downloads
Why Music Companies are Doomed Regardless
One of the favourite tropes in the music industry is that they'd all be rolling in it like the good old days if it weren't for those nasty people downloading music for free. Here's a perceptive analysis that explains why that isn't so:
How to Make Money from Music
Someone's managed:
More Evidence that File Downloaders Buy *More*
One of the central fallacies in the argument that sharing is bad for business is the idea that every file downloaded is a sale lost. In fact, there is growing evidence that the contrary is the case - that people who share stuff, buy *more* stuff. Here's some more:
The Institute for Information Law in the Netherlands reports that the average downloader buys more DVDs, music, and games than people who never download. Illegal downloaders represent 45 percent of consumers who purchase content legally, the institute recently reported.
The Water Commons
One of the most valuable functions of the concept of "the commons" is that it reframes the terms in which we think of resources. For example, think of water as a commons, and you begin to realise why it really must be shared, and never owned:
One clear lesson emerges from the struggles of the world’s water warriors — water management remains a leaky endeavor unless it adheres to the principles of the commons — the gifts of society and nature that are shared by all, for generations to come. Effective water management must be based on such water commons principles as community control, democratic participation, ensuring the earth’s right to water, public water delivery and accessibility for all.
6 Million downloads - record for bandwidth used
Firebird project hits the 6 Million download at the sf.net
also the bandwidth used is reaching it’s highest point if you watch the graph downloads slope
The question is how do we attract more funds or developers ?
Spot the Disconnect
On the one hand, we have a bunch of people I've never heard of whingeing in the Times:
We are very concerned that the successes of the creative industries in the UK are being undermined by the illegal online file-sharing of film and TV content. At a time when so many jobs are being lost in the wider economy, it is especially important that this issue be taken seriously by the Government and that it devotes the resources necessary to enforce the law.
Stars of the Screen(shot)
One of the wondrous things about free software is that there is so much of it. One of my favourite hobbies is using Synaptic to look at all the amazing goodies out there - and then download stuff, just because I can. But this richness is also something of a problem: it's hard knowing whether something is really what you are looking for.
Enter the screenshots.debian.net:
Appassionato about Passionato
By now, it's evident that the old model of music distribution is irredeemably broken. This has led to various attempts to offer download services, but most of them have been horribly half-hearted, with one or more fatal flaws (and that includes iTunes, whose use of DRM means that it just doesn't cut the mustard.)
Against that background, I can only wonder at Passionato, a new online service for the world of classical music - it's gets just about everything right:
