How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient Zero of Piracy
Page 29
“we are hiring a request company … to jack TRL for Lindsay” Email sent June 18, 2005, submitted as evidence by the New York State Attorney General’s Office. The names of the sender and recipient of the email are redacted.
selling songs that even their creators acknowledged were not very good The situation was especially bad for established acts. Joe Walsh, formerly the guitarist of the Eagles, recalled the pressure from the suits for a follow-up to the band’s top-selling Greatest Hits album: “The record company didn’t care if we farted and burped. It was all: when can we have it? They would put that out, because that was their whole corporate quarter.” History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood (Jigsaw Productions, 2013).
Wayne got weird For more on this period in Wayne’s life, see The Carter, directed by Adam Bhala Lough (QD3 Entertainment, 2009).
“The mixtapes were obviously very concerning to us as a label …” Knopper, Appetite, 247.
What if … the FBI started leaking albums themselves? The idea is floated in Patrick Saunders’ FBI case file, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The idea is killed by the Computer Crimes section’s senior counsel, citing experience with industry contacts. It is unclear from the heavily redacted file if the FBI had ever done this before.
CHAPTER 16
Pink Moon had sold more copies than … in the previous quarter century See “Rock Star Back from the Dead,” Birmingham Post (UK), April 7, 2000.
an alphabet soup of file types—FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec, an open-source standard from the same group that developed Ogg. Because it does not use psychoacoustic methods, it achieves compression rates of only 60–70 percent. However, as it is a lossless encoder, the original audio can be reconstructed from the compressed file.
“the world’s greatest record store” Ben Westhoff, “Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK,” Vulture, October 30, 2007. Reznor went on to explain that he remained a patron of the arts, and had paid Radiohead $5,000 for his copy of In Rainbows.
He used the music-tracking site Last.fm Ellis’ Last.fm account has since been deleted.
“second enclosure of the commons” James Boyle, “The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain” (Creative Commons, 2003).
“The TUBE BAR prank calls …” Email submitted as trial evidence.
“there was nothing left to upload” Similar complaints may be found today on What.cd.
CHAPTER 17
The beef had made the cover of Rolling Stone Evan Serpick, “Kanye vs. 50 Cent,” Rolling Stone, September 6, 2007.
a coworker pulled him aside Jerry Swink, a maintenance worker at the plant.
CHAPTER 18
only one … had been brought to a jury trial Several other defendants would later take their cases to trial. They all lost.
Thomas appealed the ruling The case of Virgin Records America, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset is endless. The judge in the first trial vacated the first ruling of $222,000 in damages and ordered a retrial. Thomas was found guilty again at the second trial, and the jury ordered her to pay an astonishing $1.92 million for pirating 24 songs. The same judge called this amount “monstrous and shocking” and reduced damages to $54,000. Thomas refused to pay, and appealed. A third trial was held to determine damages. The jury in that trial ordered Thomas to pay $1.5 million. The amount was again reduced to $54,000, which Thomas again refused to pay. She appealed to a higher court, which then reinstated the original damages from the first trial of $222,000. Thomas then appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which rejected her petition.
the music industry’s sacrificial martyr See Nick Pinto, “Jammie Thomas-Rasset: The Download Martyr,” Minneapolis City Pages, February 16,
2011.
“There’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist …” Seth Mnookin, “Universal’s CEO Once Called iPod Users Thieves. Now He’s Giving Songs Away,” Wired, November 2007.
“World’s Stupidest Recording Executive” This was later softened to “Is Universal’s Doug Morris the Stupidest Recording Exec Ever?,” Mary Jane Irwin, Gawker, November 27, 2007.
Jackson … rights to the majority of the Beatles catalog For a longer discussion, see Stephen Gandel, “Michael Jackson’s Estate: Saved by the Beatles,” Time, July 1, 2009.
over the remaining million dollars, they would flip a coin Carter offers his own take on this event in the lyrics to the song “Run This Town.”
CHAPTER 19
What.cd’s music archive grew to surpass even Oink at its peak It also became a trophy case for the holy grails of online piracy. J. D. Salinger’s leaked “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls” was first posted there, as were high-resolution full-color scans of all 2,438 pages of Nathan Myrvhold’s 52-pound cookbook, Modernist Cuisine.
“A place called Linux?” Trial transcript. Alan Ellis and Matthew Wyatt proceedings, January 13, 2010.
He later served a two-year sentence Svartholm Warg’s legal troubles are ongoing. Unrelated to his work with the Pirate Bay, he faces criminal charges in both Sweden and Denmark for hacking into government and commercial databases. He was found guilty at trial in Denmark in October 2014 and sentenced to three years in prison.
“It is impossible to enforce the ban against non-commercial file sharing …” Christian Engström and Rick Falkvinge, The Case for Copyright Reform (Creative Commons, 2012), 1.
two Pirates would take seats at the table of the European Union Neither would win reelection. Currently there is one Pirate in the EU parliament: Julia Reda, representing Germany.
their original 14-year terms The U.S. Copyright Act of 1790 provided 14 years of protection, with the option to renew the copyright for an additional 14 years if the author was still alive. It was patterned after the similar UK Statute of Anne, passed in 1710.
protections that could last for hundreds of years The relevant piece of U.S. legislation is 1998’s Copyright Term Extension Act, also known as the Sonny Bono Act, after its author, or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, after its primary beneficiary. The legislation extended the terms of copyright to seventy years after the death of the creator and offered even greater protections for works of corporate authorship. It passed with broad bipartisan support.
“Negative rates are a function of global abundance …” Izabella Kaminska, “Counterintuitive Insights That Are Only Now Making the Mainstream Now [sic],” FT Alphaville, April 26, 2013.
only in one other country … did the Pirates gain a foothold In 2013, the Pirates won three seats in Iceland’s national parliament. In 2014, a Pirate was elected the mayor of a small town in the Czech Republic.
CHAPTER 20
The contact’s name was listed only as “D” Glover’s IP address was also stored in the phone.
Chow had his own lawyers … George Murphy and Terry Yates Murphy would later call this his favorite case of all time. “It was an ass-kicking from the first minute.”
He performed poorly Specifically, Glover claimed to have spoken briefly with Cassim at their pretrial arraignment in Virginia. Rivera challenged this assertion, claiming that he had been standing next to Cassim the entire time and that no such conversation had occurred.
the FBI did not present recordings of Cassim’s voice as evidence It is unclear if such recordings existed. Glover’s lawyer later told him that the FBI had wiretapped Glover’s cell phone, but the Department of Justice made no mention of this during the trial.
EPILOGUE
“near-military-scale planning” Steven J. Horowitz, “Protecting the Throne,” Billboard, August 20, 2011.
Patrick Saunders … eventually got a job as a paralegal He also paid a service called DeleteMe to remove all trace of himself from the Internet. I found him through a database used by skip tracers.
Simon Tai … was never charged with a crime Having married a pastor’s daughter and converted to Christianity, Tai credited divine intervention.
soon found mysel
f in a warehouse in Queens Specifically Guardian Data Destruction in Long Island City. I give them my highest recommendation.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.
Adar, Ricky, 56–57
Addleshaw Goddard (law firm), 212–14
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), 60, 88
Apple support for, 133, 155
Fraunhofer development of, 60, 88
industrial applications for, 96–98
advertising revenue, 230–38
Affinity (underground newsletter),
72–73, 269
Aftermath record label, 78, 109
album-oriented music, 198–99, 226–27
All Eyez on Me (album), 77–78, 84
America Online (AOL)
Nullsoft purchase by, 128
Time Warner merger with, 122, 154–55
“America’s Dumbest Soldiers, ” 169
A&M Records vs. Napster, 121, 166–68
Apocalypse Production Crew piracy group, 180, 182, 193–96, 203, 249, 251
Apple
Jobs’ illness and, 236–37
licensing deals by, 261
mp3 and, 62, 132–33
offer to hire Morris, 154–57, 236–37
sales dominance of, 192–93
Universal Music bid by, 154–57
Atlantic Records, 39–41, 45, 50, 237
AT&T. See also Bell Labs
Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60
mp3 technology and, 16–17, 57–58, 60, 94, 96
audiobooks, 211–14
“Back That Azz Up” (song), 80–81
Barrett, Karen, 101–2, 142, 187, 223, 247
BearShare peer-to-peer network, 160, 165
Beatles, 120, 155, 234, 261
Bell Labs, 16–17, 96
Bennett, Bill, 49–50, 79–80, 119
Berns, Bert, 38–39, 199
Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), 57–58, 154, 159, 189
Big Five music conglomerates, 114, 159
“Big Pimpin’” (song), 113, 125
Big Six music conglomerates, 50–51, 57, 114
Big Tymers (rap group), 81, 177, 200
Billboard charts, 43–44, 106–7, 190,
202, 262
BitTorrent, 166–70, 261. See also torrent technology
Black Entertainment Television, 178–79
The Blueprint (album), 140, 260
The Blueprint 3 (album), 237–38
Bon Jovi (band), 68, 82, 84–85
bootlegged movies, Glover’s operation for, 146–51, 183–88
bootlegged music, 67–68, 71–74, 83–85, 148–51, 183–83. See also music piracy
Brandenburg, Karlheinz
Advanced Audio Coding project, 60, 88
Apple and, 132–34
Bell Labs research by, 16–17
compression algorithm developed by, 10–11, 13–16, 22–25
digital piracy opposed by, 89–90, 130–31, 155, 168
market expertise of, 96–98
meeting with RIAA, 89–92
mp3 development and, 5–6, 18–21,
53–57, 128
MPEG format war and, 18–19, 21–25
Ogg Vorbis and, 259
psychoacoustics research and, 9–12
public image of, 93–98, 127, 133–34
royalties from mp3 received by, 128–31
surround sound ventures of, 165
WinPlay3 development and, 60–63
Brandenburg Ventures, 132, 165
Bronfman, Edgar Miles Jr., 75–77, 82, 102, 116–18, 122–23, 155, 189, 196, 227
Buckles, Brad, 162, 202
cable television, prerelease leaks from, 185–86
“California Love” (song), 73, 77–78
camcorder in-theater bootlegging, 165, 185
Carey, Mariah, 176, 179
Carter, Shawn Corey. See Jay-Z
Cash Money Records, 80, 84–85, 103, 109, 113, 200–202
Cassim, Adil R., 262
arrest and trial of, 253–58
denial of RNS involvement by, 254–55
FBI investigation of, 248–50
Cassim, Bilkish, 251, 254
catalog orders, Morris’ tracking of, 43–44
chat rooms. See also Internet Relay
Chat (IRC)
evolution of, 70
music piracy and role of, 105–8, 180–88
Chess.net, 116–17
Chiariglione, Leonardo, 127, 274n
Chow, Matthew, 248, 251, 255–58, 262
Chronic (album), The, 46, 48, 68, 77
Chronic 2001 (album), 124, 140
Church, Steve, 53–55, 61, 277n
Cohen, Bram, 166–68
College Dropout (album), The, 153, 177
compact discs
bootlegging of, 67–68, 71–74, 83–85
impact in music industry of, 8–9, 48, 56–57, 79–80, 124–25, 154, 189–92, 225, 262
market collusion and, 114
Napster’s impact on, 124–25
prerelease leaks of, 144–45, 157–58, 176–77, 185–88
production process for, 28–29
shelf life of, 123–24
Compress ’Da Audio (CDA), 73, 105–6
compression technology
Brandenburg’s algorithm and, 10–11, 13–16, 22–25
Ogg Vorbis compression scheme,
132, 259
threat to recording industry of, 85
Congress, recording industry and, 119–21
conspiracy laws, 193–203, 251–58
copyright law
audiobook piracy and, 212–14
Brandenburg’s support for, 89–90
Fraunhofer’s support for, 89–90
mp3 technology and, 59, 94–96, 111, 165
music industry attitudes concerning, 56–58
Napster and infringement of, 114–21
peer-to-peer file-sharing and, 121–22
Pirate Party protests against, 243–45
Project Hubcap lawsuit and, 158–61
torrent tracking and, 240–43
Copyright Term Extension Act, 287n
cost per thousand impressions (CPM), 232–38
Cracked Rear View (album), 42, 45
crime triangle theory, 103–5
Curtis (album), 221–22
Death Row Records, 46–50, 78, 109
Def Jam Recordings/Def Jam South, 112–13, 148–49, 153
Diamond Multimedia Systems, 93, 121, 165
digital audio research. See psychoacoustic compression
digital jukebox. See streaming of music
digital piracy
evolution of, 1–4, 71–73
impact on recording industry of, 83–85, 124–25, 139–40, 154, 189–203
law enforcement crackdown on, 193–203
mp3 and growth of, 95–98
peer-to-peer file-sharing and, 114–16
Scene community involvement in, 72–73
torrent technology and, 168–70
Dockery, James Anthony (Tony)
chat room participation by, 70–71, 250
dismissal from PolyGram, 247
Glover and, 34, 74, 100–101, 142, 148–50
as “Jah Jah,” “StJames, ” 70
movie bootlegging by, 147, 184
music piracy activities of, 105–9, 142, 145, 176, 216, 220
at PolyGram Kings Mountain plant, 27–30, 102
trial and imprisonment of, 253, 262
Dolby systems, Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60
Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (album), The, 78–79
Drake, Nick, 205–6
Drama, DJ, 201–3
Dre, Dr. (artist), 46, 48, 73–74, 77–78, 103, 124, 140, 153
Duke University, music piracy a
t, 149–50
DuPont corporation, 76, 82
DVD technology, 22, 146–51, 165, 183–88
Eberlein, Ernst, 13, 88
EGO music piracy group, 176, 179
Elektra Records, 42, 202
Ellis, Alan, 170–74, 205–14, 239–43, 262–63
Eminem, 103, 124, 140, 153, 182, 184, 197, 201
Eminem Show (album), The, 140–41, 153
EMI recording company, 154, 159, 189, 260
Encore (album), 182, 184
Entertainment Distribution Company (EDC), 191–92, 215, 221, 253
Ertegun, Ahmet, 39–42, 46, 48, 191, 199, 278n
European Parliament, 243–45
Fanning, John, 116, 119
Fanning, Shawn, 114, 116–19, 132
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
crackdown on digital piracy by, 193–203
surveillance of the Scene by, 147–48, 162, 203, 217, 226
50 Cent (artist), 144, 153, 177, 197, 220–22, 230
file-sharing subculture. See also peer-to-peer file-sharing
Fraunhofer’s opposition to, 89–90, 130–31
growth of, 71, 95–98, 133
Napster and, 114–18
Oink’s Pink Palace and, 210–14
threat to recording industry of, 193–203
filter bank technology, 9–10, 19–21, 55, 94
“First” (song), 197–98
“Fish” (RNS participant), 180–88, 220
Fix (album), The, 149–50, 158, 175–76
Flash codec multimedia system, 87
Frankel, Justin, 95, 128
Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, 132, 259
Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits
Advanced Audio Coding project and, 60, 88
break in at, 22
commercial success of mp3 and, 87, 93–98, 128
format war with Philips and, 21–25, 128
L3Enc device and, 55–56
mp3 development and, 12, 15, 53–60
MPEG format war and, 18–20, 128
music piracy opposed by, 89–90
psychoacoustic compression and, 12, 15–18, 56
recording industry relations with, 57–58, 89–92
royalties from mp3 received by, 128–31
WinPlay3 development and, 60–62