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The Internet has lowered the barriers of entry for Netizens by serving as a cheap pipeline that the average Joe with nothing but a PC, some software and Web access could leverage to reach an audience the record industry has to spend millions to access. Barriers so low that a company like Napster sprang up out of the mind and garage of a teenager to grab an audience of 70 million. Barriers so low that high school student can create radio stations with a worldwide listenership, something out of reach for terrestrial stations due to the technical limitations of radio waves. The entertainment can't allow such a thing to continue. That is because cheap and easy distribution of media devalues the obsolete distribution methods they make their fortunes on.
The Internet has lowered the barriers of entry for Netizens by serving as a cheap pipeline that the average Joe with nothing but a PC, some software and Web access could leverage to reach an audience the record industry has to spend millions to access. Barriers so low that a company like Napster sprang up out of the mind and garage of a teenager to grab an audience of 70 million. Barriers so low that high school student can create radio stations with a worldwide listenership, something out of reach for terrestrial stations due to the technical limitations of radio waves.
The entertainment can't allow such a thing to continue. That is because cheap and easy distribution of media devalues the obsolete distribution methods they make their fortunes on.
MLB.com featured its first so-called Webcast, of the Yankees-Rangers contest, on Aug. 26. The game was available live to all but people who lived in the teams' local television markets. That Webcast, which attracted 30,000 viewers, was free, but the site will charge fans beginning with tonight's contest between the Oakland A's and the Anaheim Angels. Live sports Webcasts have gained some momentum in recent weeks, as FoxSports.com announced late last month an online broadcasting agreement in college sports with one of the N.C.A.A.'s biggest conferences, the Big 12. Still, league and Internet executives are quick to caution that these efforts are not worth shouting about, at least yet. ... Notably, MLB.com protected the rights of local TV broadcasters by encrypting the transmission to prevent piracy, while also blocking viewers in the Yankees and Rangers home markets. The site verified each user's address by asking for credit card information, and by executing spot checks of users' so-called Internet protocol addresses — the numeric identifiers for the network-hub computers through which users connect to the Internet. For broadband Internet users, those addresses can reliably yield geographic information, Mr. Bowman said.
MLB.com featured its first so-called Webcast, of the Yankees-Rangers contest, on Aug. 26. The game was available live to all but people who lived in the teams' local television markets. That Webcast, which attracted 30,000 viewers, was free, but the site will charge fans beginning with tonight's contest between the Oakland A's and the Anaheim Angels.
Live sports Webcasts have gained some momentum in recent weeks, as FoxSports.com announced late last month an online broadcasting agreement in college sports with one of the N.C.A.A.'s biggest conferences, the Big 12. Still, league and Internet executives are quick to caution that these efforts are not worth shouting about, at least yet.
... Notably, MLB.com protected the rights of local TV broadcasters by encrypting the transmission to prevent piracy, while also blocking viewers in the Yankees and Rangers home markets. The site verified each user's address by asking for credit card information, and by executing spot checks of users' so-called Internet protocol addresses — the numeric identifiers for the network-hub computers through which users connect to the Internet. For broadband Internet users, those addresses can reliably yield geographic information, Mr. Bowman said.
You’d think the record companies would love Internet tunes—instead they’re trying to kill them ...So why are the record labels taking such a hard line? My guess is that it’s all about protecting their Internet-challenged business model. Their profit comes from blockbuster artists. If the industry moved to a more varied ecology, independent labels and artists would thrive—to the detriment of the labels, which would have trouble rustling up the rubes to root for the next Britney. The smoking gun comes from testimony of an RIAA-backed economist who told the government fee panel that a dramatic shakeout in Webcasting is “inevitable and desirable because it will bring about market consolidation.”
You’d think the record companies would love Internet tunes—instead they’re trying to kill them
...So why are the record labels taking such a hard line? My guess is that it’s all about protecting their Internet-challenged business model. Their profit comes from blockbuster artists. If the industry moved to a more varied ecology, independent labels and artists would thrive—to the detriment of the labels, which would have trouble rustling up the rubes to root for the next Britney. The smoking gun comes from testimony of an RIAA-backed economist who told the government fee panel that a dramatic shakeout in Webcasting is “inevitable and desirable because it will bring about market consolidation.”
The 39-year-old McLeod, a game designer who works out of his home in England, is the author of Streamer, a new software program designed to let people create online radio stations that are difficult for the authorities to trace. ...Then there's the underground path. The technological pieces are falling into place for a pirate radio scene that flies in the face of industry's enforcement efforts, much as file swappers have done for years.
The 39-year-old McLeod, a game designer who works out of his home in England, is the author of Streamer, a new software program designed to let people create online radio stations that are difficult for the authorities to trace.
...Then there's the underground path. The technological pieces are falling into place for a pirate radio scene that flies in the face of industry's enforcement efforts, much as file swappers have done for years.
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