The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has released their annual report on the online music industry. They are declaring ongoing victory in their tireless fight against changing their business models to reflect the new realities of the ’90s. Mission accomplished. You’re doing a heckuva job. They also hold up Google’s censoring of the Chinese internet as evidence that the social morés of the internet are shifting in their favour. No really. They also suggest that file sharers should be dealt with like child pornographers. Keep in mind, that refers to tens of millions of mainstream internet users. I’m always expecting these people to hire some PR people, and they never do.

In their ‘win’ column, they did manage to get a glove on Patricia Santangelo’s daughter, and presumably hundreds of other nameless defendants. Note that the got to Santangelo through the courts, which is unusual: most defendants can’t muster the cash to hire lawyers, and instead consent to the RIAA call-center’s going rates to settle out-of-court, i.e., all the money the defendant has in savings.

Also in the ‘win’ column for Big Content, the MPAA brought a law suit against isohunt, who are the currently the largest bittorrent searching service on the internet. As a result, isohunt’s ISP shut them down without notice. This has forced nearly 2 days of downtime and a substantial hardware upgrade as they move to a Canadian ISP. What is it about Big Content wins such that they are all either boring, pathetic, or ugly?

Compare with the news from the pro-copying team. Among other things, The Pirate Bay (isohunt’s main competition), having effectively launched a federal political party in Sweden, are now planning on buying their own country. I think we can see which side has the momentum here, and also a sharp sense of the surreal, which can only be an asset.

Eventually, the big movie and music companies are going to have to admit: music and video comes in files now. Files are in bits, bits are copyable. If your business revolves around video and music, you have to find a way to make it work with copying. This isn’t a stretch. I have always figured that somewhere deep in the nucleus of the their collective corporate consciousness, their is an awareness that when the new business model is finally implemented, the movie and especially record companies will have to become what they have always claimed to be: recording development and marketing firms. And I suspect they are terrified of that. It’s been a long time since they actually had to focus on facilitating art in order to make money.

They are technology-based companies who refuse to adapt to a technology revolution. Until they do, the momentum of history will be against them. They have proven they have the political and legal muscle to drag it all out, but that’s all they’re doing. They will continue to win battles and lose wars. Eventually I will pay artists to have access to their music. The industry cannot stop me.