Reiki Music. Video Marketing

Piracy on the Internet is a serious issue!

It is extremely wide spread and many people don’t even think it is wrong.

Most parents don’t know that their children have illegally downloaded thousands of pounds worth of music, breaking international copyright laws.

And “Playground file trading” of MP3s between phones is common place. This isn’t just lending a album to a mate for a day to see if they like it, this is out and out “intellectual property shop lifting”.

Whilst their is a whole universe of copyright free, open source, or freeware music out there, from artists “who just want to be heard“, and don’t even want money for it even if you offered it to them on a plate, these aren’t the files being shared. The popular stuff, is well, “popular”. So it’s from major label artists, and things like celebrity hip-hop artists. And whilst they may rap about the people and the streets and the “badz o’thor’ati”, they still want to “get money for their shit” so they can buy more fast cars, swimming pools, whores, drugs and bling”. And being a capitalist pig (aka a business man) I respect that

It’s hard to put a figure on adult activities of piracy. I think one of Microsoft’s projections a few years back was 30% of all copies in use were illegal. I think the real figure is more like 1,000%. i.e. only 1 in 10 copies in use ARE legal. Many homes have several PCs and even multiple laptops these days, and I doubt more than 100 people have ever actually read the license agreement and think a purchase is house hold wide and transferable from work to home, their friends home, their relations home, and the dogs friends home.

Obviously I am not including YOU in this equation. You are probably one of the 2% who doesn’t have a single ringtone, MP3, software program, television program, copied DVD, or license running on more machines than it should be. Is time shift recording TV programs legal now? Really?

And obviously you don’t even have children, so you don’t even need to know what’s on their PC. Hey why is their PC password protected and who is the Instant Chat message which just popped up from Cat Pappa Luv Buster about anyway? Oh OK that’s another story. May be it’s a school project about loosing your virginity…

But back the Virgin Mafia Media Empire…

AFAIK previous rulings have said that ISPs and forums and other facilitators of where people can meet and “do” content can not be held responsible for the actions of their members. Only that they need to do what they can (i.e. say please don;t) and to “act” once they do know. Hence why nobody really wants to know about infringements.

Look at how Google owned You Tube handles Copyright. They rely on user or copyright owner reports to police it and then IF ASKED, they will take it down. Ebay are similar, but will only believe the copyright holders who have faxed in the form. Erm yeah good luck with that.

Sure, on a thing of that scale, it would be almost impossible to police it. Having an editor review each submission would kill it with lead times, and assume that they can even tell if something is copyright anyway. I mean how many German fringe films have they seen?

They do seem to have extended that argument and don’t even cream the most obvious stuff (like Hollywood block busters and top 10 chart music videos) off of their roster. But that is what they have chosen to do. They’ve had to pay for that occasionally (in damages) but presumably they must earn more from the advertising on the traffic, than in cleaning up the mess afterwards.

Does that mean there is more money in advertising next to a search utility for illegal files, than their is in being the copyright owner of the original media?

Google’s YouTube seems to do nothing about user education. I’m not sure there even is a notice (or confirmation tick box) about “please do not upload stuff that isn’t your copyright”. Is there?

But despite this serous issue and the need for education, or more probably the need for a solution, Virgin Mafia Media seem to be putting their usual inept foot in it.

They already have a heavy handed policy to stop heavy downloaders, doing almost anything in peak periods between 4pm and 10pm I think it was. I believe it is 100MB during those 6 hours. So that isn’t even 1 episode of Dr Who from (the legal) BBC iPlayer then. So basically only email and web “page” surfing for 6 hours then. So you may have 10MB of download spreed, but you can’t use it for most of your leisure time. Hmm!

And this week Virgin Mafia Media have decided to continue the second phase of activity and made an example of 800 of their subscribers and sent them a letter, asking them to kindly stop file sharing music. They’d have more luck trying to find the 800 of their user base, who do NOT file share and thanking them. Hell give them a gratis CD, or how about a gold DVD off of Ebay of 4000 MP3s? Oh! no!

“Virgin Media has renewed its calls for its subscribers to stop downloading music on file sharing sites. The media company has sent around 800 letters to customers warning them about using file-sharing sites.” it was reported in the press.

Virgin Mafia Media are the only UK ISP (so far) to join with the heavy handed BPI (a body which represents a minority of Record Labels – the major labels). Virgin stated that the 10 week direct mail campaign aims to “educate” consumers about illegal downloading.

The BPI wants all UK ISPs to sign up to its “three strikes policy” (where users of file sharing networks get two warnings and then get banned off the network). Virgin Mafia Mediat stresses it is only an educational campaign and that no subscribers have been banned (yet).

Meanwhile, the beleaguered Carphone Warehouse (also phones and media like Virgin) have so far refused to participate in the BPI’s scheme and the BPI (in their usual chummy approach) have “not ruled out the possibility of taking it to court if it refuses to join the scheme”.

There are a lot of issues here. There may never be a solution.

But do Virgin care about their customers? Almost certainly not.

Is this a campaign to do the right thing, or seen to be doing the right thing.

As a previous record label themselves and a company which also sells ring tones and mp3 downloads, and charge for subscription TV, are they protecting their own interests the interests of everyone, or the interests of no one?

Is this the best approach they can come up with?

Why did they pick on 800 people. How did they target them. They must just be heavy downloaders then? Who are already capped between 4 and 10pm anyway. So what is goign on?

If they continue to break the law and ISP’s rules, will they get banned. Will they report them to the police? How do they know “what” these people are doing?

Are they actually spying on the data itself? Or is just any one with an open port for Bit Torrent? And if that was so, how do they know they aren’t sharing LEGAL music, like freeware, or major artists who have decided to give away certain tracks (like more did recently.)

So who is big brother? Who makes the rules? Who are Virgin trying to impress?

Certainly not their own customers!

If they really wanted to “educate”, why not tell EVERY BODY. Why not make it an “awareness” campaign? Why not find a way to offer value to everyone over this issue?

Perhaps because they just want to pick on a handful and make an example of them and lower any strain on their own resources in the process. Have our powerful network, but please don’t actually use it…

The beauty of corporate politics?

Sure we can’t expect Virgin to solve the issue single handed. They are certainly not that clever.

But we can rely on Virgin Mafia Media to act in a half baked, badly thought through PR stunt. Hey why not stick it on a balloon?

Yes and strangely my own label has never joined the BPI…

Hands up all those who will sign up with Virgin Media as their broadband ISP now?

And the best reason will be that Virgin Mafia Media, will never ASK what their existing customers think about this, because they don’t really want to know.

Virgin Media equals Corporate Apathy. But who cares? Virgin don’t!