The RIAA have really lost their minds...

[SykkBoy]

The RIAA's recent case and a pending case in the UK provide some insight into whom it might prosecute next

The Recording Industry Association of America is the oft villainized copyright-infringement watchdog for the music industry in the U.S. Its letters to music sharers have led to thousands of settlement over the last few years. Now, following its recent success in the jury civil trial Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas, which resulted in a jury verdict of $222,000 in damages, many wonder who the RIAA might target next.

The RIAA might have given a clue during testimony by music industry lawyers in the Thomas case. During the case Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, was called to testify. Pariser noted that music labels make no money on bands touring, radio, or merchandise, so they are particularly vulnerable to file sharing. She went on to say that when people steal music the label is harmed.

Pariser believes in a very broad definition of stealing that is echoed by many supporters in the RIAA. She believes that users who buy songs are entitled to one, and only one copy. Burning CDs is just another name for stealing, in her mind. "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'."

Such logic has been a driving force behind efforts to "rights manage" music including the current DRM found on Apple's iTunes files and Microsoft's DRM, which is also widespread.

While it seems unlikely that the RIAA would be able to effectively identify "burners", such litigation remains a legal possibility for the RIAA and major music labels, in the minds of their lawyers.

Another possible avenue of legal action for the RIAA is the pursuit of businesses that play unauthorized music in stores. The Performing Rights Society (PRS), Britain's version of the RIAA, may give the RIAA some possible ideas with its pending litigation. The PRS is suing the Kwik Fit Group, a car repair shop in Edinburgh, for £200,000 in damages. The case revolves around the complaint that Kwik Fit employees brought in personal radios which they played while working on cars, which could be heard by colleagues and customers. The PRS says this amounts to a public "performance" and should have entailed royalties.

The possible implications if this litigation succeeds are numerous. The RIAA could pursue retailers like Borders Books who play music in their restrooms or on their store floors. They could also seek action against small businesses that have radios in their stores.

These possible future targets may seem outlandish or farfetched, but the RIAA and its foreign equivalents have some heavy legal firepower. It hires many of the country's top lawyers and have gained millions in settlements and recently have added the $222,000 Thomas verdict to its coffers.

Some fear the RIAA is overstepping its bounds, including in the Thomas case. Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and strong advocate of fair use, recently went on record stating that the trial verdict was excessive and "way out of line" with other cases of this nature.

The Bush Administration feels that the case was very fair and was a positive example of our nation's laws at work.

"Cases such as this remind us strong enforcement is a significant part of the effort to eliminate piracy, and that we have an effective legal system in the U.S. that enables rights holders to protect their intellectual property."

With the RIAA's powerful legal, financial, and political backers nobody can truly say what it impossible for it to accomplish. Now as it is in the midst of delivering its eighth wave of infringement letters to colleges, it may soon be turning its attention to CD burners or businesses that play music in front of customers.

http://www.dailytech.com/RIAA+Eyes+N...rticle9218.htm

Wow, it's getting crazy out there....

[drjones]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy2

http://www.dailytech.com/RIAA+Eyes+N...rticle9218.htm

Wow, it's getting crazy out there....

In Canadian version of the RIAA gets a cut of every blank cd sold... wouldnt be surprised if they tried to get that done here.

[Kevin Marx]

Yeah.. those quotes seem a bit much.

Personal in home copies seem reasonable. Same argument as using VHS to backup your tapes at home. It's the sharing and distribution that's the biggest issue.

Me at home ripping a copy for myself is not an issue whatsoever and is a waste of time.

Perhaps they have determined to go overboard and then cooler heads will prevail and fight the good fight???

[RawAlex]

I can tell you that in Canada, the music rights people are out in bars and nightclubs making sure they are paying for the performance rights on the music they play. Even live bands are required (in theory anyway) to submit payment for the music they perform.

Most people just aren't aware of all of the implications of copyright and what it means.

Remember, every time someone sings happy birthday on the TV, radio, or in a movie, Michael Jackson makes money.

[Kevin Marx]

Yeah.. those quotes seem a bit much.

Personal in home copies seem reasonable. Same argument as using VHS to backup your tapes at home. It's the sharing and distribution that's the biggest issue.

Me at home ripping a copy for myself is not an issue whatsoever and is a waste of time.

Perhaps they have determined to go overboard and then cooler heads will prevail and fight the good fight???

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Remember, every time someone sings happy birthday on the TV, radio, or in a movie, Michael Jackson makes money.

i think Time Warner owns the rights to Happy Birthday. i remember when they started going after companies like chain restaurants for royalties many years ago, which caused them all to create their own, much more annoying birthday songs. personally, i think i should be compensated everytime a bunch of ultra-hyper, super happy TGI Fridays crew breaks out into one of those loud ass songs, scaring the shit out of 1/2 the people within ear shot.

[SykkBoy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

I can tell you that in Canada, the music rights people are out in bars and nightclubs making sure they are paying for the performance rights on the music they play. Even live bands are required (in theory anyway) to submit payment for the music they perform.

Most people just aren't aware of all of the implications of copyright and what it means.

Remember, every time someone sings happy birthday on the TV, radio, or in a movie, Michael Jackson makes money.

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that the song Happy Birthday is actually copyrighted...I can't remember the movie, but they start singing Happy Birthday and someone cuts them off and says "We can't afford the righrts to the song, so just have a great birthday"

[RawAlex]

Here is more fodder for the cannons... Apparently Oasis and Jamiroquai don't have record label deals anymore. They are planning to release albums in a simialr fashion to Radiohead. The article is interesting, but I liked this the best:

While CD sales are falling dramatically, download sales have grown from zero in 2003, to 26.5 million in 2005 which then doubled last year to 53.0 million. However, according to the British Phonographic Industry, for every track that is paid for, twenty are downloaded illegally for free.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...diohead108.xml

Imagine that, 20 ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS PER PURCHASE. That means that less than 5% of all the music in consumers hands was paid for.

You wonder why the RIAA is upset.

[dav3]

Originally Posted by drjones

In Canadian version of the RIAA gets a cut of every blank cd sold... wouldnt be surprised if they tried to get that done here.

Wow, that's pretty shitty, considering that I mostly use blank cd's for backing up home videos/pictures and documents.

[SykkBoy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Here is more fodder for the cannons... Apparently Oasis and Jamiroquai don't have record label deals anymore. They are planning to release albums in a simialr fashion to Radiohead. The article is interesting, but I liked this the best:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...diohead108.xml

Imagine that, 20 ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS PER PURCHASE. That means that less than 5% of all the music in consumers hands was paid for.

You wonder why the RIAA is upset.

I wonder where they get the figure of 20 illegals per legal....not that i doubt it, but I often wonder where they get these numbers...

The funny things is...are there still people willing to pay to hear Oasis or Jamiroquai ;-)

I just see things evolving in the music business

[Cuteshooter]

Isn't anti-piracy something porn webmasters should favor...

[RawAlex]

Sykkboy, when I see articles about how "Radiohead will change the music business forever" I have to chuckle. The bands that are doing this for the most part have dedicated followings that would buy any piece of shit recording they put out. They have spent years (and millions of record company dollars) to get the world wide exposure to have that large fanbase.

Take away that buildup, and it would be nothing more than another annoying bar band putting MP3s on their myspace page.

Too many people are missing the job that record companies do, making music widely available in many places at similar times, in formats that everyone can enjoy. The get the bands on the radio stations, they get them interviews and exposure, they build hype... essentially, the record companies help to shape public opinion so that these acts can go on the road and make megabucks playing sold out shows.

Take that part away, and we have a bunch of super bar bands all touring the country playing to 50 people a night for beer money, because nobody has heard of them because their music isn't on th radio, they haven't been talked about in Rolling Stone, and they didn't get that music guest spot on Conan.

[SykkBoy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Sykkboy, when I see articles about how "Radiohead will change the music business forever" I have to chuckle. The bands that are doing this for the most part have dedicated followings that would buy any piece of shit recording they put out. They have spent years (and millions of record company dollars) to get the world wide exposure to have that large fanbase.

Take away that buildup, and it would be nothing more than another annoying bar band putting MP3s on their myspace page.

Too many people are missing the job that record companies do, making music widely available in many places at similar times, in formats that everyone can enjoy. The get the bands on the radio stations, they get them interviews and exposure, they build hype... essentially, the record companies help to shape public opinion so that these acts can go on the road and make megabucks playing sold out shows.

Take that part away, and we have a bunch of super bar bands all touring the country playing to 50 people a night for beer money, because nobody has heard of them because their music isn't on th radio, they haven't been talked about in Rolling Stone, and they didn't get that music guest spot on Conan.

Oh yeah, I agree
having been in the music promotion business, they are tough to deal with but just want to be paid like anyone else. My issue is I think they are still getting a little overzealous with prosecutions. To me, some 17 year old kid making a mix tape for his buddies is a far cry from a lab in China mass producing the latest Metallica album and selling it on the streets for a profit...

[drjones]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy2

I wonder where they get the figure of 20 illegals per legal....not that i doubt it, but I often wonder where they get these numbers...

The funny things is...are there still people willing to pay to hear Oasis or Jamiroquai ;-)

I just see things evolving in the music business

They literally make them up, most of the time.

[Kevin Marx]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy2

My issue is I think they are still getting a little overzealous with prosecutions. To me, some 17 year old kid making a mix tape for his buddies is a far cry from a lab in China mass producing the latest Metallica album and selling it on the streets for a profit...

You only think it is overzealous becasue of the scope and scale.

How can one kid really be causing a problem, right? Not in comparison to a factory or big business ripping you off?

Well, because it's not just one 17 year old kid. It's 20 million or 50 million or 100 million (worldwide) doing the same thing everywhere. It's a small individual problem, yet a huge international problem.

Why prosecute the 17 year old kid (or a 32 year old single mother of three)? Because he deserves it. Get a fuckin job and pay for it like you should. Theft is theft.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by SykkBoy2

Oh yeah, I agree
having been in the music promotion business, they are tough to deal with but just want to be paid like anyone else. My issue is I think they are still getting a little overzealous with prosecutions. To me, some 17 year old kid making a mix tape for his buddies is a far cry from a lab in China mass producing the latest Metallica album and selling it on the streets for a profit...

I think that with the arrival of digital media and "perfect copy" methods, this went out the window. It use to take hours to make a single mix tape. Now with 52x burn CD drives, you can take existing files you have and bang out a disk in a very few minutes. In the past (and I am sure we all did it) we might have shared a mix tape with one or two friends (because by the third copy, it was unlistenable). Now this guy can just ask Nero to burn 20 copies, and he gets 20 absolutely perfect copies.

Worse? If each of his friends copies it 10 times for their friends, you now have 200 copies out there. Next level is 2000, 20,000, 200,000... 3 more iterations and everyone in the US has a copy - a PERFECT copy.

Overzealous may be a term to describe it, but in many cases, music copying is like a virus. If you don't shut it down early, everyone gets infected.

[StuartD]

http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com/

[Pornwolf]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Sykkboy, when I see articles about how "Radiohead will change the music business forever" I have to chuckle. The bands that are doing this for the most part have dedicated followings that would buy any piece of shit recording they put out. They have spent years (and millions of record company dollars) to get the world wide exposure to have that large fanbase.

Take away that buildup, and it would be nothing more than another annoying bar band putting MP3s on their myspace page.

Too many people are missing the job that record companies do, making music widely available in many places at similar times, in formats that everyone can enjoy. The get the bands on the radio stations, they get them interviews and exposure, they build hype... essentially, the record companies help to shape public opinion so that these acts can go on the road and make megabucks playing sold out shows.

Take that part away, and we have a bunch of super bar bands all touring the country playing to 50 people a night for beer money, because nobody has heard of them because their music isn't on th radio, they haven't been talked about in Rolling Stone, and they didn't get that music guest spot on Conan.

Absolutely. Not a lot of people realize this. People get caught up in the "Major Labels are Evil" mentality. It's not that cut and dry.

[sortie]

These rules are nothing new. The record industry simply did not want to get into enforcing many rules because it is reasonable for consumers to break some of these rules at times. But since the consumers did a big "fuck-up" with file sharing and don't want to stop when they are contacted the music industry is hitting back with a bigger "fuck-up-too".

The record companies now feel the need to make the full extent of their reach known so that people don't get this cavalier attitude that they can distribute material for free that the record company is trying to sell.

It's kind of like when gallery submissions were free and we fucked with the tgps with auto-submitters and viruses and popup and a whole lot of other shit so now they charge for gallery spots and partner accounts.

Moral of the story : People "push the envelope" until it explodes in their face.

[Ayla_SquareTurtle]

Trying to keep mechanics or store workers from listening to a small personal radio while working is just childish. Stopping theft, I can get on board with but whining about stupid stuff like that makes them look like a little child crying "mine mine mine."