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Trends report – ‘Takedowns And Web-blocks’
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 5 March 2014
After pursuing a plethora of measures against online piracy over the years, most of which achieved little, and often caused more damage than good, the music industry seems to have honed in on four part anti-piracy strategy in the last eighteen months: the targeting of ad networks and payment processors that provide revenue to piracy operations, the industrial-level issuing of takedown notices to compliant sites, the seeking of web-block injunctions (where available) against non-compliant platforms, and the (albeit unsuccessful to date) lobbying of Google to help enforce the web blockades.
Some of those measures will be analysed in detail as part of the Maximising Music Rights strand at the CMU-Insights programmed Great Escape Convention in May, with a look at how the takedown system works, and whether there are really tangible benefits to artists, labels and publishers in operating such a thing.
Meanwhile in this trends piece from the January edition of the CMU Digest report, now available online, Business Editor Chris Cooke reviews where we are at on takedowns and web-blocks. He writes: “2013 was the year when takedown notices and web-blocks seemed to become routine in the music rights sector, with record companies and music publishers now, in the main, resigned to the fact that they have to monitor the web day-to-day to seek and destroy copyright infringing files”.
You can now read ‘Takedowns And Web-blocks’ on the CMU site at this link. And to receive a monthly overview of key trends in the music business, sign up to the new CMU Digest premium service. Providing a weekly news digest and monthly trends report, a CMU Digest subscription is just £4.99 a month, though the special introductory rate – £29 for the year – is still available for a very limited time. Click here to sign up.
