RIAA = The Devil

This kinda worries me... i mean really i dont even wanna open my program now...


taken off Yahoo! News


Starting today, the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) begins an unprecedented campaign to track down music fans who trade unauthorized songs on the Internet. The RIAA plans to file ''hundreds'' of lawsuits as early as August.


''Any individual computer user who continues to steal music will face the real risk of having to face the music,'' RIAA president Cary Sherman said.


It's the most dramatic step in a shift of copyright enforcement from swap services -- often based overseas and difficult to shut down -- to the millions who trade online. Potential damages could reach $150,000 for each violation.


Recent court victories against Verizon have given the RIAA the ability to easily subpoena and retrieve the identities of infringers from Internet service providers. Verizon, with the support of such groups as the ACLU and Consumers Union, is appealing.


The RIAA's initial targets will be the ''most egregious'' song sharers, Sherman said, though no limit was specified.


File sharing and CD burning are being blamed for lower album sales -- down 8% this year, according to unreleased figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Kazaa, the most popular pirate service, claims 230 million registered users. Legal alternatives such as MusicNet and Pressplay have 300,000 total subscribers.


But the success of the Apple iTunes Music Store, which has sold 5 million songs in two months at 99 cents each, has proved there's a market for music sales on the Net.


''We're at the point where the public has been educated,'' Sherman said. ''People understand this activity is illegal, the legal services are getting better and there's no longer any excuse for downloading illegally.''


Wayne Rosso of file-swap service Grokster called the RIAA's actions ''lunacy'' and said, ''It is typical of them to not only alienate their customers but sue them into bankruptcy.''

[Unimatrix Prime™]

AHH! You beat me into posting about this issue!! lol... oh well... anyways, I heard about this yesterday and I'm quite surprised.. I really hate how the RIAA has now gone to p2p programs in search of DLs, and altho the basic idea of sharing mp3s is kinda wrong, the thought of your ISP giving your name to the RIAA or having them come to your house, destroying your CDs, and fining you in excess of $10000 is totally wrong to me!

For a related article, refer to here:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

For a warning to you all, be careful of using psp programs for the next 2 months, as this will be when they'll be going out looking for people. In DC++, someone said that they're already using that program, disguising themselves as people with [FC] in their nicknames, so my only caution is to be careful.. >.<

[Cientifik]

looks like theyre really taking a big step in trying to stp people from downloading and sharing songs. man, if people really start getting fines for this i definitely will stop. gotta inform my bro and sisses about this. they download more than i do. theyre really serious about this. could this be the end of file sharing music?

[i]Originally posted by C
looks like theyre really taking a big step in trying to stp people from downloading and sharing songs. man, if people really start getting fines for this i definitely will stop. gotta inform my bro and sisses about this. they download more than i do. theyre really serious about this. could this be the end of file sharing music?

no way they cant kep us down.. somehow we will find ways of getting through them, it is really wrong how greedy they can be, big freakin deal so they lost a few doallrs so what? theyre still up there, u see u see how greed can corrupt a persons mind and heart? now.. this is only music right? so Ayu CM's and PV's still up for grabs??

[shinjite]

:O i agree, it really sucks not to be able to trade mp3 & other things on-line, but we can't really blame them. i think we'd all be ferking pissed if our company lost tons of money through on-line trading software. i don't think it's fair to call them greedy, that's just my opinion. it seems like we're the greedy ones. but... this is a confuzing matter

[Chireresu]

I don't get why they're going after us as individuals when they should be attacking the file sharing programs themselves.

[i]Originally posted by s
:O i agree, it really sucks not to be able to trade mp3 & other things on-line, but we can't really blame them. i think we'd all be ferking pissed if our company lost tons of money through on-line trading software. i don't think it's fair to call them greedy, that's just my opinion. it seems like we're the greedy ones. but... this is a confuzing matter

okay mabey i would be pissed.. but still, do u knwo how much they are fining per person?!?!


" Potential damages could reach $150,000 for each violation"

now multiply that my teh MILLIONS of users.. if u ask me thast a bit greedy... I never seen a member of teh president of the RIAA compose a song.. or sing.. or do anything except profit from others... i dont see anything wrong with sharing songs. okay now bootlegging a full album tahst not out yet.. yes.. but i mean mixes and stuff? no to me theres nothing wrong with you making a selection, *sigh* oh well tho

[Unimatrix Prime™]

Originally posted by shinjite
:O i agree, it really sucks not to be able to trade mp3 & other things on-line, but we can't really blame them. i think we'd all be ferking pissed if our company lost tons of money through on-line trading software. i don't think it's fair to call them greedy, that's just my opinion. it seems like we're the greedy ones. but... this is a confuzing matter

Well... that may be the case, but you've also gotta look at it in another perspective... the RIAA blames declining sales solely on p2p programs, when in fact, they should thing of the artists who make the songs. No one wants to pay for a $15 CD, when all they like are 2 songs... sure, the artists may "pour the hearts out" to making a song, but if it's garbage, well.. that's all it is. But they believe that in order to get a CD, it's all or nothing, and perhaps a paid system like iTunes would help somewhat, yet even still, the RIAA hasn't considered all those "warez" sites, and sites which offer loads of songs on their server... yet the RIAA, with its narrow-minded ways, focuses on p2p as THE reason why sales decline...

[shinjite]

your'e right: there are two sides to this. i think people normally go & buy the cds after they download some of the artist's songs. good point, jose!

[a_yu_volution]

damn RIAA....c'mon...please give some face to us....anyway...i kinda sense we'll be hard time in some near future....many sites will extinct..and also we'll see a dramatic downturn in the numbers of users on p2p network...damn...i hate this....

anyway..this is really stupid question...:

"does this act also apply to any mp3..that has no association with us record industry..as if mp3 from Japan??..."

although japan also will follow RIAA soon enough...but i just want to know...

why they always have to be representator of the world....*sigh*

[Cientifik]

Originally posted by Unimatrix Zero™
Well... that may be the case, but you've also gotta look at it in another perspective... the RIAA blames declining sales solely on p2p programs, when in fact, they should thing of the artists who make the songs. No one wants to pay for a $15 CD, when all they like are 2 songs... sure, the artists may "pour the hearts out" to making a song, but if it's garbage, well.. that's all it is. But they believe that in order to get a CD, it's all or nothing, and perhaps a paid system like iTunes would help somewhat, yet even still, the RIAA hasn't considered all those "warez" sites, and sites which offer loads of songs on their server... yet the RIAA, with its narrow-minded ways, focuses on p2p as THE reason why sales decline...

i agree. there are countless warez sites that carry mp3s. maybe they figured that if they stop p2p programs that that will be the end of all file sharing which is totally not true or maybe since kazaa was named the most successful p2p program they could shut down kazaa like napster and everything would be fine. i laugh at theyre petty attempts to stop us. theyre actually gonna try to find individual users and fine them. ha! if only they knew how much it really takes to stop all music sharing on the internet. there have attempts in the past to stop this thing and i haven seen anything happen yet.

[Set_0ne]

Arugh..terrible news. But this is always going to happen when the internet is around..People are always going to be swapping files over the net..even thro private IM talks and such. They will truely never stop people sharing.

The fine fee is pretty high and thats terrible..I mean WHO has that type of money? If I had alot of money I'd be buying the CD's but here they cost around $30 to $50 a pop for only 12 songs..Come on it's crazy price to pay!

[paper_doll]

Its not like we'll ever NOT buy a CD again because we D/L. Im on KaZaA right now, and ya know, I just cant seem to get pretty pony~pretty pony~pretty pony~ CD's whenever I want. And I'll DL English music too, then, if I like it, Ill buy the CD, and delete the tracks.

But the way I see it is, then why play songs on that radio? Wouldnt that be like the same thing? Because its not hard to tape the songs on the radio, and now you'll have them forever to listen to, like BURNING A CD.

8%... I could care less about 8%..... But obviously the music industry doesnt T_T One way or another, there's going to be a way to get music off the internet...

[Set_0ne]

Thats a thought..Maybe if they made it alot easier to buy international CD's thro your local music shop then people wouldn't download the music so much. I download the music I can't buy..but usually if I can buy it I'll download it first and see if I like it then go buy the album. Some artists I want to support and there are others I don't want to because I may online like one song by them and forkingo ut a big amount of money for ONE song is so crazy.

If the price rates weren't so high when buying an album online I would consider it more..but it's too expensive..$90 for just 2 albums is crazy and is the price I reccently paid!

[paper_doll]

Buying CD's online is really expensive... Concidering most the prices are in USD. I just bought a single, it was almost $30! And yeah, buying a CD for one song is crazy. I dont do that, thats the purpose of DL. RIAA are LOSERS.

[Set_0ne]

I second that RIAA are loosers!!

[skyline]

that sux

[Unimatrix Prime™]

Originally posted by paper_doll

But the way I see it is, then why play songs on that radio? Wouldnt that be like the same thing? Because its not hard to tape the songs on the radio, and now you'll have them forever to listen to, like BURNING A CD.

That same idea goes with TV and how people could use VCRs to record shows... but, the thing about tapes is that:

a) you normally don't go around making 10s or even 100s of copies for your friends (i'm not talking about pirate moves... that's a bit different )
b) with most types of tape media, the quality degrades with wear and time, so in a few years, that same tape would look quite bad

Perhaps the RIAA knows about that and doesn't consider that a "threat" to their "empire", but as I said before, p2p programs aren't the only source of DL, and even if they did stop them, as already mentioned, there's still IM programs that'd take care of that for the time being .

[paper_doll]

There will always be a way to get music and stuff...

[Delirium-Zer0]

The RIAA are really being stupid and narrow-minded. For one thing, the economy isn't what it was. OF COURSE CD sales are gonna fall; people can't afford to buy a $17 cd when they hear one or two good songs off of it that they like. And plus, american music SUCKS right now for the most part, which is why I listen to jpop. I don't think there are more than 3 or 4 american artists right now that I even LIKE, much less am a big fan of. People who download MP3s also tend to just download songs they've already heard on the radio. The only difference is that now they can listen to the songs on-demand and not wait for the radio to play them, just like if they recorded it onto a tape. Knowing what people are like, they'll get tired of the song and throw away the mp3 in less than the amount of time it would have taken for the tape to wear out, so it's really NOT a threat at all. The RIAA should think of mp3s as a form of advertising; in all honesty, they may be the only thing saving the industry, because if people hear a song or two on the radio by a certain artist they can audition the rest of the album before they buy it. Plus, make no mistake about it, CDs ARE more convenient (which is why people write audio cds to begin with), plus you get the lyrics and nifty pictures and artwork, so if people really like an album they WILL buy it. Actually, I think the RIAA is more worried than anything about the RIAJ getting more attention and taking away from the US economy, haha ~ If not for mp3s i wouldn't have made the changeover to jpop because I wouldn't have been familiar with it. So there ya go.