I read somewhere that the recording industry and music publishing industries consider ringtones to be a public performance of the work, which incurs higher royalties than a "private" performance which is their explainaion of why a 30 second low fi ringtone costs three times the price of a high qualiy digital download of the full song. (They have never come down conclusively, however, on the legal status of ghetto blasters).
Of course, it could just be an instance of the carriers being just as money grubbing as the music industry and wanting more ringtone download revenue and using the music industry as a scapegoat. Or it could be a little greed on both sides.
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I read somewhere that the recording industry and music publishing industries consider ringtones to be a public performance of the work, which incurs higher royalties than a "private" performance which is their explainaion of why a 30 second low fi ringtone costs three times the price of a high qualiy digital download of the full song. (They have never come down conclusively, however, on the legal status of ghetto blasters).
Of course, it could just be an instance of the carriers being just as money grubbing as the music industry and wanting more ringtone download revenue and using the music industry as a scapegoat. Or it could be a little greed on both sides.