Ares Connect

We’ve touched on this briefly before: The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) came up with the barmy idea of a $5 tax being applied to all Internet users in Canada to compensate for all the people who get their music downloads illegally through filesharing programs or BitTorrent, etc.

The proposal was officially put forward last week. While it is understandable that artists are a bit annoyed at the way music downloads are taking over the world, such a tax is absurd.

Why should people who never use filesharing programs for illegal music downloads have to pay a tax that has nothing to do with them? And what about the fact that people who do use filesharing services might have never downloaded a single Canadian song? Why should Canadian musicians get all the money?

The arrogance of the SAC is astounding. Why stop at filesharing? Why not tax people for buying blank CDs. Oh wait, they already did that.

There would simply be no way to implement this bizarre idea. Canadians, eh. How long before Canadian musicians look at the filesharing clampdowns in Britain and Australia and try a different tactic? Filesharing is on the increase, but people are still buying music. A better solution than this tax would be to look at the marketing methods used in the Canadian music biz.

Apple’s iTunes store continues to grow into a world-dominating resource for legal music downloads. The music-download giant now stands as the second most-popular music retailer in the US, trailing only Wal-Mart.

iiTunes has more than 50 million customers all keen to get their hands on the latest legal music downloads of fresh new tracks and reissued classics. To date, Apple claims that more than four billion legal music downloads have been sold through iTunes – that’s insane.

iTunes also boasts a huge catalogue of more than six million songs. According to NPD, almost half of all US teens did not buy a CD in 2007, instead choosing to get music downloads either through services like iTunes, or else filesharing programs like Ares or Limewire.

Legal music downloads now account for about 10% of all the music acquired in the US. The number of people buying legal music downloads increased by five million to 29 million this year compared with last, but is still dwarfed by the number of people using different free music download software.

The fallout from the announcement that the UK government is working to come up with laws to tackle illegal filesharing is starting to show. Already media outlets are questioning the logic behind such actions.

The Guardian published an opinion piece showing that attention has been drawn by the government’s threat to introduce legislation if ISPs can’t come up with a way to deal with filesharing.

The move has been hailed as a victory for the music industry, but a worry for everyone else — including the millions of people who use filesharing services like Ares.

According to a survey, 43% of respondents had engaged in shady filesharing activities. We expect that figure translates to the wider world, meaning that half of the Internet may be targeted by this new filesharing legislation.

Bad news, right?

Another study has shown that about 70% of Internet users would stop filesharing if they knew it was being done illicitly. We’re unsure exactly what that means.

In response to the UK government’s attempt to eradicate filesharing, a piece on the Guardian website suggests that the music industry is out of touch with its audience and is pushing for unworkable laws to be put in place to combat filesharing.

Filesharing, according to the article, is the “whipping boy” of the entertainment industry. The Guardian calls for British citizens to object to the filesharing proposals laid down by the government.

The proposals by the government are a threat to a person’s right to privacy. We’re with the Guardian on this one. The government’s idea to force ISPs to deal with filesharing in this ugly manner will only lead to problems.

ISPs are going to have to pay for these new filesharing regulations, so they are, of course, reluctant to really get involved. Whether the government will actually force their hand remains to be seen, but it’s a dark time for anyone who engages in filesharing.

There’s an interesting piece on the LA Times website that covers filesharing. It’s good to see major media outlets covering filesharing in this way and putting forward a range of opinions. The article covers a variety of bases, looking at reasons why people think filesharing is theft and why other think filesharing is all right.

The author writes that finding a balance between the interests of content creators against the public’s is a difficult task. The piece recognizes that filesharing is a complex issue and that there are valid arguments from both sides of the spectrum

The future of the Internet and music downloads will largely be determined by how the whole filesharing debate pans out. At the moment, it’s anybody’s guess where this filesharing lark is going, but there is a definite need for balance and logic in how people approach the subject.

There are lots of jokes that could be made about the Aussies following the Brits, but what’s the point in joking when the subject matter is a clamp down on filesharing? It’s certainly not funny news.

Australia, however, looks set to follow suit in a bid to take on illegal filesharing. With France also on the verge of coming down on filesharing, the Western world looks all set to wage its war on illegal music downloads. That’s great, in theory, but negates the fact that there is a rest of the world out there.

The RIAA is obviously chuffed with this news, as the British and Australian governments debate new laws that could rid their respective countries of filesharing. No word on how they will differentiate between legal and illegal filesharing. No word on if they even know the difference.

As I write this from Thailand, I’d say that Asia is the place to be if you don’t want to be taken for a ride for filesharing. Anyone with me?

We knew it was going to happen. The UK Government this week has turned the screws on ISPs to crack down on illegal filesharing. New laws have been promised if ISPs can’t come up with a solution to tackle filesharing.

Illegal filesharing needs to be stopped, apparently, and legal music downloads need to take its place. Yeah right, like that’s going to happen. There have been rumors that illegal filesharing will be combated with a “three strikes” system leading up to Internet connections being cut.

The new filesharing law won’t come into effect until next April. ISPs, however, seem reluctant to come out with plans to deal with filesharing. After all, filesharing is incredibly popular and the backlash will be enormous.

It’s all very vague at the moment but filesharing in the UK could soon leave a lot of people without access to the Internet, greatly affecting the business of ISPs.

Another new website for music downloads has launched. This time, iPodDownloadsPro is looking to set the world of music downloads on fire by offering free music for your iPod. Of course, it’s not all completely free, as you have to pay a subscription to get access to the downloads.

You pay a one-time fee and get free music downloads for life. It seems like a pretty cool idea at face value — and the website looks all right, but is this service worth opting for?

As well as free music downloads, you get access to movies, games and videos. We’re only really interested in the music downloads. We’re really suspicious of this service because a lifetime membership costs just $34.95. There is the option of a 56-day money-back guarantee, but having never heard of the company and seeing that the website doesn’t look especially well-designed, we’re not going to take the plunge just yet.

The problem is that you can’t see what you will have access to before you get your membership. We’ll ask around and see what other people are saying. $34.95 is awfully cheap.

The filesharing world throws up some strange news now and again. This week’s oddest filesharing story is that the Village People are trying to sue the Pirate Bay. Yes, that’s right: those happy campers who brought us “YMCA” are taking on the filesharing service for copyright infringement.

What’s scary is that this means that people actually use filesharing services to download music made by the Village Idiots, umm, we mean People.

Apparently, the Village People are looking for millions of dollars in damages for this filesharing calamity. Other artists involved include Prince and, possibly, ABBA. As the Village People have only ever really recorded one memorable song (“YMCA”), you can guess which “classic” they are trying to protect.

What a travesty that people who use filesharing services disregard all the hard work and commitment put in by the Village People. We’ve been told that the policeman is particularly angry and the Indian has threatened to do a rain dance if demands are not met.

Play.com has launched a new service for music downloads that gives people access to DRM-free songs with support from EMI and a bunch of independent labels.

The PlayDigital service gives users access to music downloads of separate tracks and full albums. The music downloads come without any limitations or restrictions, meaning that you will be free to do with them as you please. PlayDigital is similar to Amazon’s music-download service.

Tracks from Play.com will be available for download from 65 pence, or £4.95 for an album. This makes the music downloads cheaper than iTunes! Deals with other record labels are expected to be struck in the next few months.

Although the music industry initially made tracks DRM-free to protect against filesharing, the idea appears to have been scrapped in favor of making more money. If that doesn’t say something about the music industry then we don’t know what does. Whatever. Another music-download service is always welcome here.