News Irish ISPs to block music-sharing websites

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2009/02/23/irish-isps-to-block-piracy-websites/1

IRMA tells ISPs to block piracy hotspots or face legal action.

 

call it the conspiracy theorist in me but isnt it funny this happens after U2's new album leaks

 

the music biz is dead and dying. Blaming Piracy is only a part of the problem. the bigger problem lies in flagging sales due to the overabundance of music available and the simple fact that people don't want to pay 179SEK (15 euro) for an album any more, regardless of the band.
With the advent of all the music sites like Spotify Last.fm, Pandora and so on, music sales is only going to decline further as ppl see no need to purchase an album when they can listen to it free and legal as well.

Blocking ISP's is too big brother for me. And making TPB the target is just pointing fingers. Google accomplishes the same thing as TPB, just add +torrent to any search and there you are. I'd like to see the Irish ban Google. . .

 

Another silly case. Make music cheap enough that doesn't have copyright protection on it and no-one will bother pirating. The cost of legally distributing music online is so cheap that it definitely is the future, but it needs to be available is lossless format, without restriction and cost about £5 an album and sales figures would balloon. Look at the figures valve just published about steam, reduced prices and easy to use/no copy protection leads to massively increased post sale revenue.

 

Surely these measures can be bypassed by using proxies?

 

Sounds legally questionable to me, having access to a site blocked because it allows access to copyrighted material, youre not breaking any laws if youre just viewing the site and not downloading anything, then there's the non copyrighted material that's also available throught the site thats being blocked.
All sounds a bit dodgy

 

thats what i was going to ask, would a proxie be able to by pass this?

i really really dont think this will happen.

let artists make money from actually preforming not spending a day in a recording studio a year. go out a play live for a living ffs

 

eircom are losing enough customers as it is without bringing this in

 

Artist don't make the majority of their money from record sales anyways. Concerts, that's where the big money for them is. Heck, RHCP got 1 million Euro for their 2 concerts at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park 2006 or 2007. 2 performances in 2 days, 1 million... that's money, not 5-10p per CD.

 

they are going to loose so many clients that it will make their ass hurt... that and the fact that this can be bypassed by proxies...

 

TORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTORTOR

 

Give me a fast legal site where I can download an album for less than a fiver as mp3's with no DRM and I would buy alot more albums.

 

Have you looked at Amazons mp3 site its not bad and for some albums quite cheap.

 

Albums can be bought for next to nothing second hand on amazon ~£3-4. I buy a lot of music at this price, I also research my purchases before spending my hard earned cash. From my point of view, file sharing is an excellent 'try-before-you-buy' and dictates what I will and won't pay money for. Youtube is also invaluable.
I can't be the only person who thinks that the music industry is out to remove our ability to sift the rubbish by removing our ability to try first. A business model which focuses on trying to take information away from the consumer is always going to face an uphill struggle. Why not adapt and survive rather than go to war with your consumers?

 

Because that would be sensible, and less profitable in their eyes. From their perspective they have a monopoly and therefore "should" be able to dictate the price and we "should" have to pay it. Unfortunately piracy has always had a market share, its just that in recent times the internet has made this share bigger and old companies are unwilling to accept this.

 

SO we'll be seeing more irish newsgroupers then...

 

I love Irish bands. I live in Austin TX "Music Capital of The World". (No flaming,... Just what its called) I could go downtown right now midday listen to a group or musician, we even have bands that play live in our grocery stores "Whole Foods". I could pick up 20 free sample albums in no time and if I wanted to buy someones album it would probably be around $5. Most of the music is pure talent, and in my opinion better than mainstream with a hook. The bands make most of their money playing gigs and have large followings that buy their cheap albums. I've played in bars and coffee shops (For fun) have a website to download for free. A few of my family have their bands and are more serious, and make their money from gigs and 99c downloads as well as freebies.
I believe this is happing everywhere. The whole system of an agent, MTV marketing videos, record Label, expensive recording studios is being booted out the door here. You can go to a recording studio here and rent out a studio for $40 or less an hour and produce some Pro quality stuff.
The industry is changing and the rich cannot keep a hold on it. Its a freedom that needs to be embraced.

Take Radiohead for example: Their last album was a great marketing strategy they let people download their last album for free and asked for donations. Last time I read up on it they said they made just as much money as previous albums in the past. And eliminated the worry of piracy.

 

Ireland = China

 

I Thought it was the "Live" Music Capitol Of the World.

 

mr00Awesome you absolutely right. "Live". If I'm going to say it, I need to say it right!