NZ News

[GhostShip]

This seemed the usual industry whining type of article till I looked a little closer.

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3280896a11275,00.html

Adam Holt, president of Rianz and managing director of Universal Music New Zealand, says sales are falling because of several factors, including illegal CD burning and downloading.
But increased competition from DVDs and a cooling off of the trend to replace LP or cassette collections may also have played a role.

Thats the usual stuff that they trot each time anything dips in their markets , which by the way they are increasing by licencing ringtones, cellphone downloads as well as the legal download services they take a cut from.

What was more important here for NZ folks to watch out for was this

The recording industry is battling a government plan to amend the Copyright Act to allow limited "format shifting", which would let people legally transfer a music file from a CD to an MP3 player, for example.
  The amendment - expected to be introduced into parliament this year - would let owners of CDs make one copy on another CD and copy each track once into an MP3 format, so long as this was for their personal use.

That sounds like "Fair Use" to me and is what folks should have had in the first place.
Remeber folks its your job to get the best deal for yourselves by supporting  and helping inform others to press for this common sense amendment, why should you pay twice for the same product ?

 

[GhostShip]

It seems some companies are still trying to rip downloaders off 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3877975a28,00.html

The Consumers' Institute says communication company Xtra's broadband advertising campaign is misleading to consumers over its usage plan.
The Consumers' Institute has lodged complaints with the Commerce Commission and the Advertising Standards Authority over Xtra's Go Large broadband advertising.

Consumers' Institute spokesman David Russell said the plan – touted as "unlimited internet usage at maximum download speeds" – was subject to Xtra's Fair Use Policy and traffic management.

Russell said Xtra's Fair Use Policy stated: "If in a single day you use more than 700MB of data during the peak hours of 4pm to 12am (midnight) then we'll get in touch with some advice on how to reduce your usage."
Consumers should not have to reduce their usage on an unlimited usage plan – unless it was not unlimited, he said.
"By Xtra's own admission, 700MB equates to approximately downloading one movie or one CD. It suggests this sort of usage is in breach of its Fair Use Policy.

"Internationally, downloading movies or music over the internet is common usage, not excessive usage."

The Consumers' Institute was also concerned that Xtra's traffic management negated its claims of maximum speeds.
Customers using applications, such as those used to share music and video files, would have their maximum download speeds limited, he said.
Xtra's traffic management of download speeds for those applications meant their advertising was misleading, he said.

Its the same story every year folks, these companies charge users for a service and then do there best to try not delivering on their end of the bargain, perpetrating a fraud we call it here.