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The Internet as medium is used from ever more humans. It offers meanwhile extensive information for everyone, open in addition, new ditches on the far field between artists, exploitation corporations, disk industry, publishing houses, trade and public. There are clear trends, the predictions that this global net could become the music market of the future. One finds nearly each music already now in the Internet of A such as ABBA to Z such as ZZ Top as free MP3-Download. MP3 - a format for the digital compression of music - makes the quick copying possible of audio files over the Internet. Apart from legal offers there is also an enormous number of pirat copies. These are easily accessible for everyone. Musicpirates offer the pieces on own providers, which are often taken after few days by the net, without the authorities would have time to undertake somewhat against it. Therefore the Internet Musikformat MP3 shifts the billions-worth music industry in fear and fright. One minute of non compressioned music occupies about ten megabyte of memory. In the MP3-Format the same music piece only one megabyte needs. If one burns MP3-Files on CD, one can accommodate thus on a blank contents from ten to twelve music CD. For the data compression of the MP3 of format the Psychoakustik supplies this science investigates ranges, which are not detectable with physical measuring methods. Thus among other things also the soundness is examined, whose subjective feeling deviates from volume measurements. By trained test listeners in lengthy hearing tests one tries to locate and later filter the frequencies, which are generally no longer perceptible for the human hearing. A MPEG Encoder, which produced file from an audio track a MP3 can, makes nothing different. Business-damaging for the disk industry is MP3, because with this procedure now each humans can convert and over the Internet of the whole world for the Download offer its favourite CD into handy audio files. Netpirates use this offer and cover themselves up free of charge with new music. A few mouseclicks are sufficient, and into minute-quick the desired Songs or complete albums rushes on the domestic non removable disk. Thus in the Internet long an active exchange of pirat copies developed. Music publishers requested the politicians to change copyright in such a way that the artists were not brought by a new technology around their existence. Press comments to the topic: Andrea Rothaug, press spokeswoman of the Federal association of the phonographischen economy, numbers the damage for the German disk publishers by the selling of illegal pirat copies over the Internet in the last year on 20 million Marks and expects for this year a damage of 40 million. Henrik Guemoes of EMI General Music means in addition: " if this in the Internet in the next years continues to spread, can soon none more from the music live and then makes none more music. " In a resolution at the annual general meeting of the German music association of publishers (DMV), he said, that music to the zero tariff meant the worst exploitation of authors, producers, artists and music publishers. If the digital music pirates are not stopped, threaten a " sellout that music variety in Germany ". Juergen Becker, member of the board of the GEMA means, the consequences of the " game stature " released by MP3 are however not only economical. The lawyer fears a " depletion of the culture ". If the work cannot be profitably marketed any longer, " then we extract the base of life from the creative ones. "
Some musicians use the new possibilities of MP3 While the music industry complains, new generation artists have every reason to the joy: owing to MP3 they can make with small cost their music in the Internet accessible for a broad public. The Beastie Boys e.g. from the outset used this possibility. Other well-known musicians lie in the Clinch with their disk firm, because they publish their music over the Internet. The reason is clear: the disk firms are afraid for their profits. The Rappmusiker Ice T means to the topic: " we are in a change and the future offer to new artists the chance to publish their music and to offer their music directly to the people, without they must make themselves by a disk contract to slaves."
The music industry, which sees itself threatened by MP3, makes meanwhile mobile, in order in " coordinated world-wide strategy " against the Internetpirates to proceed. One wants to proceed in relation to hundreds of Websites in 20 countries, in order to clean the Internet of a majority of the pirat copies and to smooth so the way for music firms and artists to offer their music electronically and legally in the whole world.
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) For this purpose becomes in different countries of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an international combination of the music industry, which is supported also by some artists, a " campaign for legal music accomplished in the Internet ". It is directed mainly against those, which illegaly to music files normally in the MP3-Format free of charge or against payment in weave for downloading offer, or against Internetproviders, those on warning letters to take such Websites of the net do not react. Alleged more than one million of robbery-copied music files are to be had in the Internet. The IFPI chairman Jay Perman wants to use the Internet together with artists and music producers, in order to obtain large music million of fans and buyers in the whole world. One must clear humans up over the fact that offering and downloading pirat copies do not leave the possibility to the artists of authorizing the use of their works. As the IFPI says, one goes out with the fact that the trade with music in the Internet will create in the next years a market of several billions dollar. Lately the IFPI could obtain the following successes: in Japan one sent 2037 illegal MP3-Dateien in this year already deleted, into South Korea of 80 letters at operators of Pirate Websites, whereby 65 per cent by them thereupon was closed. This was similar in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Italy the IFPI brought 535 Websites, in Sweden 1000, in Holland 100, in Great Britain 30, in Denmark 1000 and in Germany 500 Websites to reasoning and indicated in many countries besides operators of such Websites. The federation of the music industry deplores itself however also over the idle governments, that do not worry enough about the penetration of appropriate copyright laws and the protection from copyright injuries.
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) The combination of the American music enterprises (RIAA) created the "Secure Digital Music initiative " (SDMI ). With this initiative for protected digital music it goes around the development of a new standard for the sales from music over the Internet. SDMI is supported by large names in the industry, among them Strauss Zelnick, head of Bertelsmanns BMG Entertainment, Ken Berry of EMI Recorded Music, Thomas Mottolam of Sony Music Entertainment, Doug Morris of Seagram's Universal Music Group as well as Bob Daly and Terry Semel of Warner Brothers and the Warner Music Group. Likewise also of the portion numerous other large enterprises are such as America Online ones, AT&T, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Sony, and Toshiba. RIAA spokeswoman Alexandra Walsh described SDMI as a industrialfar initiative, in order to secure the copyright in the Internet. The new standard is to permit it to computer users to buy and download of the net music, whereby the stress on the word "sell" lies. Differently than with MP3 one will be able to manufacture no free duplications. Several employees of the RIAA surfen full-time by weave, always on the search for in copyright matters protected audio files.
Fraunhofer-Institut In the Fraunhofer-Institut for integrated circuits (IIS) in Erlangen/Germany are the specialists of the " Moving Picture Experts Group ", which devised substantial components of the " MPEG 1 Layer 3 " - in such a way the MP3-Format in full length is called -. Karl Heinz Brandenburg, it annoys the director of the Multimedia department, that MP3 made career so far primarily as tool for pirates. Therefore want it and its scientists now together with the Phonoindustry more effective safeguard mechanisms to develop, which permit it to spread music legally in the form of MP3.
Liquid Audio and A2B Liquid audio developed a digital water-mark for the protection of copyright. This water-mark notes, who downloaded the title of which weave Site. In addition liquid audio file only one copy can be made by one. Also A2B of the American phone company AT&T can book ever more market shares for itself. A2B contains a cryptoalgorithm, which guarantees that only that, which acquired a Song can play it. With the help of a license system the right owner can specify, how often a Song may be copied. Both liquid audio and A2B belong to the SDMI called by American disk firms in the life. They are however among themselves not compatible like MP3 Streaming able.
Phonographical industry Peter Zombik, chairman of the management of the Federal association of the Phonographical industry announced this yearly on the international medium forum Berlin Brandenburg in May: " we found a way to let the entrance to individual servers close directly ". The prototype of the "Right Protection Systems" was introduced to the representatives from different Ministries by the economic over the technology up to the restaurant economics. Technical details however not admits given. The Phonography industry employs a whole troop of survers, in order to locate the MP3-Server. For example it gives a Russian server over 200.000 stolen titles. One would know exactly, where the computer stands, however one cannot close, without putting on itself with the Russian Mafia. And in Germany the callableness of the files is not to be prevented. Zombik demands from the politicians to pull the Internetproviders for responsibility. The momentarily planned regulations in the revised guideline for the protection of the copyright are " sufficient " in this regard, since them forbid the accessproviders volatile copies. Thus it is gotten straight that the buffers, which make many Provider available for a quicker call of contents can fulfill already the facts of an illegal data communication. The Internet Society (ISOC) pointed out against it in March the European Union commission that a prohibition of the Caches of the Providers could break the backbone of the Internet.
MP3 and Radio Originally should MP3, which was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for integrated circuits (IIS), revolutionize all digital radio stations with format radio of the non removable disk. The mediamaker Johnny Haeusler, managing director of the Defcom Webdressing, which moderates the chaos radio with the Potsdamer youth transmitter Fritz among other things, regards MP3 as nothing different one than a partly useful, partly to the requirements for music of the normal fans not sufficient standard. Fritz places whole transmissions as quite legal MP3-Stream into the net. He wants the listener to get music on demand and wants to get MP3 out of this illegal field. The GEMA makes it however not easy for small radiostations to realize the step to the legal MP3-Use. 5 Marks for 30 seconds of MP3-Streaming the exploitation corporation wants to have momentarily still, licencing adequately, on other digital devices of transferable MP3-Files is still clearly more expensive.
It is the opinion of Richard Stallman, founder of the Free software Foundation and the GNU operating system, that it is a fine thing to spread music with MP3. He hopes that the people distribute many MP3-Tracks - whether it is legal now or not. The large problem with MP3 lies for him in the fact, that the technology is patented. Therefore one cannot make really free software for MP3. This situation can exist still 10 years after Stallmans opinion. In former times the disk firms were irreplaceable according to its opinion. Only over it many people could get music. At that time it was good that there were disk labels. After Stallmans opinion is that today no longer like that. For it the disk firms are today simple obstacles for the music spreading, and they are even bad for the musicians. In the USA receive most bands, which get disk contracts, no money. They get only publicity, because the disk firms regard expenses as a pre-payment to the band. And until the band do not sell the sufficient copies, in order to bring in these publicity costs, they receive no money. Most make not so much money and therefore never receive a Cent from their copyright. Stallman thinks, that the labels would rob us our liberty in the name of the musicians, who exploit it and we might accept this suppression not longer, but would have our liberty to publish music again. If it were possible to drive accurate copies out of pieces with a clear indication of the name of the band and their Website, those band would get more publicity than now by the labels. The band would live better than in the current system, since they could sell CD or downloadable pieces over their own Site. Actually everybody would make profit - but not the labels.
MP3 creates new online music labels Michael Robertson, the head of MP3.com maintains on its Site a proper propaganda campaign for MP3 as online audio format of the future: He sees the consumers " in the stranglehold " from few established labels, which would have divided the market under itself. Robertson wants in a new kind to help of promoting undiscovered talents and of supporting it with CD-production and -selling. Over its new online label " Digital Automatic Music " (D.A.M.) provides it for musicians a free internal baptizing ride with MP3.com. There they can offer samples of their music as MP3-Files and sell CDs. D.A.M. produces, sells and dispatches the CD and takes for it half of the incomes, which the band gains in this way. Contrary to the traditional labels D.A.M. requires no marketing rights of the groups however, so that the musicians can quit the agreement at any time problem-free. With this concept Robertson wants to help bands, who are not lifted with worth millions marketing budgets of the music industry into the Charts. In the meantime already a well-known size of the Pop business booked its place at MP3.com, the "Beastie Boys". That large label Platinum Entertainment spreads likewise MP3-Files over the Internet. Over MP3.com pieces of graduation are available for the free Download. Platinum wants to promote the Internet sales of its CDs. Steve Devick, head of Platinum Entertainment means in addition: "during other labels MP3 still see as a controversial format, we see it as a meaningfull promotion medium". The interesting thing is, that the label itself is member of the RIAA, thus the combination of the American music enterprises, which fight against the MP3-Format with the " Secure digitally Music initiative " (SDMI).
Download-music of "Goodnoise" The online label "Goodnoise" also offers whole albums or individual songs as MP3-Files. Fans can download Songs on the computer, if they have a credit card. The price is 99 cents per Song or 8.99 dollar for the whole album. The label takes advantage of thereby a crucial advantage of the online music selling: Who wants to hear only certain music pieces, the whole album does not need to buy, the purchase threshold sinks - the costs of distribution completely.
MP3 Association In order to promote the MP3-propagation, " Goodnoise " united with the firms diamoon Multimedia, Xing Technology, MP3.com and Musicmatch to the " MP3 Association ". The large coalition was written on the flags to establish MP3 as standard format for Download music.
China and MP3 In China it will give a first MP3-Website officially recognized by a government for downloading music files. The Chinese culture Ministry plans in a joint venture with China Culture Information Net, which Investmentorganisation Hainan Dingshen and the American firm Houston InterWeb weave the mechanism of a commercial Website, on which Chinese musicians can offer their music files for free downloading in the MP3-Format. A goal of the Website, which it will give first on English and later on Chinese, is, to promote the Chinese music and create new marketing forms. They began to develop a data base with classical pieces and folksongs.
Digital cultural property The Internet can be quite compared with radio or television. Despite video and audio tracks probably importantly fewer CDs and records were not sold. In our knowledge company, which is governed by the attention of humans, publications are part of success. In the reason it is nevertheless like that: which one does not know and on which one did not become attentive, one does not buy it. In addition nobody wants to manufacture everything itself, but also want to buy products manufactured, if this stands in appropriate relation to the available time and the income. It is also not like that one constantly find everywhere in the net robbery-copied Top Ten hits. And finally it always gave pirat copies. It is really new at MP3 that for the first time a selling way for music is not controlled directly by the industry. So artists can create new sales ways themselves, in order to sell or even give away their music at own prices. Innovative music trends generally develop off the normal utilization chains. The RIAA dreams however still about its own Internetstandard secured in their sense, instead of taking up the so far only standard MP3, while the hardware firms quite see the business for instance in the form of MP3-Players. The proponents of the SMDI standard want to require of hardware and software producers that they build a kind time bomb, which one can release into their products if the SDMI standard is realized, in order to prevent a downloading and a playing of Songs not compatible with this standard. Which manufacturer refuses itself inserting this possibility of switching will have no entrance to the SDMI specifications and also to the music produced by the large companies. In the USA and some other countries there is no free software for MP3, because one threatened to 1998 American developers, that had written free MP3-Programme, with a patent complaint, so that they were forced to withdraw these programs. Some of them are now in Europe available. A software patent system after American model is to be introduced also to Europe. If the European patent office makes the planned changes, it could also be here like in the United States, because those states, which prepare the permission of patenting mathematical computation methods are standing behind the European patent office. The conzentration of the music market (4 disk firms have already now together a world market portion of approximately 80%) stands in the contradiction to the interest in market variety like the experiences with the decentralization and release of creativity to the music industry. In view of the consequence of this conflict drawing here the urgent necessity for compensatory political basic conditions becomes obvious. A balance must be created for the different interests. The protection need of the right owners and the public interest in free entrance to the culture are to be weighed. I would like to end with a quotation of Mercedes Bunz, published on the 21.04.2000 at Telepolis: "MP3 is far more than simply a compression procedure for sound. It can be used as example of how is gone around with digital cultural property in the future of the net. Because one is safe: Already soon, with increasing range and still better compression procedures, all digitalizeable cultural formats will hunt through the net. The cross-linking of the culture, the cross-linking of all digitalizeable information finds therefore in the context of the decisions around MP3 and music in the net its beginning." |