On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 10:15 AM, JT Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Policing the internet seems like an impossible task,
I think it's impossible to exhaustively police the Internet, but an hour or two a week spent with google and the torrent search sites would at least give you some places to send takedown notices. How do you think your deadbeat fans find stuff? Any of the <ironic quote>reputable</ironic quote> torrent sites will honor takedowns. There's still the problem of private trackers, but at least they're limited to a smaller number of users. And we have to distinguish between the independent record labels and the majors. The major labels have gotten out of the business of releasing and promoting anything besides sh1t, and if they all dropped dead it would be too soon. I think the only rational business model for labels at this point is to focus on digital distribution, and do their best to identify and connect with their paying audience. The success of download sites in the past couple years shows that you can still sell music. I think a positive approach to fans would actually work. Instead of saying "We'll hunt you down like the dogs you are," say "If you pay us, we'll keep making stuff you like, and by the way here's a double secret link to a new track we're letting you have for free." And when it comes to dance music, you can produce a copy protection dongle that people will buy and cherish -- a vinyl record. It won't keep you off the torrents and newsgroups forever but it's something that has persisted as an object of desire despite all announcements of its death.
