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For almost 10 years I’ve been writing about the outrages routinely and regularly committed by the RIAA and MPAA, the twin music and movie industry “trade” organisations. To make matters worse, American administrations, up to and including Obama’s, have facilitated and encouraged these outrages.In November, 2004, I published an item on a supposed merger between the two “trade” organisations owned, as they are, by the big four record labels and big six movie studios.The 2004 Post kicked off, “p2pnet.net News Exclusive:- 2004 will go down as the year the entertainment industry went to the wall in an all-out bid to wipe out file sharing on the p2p nets. Permanently.”Now, “It appears that the RIAA and the MPAA have gotten together and created a collusive ‘Memorandum of understanding’ for ISP’s to sign, which calls for the signing ISP’s to assist the Big 4 record companies and the Big 6 motion picture companies in enforcing their copyrights, in ways never contemplated by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act” says Ray Beckerman in Recording Industry vs The People.My 2004 story, a rejig of an earlier spoof, went on:“As part of the actions, two of the entertainment industry’s principal faux police enforcement organizations are to merge, we can reveal… The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been hammering p2p file sharers since September, 2003, and has so far sued 76,191 people without ever seeing one of its victims appear in court. And the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has just mounted its own RIAA-style sue ‘em all attack.”As Beckerman said in his blog post on this latest piece of criminal injustice, “I haven’t had time to analyze it yet (it’s 36 pages), but at first glance it made me kind of ill, in that it appeared to…violate the antitrust laws of the federal government and of various states,constitute abuse of copyright,expand the lawful copyright monopoly into an unlawful monopoly,overlook the First Amendment,overlook the fair use defense and other defenses afforded by copyright law,conflict with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,be against public policy, andcontradict net neutrality.What I’m wondering about is which, if any, ISP’s have signed off on this, because I’d want to do my utmost to avoid doing business with them. The document I’ve seen is unsigned but lists some ISP’s. If your ISP is on that list, and does sign, I recommend switching ISP’s asap.What ever happened to “free enterprise”?The entertainment industry finds it highly cost effective to subpoena men, women and children, scamming the mainscream media into believing file sharing is illegal, without ever having to actually prove a case before a judge.Victims are all ordinary people with no financial or legal resources. They have no choice but to accept the entertainment industry’s offer to “settle”.It’s either that or take on the squads of highly paid, highly skilled lawyers fielded by the multi-billion-dollar recording and movie industries.In 2004 I wrote, “Now, instead of running separate actions, the RIAA and MPAA will merge their resources and staffs to become the World Recording and Motion Picture Industry Association (WRAMPIA, pronounced “wrampia”), say industry sources.Retiring IFPI boss Jay Berman will take up the post as chairman, RIAA president Cary Sherman will become WRAMPIA’s first ceo and RIAA Mitch Bainwol will run the new organization’s Reality Realignment and Fact Adjustment Bureau (RRFAB, pronounced “rrfab”).Ex-MPAA boss Jack Valenti will be the new organization’s cmo (chief misinformation officer).However, this isn’t about money: it’s about circumventing any form of competition and gaining complete control of the Internet as the primary vehicle for distributing, marketing, advertising and selling corporate digital “product” online.Who, ask the lawyers and the Big 4 executives they advise, cares about the customers — the people who make it all happen?But every single one of the 40,000 people who have received RIAA subpoenas has sat back in shock, wondering how they can possibly take on a hugely wealthy Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music with their immense legal, financial and political resources?The answer is: they can’t, and the people who run, and who work for, the RIAA such as it’s bosses, Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman (Top right top right and Cara Duckworth and Jonathan Lamy, know it as they accuse their victims of stealing, when nothing’s been stolen, of being criminals, when no crime has been committed, of having caused misery to record industry workers, when the people behind the “trade” association are wholly to blame.“I was completely awed and amazed and also totally surprised when I was asked to chair WRAMPIA,” said Berman at the ‘invitation only’ Bahamas press conference to announce the new organization.“I’m thrilled, excited, honoured and, well, simply stunned,” said Bainwol.“Now we’ll be able to give the music and movie loving public around the world exactly what they deserve,” said Sherman.Remarked Valenti, “These online pirates think they’ve been getting away with it. Well, they have. But I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”In his first public statement, Berman said WRAMPIA will organize and fund its own US political party to help politicians and their staffs better understand the difficulties facing the entertainment industry as it strives to overcome online piracy, and to define the steps the Bush administration will need to take to combat it.To be called the First American Political Management and Persuasion Party (FAPMAPP, pronounced fpmapp).There’s a saying along the lines of, “many a true thing has been said in jest”.”
