Messy time for music

It's messy and confusing on all fronts, it seems, from not knowing what player tunes will play on to not knowing what is and isn't legal. In "simpler times," one pretty much knew the file-sharing networks were virtually all illegal. Now sites like MySpace and YouTube are both threat and opportunity to the music industry, the Washington Post reports. MySpace, on which more than 3 million bands and musicians have profiles, announced this week it would now "identify and block copyrighted music from being uploaded" by users, CBSNews.com reports. "If an infringing file is found it will be removed and if the user is a repeat offender, he or she could have their profile deleted." Meanwhile, "the CD is dead," a music industry CEO said in a recent speech, the CBC reports, and the Washington Post ably illustrates. EMI Music CEO Alain Levy said the control over content that the industry once wielded by virtue of controlling the means of distribution is rapidly slipping from its grasp" – into the hands of consumers. So the consumers are being educated. Take the Boy Scouts, for example. In the Los Angeles area, Boy Scouts now have a "Respect Copyrights" activity patch, the Associated Press reports. Then there's litigation education, which continues. Earlier this month, the IFPI, the London-based umbrella organization for the recording industry worldwide, launched 8,000 more lawsuits in 17 countries, "including its first legal forays into South America and Eastern Europe," the AP reports in another article.