Over the past few months, the Chinese Ministry of Culture has identified 185 sites that infringe on copyrights, adding that the sites violate regulations and do not have licenses to distribute music.
Since April, 23 of those sites have shut down, and the Ministry is still actively investigating the others.
The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has applauded the recent actions:
“It is good news that the authorities are taking action against some infringing websites, but there are many more illegal music services that continue to operate with impunity,” says Leong Mayseey, IFPI regional director for Asia, (via Billboard).
“Only 23 of the original 185 websites identified by the Ministry of Culture have been taken down and it is not clear what penalties, if any, their operators face. If China wants its creative sector to punch its weight globally, it must do more to create a widespread climate of respect for intellectual property.”
Continuing, the director says: “We hope to see the authorities following this welcome development with further action against services that illegally build their businesses by abusing other people’s rights.”
Result for: music services
Yesterday we reported that the once infamous P2P client Kazaa was set to make a comeback, this time as a legal net music store.
The timeline was unclear, but the store has gone live today.
Reads the site:
“Kazaa is a subscription-based service brought to you by Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE) a leading online distributor of licensed digital content. BDE provides the means for record labels, film studios and software developers to market and sell their products to a worldwide audience of 70 million users
. With the Kazaa service you get unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of CD-quality tracks for one low monthly fee.
For just $19.98/mo, you can download unlimited music files, and play those files on up to 3 PCs that you own. The subscription package is for PC only, which means that you won’t be able to play those files on a portable music player. The files will remain playable while your subscription is active – once your subscription ends, you will no longer be able to play those files.
The subscription package also enables you to download unlimited ringtones to a single cell phone.
Unlike other music services that charge you every time you download a song, Kazaa allows you to listen to as much music as you want for one low monthly fee. This allows you to explore all the music you want without having to pay for every single track or album.”
Result for: music services
Yesterday we reported that the streaming music store Spotify was finally expanding to the United States.
Spotify, once dubbed “the music piracy killer,” has a large selection of music, availablein Ogg Vorbis format (using q5, appx. 160kbps encoding for its free service and 320kbps for its premium service), with simple-to-use GUI and ad-supported monetization model. Spotify’s ads run less frequently than what you’d expect with commercial radio and you can get rid of the ads completely by signing up to their premium service (that costs €9.99 per month or €0.99 for 24 hour period).
Today, the service has announced a deal with the IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) that will make 2 million new tracks available including audio from Bob Marley, Prodigy and Stephen Fry.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek adds, via TechCrunch: “One of the challenges all music services face is providing a wide range of music for users of all conceivable tastes. We’ve worked hard to add classical, punk and indie content from different sources and this deal with IODA is another leap forward in our mission to provide users with the biggest, most diverse musical catalogue on the planet.”
“Spotify has created a compelling product that redefines the notion of user-friendly and clearly speaks to the desires of the music fan,” says IODA CEO Kevin Arnold.
