The RIAA's New Overbroad Powers with a Human Face

[ACADEMIC]

Alright, I usually do not post to P2P-oriented Internet forums, but I think this situation calls for commentary such as what I will give below.

I have used WinMX for numerous years, and have used it daily for over a year. I feel my rights have been trampled upon by this recent action of RIAA based upon the also recent and well-known U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Before I go any further, let me disclose to you the types of files I share.

I share mostly files of an academic (hence my username) and political nature. These are related to my profession. Other files I share are hobby-oriented. I do also share music, very largely of unknown indie artists whose social message I feel in one way or another needs to find a broader audience.

The only potentially problematic song in my shares is Lynard Skynard's Saturday Night Special, which I have decided I will only very, very selectively share with a friend in a chatroom amidst a discussion on gun control, though I have never had to actually allow it to be downloaded because it has thus far been already known about.  

The types of chat rooms I tend to "hang out" in correspond to my file shares, of course, and I see what I share and the rooms I frequent as inseperable.  Within them, discussion can occur with people I know or am coming to know regarding ideas, and file sharing that corresponds to those ideas is facilitated.

The need for a FREE P2P application connected to chat with which to carry out my above activities should appear obvious.

In short, I am within legality regarding the files others have uploaded from me.  Yet, as others did, I awoke on the now-fated morning to discover WinMX on the blink.

Hence, I am one whose story is indicative of those whose stories give evidence to the fact of what has really happened here.

Namely, a single, albeit powerful *interest group* has succeeded in winning a court decision that gives them powers that are far too over broad. Requiring P2P software makers to place filtering devises in their P2P networks specialized to RIAA materials is an undue burden upon the software makers. It means people like me either lose their platforms for sharing ideas and materials, or else end up having to pay for RIAA materials filtering software. That would mean that people like me pay to protect the RIAA.

Obviously, on both practical and philosophical levels, I have a huge problem with that.

[GhostShip]

I feel your disappointment Academic  

Making knee jerk laws that are destined to be the cause of much injustice is something I can condemn wholeheartedly.

Many winmx users trade copyrighted files and  in respect of that issue I feel if they are willing to take the legal risk then thats their choice as responsible adults.

Recently when the whole network was closed, many people felt a viod in their lives, myself included, and hearing that the reason behind all this misery and loss of community, was the alleged threat to the recording industys profit margin did in no way alleviate my sorrow

That the folks in the US are able to be beaten into submission by extortion threats is sickening.

I am not a resident of the US, and look on with amazement as each new round of congressional committes who look into this subject often are the recipients of large donations from sponsoring companies, hardly above board in my opinion.

I applaude your action in sharing your own files and many of the items I share are open source, home made, or freeware, which suprisigly enough is being flooded by the RIAA paid companies, in what I can only describe as a cynical attack on P2P technology in general.  

[2SWEET420]

well a few reasons.
#1 what they did was technically unconstitutional.
#2 it was also illegal according to several contract laws.
#3 it was in clear violation of federal internet laws.
#4 remember going to the store to buy a vinyl record and spliting the cost with a few friends?
then keeping it in a tree house where there was a small record player.
remember when cassette tapes first came out?
what was sold right next to them?
blank cassettes.
the music cassette cost about $12 a pck of 10 blanks cost $10.
do the math ok.
22 / 10 = $2.20 per person.
the original music cassette would be put away to make more copies.
10 kids with $3 each.
that was what i remember doing several times.
cause most kids and quite a few adults didn't have $12 to spend.
but $3 bucks was not quite as hard to get.
basically i don't see the big difference.
i just don't get what the artists' are complaining about.
at least somebody has to buy the damn original cd or lp or cassette in order for it to be shared.
maybe we should just stop listening all together.
stop buying new cd's stop buying concert tickets stop buying merchandise
stop the paychecks coming to them altogether.
boycott every radio station on the planet.
then they will really be hurting.
maybe it's just me cause i  grew up poor.
but i was told to never look a gift horse in the mouth.
and that is exactly what the music industry has done.
cut them off at the knees make them beg for change on street corners.
then this will finally go away.
never listen to anything you don't already own.
when there is no money at all then they will gladly let us share again just to get what they can.

[lysander]

It's funny, you know, how badly hte RIAA is bungling this entire situation. I mean from an unbiased standpoint, it really is hilarious. It's pattantly obviosu that when people use a file sharing program to share copyrighted material in a clear violation of said copyright, teh fault lies with the users who are sharing said copyrighted material. So teh RIAA goes after them... only, they go after Grandpa earving who's granddaughter downloaded a Spears song so that she could use it as an audiotry aid in her social issues class about the decaying moral values in 21st century society, and threatening them with huge terrifying fines that never in any circumstances would have won in court, then settling out of court for all the money they own. They didn't go after the people who were sharing their entire music libraries or downloaded album after album after album with reasonable fines, like any reasonable company woudl have to stop the insanity. Seing the RIAA twitch like a multi billion-dollar toddler who's plastic lightsabre just got stolen and throwing a huge tantrum throwing sand in everyone's face is really quite funny, when you think about it. You'll never see a RIAA person post on these forums and try to defend these crazy actions, because they know that what they are doing is wrong and indefenseible. If they thought that they were in the right, they would actually try to convince people who don't matter--in otherwords, us. They don't, because they know themselves to be scum.

[Lysander]

Your idea is shortsided and crude. Who do you think your'e going to get to listen to you on this forum? Maybe a few hundred people. How many people do you think buy CDs anually? How many people go to concerts? or listen to the radio? Millions. No one will care if you boycott radio. No one.

Also, in regards to "what the artists are complaining about?" what you need to understand is that, in the vast majority of cases, the artists aren't complaining. Sometimes, not even the record labels care. It's the big industry people that are screaming about this the loudest. As an artist, you really are a slave; all you can do is make music. You can't even not make music, because you get stuck into contracts where you are legally bound to make a certain number of albums under that label. What the RIAA does is quite simple, and fiendish; they know that starving artists don't have the money to make their own albums, so they will give them that money by buying off the artist's copyright. That means that the artists who made the music? Dont' actually own it. The record execs do. If you're going to go on making sweeping calls for action, try and actually educate yourself first before you make yourself look like an even bigger jackass.

[ñòóKýçrÕôK]

Your idea is shortsided and crude. Who do you think your'e going to get to listen to you on this forum? Maybe a few hundred people. How many people do you think buy CDs anually? How many people go to concerts? or listen to the radio? Millions. No one will care if you boycott radio. No one.

Also, in regards to "what the artists are complaining about?" what you need to understand is that, in the vast majority of cases, the artists aren't complaining. Sometimes, not even the record labels care. It's the big industry people that are screaming about this the loudest. As an artist, you really are a slave; all you can do is make music. You can't even not make music, because you get stuck into contracts where you are legally bound to make a certain number of albums under that label. What the RIAA does is quite simple, and fiendish; they know that starving artists don't have the money to make their own albums, so they will give them that money by buying off the artist's copyright. That means that the artists who made the music? Dont' actually own it. The record execs do. If you're going to go on making sweeping calls for action, try and actually educate yourself first before you make yourself look like an even bigger jackass.

First, I believe you only posted that to see your own words on this site. Secondly,

If you're going to go on making sweeping calls for action, try and actually educate yourself first before you make yourself look like an even bigger jackass

completely uncalled for and only succeeded in making you look like a jackass yourself. In what that person suggested I think was strictly a hypothetical situation, But let me just run an idea by you. Ever heard of trickle down economics? People stop listening to radio advertisers lose money, products don't get bought, therefor advertising companies stop advertising costing radio stations money. All hypothetical of course. If people stopped buying cd's, then not only labels lose money, artists lose money, and

The record execs

lose money. So that person was completely right in what they said there. Hypothetical or not. So what I say to you since you are only interested in being an insulting jackass yourself is what your mother should've said years ago. If you can't say something nice, just don't say anything at all.

[Lysander]

First, I believe you only posted that to see your own words on this website.

Okay, go ahead and think that. However, I must hasten to point out that no one actually cares what you think. Also, I have a much less stupid user name than you do, so on the internet I win by default.

completely uncalled for and only succeeded in making you look like a jackass yourself.

Yes, to you, and no one else considering that it's been a full quarter of a year since i posted that and got absolutely no one trying to tell me off until just now. Go, caped crusader! For everlasting justice!

Ever heard of trickle down economics? People stop listening to radio advertisers lose money, products don't get bought, therefor advertising companies stop advertising costing radio stations money.

I understood what he was saying perfectly well; what you don't understand, so what I'll repeat because you seem to have a reading comprehention problem, is that this forum is but a droplett in the Pacific Ocean that is people who listen to the radio. Let's just assume that every single visitor to this site took that guy's halfway legible rant seriously and boycotted the radio. I'm not an official statustition, but I'm willing to bet that that would mean that only about oh... a thousand, maaaaaybe even two thousand people would stop listening to the radio. Contrast that with a good hundred million people that listen to the radio. No one is going to care. If you want to boycott something as huge as radio, you have to have a really, really big boycott. I dont' care if it was hypothetical or not; hypothetical and idle musings about what woudl be really really cool are completely useless in a time where payola and artist and consumer rape is not only happening, but is in fact the standard opperating procedure for all recorded music in teh last fifteen years. If your idea won't work in teh real world, it's not worth writing in the real world.

If people stopped buying cd's, then not only labels lose money, artists lose money, and

The record execs

lose money. So that person was completely right in what they said there. Hypothetical or not.

No, he wasn't, and here's why. QUite simply, the artists make a lot less money than the big record guys do. The recording industry bigwiggs could live perfectly fine for the rest of their latural lives without making another cent. So even if absolutely every person in teh world stopped buying from teh Recording Industry, all that woudl happen is that hte RIAA guys will have to settle for treating only three hookers to strawberries and champaign instead of five. Meanwhile, you've got thousands of recording artists who are now bankrupted, unable to make end's meat, or make any more music because (A) they dont' have the money to continue, and (B) no one's buying anyway. A complete boycott of CD sails would be disasterous and set the entire music industry back, perhaps forever.

So what I say to you since you are only interested in being an insulting jackass yourself is what your mother should've said years ago. If you can't say something nice, just don't say anything at all.

Your mom goes to college.

[GhostShip]

Play nice please folks I am enjoying the witty banter but we all love our moms, (I hope) and they are best left out of this  

[2SWEET420]

wow i guess i got on somebodies bad side.
funny thing is cd sales are way down.
and the cost to buy them has dropped 3 times.
i turned on my radio today for the first time since i wrote that post.
you know what i heard within 5 minutes.
the radio station actually asking for advertisers.
hmmmm.
now that's interesting and i'm just 1 of those drops.
in the big bucket.
how many other people heard it i wonder.
you know what happens when a radio station has to strat asking for advertisers.
they lose money because they have to spend to it just to be on the air.
now the people listening know they aren't making money anymore.
and the other advertisers now know too.
so they will bail out of this sinking ship.
and by the way.
i may just be a jackass.
but at least i was right about everything i said.
wonder how things will look a year from that original post.
oh yeh forgot to mention 2 local radio stations in my area closed too.
so piss up a rope.