Re: kbps vs. Gb

Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 00:09:16 +0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups: alt.music.mp3
Size: 2,787 bytes

Out of interest, here is the e-mail I was responding to.
Your comments, and reactions, would be appreciated.
*****
Hello
In response to the recent article you wrote on online music piracy I
thought you might be interested in comments from Benjamin Ellis of
Juniper Networks.
According to Benjamin, the time has come for publishers and Internet
Service Providers to join forces to beat online music, video and games
piracy. Following are his thoughts:
* Music and video piracy impacting seriously on the speed of
broadband networks
* Broadband capacity being 'hijacked' by people illegally
downloading massive music and video files 24-hours a day
* Consumers complaining that broadband is no quicker that
dial-up Internet access
* Problem will only get worse when next generation games
consoles include hard drives, leading to a predicted growth in online
computer game piracy
It is not just record companies that are losing money to the online
music pirates. The cost of moving huge, illegally downloaded music
tracks is grinding our broadband networks to a virtual standstill, as
well as crippling revenue opportunities for UK Internet Service
Providers (ISPs).
According to one UK ISP, the average heavy Internet user downloads about
30Gb of mixed-media data a month. With the arrival of easily available
'file sharing' software - the tool that makes illegal music and film
piracy a one-click opportunity - for some subscribers, the figure has
risen to a massive 30Gbs of data a day!
To make matters worse, last week some of the world's largest record
labels announced that they are to release more tracks online in a bid to
cut piracy, but at the same time US courts ruled that 'file sharing'
applications themselves do not infringe copyright, leaving a huge
logistical nightmare for the copyright owners and Service Providers.
How do you make people pay to download music, film or games when they
can access pirated copies for free simply by obtaining a file sharing
package and subscribing to an unlimited broadband connection?
The answer is simple. Publishers and ISPs must form an alliance where
the customer pays a one off fee that combines the cover price and the
Internet access time required to download the file. The always-on
nature of broadband access enables new business models to manage access
to the music - if a CD gets damaged, the owner has lost the music, in
the broadband world, they can just download it again.
Without this simple step, Broadband Britain will collapse under already
miniscule margins, and more importantly, the honest customer will face
massive increases in subscription charges and a significant decline in
the speed and quality of broadband services, in order to subsidise these
broadband bandits.