Filesharing Up 10% After RIAA Threatens Users 750
Moldy-Rutabaga writes "Technews says filesharing
has gone up 10% on some sites such as Grokster since the Recording Industry
Association of America's announcement on June 25 that it will start tracking down
and suing users of file-sharing programs. Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster,
commented 'even genocidal litigation can't stop
file sharers'."
Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Funny)
It was true with Napster. I know I didn't care for it at first, but after hearing about the legal issues and such and that you were not supposed to be using napster suddenly I couldn't resist. And it is true that all the legal problems of Napster actually increased the user base.
So Microsoft, whatever you do, do NOT fix all of the bugs in windows!!!
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Insightful)
If you tell a person that they cannot do something, they are almost certainly going to try to do it.
I think it might have something to do with "It's not gonna happen to me".
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:3, Funny)
Again, I categorically deny ever clicking on the link.
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Interesting)
His testing of his hypothesis is flawed. He claims that clicking that link has to do with people wanting to open every door and see everything that is concealed from them. Though his hypothesis may well be right and may even be true in a lot of cases, he's still getting polluted data. I didn't click on the link because it said "do not click on this link", I clicked on it because every time I've seen "do not click on this link" it was because somebody was trying to use reverse psychology to get more attention. Frankly, I wouldn't have clicked on it if had said "members only". I wouldn't have even cared, that that would have flown right in the fac eof his hypothesis.
I'm not sure if I'm communicating my idea too clearly or not. So here's a test that I think would help filter out the noise: password protect the next page and watch how hard people try to figure out the password.
Now, as for the RIAA (gotta drag myself back on topic here), I do not believe the growth is due in part to people feeling like they're 'bad-boys' about it. Rather, I believe it is a mixture of reasons. Two pop into mind. 1.) Lots of people flipping off the RIAA and saying "no, if you're going to be like this, then I'll hurt you in the way that I know best." and 2.) I better get what I can while I can.
As for Napster's growth (I realize it was the parent poster and not you that said this), I think that had more to do with people being made aware of it than anything else.
In any case, I'm a little off-topic. Sorry about that. The RIAA has been way off in understanding the psychology of its customers, and yes that includes file swappers too. Suing individual users will only cause music trading to evolve and resist. Sooner or later, it'll be impossible to know who's downloading what.
The funny thing is that I think this movement can outlive the RIAA's abilities to sue it. I can't remebmer the last time I've thought that about the little guy.
RIAA - shoots self in foot again (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember when mp3's were only found on IRC or FTP server or crappy porn filled mp3 warez sites or college network shares. the Dimond RIO suit put mp3 in the spotlight and the napster lawsuit made mp3 a household name. They may will according to the law, but thats all they are winning.
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Insightful)
Some groups like that have been around for a long time, since the first "copy protected" CDs that won't play in a computer came out, such as Don't Buy CDs. [dontbuycds.org] and Boycott RIAA. [boycott-riaa.com] An industry that presupposes that its customers are freeloaders and thieves doesn't deserve to have any customers.
Re:Anecdotal Evidence - not so good (Score:5, Interesting)
How? (Score:5, Interesting)
How exactly do they go about finding these people? It's not like they openly give out their names on things like KaZaa?
Re:How? (Score:5, Interesting)
-uso.
Re:How? (Score:4, Insightful)
If easily fabricated evidence such as this can get someone in jail, how come I can't just say "Person x shot at me with a gun -- sorry, the finger prints have been wiped off and the room where he shot me demolished".
Seems to me a judge would need more than a screenshot and some pirate files coming from the accuser to blame you. Otherwise, this could make a very good insurance scandal: "Yeah, he stole the cash from the safe! See, I'm missing it! And I have his name and address! That should be enough! Now gimme my money!"
Re:How? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How? (Score:5, Informative)
2. Do a netstat.
3. Write down IP address and date/time.
4. Contact ISP and request user information after providing IP address.
Re:How? (Score:5, Interesting)
And even worse, what about those who have filenames that are similar but not exactly the same as commerical music? They're going to have to download every song they can to verify it, otherwise it will be tossed out of court (and on 56K, that can be hours if not days).
Re:How? (Score:5, Insightful)
People copying a few CD's here and there are probably just noise to them, akin to passing around cassette tapes not so many years ago. But, when someone starts distributing most of a company's catalog, that's a different matter.
Re:How? (Score:3, Insightful)
In the UK (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd expect people in the UK to be dealt with by UK law, just as large scale UK video pirates were. Large scale video piracy was stopped by basically targetting the big pirates and giving them nowhere to advertise their wares either. Now its a hand to hand market or dodgy street market stalls and that keep the volume of piracy under control
As regards file names - given a few downloads that are verified as pirate and the relevant paperwork done and affidavits filed I suspect the rest would be resolved by seizing the equipment in question and seeing what else is on it.
I approve of the RIAA approach this time, its the first sane thing they've done for a long time. Go after the bigger copiers, instead of harassing everyone, screwing up the law and building unusable systems actually go after the criminals for once.
What should be the real limits on "fair use" is another debate, but it will be a lot easier to have when large scale copying of copyright works is under control, and also may actually go back to the old ways - as video has where small scale copying/lending isnt a threat, helps everyone and the law is conveniently ignored by all parties
Re:How? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How? (Score:4, Funny)
You forgot:
5. Sue offending user
6. ???
7. PROFIT!
Re:How? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How? (Score:5, Insightful)
Once the filetraders are gone, the leechers will be also, because there will be nothing to leech off of.
Re:How? (Score:3, Informative)
Look up Address with whois
Send a letter tot he required contact field citing the DMCA demanding all the info for who was logged in on IP address at date/time
Receive responce file suit to owner of the account. Or collect and wait you have time to file after all.
It's a pretty straight forward the DCMA abusing the right to due proccess. Yea having to go to civil court to get a supena for the info wasent much harder but at least it was another step. Oh yea I can do this as I own copyrigh
Effect due to... (Score:5, Funny)
my parents are spooked... (Score:5, Funny)
you know when your non-technical parents get it on the action, one of two things:
1) my parents are androids from the future sent by the evil RIAA
2) this is more of a marketing campaign then anything...
VISIT http://www.napsterbits.com for the hillarious adventures of the napster kittyhead!
Re:my parents are spooked... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is marketing, but the RIAA knows the people who scare easiest are the ones with the most to lose.
Eighteen year old kids can afford to lose their life savings, because they can get it back in a week or two.
Frank Zappa Said it Best (Go Buy Joe's Garage!) (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazing how a guy who's been dead for 10 years can still be on topic...
They need to study psychology not criminology (Score:5, Insightful)
You need to understand your market if you are to sell your product to it. With the Internet the market has changed, selling a song to the 'net generation is a lot more complex than a flashy video and radio play. This is the X factor that the recording industry hasn't really bothered to look into and I find it very interesting that one of the most successful online music sites is part of a computer company (Apple).
In summary the record labels need to send their marketing and product development guys off to college, study the success of e-commerce and redesign their business model cus CD is after all only a storage medium.
Re:They need to study psychology not criminology (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They need to study psychology not criminology (Score:4, Insightful)
The full implications of this new medium are still being worked out with many approaches being tested. Perhaps the most successful approach for exploitation and profit has not been precisely conceived yet. My point of view is that using litigation to lawyer it away misses the meaning of the sea change, and looks like an expensive way to sell less product. I also think that recording artists and/or their management and lawyers who insist on a buy it all or nothing approach are also likely to be left behind.
The more I've thought about this over the past few weeks, the more I feel we could be on the verge of a pop explosion centered around, as the great pop explosions of the past, the single. It is so much easier to be brilliant for 3:35 than for 65:13.
Re:They need to study psychology not criminology (Score:3, Insightful)
Kids.
They want kids to act irresponsibly, but only in ways that help their bottom line.
Oh well, what goes around comes around.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
traditional usage has changed (Score:5, Insightful)
Everybody always has done it, up to now, legally.
Any musician and anyone else serious about music who's older than Britney Spears' generation grew up taping off the radio and swapping tapes. This was how people swapped music files before the Internet and personal computers.
Do any of us feel guilty about STEALING MUSIC and being PIRATES!!!
Of course not, tapes effectively extended the range of radio broadcast promotion of albums, i.e. taping songs off the radio helped sell albums, just as P2P and Internet radio helps sell CDs now.
The only difference between fileswapping and taping is that the RIAA paid Congress to make swapping songs via Internet illegal.
If you believe differently, you have been suckered by RIAA propaganda.
Re:What are you smoking? (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps I should make a disclosure here. I've memorized that clause. I'm working very hard towards practicing copyright law in a couple of years. I do know the foundational materials, the theory, all that jazz. But I appreciate the rhetorical device.
By giving people control over what they produce and, critically, the ability to make a living from it, you encourage them to create new and wonderful things.
But you're not quite through. You're so close. You ought to be able to smell it. But there's one step left. What do you do when those new and wonderful things are there? What's the purpose of getting them? How does their mere existence promote the progress of science? (N.B. if you read the clause carefully, and recall the 18th century meaning of words, you will note that copyright is intended to promote science, or as we would now say, knowledge. The 'useful arts' refers to the patent half of the clause, and refers to what we now might call practical technology)
We say to artists that if they produce new and wonderful things, we will give them control of that content. It is therefore wrong for us to remove that control, or expect them not to protest and not to take legal action when individuals remove that control, and do so in the most extreme way - redistributing their content, non-consensually, to millions of strangers.
Naw, not really. Congress can decide to raise the price of postage to $20 for a postcard if they like. It's done at their discretion. There's nothing whatsoever wrong with changing the rules on artists.
Because no matter WHAT copyright laws exist, those laws will usually be better for artists, and the public, in sum, than not having them at all would be. And that's a viable alternative too. Congress can always decide there shouldn't be any copyrights. And in the right circumstances, it would be the right decision to make as well.
The few cases where artists and the public in aggregate will be worse off with copyright than without it are, ironically, when copyright is at its strongest. A few artists will thrive; they'll basically have a license to print money. But most will suffer since the ogliarchy won't much care for the competition. And the public will be even worse off.
As for protest, I don't have a problem with that. I just don't care for their arguments, unless that argument is merely that the optimal point -- optimal for everyone -- of the copyright system lies elsewhere. Anything else would be arguing irrelevancies.
Remember: we didn't say that we'd give artists control in exchange for them creating new things. We said we would when it was a good thing for us. That I'll stand by. But we're the judges.
So far few are proposing fixes to copyrights beyond seriously disembowling it and removing the rights of artists completely.
Ok.
Without delving too deeply into the details -- I'm still thinking about some of the nitty gritty music and video licensing issues -- I'd say this:
5 year term; renewable five times. Except software, designs, and masks, which aren't renewable at all. Fees for renewals would likely be pegged to gross profits to raise revenue for the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office (see below for some uses of that money)
Existing terms would be retroactively shortened to fit into the new scheme.
Strict formality requirements in order to get a copyright at all; a "common law" copyright (really statutory, but based on the old ones) might exist for some works, but wouldn't be safe to rely upon, since I'd want to promote publishing. This would include strict deposit and disclosure requirements to eliminate protection on copyrighted works other than copyrights, e.g. trade secrets. So, for example, software would all be disclosed source, though still copyrighted.
Acts contrary to the ultimate public domaining, and fair uses would be grounds for voiding copyright; no copy
Re:That time is over. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why don't we just consider the possibility that retailing music is dead?
It was a situation made possible with the fairly recent (in historical terms) invention of printed sheet music, followed by piano rolls, wax cylinders, 78s, 45s, LPs, cassettes, CDs and now DVD-Audio and SuperAudio-CD. That's all happened within a span of 100 years or so. It's no longer needed.
Seriously. Things are invented, manufactured, sold and used. But eventually every thing has a lifespan. At one point in the US, everyone got
Are you claiming a moral right to copyright? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ideas can't be owned; they can simply be monopolized to a certain extent by government fiat. But that hardly constitutes a moral imperative.
Let me put it another way.
As a consumer, I can listen to the radio. I can tape songs off the radio. I can take that tape and burn it to a CD. That's apparently okay.
Pointless Statistic (Score:5, Interesting)
Jolyon
Re:Pointless Statistic (Score:5, Funny)
A good thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
All the money they are spending on their lawyers should rather be dumped into iTunes or Rhapsodey like services. How much proof is needed that that is the way to go?
The industry needs to face facts. The full-format physical media isn't going to sustain their business model. With todays need for instant gratification, people want to buy only what they want and they want it now.
Removing dependance on full-length physical media will do a couple of good things. First it will force the industry and artists to put out more quality tracks instead of relying on a couple radio tracks to sell a disc made mostly of filler. Second, the consumer will no longer get stuck with a lousy disc.
Re:A good thing? (Score:4, Interesting)
In fact eventually "track" may become a carryover from an earlier time, sort of like "album." Has anyone younger than me ever seen a real album, with half-a-dozen sleeves, each of which contains a 10" 78 RPM record?
Re:A good thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Whoah, cowboy! You're talking about benefits *to the consumer*. When was that ever the issue? If it was then CDs would cost $3.99 and there wouldn't be such an incentive to waste time on KaZaA.
You've got to put in terms of benefit to the recording industry
Re:A bad thing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Some bad things:
1) Instead of having one or two radio friendly songs to get you to buy the album, so you can then hear the more innovative stuff they really want to do, record companies may force bands to only release "radio" friendly music, since that's what sells. Leaving a lack of innovative music.
2) Selling individual songs on the internet could lead to bands being pressured to shorten their songs. If you get 99 cents a song, record companies would rather a 3 minute 3 Meg song to a 10 minute 10 meg song.
3) The death of the "concept" album. If each song has to stand or fall on it's own, what incentive does a band have to release something with a larger scope? No more Darksides, Quadrophenias, Red Headed Strangers, Kind of Blues, etc.
Buying music by the song may be the future of bubblegum pop, but I hope it'll never be the future of truly creative music.
Re:A good thing? (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that they then don't immediately take up a new, cheap distribution method (over the net) means that they're
a) criminaly negligent towards their shareholders for not implementing something which would give their shareholders more money, or
b) scamming us, and have been for years, 'cause that 'distribution' line is total crap and they don't need a new distribution model.
I'd say they can get sued either way
It is not about the RIAA it is about cheap'n'easy. (Score:3, Informative)
Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Seriously, if enough people blatanly disobey copyright laws, if there is enough civil disobedience, it almost HAS to force a change in the law. The question, though, is how much is "enough" and do we REALLY need to go through all of the heavy handed law enforcement attempts before this happens?
How many people do you suppose are in prison right now for smoking pot, and how long has that enforcement been going on?
> Can't the law makers see for once, that this is what the PEOPLE want and step up to the plate to do their job?
Most of them will take an interest exactly when they think the number of votes the current arrangement costs them will hurt worse than the number of lobbying dollars an alternative tack would cost them.
Welcome to the lobbyocracy.
Re:Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:5, Insightful)
We spend millions and millions of dollars on the "Drug War" and millions and millions more on holding people in jail because they do/sell drugs...
How many people smoke pot? How many states have made it a minor offense to smoke it? How many people are still being busted for it, having their cars and houses seized for buying a dime bag?
And you think that filesharing is going to continue because people do it? Get real.
Re:Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:3, Insightful)
Critical Mass... So you think that the 60+% of the current adult population that has smoked weed and thinks it is "more or less" harmless than alcohol isn't an important statistic?
Ok, so you don't think that they have organization against the laws? What about groups like NORML [norml.org]? You mean to tell me that they haven't done anything to move towards the legalization of marijuana and growing hemp products?
Re:Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:3, Funny)
If only we could remember where we left the petition.
Re:Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is copyright going the way of prohibition? (Score:4, Insightful)
This would affect songs, movies, software, books,... anything that is copyrighted.
The net cost to publishers would rise because they would not be able to reliably recover as much of their costs, so the publication of works would become increasingly rarer. Although any material may be freely shared, not all of it would necessarily be easy to find. Fans of artists or authors of obscure works would be entirely out of luck.
Not it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Interpretation:
We don't mind the RIAA making money... just make them get it from somebody except us
AKA, the "not it!" theory.
Davak
Re:Not it! (Score:5, Interesting)
They collect quite a lot of funds in fact, they even collect money for radio play of unsigned acts and these artists receive nothing.
Above info collected from:
Here [boycott-riaa.com]
Consequences not effective (Score:5, Insightful)
Artists Against iTunes (Score:5, Interesting)
"Artists hold out on iTunes on principle
Reuters News Service
LOS ANGELES -- The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica are refusing to make their music available as individual downloads on Apple Computer's iTunes online music store.
That move comes in response to Apple's decision to allow users to buy single tracks and is intended to protect the future of the long-playing album, said Mark Reiter of Q Prime Management Co., which manages the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica and several other artists.
Green Day and Linkin Park, according to a source familiar with the situation, have also refused to make their songs available as individual downloads on the Apple service, which has sold over 5 million songs. "
-- Hey
Idiots.
Re:Artists Against iTunes (Score:3, Insightful)
I could give a shit about Linkin Park, they don't even write thier own music.
Jaysyn
Re:Artists Against iTunes (Score:4, Insightful)
I was a little distressed at this idea at first, because I really think that the album can have some holistic worth that is not present in the tracks individually. This is most obviously true in the genre of progressive rock where concept albums are popular. Concept albums are albums in which the songs are tied together by a theme or plot that operates within the lyrics and often also within the music itself as themes are reprised and re-orchestrated in a manner that allows them to be expressive through their relationship to each other as well as their own intrinsic expression. And there are many other non-concept albums out there that stand as complete pictures that would not at all be the same were the tracks to be separated.
As the musical medium has progressed from live to vinyl to magnetic recording to compact discs and now to the intanbible realm of bits, I do feel that we are losing as much as we gain. Im only 19, but I know that back in the days when the Beatles were releasing vinyl, you would buy the album not just for the music, but for the art and other goodies that came along with it, and, perhaps most importantly, because you wanted to support the group and teh ideas they represented. Nowadays music seems to be as disposable as all of our other goods have become. Im horified by the idea that music could become as stripped down as it now is.
However, I fully support the new way that music distribution is going, not because I think that disembodies mp3s are better than vinyl or even compact discs, but because I think that it may challenge artists to create something worthy of our ownership.
I've really been nauseated over and over by the crap that is being pumped out of the music industry lately. From the boy band thing to linkin park and rap rock, music has gone from a medium of expression to a formulaic and mindless medium of moneymaking. This is not entirely true of music, but of most of the junk that teh RIAA is representing in its rampage.
As an artist myself, I look at an album as more than some sort of physical medium for the noise I make. Seeing the album as an arbitrary medium for music is analogous to the functionalist school of AI. The way we are demmanding our music to be served to us shows that we dont see the medium thorugh which we hear or acquire it as important to the music itself. while I do subscribe to a certain brand of functionalism when it comes to AI, I actually believe that the medium is very important when it comes to music. Music is art, and the musical release - the album - should be a work of art. The graphic art and words that come along with a physical album ought to contribute to the music, and the music itself must merit the words and grapgic art that accompany it.
so I am not protesting our lack of concern about how we acquire our music. Rather, I am hoping that the music industry might now be driven to create music that deserves to be embodied and owned in something more corporeal than a digital file.
I guess Im done ranting, but inconclusion, if Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are going to refuse to let peopel download their music because the want to protect the long-playing album, they had better get started creating an album that is not translatable into digital files as easily as they are now. Im talking abotu a different kind of copy-protection here. when more mainstream artists begin releasing albums that are worth more than the sum of their tracks, more people will shell out the bucks to own a piece of art. I'll still have my ipod loaded with music, but I will also have the albums of my favorite artists at home so that I can appreciate them as a whole.
Re:Artists Against iTunes (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if you pay full price for the CD, they make more money than if you just bought the two or three good songs off iTunes.
It makes perfect sense to them.
The thing they need to realize is now that the option is there, people will prefer to spend 3 or 4 bucks getting the songs they want off an album rather than pay 15 for castoff songs. And if they don't learn to embrace the internet, they will be left behind by it.
Re:Artists Against iTunes (Score:5, Insightful)
Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon. Yeah, those would be by the Beatles and Pink Floyd, artists with great enough talent to produce concept albums.
Tell me (and no fair using google): What album was "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners released on? Many people like and enjoy the song, but I'd be willing to be almost NO ONE has the album.
Re:Artists Against iTunes (Score:5, Insightful)
Artistic integrity is quite obviously not the prime concern for them.
New P2P (Score:5, Informative)
supports SSL, Proxys, tunneling of UDP though port 80 and some other goodies to hide from ISP's, RIAA, etc?
I've downloaded and tried it and was quite happy with it. You take a speed hit for your privacy but when the RIAA is screaming bloody murder it might be the only alternitive. Now all we have to do is e-mail them like made to get it ported to other OS's!
Re:New P2P (Score:5, Funny)
erm. (Score:3, Informative)
"Communications by Freenet nodes are encrypted and are "routed-through" other nodes to make it extremely difficult to determine who is requesting the information and what its content is."
" The network can be used in a number of different ways and isn't restricted to just sharing files like other peer-to-peer networks. It acts more like an Internet within an Internet. For example Freenet can be used for:
* Publishing websites or 'freesites'
* C
No such thing as bad publicity... (Score:5, Insightful)
"What? We can do that? Cool. Look, there's links in the article to this software..."
SB
"Genocidal Litigation" nice (Score:4, Insightful)
It should be noted that this contradicts what has been reported in the main stream news, with one cable news channel reporting a 15% drop in file sharing.
(off topic, when I'm posting a new comment to an article, slashdot should include the article on the page where I'm responding so I can reference it)
Personal Take (Score:4, Informative)
Free market in action (Score:5, Interesting)
This is free market in action. The artificial scarcity created by government regulation (copyright) is way out of touch with the reality so the free market, even when it has to operate as a black market, will take care of the customer demand.
What needs to happen is serious consideration of how the supply can be kept running under these circumstances. One solution would be to allow unlimited music distribution as long as you don't charge any money for it. If the commercial exploitation of copyrighted material would still be an exclusive right of the copyright holder, I believe there is a big market where the copyright holder can make good profit. This would pretty much legalize the current practise where individual people can trade music online freely while the commercial distributors (e.g. CD sales) would have to pay.
Re:Free market in action (Score:5, Insightful)
What 'artificial scarcity' are you talking about? There is nothing 'scarce' about music. You can go to any number of internet sites and buy CDs. Try buy.com [buy.com].
The free market is in action. It's just that people would rather pay $0.00 for music rather than anything more than $0.00.
bitTorrent (Score:4, Informative)
Lot's of search sites [bytemonsoon.com]has emerged so you can pick and choose what you want, and leaving a few uploads open all the time as quid pro quo.
You can even rate the stuff out there.
Re:bitTorrent (Score:5, Informative)
Interesting stuff. I'll be using PeerGuardian from now on.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:bitTorrent (Score:3)
Why are you safe using BitTorrent? Last time I grabbed an ISO using BitTorrent I was able to click on the 'advanced' button and see a list of the IP addresses of the other peers and seeds. It would be a simple matter to note them down and forward them to a legal department.
Actually, BitTorrent is possibly less safe than something like Kazaa, since Kazaa is closed source, requiring a small amount of reverse engineering to be able t
Lazy RIAA (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah right, so you can't properly secure your own cd's or whatever, so go ahead and put a tax on internet access and cd burner's to make up losses because of your own incompetence. And as we all know, no one uses CD Burners for say....backups, or transferring legitimate files from one person to another. No one uses the internet to do do legitament things like research. So of course everyone should Pay the RIAA and help them. Never mind that if they really want to stop piracy they should be better protecting their own media.
The worst thing is that the RIAA probably has enough influence in Washington to pull something like this off!! What's next, Microsoft builds an internet monitoring meter into windows to send usage statistics to the government so they can bill you monthly. Then Linux is outlawed for not having the US government metering package?
I don't understand something... (Score:5, Interesting)
The ISP is bound by law to inform the user, who has the right, under penalty of perjury, to deny that he/she is offering infringing material.
Now it gets interesting.
If the user denies that he/she has been sharing, the ISP must inform the copyright owner, and that copyright owner has a limited amount of time during which it MUST bring suit against the alleged infringer, or the ISP MUST restore access.
So, someone please tell me how the RIAA has the right to sue, since they own no copyrights?
Also, if every person sued denies they are sharing, forcing the actual copyright holder to bring suit, wouldn't the sheer weight of litigation costs make this a really bad strategy?
Re:I don't understand something... (Score:3, Insightful)
Artists own the copyrights, but they assign the legal authority to protect the copyrights to the record companies, who, in turn, band together under the guise of the RIAA.
Kinda like a pyramid scheme...
Aruments of file sharers (Score:3, Informative)
The example of Prohibition shows that if enough people regard a law as a bad one, it will eventually fall. If enough people believe that there is a de facto monopoly in the music business which results in the product being hugely over-priced and managers being over-rewarded, and they choose to circumvent that over-pricing, the effect is no different from if they simply stop buying the product altogether, which is legal.
I can't resist a plug at this point for Terry Pratchett's book Soul Music which manages to make some of the issues amusing.
Not surprised by this result (Score:4, Insightful)
Regarding the music industry, there is a lot to protest about in my opinion. Prices are too high, quality is questionable, and the RIAA are out of control. What better place to protest and get your points across than downloading music from the internet?
Re:Not surprised by this result (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly! Go out to your local record store and stand in front handing out free copies of the latest Metallica album! Spread free music to the world! Remember, you're not "stealing" if you're not taking something physical. That's what civil disobedience is supposed to be about, not hiding behind your ISP like
Why, why, why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, I'm all for giving the RIAA whatfor, just on principle, but STOP TELLING THEM YOU'RE INFRINGING THEIR COPYRIGHTS (not stealing, as we all know... right?) AND QUIT FLAUNTING THAT YOU'RE NOT AFRAID.
Because they are going to drop the hammer. And they are going to sue some poor college kids and high school kids and ruin their savings and credit and quite possibily their future. This isn't funny. People should be switching to anonymous technologies ASAP. It's like a burgular going back to the same house after having a long conversation with the owner in a coffee shop about how he previously stole from the owner, and he didn't care that the owner now has some nasty looking guard dogs, a moat, and a team of lawyers ready to defend him when he shoots the burgular in "self-defense."
So shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's for your own good.
Chillean Sea Bass... (Score:5, Funny)
Something to think about... (Score:3, Interesting)
6/15 knew what the RIAA was.
1/15 knew about any RIAA lawsuits.
7/15 became/at least acted concerned when told about the lawsuits, and the potential for themselves to be sued.
The numbers are way too low to really mean anything, but it seems to follow that just MAYBE people don't act like they care because they really don't know. We'll see what happens when the RIAA actually gets a file sharer in court.
Philippines (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to give them any ideas. (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought CDs once upon a time... (Score:5, Insightful)
Price CDs at $6-10, and I'll think about buying. Remember - they said CD prices would drop lower than tape.
--
+1 Karma Bonus due to RIAA love and low user ID.
Use e-Mule : No central leech points! (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno if somebody knows about e-Mule, but this exellent P2P proggy allows one to leech blocks from different sources, even when a source itself does not have the complete file yet. So these sources are in effect not necessarily sharing media, just parts of it.
The only thing e-Mule now needs is a tedency to distribute complete files over different parts of the network, so that very few access points share the complete file. Once the file is downloaded, e-Mule then just shares parts of it, but never the complete file. Depending on the required parts, the shared parts may even vary over time.
Seems like the perfect nightmare for any DMCA groupie-lawyer to me.
Read my lips - no new taxes (Score:4, Insightful)
kazaa/fasttrack usage (Score:5, Informative)
According to the logs I keep of kazaa's traffic [waglo.com], usage has declined by something like 2%... Maybe I'm not getting the whole picture. The way I sample the data to make the pretty plot is simply by reading from my kazaalite client's status bar, and logging those numbers (users, files, GiB) to a text file which I massage with php+gd every once in a while.
Let me know if you need more data, I have over a years worth.
Genocidal? (Score:5, Insightful)
even genocidal litigation can't stop file sharers
Although I'm not familiar with the case, I don't remember extermination camps being discussed as part of a remedy. The RIAA's efforts are punitive, vengeful, and certainly suicidal, but not genocidal.
I am very much against the RIAA in this affair, but ridiculous exaggeration like this severely damages our ability to make the case to Joe Sixpack.
ObSimpsonsQuote for the RIAA (Score:3, Funny)
the return of sneaker-net (Score:3, Insightful)
If the RIAA gets it's way... which is a distinct possibility.... we will see 2 things happen amongst traders.
First will come the file-trading encrupted and distribiuted networking solutions... such as freenet.... where communications will be inherently anonymous and highly hidden... where the data will be spread across the network in a simlar fashion to RAID... keeping them availble and at the same time not dependant upon one users machine.... imagine if everyone simply gave 40 megs of space to a netowkr of millions of users to be shared out RAID style....
the second thing we'll see is the advent and return of sneaker-net... with so many small and highly portable devices that store data on nearly everyone.... the ease of getting songs at your buddies house or work or in the park will become more and more prevelant. Although not easy with the iPod right now.... i have a distinct feeling it will be shortly.
eDonkey vs. Kazaa (Score:3, Insightful)
eDonkey doesn't have a central server, and anyone can run a server if they want to. That's more than RIAA can currently(1) handle, I think.
Also, Kazaa seems to be more popular for sharing MP3's.
(1) What I mean is, RIAA can eventually summon enough power to bring down both, but Kazaa would be much easier.
Re:eDonkey vs. Kazaa (Score:4, Informative)
Naturally when you say "Kazaa" you mean Kazaa Lite [kazaalite.tk]. (All the file sharing, with none of the spyware or adware popups.)
Re:eDonkey vs. Kazaa (Score:4, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Irony is the best sword to fall by. (Score:5, Funny)
Make Backup copies of your stuff like you've never done before!
Heh, yeah, OFF-SITE backup copies. Lots of them! :)
Re:Genocidal?! (Score:3, Interesting)