RIAA Lawsuits: Laugh, It's Funny (sort of)

Heh... heh...

Ouch... that's gonna smart.

Here is a not so complete list of KaZaa names the RIAA was going after:

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/...3506996,00.html

One thing I love from that list



Wooohoo... great one guys.... yeah... thats the one I use, as do sooo many others.

I bet they are wondering how that user can come from so many different IP addresses at the one time... LOL

And then there was the report that they were going to give an amnesty to anyone who deletes their illegal files, destroys their illegal CDs, promises not to do it again and "send a completed, notarized amnesty form to the RIAA, with a copy of a photo ID".

I can just see it now . . . "We only promised that we wouldn't sue you but we didn't say anything about not passing on your written confession (with photo ID don't forget) to Sony, EMI or any of our individual members who can now sue your a** instead".

Unfortunately there'll probably be a number of people who'll see this as a way to 'clear their conscience' and send in the bloody form. After all, they've seen it on TV where our hero (i.e. the bad guy that wasn't really bad - just led astray by the real bad guys) gets off the hook because he comes clean in the end and does a deal with the cops.

Many probably won't realise that RIAA aren't like the cops and there are other interested parties who can sue you instead (BTW where the hell did they get $150k per song from?), which will be all the easier when you've voluntarily sent them the evidence against you.

Why doesn't the industry realise that the way to handle this, both from an economic standpoint and a PR one (Ctb's links point to a couple of PR disasters that've happened before they've even won a case) is to lower prices. Universal announced a price cut recently which was the first price cut in the cost of music CDs ever.

And why don't they realise that revenue has dropped for thousands of businesses in the last few years and that there aren't very many others who've responded by sueing their customers.

Also, here is a searchable username/IP database if you wish to
see if you or someone you know is on the list:
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/riaasubpoenas/

URL

Did that old guy really say "dadgum it"?

Unfortunately, it's only on Fox "news" and, apparently, some local news stations in NY.

Hopefully, it can get a bigger story on CNN (they have one sort of hiding in the Technology section about this that went up about 1.5 hours ago) or TWP. We need to see some real discourse occur on this because no matter where you stand on the issue of "sharing" music, the fact is that the RIAA is acting as an investigating agency and that's not good. Corporations/Organizations should NEVER have been allowed to get this level of power because they'll just abuse it to scew consumers even more (the RIAA is doing it right now).

The only thing is... the whole story has a stupid slant to it. Like her father saying the kid didn't do anything illegal - yea, she did. I don't know if I like that the RIAA is finally getting it's fair share of biased spin the way they've been putting it out, or if I'm disgusted that there's spin going on at all.

I've only heard Kazaa mentioned in connection with these bs lawsuits. Anyone know of any other programs they're monitoring like Morpheus or WinMX? Or is it all of them?

do these fools at the riaa really think Kazaa is the root of the problem? are they even aware of the groups that are distributing this stuff? do they understand how it is being ripped and distributed? if anything, the morons should be going after the pubs where stuff originates from. hmm, wait a minute... we solve the war on drugs by locking up drug addicts instead of going after the source... so of course this makes sense. [smacks self for being so stupid]
i just can't wait until someone figures out how to crack w/e "secure" OS the riaa is now running... i think they've been duped into the "security by obscurity" idea.

Well, those bastards at the RIAA have won this round as well. They settled for 2 grand and got little Brianna to read this $*$# bull$&#( to the press:

"I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don't want to hurt the artists I love."

How cute....

I read this at 7:30 this morning right after getting out of bed, and I've been steaming mad ever since. This is really the straw that broke the camels back. A member of Slashdot had an interesting suggestion. What if the community in general that has something to say about the RIAA's rotten tactics, business practices, and model got together and got donations to pay this kid's fine. If it worked and got into the media, it would be a great chance to say to everyone out there who's getting sued "Hey - we don't agree with the RIAA and what they're doing, and we want you to know you have a lot of friends".

What sort of things need to be considered before doing this? The money could just be collected through a website via paypal. I have a small domain that's generally just used for testing and tossing up junk, but I can move it to a more "heavy duty" plan to have more bandwidth / transfer / etc. and, with some design help, can get a decent site up in a matter of days.

C'mon people, think!

I'll give a buck or two... I think you'd raise that much easily.

I mentioned it to another guy here at work and he said he'd donate if I set the site up too.

I'll get a shell for it by this evening. I have "school" (in the loosest sense of the word) until 9:30, but I can get something whipped together for review by midnight EST. If it really takes off, it might also be worth contacting the boycott-riaa people to see how we could share resources. The whole point would, of course, be to highlight the RIAA's abuse of the system more than it would to pay the fine off (though, I think raising $2k so a 12 year old kid in the public housing system can pay off a lawsuit brought by a bunch of executives and lawyers with money pouring out their asses is a pretty good purpose too), so maybe they could help with press.

If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute, please let me know (PM me and I'll give you my e-mail addres. Or, if you're too impatient, hit my WWW button and you'll find my e-mail address on the "About me" page). Relevant contributions would be (factual) items related to the methods the RIAA is using to pursue these lawsuits, relevant facts, quotes, etc. on copyright law, intelligent discourse on the price of music CDs, details on the price-fixing conviction, history of the music CD, etc. The whole point is to generate enough money to cover this kids costs, after that, anything else could just be directed to the EFF or something. At the same time, it should be made very clear that no matter where you stand on the issue of copyright infringement, file-sharing, etc., the RIAA is/has been using unfair, questionable, or outright illegal methods to "enforce" there "rights" over this music. Editorial is, of course, welcome, but I need help gathering the facts first and foremost. I'll also need help with design since I'm a code-monkey, not an artist

As long as it does focus on the RIAA's methods and not the fact that every one of these people did do something illegal, then I can support it.

---John Holmes...