Headlines

March 20, 2008

The Black Box is coming: portable database with all the music ever recorded is imminent... 'this paradise of infinite storage...will represent the end of all intellectual property rights'

Turn It Up (Greg Kot) | Read Full Story >

Greg Kot cuts to the chase in two short paragraphs on the parallel paths big businesses are pursing to try and monetize recorded music once again. And, finally, someone goes on record saying, basically, the “Black Box” is coming.

His plan would create a live-and-let-live world in which peer-to-peer file sharing would co-exist with iTunes and other legitimate MP3 music stores. With an estimated 750 million people expected to be hooked into wireless broadband networks in Western Europe and the United States alone in the next decade, the potential revenue from licensing fees on Internet service providers could be substantial.

Yet such a forward-thinking plan might already be too little too late for the industry, McGill’s Pearlman said. A portable data base containing all the music ever recorded is imminent, he said. “Once this paradise of infinite storage is entered,” he said, “it will represent the end of all intellectual property rights.”

The whole story is a great read.


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Previous comments include

#1 Overman says:

God Damn it.

#2 cheech marin says:

you can put your weed in it

#3 Dave says:

News Flash: Intellectual Property Rights died in 1996.

Everyone else is just now realizing that.

The only difference between this "black box" and the way things happen to be already right now at this very moment, is that this sort of idea would require the people who create the content to realize that the world has "moved on" from their old world unconnected way of thinking that involved crates, boxes, containers and press embargoes.

We live in a connected, digital age that's not going to suddenly revert into a world where it's cheaper to ship increasingly expensive products through air, land and sea. Intellectual property died, the instant it could be nearly instantly digitized and replicated at-will by anyone who chose to do so.

The fact that we're 12 years past the point where broadband started to appear in the US and the entertainment industry hasn't really figured it all out yet is an embarassment and a sign that maybe it'll all really have to fail before a new set of companies rises from the ashes and makes something happen.

#4 patentstrademarkscopyrights.com says:

Somehow I rather doubt that.

#5 pao says:

ooohh!! this is orrible the last month i bougt itouch and it was the sensation now i ve o buy another stupid mp3


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