5 ms·

Indian Court Orders SOPA-style Blackout of 100+ Music Sites

79 points by llambda 15y ago

dsrguru 15y ago
"We don't want these sites to be shut down, we want them to pay a license fee and flourish as a business," Saregama [one of India's largest record labels] said. "There are legitimate businesses in operation too. The scope is there, and we want these sites to be legal." Why can't American labels have that attitude lol
- canadiancreed 15y ago
  They'd have to adapt to a 21st century mindset. That the internet is here, it's not going away, and the old way of doing business is dead. "Too big to fail" companies/organizations usually dislike that sort of radical change, as we've seen for years and years with the RIAA/MPAA.
- roc 15y ago
  There's a difference between saying it and actually offering licenses that would enable it.
  - mindprince 15y ago
    Check out http://www.saavn.com http://www.saavn.com, I think they do provide such licences.
- nl 15y ago
  Why can't American labels have that attitude It's time for a compulsory licence for streaming movies.
tomku 15y ago
Important addition to the headline: "in India". TorrentFreak loves vague headlines like this, because you have to click through and read the article to find out whether it's YOUR country.
- pavanky 15y ago
  As long as its not in my backyard.
- adgar 15y ago
  And their titles fuel plenty of outraged drive-by upvotes by those who don't even click through.
av500 15y ago
now we should wait to see the Indian media industry quadruple their revenues because suddenly all the pirated content is being bought now....
- maeon3 15y ago
  This was never about the songs, you think the sovreign cares about a company losing money from songs? This is about power and the ability to control what is authorized or not over their internet. Phase two will be taxing the bits that flow between devices. For the children of course. They have identified an opportunity to expand their power, and they are taking it. Because we will let them. It's power grab. Will they abuse their power? Is the pope still infallible?
tspiteri 15y ago
I find the title a bit confusing. If my understanding is correct, one of the really bad bits of SOPA is that action can be taken without court orders. If there is a court order, then it is not SOPA-style.
- trip42 15y ago
  The title contradicts itself, keeping the courts involved was a goal of the anti-SOPA movement.
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    > Deep Packet Inspection. I have a problem with this whether a court was involved or not.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  That was just one aspect of SOPA. The most important SOPA aspect was the DNS-based blocking.
  - ajross 15y ago
    But a court can order DNS changes too (and they have, on many occasions and for many purposes, all over the world). The worry about SOPA was that it introduced that as an unsupervised bureaucratic mechanism available to law enforcement. This isn't the same thing.
- joelmichael 15y ago
  You are mistaken. SOPA required a court order.
rlpb 15y ago
Who pays for this?
- adimitrov 15y ago
  The same people who built and used the site in the first place: the tax payers.
meow 15y ago
Most of the sites on the list are not just download sites... they are active fan forums for Indian movies where lot of free publicity gets generated for upcoming movies.. and most of the people who are active on these sites are usually hardcore movie buffs who diligently go to most of the new movies. I don't see how blocking these sites will help any one..
mindprince 15y ago
It was only a matter of time before people stopped visiting these sites on their own. The digital content scene in India is much better than in the US. In the US you pay for watching TV Series online on Netflix. Those series are sometimes delayed by months. In India most of the TV Shows are available to view on the next day on YouTube (http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2012/03/19000-episodes-of-indian-tv-on-youtube.html http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2012/03/19000-episodes-of-...) In the US you pay for streaming music services like Spotify. On the other hand all of the Bollywood songs are available for unlimited free streaming on http://www.saavn.com http://www.saavn.com. They even have a free iPhone/Android app with unlimited streaming (The app and websites use adverts as the main revenue stream.)

79 points by llambda 15y ago

"We don't want these sites to be shut down, we want them to pay a license fee and flourish as a business," Saregama [one of India's largest record labels] said. "There are legitimate businesses in operation too. The scope is there, and we want these sites to be legal." Why can't American labels have that attitude lol

canadiancreed 15y ago
They'd have to adapt to a 21st century mindset. That the internet is here, it's not going away, and the old way of doing business is dead. "Too big to fail" companies/organizations usually dislike that sort of radical change, as we've seen for years and years with the RIAA/MPAA.
roc 15y ago
There's a difference between saying it and actually offering licenses that would enable it.
- mindprince 15y ago
  Check out http://www.saavn.com http://www.saavn.com, I think they do provide such licences.
nl 15y ago
Why can't American labels have that attitude It's time for a compulsory licence for streaming movies.

tomku 15y ago

Important addition to the headline: "in India". TorrentFreak loves vague headlines like this, because you have to click through and read the article to find out whether it's YOUR country.

pavanky 15y ago
As long as its not in my backyard.
adgar 15y ago
And their titles fuel plenty of outraged drive-by upvotes by those who don't even click through.

av500 15y ago

now we should wait to see the Indian media industry quadruple their revenues because suddenly all the pirated content is being bought now....

maeon3 15y ago
This was never about the songs, you think the sovreign cares about a company losing money from songs? This is about power and the ability to control what is authorized or not over their internet. Phase two will be taxing the bits that flow between devices. For the children of course. They have identified an opportunity to expand their power, and they are taking it. Because we will let them. It's power grab. Will they abuse their power? Is the pope still infallible?

tspiteri 15y ago

I find the title a bit confusing. If my understanding is correct, one of the really bad bits of SOPA is that action can be taken without court orders. If there is a court order, then it is not SOPA-style.

trip42 15y ago
The title contradicts itself, keeping the courts involved was a goal of the anti-SOPA movement.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  > Deep Packet Inspection. I have a problem with this whether a court was involved or not.
nextparadigms 15y ago
That was just one aspect of SOPA. The most important SOPA aspect was the DNS-based blocking.
- ajross 15y ago
  But a court can order DNS changes too (and they have, on many occasions and for many purposes, all over the world). The worry about SOPA was that it introduced that as an unsupervised bureaucratic mechanism available to law enforcement. This isn't the same thing.
joelmichael 15y ago
You are mistaken. SOPA required a court order.

rlpb 15y ago

Who pays for this?

adimitrov 15y ago
The same people who built and used the site in the first place: the tax payers.

meow 15y ago

Most of the sites on the list are not just download sites... they are active fan forums for Indian movies where lot of free publicity gets generated for upcoming movies.. and most of the people who are active on these sites are usually hardcore movie buffs who diligently go to most of the new movies. I don't see how blocking these sites will help any one..

mindprince 15y ago

It was only a matter of time before people stopped visiting these sites on their own. The digital content scene in India is much better than in the US. In the US you pay for watching TV Series online on Netflix. Those series are sometimes delayed by months. In India most of the TV Shows are available to view on the next day on YouTube (http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2012/03/19000-episodes-of-indian-tv-on-youtube.html http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2012/03/19000-episodes-of-...) In the US you pay for streaming music services like Spotify. On the other hand all of the Bollywood songs are available for unlimited free streaming on http://www.saavn.com http://www.saavn.com. They even have a free iPhone/Android app with unlimited streaming (The app and websites use adverts as the main revenue stream.)