Vevo In Hot Water Over Super Bowl Gaffe
On Friday the International Intellectual Property Alliance released a report - its annual "Special 301" review -- that documents global copyright piracy. The IIPA calls for "swift action" by US legislators to address the concerns raised in the report. And it recommends 10 countries, including China and Russia, be placed on the Priority Watch list for 2012.
The timing of the report is a bit ironic given a recent piracy mishap by Vevo, a music video joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. While few people are likely to note the IIPA's report, millions are sure to see a blog post from the previous day that undermines record companies' please for protection from piracy.
Here's what happened: Vevo and a few other companies held events in a Park City, Utah venue during the Sundance Film Festival. As TechCrunch's Jason Kinkaid explains, TVs and laptops at Vevo's event were used to show the Super Bowl broadcast. The problem is that the broadcast was being streamed by TuTele.tv via an aggregator of live sports streams called Frontrow.tv. Kinkaid was not sure how long the illegal stream was showed at Vevo's space, but he claims it was playing for the entire 30 minutes he was there.
Kinkaid points out the obvious problem: Vevo's owners and content partners represent the same music industry companies that want anti-piracy legislation like SOPA and PIPA to force U.S. ISPs to block access to streaming sites like TuTele.tv and Frontrow.tv. This incident does not represent an endorsement of piracy, but it sure does look bad.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Vevo said the event was produced by a creative agency called Continuum Entertainment and the television sets were supposed to show only Vevo videos and "original content."
Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff gave a more detailed explanation in a blog post Friday afternoon. The company says a laptop that fed into large TV screens around the bar was "easy accessible to the public" and the illegal broadcast was streamed "without (Vevo's) knowledge or permission." When Vevo staff realized what was happening, the Super Bowl stream was removed. "The game was not aired in its entirety," wrote Caraeff. "Rest assured, we rectified this mistake as soon as we became aware what was going on."
People in the tech community won't have much pity for copyright owners who are themselves associated with copyright infringement. Indeed, the rhetoric was furious to the point of being comical (although no comic intent is evident). TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has called for criminal charges for Vevo's executives. " I'd believe they'd serve five years," he wrote. TechDirt's Mike Masnick was equally outraged. "I eagerly await ICE moving in to arrest Vevo execs for this blatant criminal activity."
Seeking jail time for Vevo executives is a far-fetched, of course. But it doesn't look good when the IIPA calls for India to be on the Priority Watch List for 2012 due to factors such as "Pay TV theft" the day after Vevo's Super Bowl blunder became public.
Caraeff did the right thing here: he admitted what happened and emphasized that Vevo is "very sensitive to what happened at Sundance and the issues it has raised." Excuses or obfuscation would not have helped. If anything, Caraeff underscored the fact that piracy is a widespread problem even if it seems innocuous at the individual level.?
The moral of the story is entertainment companies need to sweat the small stuff when it comes to copyright infringement. Fighting copyright is a political battle, and politicians need to keep their noses clean. In the grand scheme of things this Super Bowl mishap is about as benign as unknowingly hiring an undocumented worker to clean your house - but the latter has proved troublesome in more than one political career. ( TechCrunch)
INgrooves Incorporates SoundCloud for Sharing
INgrooves has integrated SoundCloud into its ONE Digital distribution and asset management platform. As a result, clients will have a one-click solution to share their music through SoundCloud. "Our goal is to provide INgrooves clients with the most innovative and popular marketing tools available to the music business community," said Jeff Straw, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Licensing for INgrooves, in a statement.
Slacker Radio Nabs Disney Exec For Board of Directors
-- Internet radio company Slacker has appointed veteran digital media executive Steve Wadsworth to its board of directors. Wadsworth spent 17 years at the Walt Disney Company with over 11 of those years as chief executive in charge of Internet and digital media. Most recently Wadsworth was president of Disney Interactive Media Group.
Slacker offers a mix of personalized Internet radio, programmed radio stations and customizable news stations from ABC News and ESPN Radio. Slacker Radio is free with advertising or $3.99 per month for an ad-free level service. Slacker On-Demand adds on-demand access to the music catalog for $9.99 per month. ( Press release)
RIAA Chief Slams Wikipedia, Google
-- Check out the tough words from RIAA chief executive Cary Sherman in an op-ed in the February 7 New York Times. Before calling on SOPA and PIPA opponents to propose "constructive alternatives," Sherman went after big, consumer-facing technology companies who he argues don't distinguish between news and editorial. "When Wikipedia and Google purport to be neutral sources of information, but then exploit their stature to present information that is not only not neutral but affirmatively incomplete and misleading," he wrote, "they are duping their users into accepting as truth what are merely self-serving political declarations."
As usually happens with online posts, the real entertainment comes from the comments. The RIAA gets little sympathy from readers who call Sherman's post things like "utter nonsense" and "a technologically ignorant, ham-fisted attack." Read through the comments and you'll get a panorama of viewpoints - mostly negative - on the RIAA and music business. Quite good reading. ( New York Times, via Copyhype)
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