Who Runs RIAA's Settlement Information Center?

eatonwood writes "Who is behind the RIAA's collections efforts? This comment at CallFerret says it is a company called PSC and lists a bunch of websites and contact information for them, but the connection to RIAA is still not completely clear (aside from the presence of a couple of clearly RIAA sites on the same server as PSC's). Anyone know anything more about who is doing RIAA's dirty work?"

Re:hmmm.

[jimicus]

Purely out of curiosity, does the US have any equivalent to UK Companies House?

If they were a UK company, you could get a list of directors of both the SIC and various RIAA member companies and their home addresses through Companies House. All you need to do then is see if any names match up.

Obviously this doesn't help if the company has been set up as a totally separate entity with a totally separate list of directors, but it would tell you pretty quickly if Mr. Bloggs (who lives at 9 Acacia Avenue) runs company A and Mrs. Bloggs (who also lives at 9 Acacia Avenue) runs company B.

Re:Bespoke Software and Street Performer Protocol

[evilandi]

To put it another way:

Imagine if bricklayers had to be paid by every person who visited a house they built several years ago.

That would be almost impossible to police.

But it is even more difficult to keep track of people who listen to music or watch video. That's even more difficult to police.

Instead, bricklayers get paid for making new buildings, and not for buildings they've already finished. Equally, artists should get paid for making new art, not art they've already finished.

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Re:Bespoke Software and Street Performer Protocol

[mr_matticus]

Let's try something that's actually parallel.

Imagine you're a bricklayer building houses and the concept of credit doesn't exist, and everybody simply has to pay up front in cash for the whole price of the house. Suddenly you go from working on 100 buildings a year to one because 99% of people can't afford to buy a whole house with cash.

Or imagine you've got a $100 million building full of historical artifacts. Now, you could sell it to a private owner for a rich guy's playground. You could sell it to a rich, old philanthropist who would open it to the public for free, if you're lucky enough to find one. You could also set it up like a gallery and charge admission, since each person would be willing to pay a token amount to enjoy the experience without having to buy the whole building that they have no hope of ever affording.

In other words, artists only get paid for art they've "already finished" because it hasn't been paid for yet. Some is more profitable than others. Why do you want to restrict artists to recouping costs, but let businesses turn unlimited profits? How does that even begin to make sense?

Re:It is the artists

[sickspeed6]

This is only slightly true. As it turns out, i was recently graced with the excellent opportunity to attend a Q&A with Mitch Glazier the Executive Vice President of Government and Industry Relations and Jonathan Lamy the Senior Vice President of Communications. Right now the RIAA is funding its campaign, in large part, by the money it makes off of the pre-settlement letters and lawsuits that they win. now, if the artist simply said, we take away your rights to all future music, eventually, the RIAA would cease to exist. As a side note, I have never met two more idiotic morons in my life, literally the dumbest people I have ever met, also, slimy...it was like talking to the Lucifer himself, only x2.

Re:hmmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes. The public can access (for free) corperate records at any secretary of state web site (where you register corporate names). The problem is you have to check all 50 states one at a time using different systems and cross reference them all. SO, while it can be done, it's so godawfully complicated and time consuming that just about the only person with the number of lawyers to do it is most likely the RIAA itself.

And yes, I'm a certified paralegal. I search the Alabama SOS site all the time, and know from experience that (just to name a few) the Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas SOS sites are all free but are all equally hard as hell to use. Oh and South Dakota too. (We represent mostly trucking companies so they have accidents all over the place.)