RIAA's Latest Legal Strategy: Sue Globally; Promote Locally
from the one-way-to-do-it dept
Three years into the RIAA’s strategy of suing people who file share, they may claim that the strategy has worked, but the evidence shows more people than ever are file sharing — and the general sense of distaste for the industry has only increased. It appears that the RIAA has also started making a subtle shift in how it approaches the lawsuits. Recognizing that the national press is more likely to point out when these lawsuits are mis-targeted, they’re now filing a bunch of lawsuits together in one geographic region, while working hand in hand with the less skeptical local press to promote the fact that someone nearby has been fined for sharing music. They believe this strategy will be a more effective educational campaign (which seems to suggest that, despite the RIAA’s claims, it knows the old strategy wasn’t working). The problem, though, is that plenty of people who file share are educated on the matter — and recognize that the copyright issues aren’t so black and white as the RIAA would have them believe.
Comments on “RIAA's Latest Legal Strategy: Sue Globally; Promote Locally”
Hatred of this organization
I haven’t bought music from any artist anywhere for years. The main reason is that I got into music like http://www.generationtrance.com that give the music away for free. The second reason is that my hatred of this organization is strong.
When their time is up and its time to face the man upstairs, I hope everything they ever did that hurt people financially, mentally, and emotionally will be accounted for. They don’t have a soul. (they = people that work within the umbrella of RIAA that contribute to all the “bad” things that we hear about.
Re: Hatred of this organization
they prolly got lobbyists workin for em up there already :
Re: Hatred of this organization
I make sure to buy from independent artists/labels where possible and from RIAA members not at all.
If you want an alternative to the current cartel it’s important to support it finincially if it’s going to survive in a capitalist society. Not all labels are RIAA members.
For me the problem really arises when excellent, genuine artists become involved with dodgy labels. Take Rykodisc… They currently publish the back catalogue of the likes of Frank Zappa and Bill Hicks as well as new and old albums from favourite bands like Mission of Burma and Meat Puppets. Thing is, they’re a long time RIAA member and were recently bought by Warner Brothers…
…which is kind of a kick in the teeth given Zappa fought for years to wrestle control of his music from WB.
Anyway, back to my little dilemma… Artists who I would have considered independent and independently minded are now published only by a media conglomerate who I couldn’t in good conscience give a single penny, cent, pasie, drachma, lira, yen, ruble or koruna. I don’t want to “steal” but when it’s a choice between experiencing the output of the free thinkers I respect under terms I can support or hearing them in the shadow of another empire I don’t lose any sleep.
Re: Re: Hatred of this organization
Fuzzix, I suggest you look on the following search terms
Last.fm
Audiogalaxy
Netlabel/Netlable
Search MySpace for “bands”
Downhillbattle
Boycotriaa
Review your concept of “freethinker”. Everyone who signs a record deal with a major label knows the score. Maybe they’re not the freethinkers they advertise as?
There are hundreds of thousands of brilliant, talented artists out there who make high quality music and give it away for free download. Some don’t even have a donations button for paypal which shows what their true motives are.
Right now the biggest hidden battle the RIAA are fighting is not to stop you downloading their music, it is to stop you downloading or even hearing about the alternatives. That’s the story nobody talks about.
Re: Re: Re: Hatred of this organization
I’m on last.fm – guess my account name…
My point was that artists whose output was once independently produced is now in the hands of WB and so on. If you want to explain why Bill Hicks and Frank Zappa weren’t free thinkers… I’m all ears.
Oh, if you’re band’s on myspace then fuck you. I’d rather choose to listen to you than have it forced upon me by visiting your “website”.
As for artists giving their music away… I doubt the number is in hundreds of thousands but I have a good few albums under licenses such as Creative Commons. If you want something decent to listen to right now, check out a good friend’s band (now defunct, sadly) Who is Elmo Blatch?
Now go away and find out who I really am before you try to lecture me, you patronising twerp. Jesus H Fuck, you almost pissed me off there.
Re: Re: Re:2 Hatred of this organization
You’re band? I thought I was just drunk and surly but it turns out I’m on crack…
Re: Re: Re:2 Hatred of this organization
“My point was that artists whose output was once independently produced is now in the hands of WB and so on. If you want to explain why Bill Hicks and Frank Zappa weren’t free thinkers… I’m all ears. ”
Perhaps you should have made your point more clearly. You seemed to suggest that they had “sold out”. Since we both know that Hicks and Zappa were great thinkers perhaps the onus is on you to suggest a reason why their material is now owned by a criminal cartel. Maybe they weren’t as smart as they seem, or maybe thier estate was mismanaged. Are you suggesting that their material was misappropriated?
“Oh, if you’re band’s on myspace then fuck you.”
That hardly seems like an open-minded and balanced view of new music. Why would you be prejudiced against the website on which the material appears if the disposition of the artist is sound?
“As for artists giving their music away… I doubt the number is in hundreds of thousands ”
You would be right to doubt that. I was being conservative. It’s just that “millions”, which is a more accurate estimate for the global situation, always sounds like an exaggeration pulled out of ones ass.
Note that I qualified the statement with “talented” which reduces the figure somewhat.
“Now go away and find out who I really am before you try to lecture me, you patronising twerp. Jesus H Fuck, you almost pissed me off there”
It makes absolutely no difference to me who you think you are, I will, as always, base my opinion on the content of your words. So far your score is slightly below average. I’ve no idea why you might feel you are being patronised or why my humble suggestions constitute a “lecture”. Perhaps you should take a look at that.
Good luck in finding great new music and widening your horizons.
Do share your discoveries with us all.
Re: Re: Re:3 Hatred of this organization
Not at all. It was legally acquired… and since the law has replaced morality in our culture that’s all there is to it.
I agree, it’s not… but myspace is a horrifying medium. I listen to music on my computer all the time and would rather queue up what’s new than have it shoved in my face via some plugin urgency. If myspace.com/yourband interrupts Captian Beefheart then I will bear an eternal grudge.
I doubt I’m below average. I’m just obnoxious and uninteresting. I’m ageing – it comes with the territory.
Re: Re: Re:4 Hatred of this organizatio
“It was legally acquired… and since the law has replaced morality in our culture that’s all there is to it. ”
Yes, that’s the sickener. And I agree with you on law and morality. It’s the ultimate insult to artists like Hicks, but y’now I think he would see the funny side of it.
“I listen to music on my computer all the time and would rather queue up what’s new than have it shoved in my face via some plugin urgency.”
You object to the delivery mechanism of the site? I’ll come clean with you, I don’t frequent MySpace much so I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I am *passionate* about advocating channels for good independent artists to reach their audiences. If MySpace doesn’t pass muster then it will die and something will replace it. All the quality acts imho have their own sites and feed through radio portals like Last.fm, I spend a lot of my time listening to random inet radio channels, noting down the bands that tickle me and trying their site out. You have to look to the new, because those bastards want to own our past and sell us back our own experiences and culture.
“I doubt I’m below average.”
Sorry. You’re not. But your words were.
“I’m just obnoxious and uninteresting.”
Obnoxious yes. Uninteresting no. And obnoxious isn’t *always* bad.
“I’m ageing – it comes with the territory”
Tell me about it, you and I both brother.
Yay
Preach on sister!
Yawner
Yeah that’s right a big ol RIAAAAAAAWWWNNNN!
…that’s supposed to convey a big yawn with RIAA somewhere therein…
Anyway, no one cares RIAA. We will still share and reproduce what you charge $20.00 for on average and untill you catch us we’ll just keep on pissin you off.
At this point, it’s not even about the music. It’s akin to the Rebel Alliance vs. the Dark Side. We hate you because you not only destroy the artists and the music industry but you represent all that is old, immobile, and stagnant about industry in this country. You are the Goliath in this whole story and yes as tough of a fight you put up…you will surely be brought to your knees by your own arrogance.
Re: Yawner
So after Goliath is defeated, what will be left to take it’s place? Expanding your logic even more, when MPAA (RIAA mirror image) is one day defeated for being old guard and just “evil” what will take its place?
I like Indie movies and rock as much as the next guy but I’ll miss some blockbusters and chart toppers too.
“Now that we have plotted to destroy the man and his machine of oppression, how will society be run, or will it slip into anarchy?”
– Stockley Carmichael
Re: Re: Yawner
So after Goliath is defeated, what will be left to take it’s place? Expanding your logic even more, when MPAA (RIAA mirror image) is one day defeated for being old guard and just “evil” what will take its place?
Thats why I dont really want them to go away, I just want them to get over this shit and LOWER cd prices, start using their own music file services, and give more money to the artists.
Re: Re: Yawner
As history has shown there’s always something to take the place of something “evil” that has been brought to its knees and collapsed and is it really important??? Even though the RIAA is equilavent to an Empire though not an Empire that governs a people so I don’t see how the whole quote about anarchy fits in. So it may be just me but I fail to see the relevance to what takes the RIAA’s place.
main stream file share
yes they managed to shut down some of the more known ones but there are still PLENTY of other ways to download…
IRC, bitorrent, ftp, person-to-person…
so they managed to shut down Napster and Grokster…good for them….as if it’ll slow down all other back channels for pirating
RIAA can keep trying.
K-rad for life.
Look at this rate.. we will crush the large record lables that promote shitty music, who in turn deligate the social destruction of our youth’s intelligence.
Since the advent of compressed audio file algorythms, we have seen an upsurge of underground music, promoting intelligence and true creativity. I say rip music… support starving artists and down with corporate globalisation.
If artists made more then a few cents per CD. I might be more inclined to buy music rather then downloading. However, since those bastards get most of the $ why would I bother to buy a CD?
law of the land
Isn’t the law in America supost to reflect the feelings of the American people? If so many people of America are file sharing shouldn’t that be reflected in the laws?
Re: law of the land
You’re damn right it should! Isn’t that the whole purpose of a democratic republic? Aren’t the people as a whole supposed to be the ones running the show? Come election time, the politicians are going to realize that the internet generation makes up an extremely large voting pool and we won’t support those who allow the destruction of our hobbies and interests.
Re: Re: law of the land
That is, of course, if you can put down your controller long enough to vote… but by the time election day comes along, you’ve already lost. The candidate YOU wanted lost the primary, hell, his party isn’t even listed on the ballot, because you can’t just show up on E-day and vote… you have to get active and STAY active. That’s why European youth are so much more powerful as voters than US Gen-X-Y-ZZZ: you aren’t active, you just blog.
Huh...
So basically, they are trying to make themselves look even stupider globally, and be hated even more globally. NICE JOB RIAA ^O^! I’m so glad Canada doesn’t have people as stupid as the RIAA.
Hatred of this organization
Hatred of this organization is true blue
They are scumbags, one and all
Artists who truly break out to the peeps
will routinely go into bankrtupy to break away from the conglomerate f**kwads and come out with their own production companys and their own investors and end up with their very own Mega Miliions
The moral peeps are not the the ones who “buy” the artist music from conglomerates;
the stupid peeps the those ones
I too don’t want to “steal” the music or anyone’s face, for that matter, but when it’s a choice between “stealing” and f**king; I f**k the experience of an economic decrease in their production output; f**kwads who keep f**king us over can now get f**ked.
Sorry artist dudes, no respect
They can't catch me
Thanks to MUTE and PeerGuardian (OK, PG2 doesn’t really help that much, but it helps some) the RIAA cannot easily trace you. If people move to MUTE, then bye bye lawsuits.
RIAA hyprocracy
The say you are licensing the songs so that you can not share them…. but if you have a scratched vinyl, they want to charge you full price for a CD of the same material, and then again for downloading it to your PC or iPOD, then again full price for downloading the same recording to your cellphone.
Are we buying the license or the media? How do I sell my licenses they was I sold or traded by CDs once I tired of them and wanted to hear something new? How do i pass them on to some of my kids who may also like certain Beatles songs?
The answer is that they want to rip you off and are talking out of both sides of their mouth. Same with the MPAA. The only way to stop them is to cut off their funding. STOP BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS!!!! STOP NOW! STOP FUELING THEIR FIRE! DIE RIAA, DIE! lol
American Law
Someone had mentioned that american law is supposed to be for american people, by american people. The issue is, Congress/Senate works for Corp America now, not the people they “represent”. Because of this, I am really looking at running for politcal office next time I get a chance. Jay Hammond,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Hammond
was a politician who believed if it didn’t benefit, or help the people, it wasn’t a good bill. He made sure that anything he proposed was something the people wanted, and wouldn’t harm the environment. I like that, He is my role model.
A native of New York, Hammond moved to Alaska in 1946, where he was a bush pilot, trapper, wildlife biologist, hunting guide, commercial fisherman and, he later said, “a reluctant politician.” He served 12 years in the state legislature and two terms as governor of the state, where he made his decisions based on three main criteria: the proposal must be environmentally sound, pay its own way, and be wanted by the people. As the governor when the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline was opened in 1977, Hammond did the unthinkable: he decreed that a portion of the state’s revenues from the pipeline be shared with the citizens of the state — in cash. The resulting “permanent fund” pays each Alaskan citizen about $1,000 per year. Hammond also helped expand the state’s tourism industry, but demanded that development be balanced with conservation efforts. A Republican, Hammond surrounded himself with the best no matter what their party. Hammond was “an incredibly good governor because he was a good listener and he wanted to do what was right, and not the first thing that came to his head,” says Former Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer, a Democrat. Hammond died in his sleep at his Alaska home on August 2. He was 83.
From This is True for 30 July 2005
Re: Hammond
Where are politicians like this when you need them? Actually, it sounds like he was a person first and a politician only secondarily. I’m so damned sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils.
Ludacris
Nowadays it wouldn’t even be a tragedy if this were to happen to the MPAA, there hasn’t been more than a handful of ORIGINAL movies this entire year. As long as this whole, Remake Mentality, dies out I wouldn’t spend a dime on any of this poorly done bull schtuff