Internet service providers AT&T and Comcast have confirmed their participation in a program designed to curb music piracy by sending warning letters to subscribers suspected of illegally uploading music to file-sharing networks. Their involvement was announced at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville.
Both described the partnership as a “trial” to test the reaction of customers to such warnings. AT&T senior executive VP of external and legislative affairs Jim Cicconi and Comcast VP of external affairs and public policy Joe Waz explained their involvement as a “graduated response” strategy, with no commitment at this time to actually deactivate the accounts of violating subscribers.
Last year, the RIAA announced it would cease litigation against individual file-sharers in favor of this new strategy. At the time, the RIAA did not announce any participants and no ISPs would confirm their involvement – causing some to wonder whether ISP’s planned to cooperate. In October 2008, Cox Communications joined the effort by sending similar notifications, warning subscribers it may “temporarily disable” accounts if copyrighted files are shared illegally.
Whether the anti-piracy plan may work to curb some music piracy, it is unlikely all will heed the warnings or will indeed be caught. Many now believe music should be free and feel no guilt in sharing music with others across the world. At some point, the music industry will not be able to rely on unit sales of music as the main source of income. In the meantime, touring revenue continues to climb. There is still no way to truly pirate the live experience. But the business of live entertainment could be better.
Enter ArtistForce. Whether you are an emerging artist or established industry professional, you can locate venues or talent, make inquiries, negotiate offers, develop contracts, manage bookings, and more. All of the solutions offered by ArtistForce are available on a simple, web-based platform. ArtistForce.com acts as an end-to-end booking solution for the live entertainment industry. No plan may defeat piracy, but ArtistForce is here to keep live entertainment strong!
Click here to read more on the RIAA Anti-Piracy Plan.
Obama administration to aid RIAA in squeezing artists and fans dry | modernsextrash says:
[...] maynard says it best, “learn to swim.” with all the industries money being burned up on another tactic to scare consumers into purchasing music, where will the finances come from to help the artist [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 11:22 am