RIAA robs student of life-savings

[Saurencaerthai]

Remind me to put my brother's first album (cut independantly while he was in college) out on the internet.....

He and his friends wrote, composed, arranged and recorded the whole damn thing on school property, and copyied it to CDRs, with their own dust jackets, on the CD cases, for a fraction of the price.

Technically a much bigger threat then Google ever will be.

You actually hit it right on the head of what's happening right now. It looks pretty much like there are going to be quite a few independant lables popping up, getting more of the musicians out there who actually want to MAKE MUSIC rather than made-for-radio crap, and the larger guys WILL begin to suffer from that.

[Saurencaerthai]

I meant "free music" in the sense of "free music from the grip of the RIAA,"

::Applauds::

[Pablo Sanchez]

I think the current state of things in the music industry is like a sinking ship. There's really no way to shore up the defenses and hold the system together anymore. There are two reasons for this, IMO.

First is the information revolution. The P2P networks are beyond the reach of legal action, and they allow the user to get what he wants for no charge.

Second is the unbelievable ass-fucking that the record companies attempted to foist on the listening public. I wanted to pick up a David Bowie CD a few days ago. I entered the Sam Goody, inspected the racks, and found that I was supposed to pay $24 American for it. I like David Bowie... but I don't like him that much. (A few weeks ago I got immense amusement from reading in the Rolling Stone that the record companies had engaged in price fixing from the early nineties until the present day. Can you imagine: to whine and complain about how Napster was screwing you, while at the same time you illegally squeezed your consumers for every penny you could manage? It's Tobacco-esque in its deviousness)

The experience between big business and the American people in the 21st century thus far has been almost universally negative.

[Joe]

The experience between big business and the American people in the 21st century thus far has been almost universally negative.

A few bad apples and the whole bunch is bad?

[Pablo Sanchez]

The experience between big business and the American people in the 21st century thus far has been almost universally negative.

A few bad apples and the whole bunch is bad?

No, but I'm talking about the direct interaction between the producer and the consumer, which has been adversarial in the entertainment industry, and a bunch of bullshit at the stock markets. And it's not just a few bad apples, a lot of companies cook their books to boost stock-buyer confidence. Part of the reason the economy is so bad is that people don't trust enough to invest.

[Spyder]

The experience between big business and the American people in the 21st century thus far has been almost universally negative.

A few bad apples and the whole bunch is bad?

No, but I'm talking about the direct interaction between the producer and the consumer, which has been adversarial in the entertainment industry, and a bunch of bullshit at the stock markets. And it's not just a few bad apples, a lot of companies cook their books to boost stock-buyer confidence. Part of the reason the economy is so bad is that people don't trust enough to invest.

Lack of ethics is actually becoming a major problem the world over. Ethics has become one of those words that people tend to snicker whenever they hear and almost never take seriously. It's an attitude that's been carried on for quite some time and now we're starting to see the effects of it.

[Stuart Mackey]

snip

Stuart will probably correct me shortly if I've got that wrong.

Telecom NZ (NZ's resident evil corporation) has been known to spend money on opponant's legal fees throughout the years.

Yup, pretty much right.
And Death to Telecom

[Ryoga]

No, wait, hear me out fellas...put the pitchforks down!

Remember the 'Sponsor a Vegan' program somebody mentioned a long time ago here, where you'd basically eat twice as much meat as usual for every vegan you knew?

I say we do something like that for the RIAA, with MP3s. So all of you people reading that article and going 'omglolwtf?', go out and download yourself an MP3! And spread the word, so that every man, woman, and child within earshot (or e-mailshot) is downloading an MP3. Even better, only look for an MP3 on Google or Yahoo. What do you guys think?

[Rye]

This really shocked me. I am disgusted with my species.

That's really awful.

To quote from jay and silent bob strike back

"fuck them. Fuck them in their stupid asses for being so dumb"

seriously that's gut-wrenchingly slime scum tactics. I hopw they do go against microsoft...that way the RIAA gets their repeatedly penetrated ass handed to them and they leave kazaa alone, so people can still download microshaft products & mp3s off that without (as much)fear of reprisal.

Seriously...that's disgusting. Reminds me of a joke i heard on neighbours: "How do you get a lawyer out of a tree? Cut the rope"

[Hobot]

Praise be to Maddox:

http://maddox.xmission.com/musicindustry.html

[EmperorMing]

See the patent office and read more carefully. Even the most spectacularly important INVENTION has a royalty shelf life of 17 years, while copyright is indefinite. That is an injustice. The term limits on patents are intended to provide incentive for invention while simultaneously restricting the ability of the inventor to hold society hostage for his own profit. Why was the same wisdom not applied to copyright? Do you realize how many movies and songs would be public-domain if there were a 17 year expiry on copyright?

But we’re talking about violation of copyright. NAPSTER and Kazaa are illegal. There’s no legal excuse for downloading free the work of somebody else. You might like it and want to continue. That doesn’t mean it’s right or correct.

You're a fucking moron. Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X provide the exact same functionality: the ability to search a LAN for files. When are the RIAA going to sue Microsoft and Apple? Oh that's right, never, because those two companies can actually afford the legal fees and not be litigated into the ground.

Obviously, the RIAA had a case against this kid. Plenty of websites police their own networks and post terms of service. It wasn’t only his fault – obviously no single man can police a campus -, but legally, it was his to pay the price.

There is no case against this kid; the site he created wa an index, nothing more. The RIAA just wants a scapegoat to 'justify' their own position and make it *seem* legit.