Curiouser and Curiouser! on riaa http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic riaa Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb RIAA has it's head in the sand Wed, 20 Aug 2003 11:59:34 +0100 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><A href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32420.html">RIAA pledges not to target casual file sharers</A>. Just think of the outcry if it did [<A href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I&nbsp;particularly liked this quote from a senior executive with a UK record label:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>...illegal online file sharing amounts to no more than a fraction of the total copyright infringement going on. The real issue, he said, is pirate CDs and DVDs from territories with no copyright laws, or law enforcement agencies unwilling to police them. "Going after file-sharing allows them to ignore the real problem," he said.</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr>&nbsp;</P> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001571.html The RIAA's absurb numbers Wed, 10 Sep 2003 11:26:49 +0100 <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><A href="http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/001232.html">RIAA "settles" with 12-year girl</A>. For a $2000 fine, the RIAA will drop charges against the family of a 12-year old girl living in a... [<A href="http://alevin.com/weblog/">BookBlog</A>]</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I think that part of the problem is the absurb penalty for each infraction -&nbsp;<A href="http://www.legalnewswatch.com/news_177.html">$150,000 per song</A>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Where the hell do they get a number like this from?&nbsp; If the RIAA can threaten you with potential fines in the millions they really have a huge and unreasonable weapon to extort any deal they want.</P> <P>If the penalty was more like $2 per infringement (that is each proven event of a track shared with another user) and they had to prove the number of infrignements (which only seems fair & legal) then I think the landscape would be different.</P> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001614.html The only weapon we have left Wed, 08 Oct 2003 11:52:04 +0100 <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33270.html">Anti-RIAA group calls for CD boycott</a>. Halloween Raves to feature only shared songs [<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</a>]<br> </div> <br> So the vested interests have managed to bring us to heel.&nbsp; The European Copyright Directive has now been incorporated into British law.&nbsp; They say they it won't be used to attack P2P file sharers and individuals but, as the article says,<br> <br> <div style="margin-left: 40px;">He concluded: "There is nothing to suggest that prosecutors will want to use this law to cut the use of file-sharing services – it's much more likely that any action in future will be taken under civil laws. But if the law is not intended to be used against individuals' non-commercial activities on the internet, why does it exist?"<br> </div> <br> I guess I'm pretty disgusted with how it is so easy for big companies to twist the legal system so that people who rip them off get huge fines and prison sentences but they themselves are never held accountable for stealing from pension funds or cheating the markets.<br> <br> This is going to be really hard for me.&nbsp; I love music.&nbsp; In my impoverished state it is the one thing I can still justify buying from time-to-time.&nbsp; But boycotting seems to be the only weapon left to the <span style="font-weight: bold;" title="More on this later...">individual</span>.<br> <br> If these corporations are going to attack me, even indirectly, then by god I am going to attack them back.<br> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00001655.html Support your local file-sharers Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:50:35 +0100 <blockquote><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36655.html">Kazaa and co. 'not cause of music biz woes' say Profs</a>. Statistical analysis supports file-sharers [<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</a>]</blockquote> <p>I have <a href="http://matt.blogs.it/2003/10/08.html#a1158">not bought a CD in over 6 months</a>. It will be interesting to see whether the recording industry can respond to this or whether they will ignore, or spin it..</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002034.html Lessig++ RIAA-- Free culture = more creativity Tue, 25 May 2004 08:36:57 +0100 <blockquote><a href="http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/5/24/75514.html">Something for Nothing in fifteen words</a>. For the terminally short of attention out there, here's my <a href="http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/5/24/75489.html">Free Culture audiobook essay</a> in 15 words: <br> <br> Lessig++ <br> RIAA-- <br> Free culture = more creativity <br> New publishing models <br> Download, read, buy = sales up <br> Discuss! [<a href="http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog">Chocolate and Vodka</a>]<br> </blockquote> <br> Suws been doing a lot of thinking about copyright, free culture, and the impact of releasing your content under different licenses so that others may build derivative works.&nbsp; The <a href="http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/5/24/75489.html">full essay</a> makes for interesting reading.<br> <br> Something I shall be watching is how this model works as it evolves and how it works in general.&nbsp; So far we are talking about a very few cases and the financials are not well understood.&nbsp; As an author whose primary motivation is not financial I can see how this makes a lot of sense.&nbsp; But what if you really do want the money?<br> <br> Maybe I should read Free Culture ;-)<br> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002270.html