The latest pandemic relief bill from Congress does more than help boost a declining economy, and we have the details.
The United States Congress has finally agreed on a second pandemic relief bill that will pump billions of dollars into the nation’s economy. These stimulus efforts include $600 checks to every citizen and billions to help independent venues. The package also includes a bevy of new laws and acts, including one plan to make illegal streaming a felony in the US.
Among the various proposal included in the latest relief deal is a proposal from Senator Thom Tillis (a Republican from North Carolina) that would make illegal streaming a felony, with penalties of up to 10 years of imprisonment.
When Tillis released a draft of his proposal earlier this month, the open internet/intellectual property nonprofit Public Knowledge released a statement arguing that there’s no need “for further criminal penalties for copyright infringement,” but also saying that the bill is “narrowly tailored and avoids criminalizing users” and “does not criminalize streamers who may include unlicensed works as part of their streams” — instead, it focuses on those who pirate for commercial gain.
In short, the bill proposes to amend US copyright law by adding a section that allows streaming piracy services to be targeted. It is tailored towards services that exploit streaming piracy for commercial gain, leaving individual streamers out of the crosshairs.
Commenting on the bill, Senator Tillis notes that pirate streaming services are costing the US economy billions of dollars every year. The new legislation should help to change this without criminalizing regular streamers.
“This commonsense legislation was drafted with the input of creators, user groups, and technology companies and is narrowly targeted so that only criminal organizations are punished and that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution,” Tillis said.
Lawmakers received input from rightsholders as well as the CCIA, which includes prominent members such as Amazon, Cloudflare, Facebook, and Google. The CCIA has previously been critical of streaming felony bills, but it will now remain neutral.
The same applies to the civil rights group Public Knowledge, which also helped in shaping the new bill. While Public Knowledge isn’t in favor of adding criminal penalties for copyright infringement, it sees the new proposal as a reasonable solution.
“[T]his bill is narrowly tailored and avoids criminalizing users, who may do nothing more than click on a link, or upload a file. It also does not criminalize streamers who may include unlicensed works as part of their streams,” says Meredith Rose, Public Knowledge’s Senior Policy Counsel.
Senator Tillis’ bill will likely be a hot topic of conversation in the months ahead. Stay tuned for more.
Piracy is growing at an alarming rate, but a new database from the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hopes to change the trend through a global anti-piracy effort.
Streaming was supposed to be the solution to piracy. Services like Spotify, we were told, would provide consumers with affordable means of accessing music online, thus eradicating the need for people to steal music. The notion made sense, which lead the industry to adopt streaming service as the new normal, but piracy persists. In fact, music piracy in the United States rose a startling 13% in the last year alone.
People don’t pirate music the way they did a decade ago, and anti-piracy have struggled to keep up with changing trends. Torrents gave way to an age of third-party download services such as MegaUpload and Mediafire, but even that approach to stealing music feels old fashioned in 2019. Today’s pirates are largely accessing music through stream-ripping services that steal audio from videos available on YouTube, Vimeo, and other streaming platforms.
The industry has been fighting stream-ripping for years, but progress has been slow. For every site that shuts down, another two or three sites appear, and the fact there is no cost rip music from videos only makes matters worse.
United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) hopes to change the trend of rising piracy through a new, global anti-piracy database. Dubbed Building Respect for Intellectual Property (or BRIP, for short), UN Member States will promptly report “problematic sites.” After looking at the database, advertisers may choose to block these “bad” websites.
Explaining the purpose of BRIP, WIPO wrote:
“The BRIP Database is now open for the acceptance of Authorized Contributors from WIPO Member States and Authorized Users from the advertising sector.
“It comprises a secure, access-controlled online platform, to which authorized agencies in WIPO Member States may upload lists of websites which deliberately facilitate the infringement of copyright.”
If the sites cannot host ads, the sites cannot make money.
WIPO believes that the presence of ads from legitimate brands may be creating confusion among consumers. For example, why would Amazon ads appear on a site that is promoting illegal activity? By creating a database of sites engaging in illegal behavior, WIPO hopes, brands will work to ensure their names and images do not appear on URLs that may be problematic.
The idea of the database is great, but WIPO admits success is far from guaranteed.
“Its success will, however, depend on the extent to which it is adopted by Member State agencies and the advertising sector.”
Eradicating piracy requires a level of teamwork and cross-country collaboration that would be unlike anything the industry has witnessed. Stamping out those who wish to profit off the illegal sharing of pirated materials is something every continent, industry group, and professional will need to work toward together for success to even be a realistic possibility. Whether or not that can happen remains to be seen, but many are hopeful (including us).
After years of legal battles, the global music industry found success in the war against piracy after forcing stream-ripping site Convert2MP3 to shutter operations.
The war against music piracy rages on in 2019. Despite significant growth for the streaming marketplace, millions of people continue to pirate music as a means of accessing materials for free. Torrents and file-sharing sites such as Mediafire have lost their appeal to pirates in recent years, but they have been replaced by stream-ripping services that allow consumers to steal audio from video clips and convert them into MP3 files. These sites, which often cost nothing to use, are a scourge on the entertainment business.
In 2016, the RIAA, IFPI, and BPI filed legal action against YouTube-MP3, the largest stream ripping site at the time. This case eventually resulted in a settlement in which the site agreed to shut down voluntarily.
Since that time, the music industry and the many groups around the world working to ensure its continued growth, have set their sights on a number of additional websites promoting free stream-ripping services. That included Convert2MP3, which was sued in Germany with backing from the music groups IFPI and BVMI.
Convert2MP3 has been considered one of the most popular stream-ripping destinations online. The site has previously seen tens of millions of people use its service monthly, and that popularity made it a prime target in the music industry’s war against piracy.
The court proceeding surrounding Convert2MP3 has rarely been in the headlines, but that changed earlier this week when Music group IFPI announced that in a combined effort with the German industry group BVMI, it has reached a settlement with the stream-ripping site. The settlement requires the site to shut down immediately and hand over its domain name to IFPI.
The settlement also requires the unnamed person or persons behind Convert2MP3 to pay financial compensation. The amount owed has not been made public.
IFPI’s Chief Executive Frances Moore is pleased with the outcome and hopes that it will motivate other stream-rippers to follow suit.
“Stream ripping is a threat to the entire music ecosystem. Sites such as Convert2MP3 show complete disregard for the rights of artists and record companies and take money away from those creating and investing in music.
“The successful outcome of this case sends a clear signal to other stream ripping sites that they should stop their copyright infringing activities or face legal action,” Moore adds.
Not everyone agrees that these type of sites are by definition copyright-infringing. In a letter to the US Trade Representative, digital rights group EFF previously stressed that there are plenty of legal use cases as well.
“[M]any audio extractions qualify as non-infringing fair uses under copyright. Providing a service that is capable of extracting audio tracks for these lawful purposes is itself lawful, even if some users infringe,” EFF wrote.
EFF has a point. There are instances where stream-ripping does not infringe on a copyright, but those cases are few and far between. The vast majority of stream-ripping use does infringe on others’ intellectual property. Is the risk of losing millions to illegal piracy worth making services like that previously offered by Convert2MP3 free to the public?
Perhaps a better solution would be a third-party service that reviews stream-ripping requests. If not that, maybe consumers wishing to rip audio from videos should pay a fee to do so, thus ensuring any parties owed money have the means to collect.
Stream-ripping is far from being extinguished, and the war on piracy is not likely to end anytime soon. The battle for artists to be compensated for their work has raged for decades, but hopefully, the end of Convert2MP3 pushes a few more pirates toward a legitimate music consumption.
Despite reports claiming otherwise, a new study from a marketing research company reveals that the war on piracy far from over.
Despite reports claiming otherwise, a new study from a marketing research company reveals that the war on piracy far from over.
The music industry breathed a sigh of release last September after global piracy platform MUSO released a report claiming that piracy was on the decline. The streaming age, it seemed, had finally converted thieves into consumers.
This week, however, a new study published by marketing research company MusicWatch claims otherwise.
In a blog post focused mainly on stream-ripping services, MusicWatch claimed to have tracked 17 million users downloading their music on websites from video platforms, including YouTube. That’s up from 15 million from the same period two years ago.
The top 30% of stream-rippers also downloaded an average of 112 music files, the equivalent of 10 full music albums, over the course of the year.
“That may not seem a lot in a world where streaming services hold millions of songs, but ask any rights holder how they feel about someone copying their works. For a more vivid picture, imagine someone shoplifting 11 albums from Walmart or Best Buy!”
MusicWatch Blog, 2019
The question of why the spike occurred remains unanswered, but MusicWatch points the blame at search platforms such as Google for not taking the matter seriously. The company believes it is easy for anyone to find a stream-ripping service in a matter of clicks, and that files ripped from sites such as YouTube are seen as a replacement to mainstream music streaming services such as Spotify.
A quick search by the Haulix team proved their theory to be true:
Google and other search platforms are under fire for not doing more to prevent access to stream-ripping services like the ones seen here.
Additionally, the study from MusicWatch revealed that stream-rippers are also more likely to participate in other forms of unsanctioned music sharing. These include downloading songs from unlicensed music apps and sharing songs on digital lockers or file-sharing sites.
They’re also more likely to go to the movies, play video games, and subscribe to video streaming platforms, like Hulu and Netflix. That, says the marketing research company, amplifies the risk of piracy in each category. If they’ll steal music they don’t own, why wouldn’t they do the same for films, tv, or video games?
Of the people surveyed by MusicWatch, 68% of stream-rippers in the U.S. are aged between 13 and 34. A slightly higher number of males pirate when compared to women, 56% to 44%. The average household income of stream-rippers is between $75,000 and $199,000. Only 34% are full or part-time students, which strongly suggests that professionals are also downloading music for free.
As for solutions to these problems, MusicWatch concludes their study by reiterating the need to fight back against stream-ripping platforms.
“If [stream-rippers] pirate music, they’ll likely also take movies, TV shows, and other forms of intellectual property. Discouraging stream-ripping isn’t just good for music; it’s good for the entire entertainment ecosystem.”
There have been several lawsuits filed against stream-ripping websites in recent years, while other stream-ripping platforms have received cease and desist letters. Until action is taken to block or otherwise remove stream-ripping sites as a whole, the entertainment industry will have to wage war against the services on a site-by-site basis.
The popularity of stream-ripping dropped 13% in 2018, according to a new report.
Piracy, not unlike entertainment, has seen the rise and fall of various trends as consumer behavior evolves. Early pirates relied on torrents and peer-to-peer services such as Napster, Kazaa, and BitTorrent to access materials they would otherwise have to pay to consume. Today’s pirates, however, often rely on services that rip existing content from streaming sites such as YouTube. Both methods work, and both methods are illegal.
Everyone knows piracy persists, but new information from the UK-based company MUSO shows signs of decline, at least where music is concerned.
While most people now subscribe to Spotify and Apple Music, Christopher Elkins, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, explained that piracy “remains a significant challenge.”
The new data made available comes from 2018 piracy habits, and it includes a marked decrease in YouTube ‘stream-ripping,’ which was declared a piracy menace by groups like the RIAA in recent years.
MUSO counted over 189 million visits to piracy sites in 2018, which is over 100 million less than the number reported for activity 2017. TV remained the most popular content for piracy. Nearly half (49.4%) of all activity focused on pirating television programs. Film, music, and publishing had a respective share of 17.1%, 16%, and 11.2%. Software piracy came in the last place with around 6.2%.
That said, music saw the biggest decline in piracy, with a 34% drop overall compared the previous year.
The United States topped the list of countries with the most visits to piracy sites with 17 billion. Russia came in second with 14.5 billion, followed by Brazil, India, and France with 10.3 billion, 9.6 billion, and 7.4 billion visits, respectively. Turkey (7.3 billion), Ukraine (6.1 billion), Indonesia (6 billion), the United Kingdom (5.8 billion), and Germany (5.4 billion) rounded out the top ten.
Public torrent networks, such as ThePirateBay and 1337x, accounted for just 13% of all infringing activity. Stream-ripping fell 13% between 2017 and 2018 – from 8.9 billion visits to 7.7 billion. This was primarily due to YouTube-MP3.org’s closure in 2017, leading to a 16% drop in overall stream-ripper visits.
Speaking about the findings, Andy Chatterley, Muso’s Co-Founder and CEO, explained,
“In 2018, we’ve seen a 10% increase in people bypassing search engines and going directly to the piracy destination of their choice.
“Simply focusing on take-downs is clearly a whack-a-mole approach and, while an essential part of any content protection strategy, it needs to be paired with more progressive thinking.
“With the right mindsight, piracy audiences can offer huge value to rights holders.”
There is still a long ways to go before piracy is eradicated, but it appears that the proliferation of streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify may finally be making a difference.
The New Zealand based study finds piracy “isn’t driven by law-breakers” anymore.
Piracy was supposed to end with the dawn of streaming. Entertainment analysts predicted that having the vast majority of movies, music, and television a few clicks away at any moment would remove any need for digital piracy. After all, who doesn’t have a Netflix and Spotify (or similar subscription services) account in 2019?
The solution to piracy was never as simple as people like to believe. Studies show that streaming has changed consumer behaviors, but as more services become available with exclusive content from major stars, a new issue is emerging. Paying for Netflix and Spotify here in the United States will set people back about $25 a month. For some, that figure is not a problem, but others cannot afford it. Add to this, the rising popularity of Hulu ($10 a month), Amazon Prime Video ($8.99), HBOGo ($10), and DC Universe ($7.99), as well as upcoming streaming services from companies like Disney (likely to cost $10 or more per month), and the price associated with seeing everything is getting pretty high.
That figure is so high, in fact, that many consumers cannot afford to keep up. According to a new study commissioned by New Zealand telecoms group Vocus Group NZ and conducted in December 2018, while the enhanced availability streaming provides is having a positive effect overall, it’s also leading some consumer to pirate.
“In short, the reason people are moving away from piracy is that it’s simply more hassle than it’s worth,” says Taryn Hamilton, Consumer General Manager at Vocus Group.
“The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn’t driven by law-breakers, it’s driven by people who can’t easily or affordably get the content they want.”
Speaking strictly to film and television, the majority (75%) of those surveyed said that free-to-air TV services are their weapons of choice for viewing content, with 61% utilizing free on-demand channels offered by broadcasters. Around 58% of respondents said they visit the cinema, with paid streaming services such as Netflix utilized by 55%.
The results of the study are mostly positive. Piracy seems to be declining, but as competition for consumer dollars in streaming grows, illegal downloading may see a resurgence. That goes for film, television, and music alike. Access over exclusivity is best for everyone, but it often means less money for creators. Is there a solution that makes everyone happy AND lowers the likelihood of piracy? We don’t know.
“The big findings are that whilst about half of people have pirated some content in their lives, the vast majority no longer do so because of the amount of paid streaming sites that they have access to,” Hamilton added in a video interview with NZHerald.
Believe it or not, piracy is still a (very) big deal. Reports estimate that the total amount of media pirated in 2016 was double what was pirated in 2008, and that number is expected to double once more by 2020.
Streaming services, like Spotify and Apple Music, have soothed some of the financial wounds caused by the continued proliferation of music piracy. Artists and label may not love their streaming royalties, but more and more musicians are relying on those checks to keep their dreams alive.
If you are planning to release new music soon, the hard truth is that your latest creation will almost certainly be pirated online. If not prior to release, then immediately following it, and either way the impact on your bottom line can be crush.
At Haulix, we specialize in keeping music safe. Piracy is our top priority, and we are constantly looking for ways to better protect our clients’ music. We even offer free, one-month trial to all new users.
We have made huge strides in fighting piracy, but the fact remains that the vast majority of music still finds its way online through illegal channels. When that happens to you, here’s what needs to happen:
Remain calm
Theft can be a hard thing to wrap your mind around. Album leaks are usually cause for disappointment, but there is a strange sense of comfort to be found in the fact people around the globe want to hear your music so badly that they are willing to risk being in trouble with the law in order to enjoy it before the scheduled release date. That comfort does not take away from the fact those same individuals have completely screwed the carefully crafted marketing plan you had in place, or course, but focusing on the negatives is not going to do anyone any good.
Publicly recognize the fact your album has leaked and ask for support from those who chose to steal it.
Will everyone who downloads your album eventually purchase a copy if they enjoy it? No. What may happen, however, is that a number of people who otherwise may have never encountered your art might come to appreciate your work as a result of the leak, and in time those newly converted followers will begin to show their support by attending a concert, buying merch, or possibly even picking up a record or two. Remember: Your album is as much a product as it is a marketing tool for your brand, and like it or not your band is a brand at the end of the day. If you cannot sell your album to consumers, you might as well try and sell those who take it for free on seeing you live.
Change your marketing plan
A lot of artists believe that if they choose to ignore the leak of their album and forge ahead with their originally scheduled promotional efforts that their sales will not be hurt. That may apply if you’re someone currently topping the charts, but for those of you on the come up each and every promotional effort made can mean the difference between advancement and career stagnancy.
Depending on when your album leaks, there may be no changes to make. Albums that leak in the final days before release have typically already exhausted most of their promotional plan. That said, if you’re one of the unfortunate souls to have their album leak weeks or even months in advance you will need to adjust your plan to better engage with the new reality of your situation. Song premieres won’t have the same impact they may have otherwise had, but videos and performances can still engage audiences in a big way.
Make a stream of your album available and direct all traffic to that stream
The best thing you can possibly do in the wake of an unexpected leak is to make your album available for purchase and consumption through channels you control. This means your official website, YouTube channel, Bandcamp, etc. Once your fans learn the album is available they will want to look for it, and it is best if they find it through you on a page that you control. Put the record up, make it easy to purchase, and take back control of the conversation.
As an example of someone taking back control of their release, please take a quick look at this message released by our friends at Topshelf Records following the leak of You Blew It’s new album near the beginning of 2014:
Wow. The response to yesterday’s premiere has been overwhelmingly awesome — thank you!
I noticed a ton of “leaked” copies of the record being shared everywhere within an hour of that premiere going up, though, and just wanted to post about that. We don’t mind that, at all. We get it, and that doesn’t bother us — we’re excited people want to share this. However, when “this” is a 92kbps 2003-Myspace-dot-com-era-quality-sounding rip of a stream, we get kinda bummed how that’s what people might be hearing and sharing. So, we’ve now sent out the high quality downloads to everyone who pre-ordered the record. We’re not gonna be download cops about it — share it, enjoy it, tell your friends about it — sing it when you see them on tour this month.
Be proactive in fighting music pirates. Submit take down requests and whatever else needs to be done in order to keep your music away from leak sites.
Haulix simplifies the takedown process and makes it simple to learn who leaked your music. For a free trial, click here.
Fighting an album leak is forever an uphill battle. It only takes one person to leak an album on one site or social media service before files begin spreading like the common cold across the web. You may not be able to completely erase every trace of your early album leak from the net, but with time, dedication, and a little help from Google you can make it a lot more difficult for pirates to locate your stolen material.
First, set up notifications through you favorite digital alert service to notify you anytime someone mentions your album online. You will (hopefully) be inundate with news and reviews most the time, but this service will also peak up leak blogs/sites running your album. You may also want to search for your band name and album title, both together and separately, with the phrases ‘zip’ and ‘rar.’ As soon as you find a link you need removed, contact the blog owner, as well as the site hosting the file download (Mediafire, Sharebeast, Zippyshare, etc.) and politely request that your content be removed with the help of a DCMA take down letter. Then use this form and ask Google to remove links from search. It may take a few days, but most people and sites will comply with your requests. As soon as one goes down, however, another one or three will likely appear. Keep pushing. Keep fighting.
Live to create another day
When all the take downs have been issued and you have told the story of how the leak impacted your plans for the future to the last blogger and fan willing to listen the time will come when you simply need to move on with your career and begin working towards the future. There are more songs to be written, more albums to be recorded, and more many more shows to be performed. People all over the world now have access to your music and no matter what happens from this point forward that will never change. The discovery of your art is going to continue, every day, week, and month for as long as there are people online with a passion for music. There is something beautiful about that, even if it is also financially frustrating, and it offers a rare opportunity to connect with others that many never receive. Make the most of it and forge ahead. Live to create another day.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking a some time out of your day to spend with us. We try our hardest not to take too much time away from our educational efforts for self-promotion, but when considering the updates and developments that have taken place in recent months we thought it might be a good time to remind the world why we’re so good at what we do.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
The music industry has changed a lot over the last fifteen years, and that evolution has largely been guided by technology. When Napster went live, everything we knew about the business and how it functioned up to that point was no longer relevant. A new age had dawned, and it was on those in power to react – fast. We could go on and on about things that should or should not have happened at that point in time, but the hard truth is that almost fifteen years later we are still trying to find solutions for the problems that plagued us just after Y2K fears began to subside. There is no end to digital piracy in sight, but we wholeheartedly believe that through Haulix record labels and independent artists alike have a fighting chance against music pirates. Here’s why:
SECURITY
First and foremost, Haulix offers one of, if not the most secure platform for digital distribution available today. Through a combination of advanced watermarking technology, permissions, encryption, and secure traffic techniques we are able securely host, distribute, and track your media while you focus on promoting the material itself.
What is a watermark? Good question. Watermarks contain user specific information that allows us to identify which contact specifically downloaded or streamed a file through Haulix. On average, each track will contain 15-20 watermarks which can survive most attacks such as re-encoding and conversion. Additionally, you have fine grained control over how many times they can stream or download a promo. All traffic in and out of Haulix is SSL encrypted (like bank websites). Haulix automatically prepares your tracks for watermarking and when a contact downloads or streams an album, the injection process is performed in seconds.
AUTOMATED PIRACY/LEAK TAKEDOWNS
This feature only launched in the last couple months, but it has quickly become one of our most popular tools in the battle against leaks. Our ‘Piracy Takedown’ tool, when activated, crawls the web seeking unwanted files and links to files featuring watermarked content from Haulix clients. When that content is located, our system automatically distributes takedown notices and tracks the results so clients will know when their content copyrighted has been taken down.
This process does not happen once or twice, but repeatedly for as long as a client is a member of Haulix. For more information on this tool and how it can help your efforts to battle leaks, click here.
CUSTOMIZATION
There are more bands, labels, and pr outlets in existence today than ever before, which means the amount of pitches and messaging being thrown at writers is also at an all-time high. Haulix recognizes this, and through our state of the art messaging system we have created tools that allow our clients to present their upcoming release(s) however they see fit. We love to focus on the backend of things so that publicists, labels, and bands can put their efforts into promotion. We know that in order to do that to the best of their abilities our clients need to be in control of how their content is no only dispersed, but presented. From the “promo” pages where your music securely lives online, to the email you will send when inviting press to experience your material, there are dozens of ways our product can be customized to fit your needs. Want to use a color theme or still image as the background to your “promo” page and/or emails? No problem! Want to limit the number of times an album can be streamed or downloaded by any particular individual? We can do that too.
ORGANIZATION & ANALYTICS
Expanding on an aspect of our service mentioned in the previous points, Haulix also helps distribute content. Through our one-of-a-kind email system our clients are able to create contact lists ( or upload their existing contacts), organize them into groups however they see fit, send personalized messages, and access analytics on their contacts engagement with various promos with ease. You’ll know who read your message, which ones accessed the material, and how they engaged with it once on the promo page. We also track downloads.
JOURNALIST APPROVED
All of these tools would mean nothing if journalists did not like our product. After all, at the end of the day it is the writers who are on Haulix the most, and it is through Haulix that writers engage with unreleased music. If their user experience was bad it could have a negative impact on their view of the record. Worse, it could impact how they view a particular label/pr firm as a whole.
Haulix has been receiving the praise of journalists worldwide since launching in the mid-2000s. We listen to their opinions on everything from our site design to the functionality of our product and work with them to better our efforts over time. We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back too much, so I’ll let the writers who engage with Haulix on a regular basis speak for themselves:
“I’ve been using Haulix for the past three years and most of the websites that I have written for use Haulix too. It is efficient and of course, highly recommended.” – Lav Nandlall, Heavy Metal Duchess
"I always get a little extra excited when I see I have new music through Haulix because I know I can jam it in mere seconds with no hassles.” – Jameson Ketchum, Substream Music Press
“I’ve been using Haulix for the past 3 years and a half and that’s still where I enjoy receiving promo music. Aside from the fact that I can download my music on it, it keeps things organized by expeditor, due dates are visible and it’s all simple and clear.” – Mariam Bouabid(Plug-In)
“Haulix takes all of the hassle out of receiving new music. It simply combines everything on one page and provides you with promo pictures, bios, videos and whatever else. Since most of the publicists we work with tend to use it, it’s nice to be able to quick switch back to your full catalog of promos you’ve received.” – Drew Maroon, MindEqualBlown.net
“I prefer a watermarked (to keep be accountable of course) zip download with high quality mp3s. Now I don’t always get that, so I roll with what I get. Haulix is cool because you can download and stream and it has the capability of supplying high quality stuff if the label/PR people provide it.” – Drew Beringer, Absolutepunk.net
“I want tracks I can stream, and preferably download too — I’m a New Yorker and do a lot of my listening on the subway, where streaming isn’t an option. Haulix is straightforward and intuitive.” – Jesse Richman, PropertyOfZack.com
INDUSTRY APPROVED
Journalists are not the only ones who enjoy Haulix. Many of our clients have been with us for years, and they are not shy about sharing their satisfaction with our product:
“We have always been looking for a great place to allow us to share our music with those that need it early, but in a safe way. Haulix was that answer for us, and we will be lifelong customers of theirs.” – Chris Hansen, No Sleep Records
"I love the security aspect as well as the ability to truly track what people are doing with the promos. It takes the guessing game out of, “…well I spent a bunch of money to send a ton of packages out that I hope made it to their final destination… and I’m hoping these folks answer their emails and phone calls when I reach out to check on the packages.” You can see what’s going on, you can reference whether someone got their email, opened it, even listened to it or downloaded it, etc. And my favorite – the ability to create reports to follow up with people based on what they’ve done with the promo.” – Natalie Cammillo, Adrenaline PR
"Leaks aren’t 100% preventable but there are ways to insuring you stop leaks from coming from you. I’m a big user and supporter of Hauled. 90% of the writing world is familiar with Haulix and how it’s watermarked with each writer’s info. So that’s a good preventative.” – Rey Roldan, Another Reybee Production
Hello, everyone! After weeks of promotion we are using this post to launch the latest tool in our ongoing efforts to defeat digital piracy. We have been working on this project for the better part of the year and believe it has the potential to make a significant impact on the liquidity of illegal music online. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Today is a very exciting day for all of us at Haulix. For more than a month now we have been teasing a new tool to help in the fight against digital piracy, and this afternoon we are beyond thrilled to finally make that offering available to all Haulix clients. We call it ‘Piracy Takedown,’ and in the paragraphs below we will look at what it is, what it does, and how it will help keep your music safe.
Haulix was founded with the goal of creating a secure and place for labels and independent artists to store and distribute their unreleased media. We like to think we have accomplished that goal to an extent, and every day we strive to find new ways to further our efforts because like it or not music piracy is still a very big problem in the modern entertainment industry. Until now, the most a client could do to stop leaks was to attached a watermark to their files, which in reality is more of a preventative measure. With our new ‘Piracy Takedown’ tool, however, clients are able to actively fight the distribution of their copyrighted materials online before and after its scheduled release date without having to make more than a few simple clicks. Our state-of-the-art system, which was desinged with a little help from the the fine folks at Toppletrack, will crawl the internet in search of your illegally shared files and automatically issue DMCA Takedown Notices to the appropriate service providers. They’ll also track all recovered links and inform you when those links have been removed.
The best part about our new system is that it does not crawl the internet once or twice, but rather over and over and over again for as long as a client is a member of Haulix. It doesn’t matter if the content in question has been released or not, as long as you select to implement the ‘Piracy Takedown’ feature Haulix will combat the unwanted distribution of your files online.
This sounds great and all, but how does it work?
Good question, anonymous person on the internet. Using the screen shown in the screenshot below, submit one of your promos or manually add a new album. Once submitted, we will crawl the internet looking in all of the popular illegal networks and Google searching for your album and tracks. When the system encounters an illegal link or file, it automatically submits a takedown request to the internet service provider of the suspect site.
This next screen is to show you what a completed form will look like. You must fill in all the information in order to begin the takedown process.
Once your your files have been submitted and all the information has been added, click ‘Confirm & Submit’ to move forward. The next screen, shown below, asks you to review the information once more and confirm that you understand how pricing works for this feature. Your may upload and protect one release for free, but after that each additional release will cost a one time fee of $9 per track for the first 12 tracks of an album. Each additional song will be free. If you agree to these terms, click ‘Submit for Piracy Takedown’ to proceed.
At this point, your release will be placed into our system and scanning for illegally shared files will commence. Click on “My Takedowns” to monitor progress. Haulix will continue to proactively seek out illegal links and files for as long as you are a customer.
The screenshot above was taken less than an hour after the files were originally added to the system. As you can see, no files have been removed, but the system has already targeted more than 50 links. If you click on the numbers under the ‘In Process’ heading a pop up will appear to show you where the URLs in question:
We will be exploring and further promoting this feature in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions about getting started, or if you would like a guided tour through the setup process, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We will be happy to help in any way we are able.
Hello again. We have spent a lot of time in the last month talking about piracy and the many things you can do as an artist to prepare for and, if necessary, handle leaks. Today we are going to revisit that topic once more to talk about the steps that need to be taken once your material has already leaked online. You may think all hope is lost, but with a little hard work you can curve the unwanted availability of your material in a big way and we are here to help. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
If you have been following our company updates over the last few weeks may already know this, but recently Haulix began working on a new update to our distribution service that will allow clients to automatically issue DMCA takedown notices for their copyrighted material. We are admittedly still a few weeks from launch on that project, but we wanted to begin our promotional efforts this afternoon by shedding some additional light on the purpose of these notices and the creation/submission process currently in place.
DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is a group of laws that protect copyrighted content and its creators on digital mediums. The DMCA was signed into law in 1998 and has since been the source of the vast majority of infringement issues arising from the continuing spread of digital media. There are many aspects to the law that are worth taking the time to research and understand, but for the purposes of this post we are going to look at the part most are familiar with (at least by name): The DMCA Takedown Notice.
A DMCA Takedown Notice allows copyright holders to request an Internet Service Provider (ISP), search engine, host or other type of site-owner/manager to remove material that is infringing their copyright, regardless of whether or not said copyright has been properly registered. In other words – it provides a means for artists and the people who back them (labels/agencies) to ask that their content not be shared without authorization.
In order to file a DMCA Takedown Notice, you must first establish three things:
You either own the copyright or have the right to claim infringement because of a copyright you license. If you do not have either of these, you are already wasting your time.
The alleged infringement is not covered by an exception, like Fair Use or free speech laws. Stanford Law’s website describes Fair Use as ‘any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.’ You do not need to understand all the ins and outs of this law to file a DMCA, but you do need a “good faith” belief that the alleged infringing use is not covered by any law which would permit its use.
The content is capable of being infringed online, which essentially means that the work in question is available in digital form. Some examples include text files (txt, rtf, doc, docx, etc), Images (smb, jpg, png, gif, etc), video (mpg, avi, mov, etc.), Music/Audio (aif, mp3, mp4, wav, etc), and images found on social networks (Facebook, Tumblr, etc.).
Once you have determined all three of these things to be true, it is time to move forward with filing a DMCA Takedown notice. It is important to understand that there are very specific provisions of the law you must comply with or the receiving agent may ignore your request:
1. Make sure you have found the proper source of the infringement – When you find your content on another website it may or may not be common knowledge who their hosting company is, but thankfully the internet provides a number of tools to aide in the discover process (I recommend domain tools.
When contacting ISPs with Takedown Notices that are often specific email addresses provided on the host company’s website. You may need to hunt for it, as no two sites are ever the same, but searching DMCA may quicken your hunt for results. If you try and discover there are no specified contacts listed for DMCA Notices, search the US Copyright Office List Of DMCA agents. It should be current.
2. If an online form specifically for DMCA Takedown requests is provided by the contact you are trying to reach it is wise to use that form as your initial point of contact as it is – unsurprisingly – your best bet for yielding a timely response. This may not happen with larger companies (like Google or Bing) generally use forms to direct specific issues to their different departments. There may be separate departments for music and images, for example, or perhaps a bunch of smaller teams dedicated to all digital piracy. You experience will vary by contact.
3. If you discover there are not forms provided and you still feel driven to fight for your rights as copyright holder you will need to take it upon yourself to send your notice to the designated DMCA agent (refer to #1 for help with locating this individual). Email will likely be acceptable for complaint submissions, but you will need to check with your specific agent to learn how they prefer to handle requests. It may be 2014, but some people still think fax machines are the best way to send business materials. Don’t waste time thinking about how much simpler or quick things could be and comply. This is another war for another day.
4. If you find yourself in a position where you need to create the Takedown Notice, there is a very specific set of information you will need to provide (and it is the same as what any form would ask you to fill out). According to lawyer Sarah Hawkins, your DMCA Notice must:
• Be in writing (this includes both hardcopy or digital)
• Be signed (whether in writing of via electronic signature) by the copyright owner or agent
• Identify the original copyrighted work (or works if there are multiple) you claim has been infringed
• Identify the material that is infringing your copyrighted work
• Include contact information so the designated agent can reach you, if necessary
• Include a statement your complaint is in “good faith"
• Include a statement the information in the notification is accurate
• Include a statement that under penalty of perjury you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
I know that list can be a little overwhelming upon first glance, but in the age of the internet there is virtually no form letter in existence that does not come with hundreds, if not thousands of examples available online, for free, that you can copy/paste and adjust to fit your needs. You should always triple check your letters to make sure everything comes across in your own voice and that the above list is followed to a ’t,’ but it’s completely understandable if you choose to use a template letter in order to begin filing your first DMCA Takedown Notices. In fact, I have included a letter below you can feel free to duplicate, manipulate, and use however it is needed. If you have any further questions about these notifications, just comment below and let us know!
I am the copyright owner of the works listed below and the following is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
The original work, which I claim copyright for, appears online with my permission at the following locations:
[Insert URLs where your original work is located]
Copies of this original work have been attached to this email for your evaluation and determination.
The allegedly infringing [work – image/sound/video] appears on the following sites:
[Insert URLs where your work is being used without your permission]
My contact information is [address/phone]
The information of the alleged copyright infringer based on what I have been able to find is [insert all the information you have about the site/person behind the infringement]
I have a good faith belief that the copyrighted works referenced above that appear on the website for which you are the registered DMCA agent is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by law.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the following information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and that I am the copyright owner [or have the license to the copyright] entitled to exclusive right which I believe are being infringed.
signed [insert name] on [date – day/month/year] in [city/state]
[signature]
**TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE: While forms are commonly used and available elsewhere around the Internet it is important to understand the limitations provided by forms. A form, by its very nature, is previously written, usually to address a typical situation. Unfortunately, in law there are few typical situations. While this form will be useful for some, the use of a form should not be viewed as a replacement for competent legal advise adapted to your particular situation. Haulix accepts no liability if you do use this or a modified version of this Agreement.**
