Tag: Downloads
Ireland gets 'three-strikes' policy for music downloads
Meanwhile, over the Irish Sea, the four major music labels have just come to an agreement with Eircom (Ireland’s equivalent of BT) to cut off persistent downloaders after two warnings – the famous “three strikes” approach to music piracy.
Ireland joins France in being the only countries in the world to implement the system, which alienates ISP customers, especially as people get accused of things they’ve not done on a regular basis. The labels say that they’re going to take “all necessary steps” to get other ISPs to follow suit, though I anticipate there’ll be a considerable amount of resistance, especially when they see customers deserting Eircom in their droves.
(via Irish Times)
Related posts: MEPs vote in favour of new telecoms law, could lead to universal “three strikes” | Digital Britain
Isle of Man gets free, legal, P2P downloads
Residents of the Isle of Man, take note. You may soon be able to download all the music you like, from wherever you want, but you’re going to have to pay a little extra on top of your broadband bill for it. The Manx government wants to enforce a blanket music consumption license, tied to broadband bills.
“At the end of the day, we are not going to stop piracy, so let’s embrace it,” says the remarkably sensible Inward Investment Minister, Ron Berry. Surprisingly, the BPI endorses the move as well, with head honcho Geoff Taylor saying: “If ISPs take the position advocated in the Isle of Man, we’d be in an enormously better position.”
Amazon MP3 goes live in the UK
Rejoice, DRM-haters. Amazon MP3 has quietly gone live in the UK this morning. You can find it here. It’s got some big big discounts on popular albums, with Take That’s new ‘Circus’ going for just £3, as is Elbow’s ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ and Seasick Steve’s ‘I Started Out With Nothin And I Still Got Most Of It Left’. Recent albums by Kings Of Leon, Coldplay and Girls Aloud are similarly cheaptastic.
Although the catalogue isn’t as ridiculously extensive as more established download services – yet – the user experience is great. I just downloaded Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ in just four clicks, plus a small one-off Amazon Downloader install, which downloads tracks in the background and adds them to your favourite media player.
The HTC Max 4G – the world's first 4G mobile with WiMAX technology for 70-megabit downloads
And here we are still trying to think of a reason for 3G to exist.
The HTC Max 4G is the first so-called 4G mobile, thanks to HTC’s technicians incorporating WiMAX technology inside a very similar package to its Touch HD – and therefore giving theoretical, network-permitting, mountains and trees-permitting, battery-permitting maximum download speeds of around 70Mb per second…
Play.com joins 7digital in the DRM-free corner
Play.com has just become the second digital music retailer to join the DRM-free parade. The site, which previously sold CDs, DVDs and games, has added MP3s from Sony Music, Warner, and Universal. They join DRM-free tracks from EMI and a bunch of indie labels that were already on the site…
SlotMusic – albums on SD cards from SanDisk
Here’s the latest novelty music format to come from a technology company desperate to get a piece of Apple pie. Albums on MicroSD cards, from SanDisk. SanDisk, who have second place in the MP3 player market with 11% market share, reckon that the way to get consumers to re-engage with buying music is to provide it to them in a mostly useless format…
Cliff Richard doesn't like digital downloads
Cliff Richard is a name that resonates with musical history – he’s the only artist ever to have had number one singles in five consecutive decades, and although he’s never been widely played on the radio, he always sells bucketloads of singles whenever he releases anything…
The Pirate Bay has a new enemy – International Olympic Committee asks Swedish government to remove torrents
Here’s another vague threat for The Pirate Bay to laugh in the face of – the International Olympic Committee wants the Swedish piracy-enabler to remove all copyrighted Olympic content from its comprehensive listings.
The IOC has requested assistance from the Swedish government, asking the Minister of Justice to help force the Bay…
UK ISPs and the music industry agree to act on piracy – strongly-worded letters on the way
The extermination plans have been finalised – six of the UK’s largest ISPs have agreed to crack down on music piracy by, er, sending out some letters.
The deal, partially negotiated by the government, will see “hundreds of thousands of letters” sent by ISPs to their users who are currently sharing a massive folder of music with who ever else happens to be using the internet at the same time.
BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have signed up to the stern-letter-sending programme, something that Virgin’s already…
Virgin Media sends written wrist-slap to 800 file-sharers
Around 800 Virgin Media broadband customers have been sent letters informing them that they have been identified as file-sharers and politely telling them to cease downloading copyright protected content, specifically music. They are also warned that if they don’t stop, “further steps” will be taken against them.
