2257 Isn't The Only Thing Breaking Balls Out There...
 

I received this email from one of my mainstream sponsors:

Dear Affiliate,

The U.S. Supreme Court has made a Decision regarding the MGM v. Grokster
case. The ruling was not favorable to file-sharing software makers.

The ruling states that "One who distributes a device with the object of
promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of
infringement by third parties using the device, regardless of the
device's lawful uses," - Justice David Souter.

In other words...
A company or person providing or promoting file sharing applications which results in copyright infringement makes the company or person providing the
application liable to prosecution from the copyright holder.

In an effort to protect our affiliates, publishers and our program, MP3Dollars.com has paused processing of all U.S. transactions.

We ask that you stop all U.S. promotion of Mp3DownloadHQ.com
We strongly suggest that you shift your current ads to countries other than the U.S.

Please adhere to this policy for your safety.
We will be stopping all sales from the U.S. today, June 27, 2005.

MP3Dollars thanks you in advance for your compliance while we examine the situation more closely. We will keep you updated as the legal landscape becomes more clear.

Sincerely,
Mp3Dollars Affiliate Team



:disgust

fair enough too... if you were a musician would you want all your hard work ripped off??


L$

Listen to the pornographerrrrrrrrrrrrrr :1orglaugh

So youd be ok if the renenue you made each month with mp3dollars would never reach your bankaccount?

Stealing = stealing dude

What does being a pornographer have to do with stealing and distributing content?

Ok so lets say i make a file sharing application as a studen at MIT, to share math related software & documents with students at NYU.

It's open to all users & all file types, but somehow it gets leaked to the general public & i am no longer able to control who uses it.

I get sued?

This is just more paranoid, reactionary bullshit from abunch of people older than most of our grandparents at the S.C.

end of story.

Are you people really this blind?

The ruling states that "One who distributes a device with the object of
promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of
infringement by third parties using the device, regardless of the
device's lawful uses," - Justice David Souter.

Who decides if the advertisement methods were intended to promote infringement of copyright?

Ok lets just keep passing laws until commercial uses of the internet are no longer open to the general public. And the only people who can make a buck are the walmarts.

Problem is that all of the MP3 sites promote it just that way. They sell their subscriptions by showing people how to download unlimited music. That seems to me to be intended to promote infringement of copyright.

I would imagine savy marketers will come up with ways around this. Ways to promote file sharing without promoting infringement of copyright.

File sharing is a technology. You can't stop a technology from existing.

It's crazy that we're living through this kind of a revolution. Fuck hollywood and fuck the RIAA.

This is just another bullshit fear campaign. "Don't share files or you may be arrested." Another war against something that The Man will never be able to control just like the war on drugs, gun control and pornography.

pr0 has a good point. Who will decide what a company's or individual's intent was? What is Wal-Mart's intent when they sell guns to their customers? What is CVS's intent when they sell a case of over the counter diet pills to someone? If a customer buys a gun and kills with it, should Wal-Mart be held accountable? If a person buys diet pills and uses it to make crystal meth, should CVS be held accountable? Who will decide and how?

We will all need to wait to see the reprocussions of this decision. MP3Dollars has always taken the high road. Out of any program out there, they are the best at what they do. I will continue sending them traffic because they are one of the best converting programs I push. My campaigns will have to change, but I am going to stick this one out.
If the RIAA and movie houses were smart, they would embrace the marketing potential contained in p2p networks.
How many of you are getting joins as a result of dropping DRMed clips on the p2p networks??

i got the same email..

Webhoward makes some good points.

One thing I know is that the people at MP3Dollars are all solid. They run a great program and I have no doubt they will continue to thrive. I wish them nothing but the best.

when the question "who" comes up, they'll say "a jury of your peers"

well, i'm sorry, but a cross section of the neighborhood isn't going to know shit about technology, & assuming i can afford the 2million to get a good fight in court, i doubt my lawyers going to be able to explain file sharing theory well enough for some dumb fucks to make an educated decesion

Yeah, no more sharing damn it

I think you're missing the point! Holding a third party software developer/distributor liable for an individual who has used their product for illegal purposes is ridiculous. Do you see any legislation being brought forth to hold Kinkos responsible for every college student that walks through their doors to copy a dozen pages from his roommates economics book?

This shit is really getting out of control. Just as with 2257, the people making these decisions don't have even the slightest idea about technology.

Anyone who is in the "music biz" for the sole purpose of making money, well, fuck them. Fuck all of them.

A real musician plays music simply because they love playing music.

For those totally against file sharing here is a good analogy...

Do you let friends or family borrow books or movies? Even though they don't own the book or DVD, they get to read the book and get the information out of it or watch the movie without buying the product. Should we stop sharing those things as well?

Just a different way to look at things.

this is far too complicated of a topic to be answered in a post. there are so many different diferent to consider, you cant just say yes its bad or no its not. imo its fine, but im not going to get into this arguement

Hm... Wonder if gun makers will become liable when someone uses their product to KILL someone :1orglaugh
Or maybe the DOJ will make a new law, 2298 where a inspector can enter anyone's home and inspect
their personal PC for illegal MP3 files, and arrest you for anything else they might find in the process.
Maybe they should go after the makers of "blank CD's" and maybe the hard drives that store the illegal MP3's.
I guess we as Americans should just make it easy on the government and save them some time. Lets just all agree
to let them put camera's in our homes so they can watch us when they see fit. Oh wait, they can already do that under
the 'sneak and peek' part of the patriot act...shit.. :mad:

You must be a musician that cant get a paying gig.

I dare you to market a gun for killing someone. You will be held liable. The rest of your post is more paranoid drivel.

Oh no, now you can be held liable for breaking the law! What the fuck will they come up with next? Buy the music you cheap fucks.

How fucking dare you say that. I am a musician. And we do get payed at shows, but if we make $30 or $300, either way nobody is in the state of mind to bitch about it. I also record and produce local bands and I don't charge them a fucking dime...try to figure out why, I bet you can't.

You see, we play shows because we enjoy it. Who fucking cares about getting payed to do it. I don't expect you to understand.

Not sure if anyone reads Maximum Rock and Roll, the shitty old punk zine, well my band is on the cover this month. Not that it's a big deal, but at least 20,000 kids now probably know who we are that didn't before, which is cool. And I can only fucking HOPE they are on soulseek as we speak downloading our songs and digging the fuck out of them, because that's all that fucking matters.

yup they can already do that....

o well your honor we were investigating a potential terror suspect & in the process of the search we found 2,000 mp3's & 20 movies

americas going to hell

Dude, Relax.

Peace, love and Rock n Roll man.

The bottom line is that if a jury decides that you are packaging or using p2p programs with the intent of breaking copyright laws, you will be sued. Wouldn't the same logic make manufacturers of dual cassette decks or vcr/dvd recorders liable??