud" from anywhere, on anything (that provides basic Internet access).  Sounds great, and something that can help foster the transition from a focus on owning physical copies of content, to a concern with being able to access your legally-acquired content when and where you prefer.  It also reflects an alternative approach to copyright for music that's been floating around - again from an emphasis on rights being only associated with owning a physical copy, to owning rights to access and use content (with or without DRM).
If you're familiar with US Copyright law, and Court decisions on "fair use," there's nothing wrong with Amazon's offer (which is similar to the permanent hosting Amazon provides for books you buy from its Kindle bookstore).  You've paid your licensing fee when you buy the music, and you're exercising your "fair use" rights to time-shift, place-shift, and device-shift your use of the content you own.
The recording industry, instead of embracing a technology that would encourage sales (Amazon's making its music sales more valuable by providing an added-value service), is reacting predictably - threatening to sue Amazon, and presumably its customers as well (after all, if Amazon is making music available in a way they don't have a specific license for, then you're also violating your license by making an "illegal" copy when streaming from the Cloud to your device).  The record industry claims to be concerned with the potential of these "cloud lockers" for online piracy (i.e., you "sharing" your content with others), and arguing that you only have those rights to content that they're willing to give you.  But it's more likely they think that a "cloud license" could generate millions, if not billions, of dollars well into the future that might help to prop up an old-line music industry that's seeing revenues decline from recent poor sales..
I guess that what happens when you don't do a good job creating content that people want to buy at prices they're willing to pay - you try to create new "rights" you can force others to pay so you can keep your industry afloat and unchanged.

Source: "Music Industry Will Force Licenses on Amazon Cloud Player - Or Else," Wired

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