the music police

[mikegee]

and here we go again:

Recording industry goes lawsuit crazy: sues 8000

"In a worldwide clampdown on internet piracy, the International Federation for the Phonograph Industry (IFPI) has issued a huge wave of lawsuits against peer-to-peer fileswappers. A total of 8,000 individuals in 17 countries are being sued, which includes the first cases to be filed in Brazil, Mexico and Poland.

The trade group, which represents the world's music companies, has said some 20 billion songs were illegally downloaded worldwide last year - 1 billion of those being in Brazil - the largest market in Latin America. The latest crackdown sees the total number of lawsuits soar to 31,000 worldwide, with 18,000 coming from the United States."

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/8030.cfm

i think the funniest/saddest thing about this is, maybe instead of using music downloaders as scapegoats for poor sales, maybe they should take a look in their proverbial mirror and stop releasing stinky bands with sucky albums, and maybe bring the prices down like they said they would (but didnt) and... ahhh i could go on and on...



ps i being (old) and old school, have; taped records on to cassette, taped am/fm radio to cassette, cassette to cassette, vhs to vhs etc etc etc for decades now, (all for personal use of course) as have most music fans. i can understand them going after for profit bootleggers, but they dont seem to differenciate... the idea of downloading music is not new, its just different than how people used to do it. they are biting the very hand that feeds them, hence, more poor sales almost guaranteed in the already shakey record label industry... awesome

[Nubus]

personally, I only use Limewire to share my MS paint files with my peers, and copy their Word docs.

[bwethera]

This is what is sad aside from the obvious contentions with consumers is that the amount of money spent in litigation is going to be a big deficit for an already worried RIAA the actual labels themselves have yet to sue a defendent for one red cent which is slightly funny would have to say. and i think a clarification for what the RIAA is is in need:

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review - - state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum™, and Diamond® sales awards, and recently launched Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, a new award celebrating Latin music sales."

Essentially there a BBB For the Afilliated labels you have to pay to be reconized by them.

so this offers up some weird sentiment on every side of this un-ending somewhat childish argument that often validates both sides in some way or another because of an entitled generation fueled on radio and in all honesty when tape decks that dub came on the consumer market and there recent counter parts the cdrw and dvdrw the RIAA was just as scared, the scale is infact changed though, making a loss of 1mill pale to a loss of 1bill. if you lost that much in potential profits you would cry bloody murder but alas it isnt that simple, its not as if some shady stranger is standing in the dark trying to sell you the third incartion of the spice girls on a bootleg with weak Hand writen liner notes either. so they have to scramble to make there place seem ligitimate or they have become obsolete ( the RIAA, not the labels) and it offers up for often ridiculous news, after all you have to try and seem effective
not really be effective.

[mikegee]

Originally Posted by bwethera

This is what is sad aside from the obvious contentions with consumers is that the amount of money spent in litigation is going to be a big deficit for an already worried RIAA the actual labels themselves have yet to sue a defendent for one red cent which is slightly funny would have to say. and i think a clarification for what the RIAA is is in need:

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review - - state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum™, and Diamond® sales awards, and recently launched Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, a new award celebrating Latin music sales."

Essentially there a BBB For the Afilliated labels you have to pay to be reconized by them.

so this offers up some weird sentiment on every side of this un-ending somewhat childish argument that often validates both sides in some way or another because of an entitled generation fueled on radio and in all honesty when tape decks that dub came on the consumer market and there recent counter parts the cdrw and dvdrw the RIAA was just as scared, the scale is infact changed though, making a loss of 1mill pale to a loss of 1bill. if you lost that much in potential profits you would cry bloody murder but alas it isnt that simple, its not as if some shady stranger is standing in the dark trying to sell you the third incartion of the spice girls on a bootleg with weak Hand writen liner notes either. so they have to scramble to make there place seem ligitimate or they have become obsolete ( the RIAA, not the labels) and it offers up for often ridiculous news, after all you have to try and seem effective
not really be effective.

excellent last point you made. i think youre on to something... perhaps, even though enforcement is difficult and near impossible, i'm thinking the lawsuits are more of a deterent to deter new potential downloaders. i know many people that wont even download one song, simply because of reading articles about enforcement. it does send a message i guess.