from the and-that-was-that dept
Five Years Ago
This week in 2018, the core Vevo product flopped in yet another example of record labels underestimating and misunderstanding technology, while the industry was displaying its hypocrisy in its latest legislative push. EU Parliament members were also playing hardball on their terrible copyright policies, while we looked at how Swedish copyright trolls had never brought a single “case” to trial. FOSTA supporters were coming out swinging against critics, the DOJ and FBI w3e3re correcting their statements and testimony about bogus statistics on the number of uncracked devices, and the FCC was defending its perfectly-timed regulatory handout to Sinclair. Also, the monkey selfie lawsuit simply refused to die.
Ten Years Ago
This week in 2013, we wrote about the horrible idea of letting companies use malware against copyright infringers, while UK police were helping entertainment industry employees arrest and interrogate people, and Hollywood studios were sending DMCA takedowns over Kim Dotcom’s Mega service. The Internet Association was fighting back against the RIAA’s attack on DMCA safe harbors, an Italian court overturned the seizure of a cyberlocker, and an excellent new paper looked at the way incumbents veto innovation in the post-Napster era. Meanwhile, Prenda was continuing its character assassination of Alan Cooper, though John Steele’s claims were contradicted by history.
Fifteen Years Ago
This week in 2008, an open letter to the head of EMI suggested ways that a big record label could actually make itself useful in the internet era, while Viacom was trying out a new argument against YouTube, and Metallica made a halfhearted attempt to get into online music (and learned just how badly the attack on Napster had destroyed the band’s reputation). The opposition to ACTA was rapidly emerging, Belgian newspapers were trying once again to get a big payout from Google, and Blockbuster was making some strange choices in an attempt to stay relevant.
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