Comments on: Why the RIAA should have won (though the fine was too high)
Record labels should have won case against Minnesota woman who was probably sharing copyrighted music on Kazaa. The problem is the $220,000 penalty.
Most Popular
15 sites that went kaput in 2009
Web sites launch all the time, but they also shut their doors. We highlight 15 that bit the dust this year.
Top 10 news stories of the decade
Let the debate begin: Was the iPhone more important than iTunes? Was anything bigger than Google finding a great business model? CNET offers its list of the 10 most important stories of the '00s.
About Politics and Law
News at the intersection of technology, politics, and law, ranging from intellectual property to censorship to tech policy.
Add this feed to your online news reader
Politics and Law topics
&srcUrl=http://news.cnet.com/8601-13578_3-9792175-2.html?communityId%3D2071%26targetCommunityId%3D2071%26blogId%3D38){kind=small}
In this case nothing was being sold illegally, there was no profit scheme. Copyrighted music was being given away for free. While this is illegal and unfair to those who created this product, it should be kept in a sane perspective. I believe the penalty for first-time abusers should be simply a $10,000.00 USD fine. If they are caught again, then a 100K fine is the limit. If this individual is for a third time caught breaking the law, then there should be a 500K fine and should be considered a felony with at least 3 years prison time.
All of you who work for a living expect to be paid. You wouldn't like it someone else cashed your paycheck every month, making all of your hours spent working of no value to you. Would you keep on working knowing that you will not be paid and someone else will receive all of your profits? People who produce entertainment deserve to be paid in full, every penny. Do you not also expect to be paid in full with each paycheck, every penny? Would you like it if someone stole a portion of your paycheck every month, or even took off with the whole thing?
Stop being a bunch of selfish morons. Everyone deserves to be paid in full, including you. If you are jealous of the wealth of performers, well then become a performer and find out what a hard life it actually is - especially when you don't get paid.
This woman had to be living under a rock not to know that sharing copyrighted music through Kazaa is a no-no and was likely to hit her hard in the pocket. It's clear that the punishment does not fit the crime in this instance. A $222,000 fine is ridiculous. That being said, it's also clear that copyright laws have gotten out of hand. They've gotten out of hand because so many people have abused the system.
Round and round it goes. Where it stops, only the lawyers know.
It should not be illegal for me to run a piece of software which makes files on my computer accessible to others, in much the same was as it is not illegal to leave your doors unlocked, or for libraries to allow people to borrow their books.
Copyright law is supposed to regulate the right to make copies. Hence is the downloader who is making the copy, and if anyone is to be prosecuted, it is them.
The only abuse of the system is coming from the RIAA.
artists begin to shun the industry that destroys their fans.
Radiohead is the first major band to do this but others will follow.
made the music available to everyone without
hindering fair distribution.
Hindering distribution is a violation of my First
Amendment rights to free speech and violating
listeners rights to listen is an unwelcome
censorship. Has the RIAA dealt fairly with every
producer of music regardless of his or her race,
religion and political views?
I think we all know the answer to that question.
RIAA sucks.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/putting-our-money-where-our-mouths-are-boycott-the-riaa-in-march-239281.php
Funny, they don't prosecute the largest (and oldest) distributer of copywrited material, your local library.
Big Bro would have none of that...
1. More time since retired.
2. Politician's voting readily available in the internet.
3. Sick unto death of being sold out.
We need to stick together. If we play this right we can win.
Since she did not cause any true damages, there should have been no fine or penalty awarded.
So what if other people downloaded the songs. Those are not true damages. It is truly no different from hearing those songs on the radio.
If anything, the RIAA should go after each individual downloader, and only be allowed to fine each one the actual retail value of the song(s) they downloaded (i.e. what you would pay from a music downloading service).
The RIAA should not have won. These laws are tyrannical, and are not in line with the spirit of the law, which is to protect authors from being plagiarized.
The law was not intended to enable conglomerates to take gross advantage of the public.
Personally, I think the whole system of buying music is broken. There are thousands of artists whose material is so old and obscure, that you shouldn't have to pay a premium price for. On the other hand, swapping Madonna for free isn't right either.
Somewhere there ought to be a comprise. But if people think that strongly about something, the most proven trick that works is boycott.
These pathetic Politicians (Politician is now a dirty word) do not give a hairy Rat's behind about their constituents. They pander to the deep pockets of Corporations. Witness the abysmal approval ratings.
Time is now to find out what Nimrods are responsible for this and watch upcoming legislation then scream.
The very same people that can't seem to figure out how 250,000,000 citizens could possibly thwart the evil plans of 1000 or so plutocrats.
(B-O-Y-C-O-T-T ?)
We don't NEED what they are selling. Go to your local library, read a book, learn something.
Hell, learn to MAKE music.
Turn off the tube, the radio, and even (gasp), the iPod.
Or we could just sit here and whine. God forbid we should take any action to oppose injustice.
What would the neighbors think?
Maj. Payne
Jails and prisons in America are overflowing. Drunken drivers are slapped on the wrist. I read a story about a guy who was just arrested for his 13th DUI a few days ago. If we're going to pack our jails full of MORE people, we need to start here.
I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right- sure, she did wrong, but we need to prioritize who we're going to lock up. If you think pirates are big enough criminals to justify building more jails then I guess I disagree with you. There are already enough tax dollars being wasted dealing with this, adding more to the mix isn't going to do good. You can rant and rave about how much she stole from the copyright owners but the criminals that steal the largest amounts of money hardly serve time or suffer at all (Stewart's a great example).
A quarter million dollars? To me this is just the "lottery lawsuits" in the opposite direction. I think she should have been fined more than she would have been if she would have settled but not this much more. Maybe 2x, 4x more, not a quarter million.
The only chance this lady has of paying that fine is if someone sets up a website and enough people donate to help her out.
That that scenaria asume that there is a least one politician in washington that is still on the peoples and sadly there is none... Airplane, large towers etc., who need to blow up that... the RIAA headquater seem a much better target!
Its ridiculous that you can get DVD's for $5 but music is still $17. Obviously one certain aspect of the industry hasn't gotten on the clue bus as to the value of the product they sell.
Corps are rich, true, but 200,000,000 MoFo's can swing a big MoFo stick.
(Did I miSpelll that?) (Who nose, ize jes de prezuhdent)
The MPAA/RIAA is the most dangerous criminal cartel in in the world right now and must be stop at all cost! They way of doing business was called racketting and extortion in the 30's.
No one is safe from those criminals and if the USA as at least one honest politician left... he need to shut them down as soon as possible. (c) laws does not protect any artist, it as been distorted to such a extend, that now its only use is to providing the digital mafia with the means to STEAL money from peoples.
How much of that 22,000$ is going to individual artists? And the jury show that everyone as a price...
If they want to prove that I logged in to a machine, they'd better be able to show I used at least three authentication factors, and one of them damned well better be biometric, or I'd easily tear them a new one.
In the case of any Windows PC, there is no way at all to say that a particular person caused a computer to perform a task. Anything a person can do on a computer can be done by a program.
A person is more than a username and password, but apparently these folks just weren't made to understand that any secret can be stolen, and that username/password can never provide specific identification of any one person.
Oh, and I've replaced 4 personal hard disks this year, and dozens at work. They fail whenever they please.
should be found guilty. And the fine needs to be high enough to
stop people from doing that. But to destroy someone's life for it
is out of hand. I agree...I agree.
BUT, she made the music available, and did not make money
from this. It is not as though she set up a business to do this
and make money. Additionally, she has no way of knowing how
the music was used if ever downloaded. Maybe people listened
to it once and deleted it!
This sounds like BS, but no one has proven ANY downloads were
made. Given her profit from doing that and the lack of evidence,
I think for the fine to go over $10K is ridiculous and insulting to
"non-stars" and other "lower" people.
I will hit the drum again. STOP BUYING THEIR PRODUCT. DON'T
STEAL IT OR "SHARE IT" , BUT DON'T BUY IT EITHER! Money is all
they understand and you don't NEED this product. It is NOT
food! Give it a month, preferably December, where you don't
buy or use any of their product. Trust me, if it comes down to
dropping the price or not selling the product, the price will come
down. "They" will also have more respect for their clients and be
more reasonable about who the attack.
Additionally, write to your congress-critter and tell them if they
vote to violate YOUR rights to be treated fairly, you will not vote
for them. Maybe even campaign against them!
If everyone TODAY would DONATE ALL THEIR CDs to their LOCAL LIBRARIES, the RIAA would be castrated overnight.
I personally don't understand why anyone thinks any CD put out by a CORPORATION is worth listening too. Don't you know those CDs are corporate projects? You're listening to songs created by a staff of suits within a project team.
- RIAA should NOT win
- by schoolhousedrive October 7, 2007 6:12 AM PDT
- RIAA are mobsters and thieves. Our lawmakers have been put into office by these thugs, so it is no surprise that our laws are designed to defend the criminal behavior of organized crime.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
Showing 3 of 5 pages (163 Comments)