Fascist RIAA Eyes Next Possible Targets: CD Burners, Radio Listeners

[Satan]

RIAA Eyes Next Possible Targets: CD Burners, Radio Listeners

Jason Mick (Blog) - October 9, 2007 8:54 AM

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.

Well that fucking figures.... :rolleyes:

"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.cdrinfo.pl/newsy/archiwum/riaa-nazi-sue.gif

Link (http://www.dailytech.com/RIAA+Eyes+Next+Possible+Targets+CD+Burners+Radio+L isteners/article9218.htm)

[Coyote]

Cunts!! :mad:

[NATEDOG001976]

BRING THEM ON!!!

[Nickdfresh]

I got an idea. Instead of worrying about "music pirates," why doesn't the RIAA put more effort into lowering the price of CDs to reflect the ever decreasing manufacturing costs?

The truth is that they fucked themselves by price-gouging throughout the late 80s and 90s as recording CDs became cheaper and yet prices stayed high or even soared, even though these were boon times as people replaced their vinyl and tapes with redundant copies of albums...

And put out new and better products that cannot be mimicked by schmucks on their home computers instead of this vain and fruitless effort to recoup perceived losses that are often dubiously calculated. They're always blaming red-herrings for this crap (radio recording, cassettes, bootlegs, CD burners, MP3s, etc). Even when they were booming in profits they still hunted copyright violations to the letter, but in violation of the spirit, of the law..

There are some Van Halen songs I've bought up to four-times over now (vinyl, cassette, CD, CD-remaster).

I think I pretty much have the right to do what I want with those songs in regards to personal use at this point...

[Ellyllions]

It's so hard to watch them fight in the throws of death. 'Cause that's what this all is...a last clamour for something as they're going down.

True Story that just happened yesterday...
A remix of a Duran Duran song surfaced on limewire. The latest single "Falling Down" had been remixed with bits and pieces of old Duran tunes. I got an email from a friend that she'd upload it to YouSendIt for me if I wanted it. I respectfully declined as I'm not really into what they're doing this go round and I especially HATE remixes. (*note: if you gotta remix it, it sounds like shit)

Well, I've got another friend who works for Sony that emailed me with a "you're not going to believe what's happened". Seems that the remix was something that Sony was officially working on and was supposed to be known only to Sony. She went on in her email complaining that Sony has a leak in it's very own camp.

So while we're being persued and sued, some of the stealing is going on right within their own company....nice.

[Warham]

All I had to read was the word 'fascist' in the main forum to know that FORD posted this.

It has to be one of his five favorite words of all-time.

[Coyote]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
I got an idea. Instead of worrying about "music pirates," why doesn't the RIAA put more effort into lowering the price of CDs to reflect the ever decreasing manufacturing costs?

And put out new and better products that cannot be mimicked by schmucks on their home computers instead of this vain and fruitless effort to recoup perceived losses that are often dubiously calculated...

Here's another idea: PUT OUT MORE ADVENTUROUS MUSIC! TAKE A FUCKIN' CHANCE!

Who the fuck wants to see yet another Pro-Tooled-to-death clone band?

[Warham]

The 1960s are dead, Coyote.

It's depressing, but the best rock music has already been recorded.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Coyote
Here's another idea: PUT OUT MORE ADVENTUROUS MUSIC! TAKE A FUCKIN' CHANCE!

Who the fuck wants to see yet another Pro-Tooled-to-death clone band?

True.

And how about supporting a new technology over CDs, which were designed in the early 1970s?

[Ellyllions]

Originally posted by WAR
The 1960s are dead, Coyote.

It's depressing, but the best rock music has already been recorded.

Wolfmother


That is all.

[Warham]

I shouldn't say depressing. If you don't mind living in the past, it's fine.

I also should say that great music is still being released, it's just not groundbreaking or genre-changing like it was thirty years ago. You won't be hearing a 'Sgt. Pepper's' again any time soon.

[Satan]

Originally posted by Coyote
Here's another idea: PUT OUT MORE ADVENTUROUS MUSIC! TAKE A FUCKIN' CHANCE!

Who the fuck wants to see yet another Pro-Tooled-to-death clone band?

Exactly.... the RIAA will cry on cue about how their sales have tanked in the last decade since broadband internet became available, but they always fail to mention the fact that the state of major label music in the same time period has gone to Heaven in a handbasket!.

It's not that people would rather "steal" music than buy it. It's that there's very little WORTH BUYING. Or stealing, for that matter.

And then, even when you DO buy one of their CD's, half of them are encoded with some fascist crap code which makes it impossible to play some thing that YOU OWN on your own fucking hardware.

These pieces of shit are cutting their own throat. This Devil will NEVER pay for lossy files though, so if you put out music worth buying, Hell will always provide customers.

[Hyman Roth]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
....vain and fruitless effort ...

Yup. Get behind the times, music industry, or the times are going to
leave you in the dust. "The times there're-a changin'". And fast!

[Ellyllions]

I don't understand their stance on cd's as in "albums". From what I've seen the industry is more in the business of making one hit wonders than entire albums...ya know?

[Warham]

You are right, Elly. Especially with iTunes and downloading being so popular.

The industry is going back to the days of the late 50s-early 60s, where artists would have a couple hits, and then surround it with filler to make up a releasable album.

[Coyote]

Originally posted by WAR
The 1960s are dead, Coyote.

It's depressing, but the best rock music has already been recorded.

That's what they say 'bout jazz, too...

So what should we do? Stagnate? Lie down and start rotting?

[Satan]

Originally posted by Ellyllions
I don't understand their stance on cd's as in "albums". From what I've seen the industry is more in the business of making one hit wonders than entire albums...ya know?

Which is exactly how they slit their own throats. Even the people that like the "one hit wonder" song don't give a shit about the rest of the album, so they don't buy it.

They made CD singles for a while, but nobody wanted to pay $5 for one song, so the singles would only sell if you were someone like Pearl Jam or U2 who always had non-album B-Sides, and would usually put 4 or 5 songs on a CD "single".

So now if you only want one song, you're expected to buy it from I Tunes, Rhapsody, or the neutered corporatized entity which used to be Napster. But it's not the equivalent of a true CD single, because it's a lossy format. Most teenagers, listening on a computer or an I pod won't give a shit about that, but I'll never pay for something that can be erased by accident (or virus)

[Figs]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
I got an idea. Instead of worrying about "music pirates," why doesn't the RIAA put more effort into lowering the price of CDs to reflect the ever decreasing manufacturing costs?

The truth is that they fucked themselves by price-gouging throughout the late 80s and 90s as recording CDs became cheaper and yet prices stayed high or even soared, even though these were boon times as people replaced their vinyl and tapes with redundant copies of albums...


I remember way back then watching some kind of news piece with a bunch of folks in Hazmat-type suits in a "dust-free" environment making CD's, and how expensive the process is. I'm sure at first it was a lot more expensive, but still. 15-20 years down the road I'm making the same thing in my dirty basement for a buck a piece.

[Coyote]

Originally posted by WAR
I shouldn't say depressing. If you don't mind living in the past, it's fine.

At least they know me there...



I also should say that great music is still being released, it's just not groundbreaking or genre-changing like it was thirty years ago. You won't be hearing a 'Sgt. Pepper's' again any time soon.

That's because nobody has the balls to do anything like it.

[Satan]

Originally posted by Coyote

That's because nobody has the balls to do anything like it.

Green Day gave it a pretty good shot with "American Idiot", as far as the whole "concept album/rock opera" thing goes.

But then I always preferred Revolver to Sgt. Pepper myself.

[bueno bob]

Concept albums/rock operas are a dime a fucking dozen anymore...go look at any European power metal band and you'll find at least three in anybody's discography...

Of course, all of it sucks...which is the problem with music in general anymore. It's pretty much all filler and there hasn't been a decent rock act to come down the pipeline in AGES now...

I know Elly mentioned Wolfmother, but I think Wolfmother (and the like of it) are prime examples of everything that's wrong with rock music these days...it's sloppy, filler-full and there's any number of 2000 other bands doing the same thing a HELL of a lot better...among them The Sword & Priestess, but that's just me.

The problem I have with it is that most people have no idea who Priestess or The Sword are, but everybody knows Wolfmother because of that idiotic Woman song...can anybody even tell me what that song means, other than the lead singer bellowing out "Woman! You're a woman! Gotta be a woman! Better be a woman, woman!"? It's the singularly most lazy rock song I've heard in ages, plugged beyond all belief...I listened to the album, hoping they picked out the worst possible track as a single, and I found to my shock that that song was the album's arguable highlight...if there WERE highlights...

Anyway...I'm certainly not paying for garbage...cost of living has gone up exponentially and CDs have not declined in price to match, even as costs of manufacturing have gone down since 1984 at least. The older the technology, the easier/cheaper it is to manufacture.

The record companies are simply dying and they smell their own extinction in the air. They're in a mad dash to grab whatever they can to save their own asses because they've refused to budge over the years and it's their own damn fault, honestly. If their marketing strategy was better than "Hit and Flush" expendability in music acts that they sign, if they actually still practiced the art of "Artist Development" rather than just pushing a hit single or three and then disposing of the act as "Unmarketable" after the fifteen minutes are up, it might be an entirely different situation...

Tell you one thing, there isn't anybody coming into my property and doing spot-checks for radios or CD burners. Not in a million fucking years will I ever allow that shit to happen in my home.

It's because the RIAA does shit like this, or even considers doing shit like this, that I don't buy albums from the store anymore. There's far too many alternatives when it comes to ebay, pawn shops and used CD stores.

If everybody would quit buying new CDs for a year, the RIAA would go extinct and all this shit would be over.

Honestly, I really hope that the era of the 'music store' and the labels go away into the night quietly and the only way to get new music becomes to download it directly from the artist or off of ONE web server. Pay .99 per track, allow 1 minute samples of each song, and let the RIAA merge and run the fucking thing! Anyone else sets up a different P2P? Sue THEM! The RIAA dominates everything, people aren't forced to pay outlandish prices for entire half-assed albums, and who could complain?

[FORD]

The only reason I know that "Woman" song was that it was in some commercial that got played endlessly. I didn't know who the band was until I saw them playing Live Earth, but at the time, I just thought it was someone trying damn hard to sound like Black Sabbath.

Still haven't heard the rest of their album, but if it sounded like that, I might waste the money.

As for "The Sword and the Priestess", I've never heard of them, but I must admit, my first impulse would probably be to avoid something that sounded like the title of a bad Disney movie. :D

[katie]

Originally posted by Ellyllions
I don't understand their stance on cd's as in "albums". From what I've seen the industry is more in the business of making one hit wonders than entire albums...ya know?



Very true,

And because of that they have shot themselves in the foot.

EMI still gets a huge income from back catalogue albums from Pink Floyd, Beatles, Queen etc....

Where are the new artists that will still be selling back catalogue recordings in 20/30 years time?

You reap what you sow....

[DrMaddVibe]

The RIAA already is getting theirs on the sale of blank media.

Before you can even burn something on the disk...they've already been paid.

[WACF]

I with Bob.

Priestess is one of those bands that just float under the radar....and they deserve much better.

The Sword...You mean the metal band from Texas?
Good stuff.

I will throw another band in..."Grady"....they have their own sound and write good songs....but not well known.

Overall I would buy more CDs if I knew I was not getting fucked with overpaying and the fact that half the CD is more than likely filler.


To a degree I will also blame the internet.

When I was a kid I would listen to tapes or LPs start to finish...I would not fast forward the weaker tunes ethier...it was an experience.

With the internet age we are flooded with tons of bands and different sounds...levels of talent.
Our choices have gone up...and are unbelievable.
I grew up with one good radio station...the video age increased my exposure to new(old) bands...for example Iron Maiden.
Then the internet blew the doors wide open!

I find it very hard to listen to any CD start to finish...even the classic stuff I love...my attention span is looking for something else right away.

...and...I just can not take mediocre like l used too...

[WACF]

...and yes...Fuck the RIAA!

Fuck the CRIA too...a smaller beast but they have blocked my access to Demonoid!


We received a letter from a lawyer represeting the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and We need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, that is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience.

[bueno bob]

Originally posted by FORD
As for "The Sword and the Priestess", I've never heard of them, but I must admit, my first impulse would probably be to avoid something that sounded like the title of a bad Disney movie. :D

Heheheh...does sound like a Disney movie... :)

But yeah, "Priestess" is one act and "The Sword" is another...

http://www.loudside.com/images/albums/1976.jpg

http://www.decoymusic.com/vb/gas/images/5/2sword_ageofwinters.jpg

[WACF]

Priestess...

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7cfahXQh-X8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7cfahXQh-X8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

[Steve Savicki]

Combining Nicks and Coyot's thoughts:

For classics, I'll pay though a lower price would never be bad at all.

For the new music... please define music.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by WACF
...and yes...Fuck the RIAA!

Fuck the CRIA too...a smaller beast but they have blocked my access to Demonoid!


We received a letter from a lawyer represeting the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and We need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, that is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience.

http://www.proxytiki.com/

;)

[WACF]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
http://www.proxytiki.com/

;)


Nice!

Thank you....