As details emerge for blanket music-sharing agreements at several U.S. universities, critics are calling the plan a "bait and switch."
The Choruss service, spearheaded by Warner Music Group and industry veteran Jim Griffin, would see a fee built in to every student's tuition at these select colleges. In exchange, students would be free to pull music from major record label databases without fear of lawsuits. The universities would then send data back to the record labels, who would divy the fees accordingly. If all goes to plan, Warner intends to expand Choruss to internet service providers.
In a keynote speech at Forum East last month, Griffin explained some details of the plan. For example, "legalized, i.e. licensed p2p ... is not our focus in Choruss," Griffin said. He made this point to clarify that Choruss isn't an attempt to legalize peer-to-peer file-sharing, but rather a way to make money instead of relying consumers' "tip jar" approach to music.
TechDirt, which has criticized the program since it was first revealed, said the details suggest that Choruss is "much worse (emphasis theirs) than originally imagined." Because the service won't deal with the issue of P2P, TechDirt posits that the record industry will still try and hunt down these file sharing services, leaving the consumer with lesser options or nothing at all.
Further, the site believes that students will still be open to lawsuits after all. That's because the record labels are offering a "covenant not to sue," rather than straight up licensing of their music. Besides, even if the labels don't bring lawsuits, rights holders -- such as songwriters -- still could.
The result, TechDirt says, is a "bait and switch," by which the music industry makes easy money -- even from people who don't file share at all -- without providing any additional services. The website IP Watch has also weighed in on TechDirt's side.
Griffin does counter some of these arguments in his keynote. It's easy to jump on the anti-label bandwagon, but both sides are actually worth reading and considering.
