The Recording Industry Association of America said Thursday it had filed a new round of lawsuits against 751 as-yet-unnamed people who are accused of making copyright music available on file-trading networks. The suits are the latest in a campaign that has now targeted more than 17,000 people.
The group also said that it had refiled claims against 105 individuals who were previously named in anonymous "John Doe" lawsuits, but whose names had now come out in court proceedings.
They can't be happy with just ripping us off with the prices they charge for CD's. They have to resort to the low-life tactics of suing people and ruining their lives. I could go to jail for saying what I think of the RIAA.
Actually, you can't go to jail for saying it, at least not yet. But I am sure the RIAA is trying to get that changed. Besides, there are enough of us that feel the same way that you could probably get a very high powered lawyer with all the contributions. :-)
The RIAA just does not get it. They figure the sales are dropping because of piracy when in reality people are just getting fed up with their heavy handed practices. I buy a lot of my music through magnatune.com simply because the RIAA has nothing to do with it. That and the fact that they have some pretty good music there.
How about concentrating on getting music to the next level UP in quality (SACD, DVD-A) rather than DOWN (MP3). Best way to combat piracy? Move to a format that is physically unfriendly due to limited consumer ability to replicate. Yes, it's a short term fix, but I can't currently copy SACDs and that would pretty much shut the door on piracy. So the industry could concentrate on selling us a quality product, and allow us to rip our own MP3s for portable players. We'd still be buying, they's still be profitting and piracy would be reduced. Of course the industry is not content unless they can wring every last penny out of any potential revenue source...
PS, My hybrid DVD-V/DVD-A/SACD player cost me a whopping $85, so they can't claim the hardware is restrictive and doesn't justify the release of titles!
On one hand you have the heavy hand of the RIAA sueing their own consumers, the other how the RIAA wants to befriend downloaders and give them a chance to help sway the illegal downloading of artist and industry property. What to believe? take notice that they keep finding a excuses to keep sueing youth on monies the probably never recoup. This cycle is idiotic at best. RIAA and others are swatting nats with a elephant gun, sit down with these people and talk it out otherwise the path is this passive war that the RIAA can't win without destroying their own revenue stream.
It is true, a lot of the new music released from the industry majors is of very poor quality, and full of mediocre content, when compared to that released in the 60's and 70's!
Also many of the newer MTV video releases , to complement these lacklustre songs, has now degenerated to the level of soft porn as a form of presentation irrespective of the song's relative content!
We now have Cary Sherman, the current leader of RIAA, fully endorsing SONY BMG's illegal rootkit trojanware!(strangely, though for a man who supposedly supports the the actual recording artist by taking legal action to enforce copyright, he remains very quiet about the payola scams, where both Warner Music & SONY BMG,deliberately used recording artists paid royalty funds illegally, in contradiction to various government laws throughout the world, to bribe radio stations DJ's!)
Oh well, it seems two rules exist, one in which permits the music industry majors, to steal from all, both legally and illegally, and the other is the customer must pay for everything including the sink, for as many times the industry so chooses!
Interestingly there was a piece on NPR Morning Edition (NPR.org) this morning about John Fogherty and how he was shut off from HIS SINGS by the record label for 35 YEARS!!! To the extent the label sued him for sounding like himself after he left and started a solo career.
Yet we have to get morality lessons from the RIAA every week.
All the lawsuits have done absolutely NOTHING to deter file-sharing and every month when the RIAA does this it only alienates consumers further.
As one reader e-mailed me in repsonse to an article about downloading in my newsletter: " WalMart won't sue you if you don't shop with them. Let's not sue our customers if they don't shop with us. Let's give them more incentive to buy what we have to offer."
For those of you who don't read the world's funniest website, THE ONION, I think this will make you laugh...it appeared in the ONION two weeks ago:
RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs (November 30, 2005) LOS ANGELES-The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. "We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material," a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. "We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves." RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth "favorites-sharing" sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms. -- From THE ONION, <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029" target="_newWindow">http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029</a>
Steve Meyer President/CEO - Smart Marketing Publisher - DISC&DAT - A New Media Newsletter For The Music Industry Editor, Digital Technology: www.allaccess.com Las Vegas, NV E-mail: stephennmeyer@earthlink.net
How would WalMart feel if people opened up their warehouses after hours and gave away all of their inventory to anybody that wanted it? I hardly feel that this is a matter of not shopping with the RIAA (WalMart). This is an issue of theft instead of shopping.
I'm waiting for the whole thing to hit critical mass.
Right now, we have people downloading music, video, and programs off the net with their only true restriction being only their connection to the internet.
The RIAA and MPAA fight back by suing people, but suing people isn't working. It makes these organizations look like their the bad guys.
The issue is quality and pricing.
No one wants to pay good hard earned money for crappy music and movies.
while i certainly don't condone sharing of digital ip, i do generally agree with your remarks about music. however, i really don't have a problem with the mpaa, except i wish that all dvd players would ignore region encoding, and i wish that all dvd players could ignore that list of "approved remote control commands" that prevents bypassing the ad's at the front of a dvd. somehow, i feel that i'm getting my money's worth when i buy a dvd. not so for cd's, which i stopped buying years ago (i listen to indy artists who freely give away their music on the net, buying it when they make such an additional offer).
RIAA should be declared a "Terrorist Oranization". But NOOOOOO!!!... THEY get BY with DOING the TERRORIZING!!!
Consumers need to just Boycott the WHOLE entertainment industry by NOT buying ANY CDs, DVDs or Digital Media from companies selling it over the internet. Just ONE MONTH of NO $ALE$ and just MAYBE they will get the CLUE.
Can't consumers do without buy this stuff for just ONE stinking MONTH?!?!?!?!?!?!?
As for Sony getting caught with it's DRM MALWARE:
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is ROOT of this DRM and RIAA EVIL!!!
According to this article: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/47497.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/47497.html</a>
EMI has been releasing select albums -- including the latest Nickelback album, "All The Right Reasons" - this way for about three years. The company intends to ship out all its releases with the technology by year's end.
Terry Millar, director of manufacturing at EMI Canada thinks that other labels, like Universal and Warner, will eventually follow with similar technology. Do YOU think they already MAY have? ;)
THIS is MY example of why a total boycott of Sony, et al should promptly ensue:
I have "Live in San Fan Francisco" by Joe Satriani...an EPIC DVD. EPIC is on Sonys Label List and Joe Satriani is on Sony's Artist List.
I tried to copy just the AUDIO part of "Bass Solo" by Stewart Hamm on Disc 2 of the two disc set so I could play it in my car CD player. After that my computer would NOT play THAT track at ALL!!!!! And the Bass Solo didnt even copy, either.
In addition to which, I did this about TWO YEARS ago!!! Ever since then I've had BIG problems with THAT computer. It FRIED the hard drive which was, at the time, ONLY a few months old!!!
Suspicious??? NOW that Five Year Old DRM is causing all kinds of problems??? You BET it IS!!!!! ;)
The good news is EFF Files Class Action Suit Against Sony-BMG
Google creates an animated doodle that features a boy, a girl, Google's search engine, and a jump rope. But might there be darker, more analytical, more troubling interpretations to this tale?
When the sun goes down, that's when the iPad gets busy for folks with news readers. The iPhone? It's more of a daytime habit. If you're building an app for both devices, heed the lesson.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
am sure the RIAA is trying to get that changed. Besides, there
are enough of us that feel the same way that you could probably
get a very high powered lawyer with all the contributions. :-)
The RIAA just does not get it. They figure the sales are dropping
because of piracy when in reality people are just getting fed up
with their heavy handed practices. I buy a lot of my music
through magnatune.com simply because the RIAA has nothing to
do with it. That and the fact that they have some pretty good
music there.
Ya think that cassette manufacturing is soooo much cheaper?
So the industry could concentrate on selling us a quality product, and allow us to rip our own MP3s for portable players. We'd still be buying, they's still be profitting and piracy would be reduced. Of course the industry is not content unless they can wring every last penny out of any potential revenue source...
PS, My hybrid DVD-V/DVD-A/SACD player cost me a whopping $85, so they can't claim the hardware is restrictive and doesn't justify the release of titles!
Also many of the newer MTV video releases , to complement these lacklustre songs, has now degenerated to the level of soft porn as a form of presentation irrespective of the song's relative content!
We now have Cary Sherman, the current leader of RIAA, fully endorsing SONY BMG's illegal rootkit trojanware!(strangely, though for a man who supposedly supports the the actual recording artist by taking legal action to enforce copyright, he remains very quiet about the payola scams, where both Warner Music & SONY BMG,deliberately used recording artists paid royalty funds illegally, in contradiction to various government laws throughout the world, to bribe radio stations DJ's!)
Oh well, it seems two rules exist, one in which permits the music industry majors, to steal from all, both legally and illegally, and the other is the customer must pay for everything including the sink, for as many times the industry so chooses!
Yet we have to get morality lessons from the RIAA every week.
As one reader e-mailed me in repsonse to an article about downloading in my newsletter: " WalMart won't sue you if you don't shop with them. Let's not sue our customers if they don't shop with us. Let's give them more incentive to buy what we have to offer."
For those of you who don't read the world's funniest website, THE ONION, I think this will make you laugh...it appeared in the ONION two weeks ago:
RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs (November 30, 2005) LOS ANGELES-The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. "We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material," a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. "We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating 'buzz' about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves." RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of-mouth "favorites-sharing" sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms. -- From THE ONION, <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029" target="_newWindow">http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43029</a>
Steve Meyer
President/CEO - Smart Marketing
Publisher - DISC&DAT - A New Media Newsletter For The Music Industry
Editor, Digital Technology: www.allaccess.com
Las Vegas, NV
E-mail: stephennmeyer@earthlink.net
Right now, we have people downloading music, video, and programs off the net with their only true restriction being only their connection to the internet.
The RIAA and MPAA fight back by suing people, but suing people isn't working. It makes these organizations look like their the bad guys.
The issue is quality and pricing.
No one wants to pay good hard earned money for crappy music and movies.
I'm just waiting for the whole thing to explode.
mark d.
Consumers need to just Boycott the WHOLE entertainment industry by NOT buying ANY CDs, DVDs or Digital Media from companies selling it over the internet. Just ONE MONTH of NO $ALE$ and just MAYBE they will get the CLUE.
Can't consumers do without buy this stuff for just ONE stinking MONTH?!?!?!?!?!?!?
As for Sony getting caught with it's DRM MALWARE:
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is ROOT of this DRM and RIAA EVIL!!!
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/27/dmca_takedown_regs_abused/" target="_newWindow">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/27/dmca_takedown_regs_abused/</a>
Boycott not ONLY Sony, but ALSO their Subsidiaries AND ANY other company/industry that uses such tactics!!!
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/CY2jp1KR4m82Ms/Rooting-Out-Spyware-Sonys-Lesson.xhtml" target="_newWindow">http://www.technewsworld.com/story/CY2jp1KR4m82Ms/Rooting-Out-Spyware-Sonys-Lesson.xhtml</a>
Sonys other Labels are listed here:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.sonymusic.com/labels/index.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.sonymusic.com/labels/index.html</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/30/sony_drm_spitzer/" target="_newWindow">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/30/sony_drm_spitzer/</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.boycottsony.us" target="_newWindow">http://www.boycottsony.us</a>
Evidently EMI is in on this, too:
According to this article: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/47497.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/47497.html</a>
EMI has been releasing select albums -- including the latest Nickelback album, "All The Right Reasons" - this way for about three years. The company intends to ship out all its releases with the technology by year's end.
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.emimusic.info/us_EN/" target="_newWindow">http://www.emimusic.info/us_EN/</a>
Terry Millar, director of manufacturing at EMI Canada thinks that other labels, like Universal and Warner, will eventually follow with similar technology. Do YOU think they already MAY have? ;)
THIS is MY example of why a total boycott of Sony, et al should promptly ensue:
I have "Live in San Fan Francisco" by Joe Satriani...an EPIC DVD. EPIC is on Sonys Label List and Joe Satriani is on Sony's Artist List.
I tried to copy just the AUDIO part of "Bass Solo" by Stewart Hamm on Disc 2 of the two disc set so I could play it in my car CD player. After that my computer would NOT play THAT track at ALL!!!!! And the Bass Solo didnt even copy, either.
In addition to which, I did this about TWO YEARS ago!!! Ever since then I've had BIG problems with THAT computer. It FRIED the hard drive which was, at the time, ONLY a few months old!!!
Suspicious??? NOW that Five Year Old DRM is causing all kinds of problems??? You BET it IS!!!!! ;)
The good news is EFF Files Class Action Suit Against Sony-BMG
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1003" target="_newWindow">http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1003</a>
Too bad EFF can't do something about RIAA!!!