The RIAA vs. The World

[babylonsister]

X-post from Eds.
I'm curious to hear! what you all think of this.

The RIAA vs. The World
Tuesday, 09 October 2007
by David Rovics

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing massive multinational corporations with tentacles in every corner of the global economy including the music business, has just won a lawsuit against a mother of two who refused to be pushed around. Jamie Thomas’ pockets were not nearly deep enough to mount the kind of legal defense for the occasion, but she rightly thought that paying an out-of-court settlement of several thousand dollars for the “crime” of sharing music online was ridiculous. So she told the RIAA they’d have to take her to court. They did, and they won.

The fact that one of these cases actually went to trial, the amount of money involved, and the fact that the defendant could have been your neighbor, a middle-aged single mother of two who was not selling anything, but was just engaging in commonplace song-swapping via Kazaa’s peer-to-peer network, has made this case newsworthy. But what lies beneath it are the ever-growing tens of thousands of people who have been spied upon, harassed and threatened with lawsuits if they didn’t pay the RIAA thousands of dollars for sharing copywritten music in a way the RIAA, the US government, the World Trade Organization, etc., deem inappropriate.

In spite of the RIAA’s campaign to staunch the profit losses of it’s corporate members by waging a campaign of fear and intimidation against your average everyday music fan, the numbers of legal and “illegal” downloads continue to rise rapidly. However, the industry’s campaign is not just about robbing working class American music fans of hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars. The music industry is waging a war for the hearts and minds of the people of the US and the world, spending tremendous amounts of money on advertising campaigns to convince us of the rightness of their cause and the wrongness of our actions.

The RIAA is both powerful and desperate. They are a multibillion-dollar industry that has been “suffering” financially for years, and they are up against the very nature of the internet – that being peer-to-peer sharing of information in whatever form (stories, songs, videos, etc.). The internet has given rise to unprecedented levels of global cultural cross-pollination, and it has led to a democratization of where our news, information, music, etc., comes from that has not been seen since the days of the wandering troubadors who went from town to town spreading the news of the day.

The RIAA is trying to use a combination of the law, financial largesse, and encryption and other technologies to try to reassert their dominance over global culture. But perhaps most importantly, they are trying to reassert the moral virtue of their position, the rightness of their positions vis-a-vis the concept of intellectual property and the notion that the fear campaign they’re engaged in somehow benefits society overall and artists in particular.

more...

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2593/81/

[msongs]

1. visit this viewpoint... nt

http://www.mosesavalon.com/mosessupposes/may07.html

[wuushew]

3. Money not spent on music finds other outlets in the economy

If you are worried about finanicial security you should have invested in Apple and sold short Sony starting in the 1990s.

[wuushew]

2. kick

:kick:

[HughMoran]

4. I hate the RIAA almost as much as Bush

I have a USB HD device and a Blackberry - neither will play the fucking crippled music that the FUCKING RIAA has ruined. I hate those motherfuckers more than words can express.

[populistdriven]

24. Who gave the RIAA the DMCA? SAY IT!!!

[fedupfisherman]

5. With today's crappy music

Who needs to give the RIAA any money?

[liberalmuse]

6. The RIAA is nothing more than a very large crime syndicate.

Fuck them. I don't know anyone who weeps for them. The bigger selling artists only see a small percentage of what they rake in for the RIAA. It's practically slave labor for many musicians. These artists are expected to cover all of the execs bad bets, while the execs get lavish raises. I'll buy from iTunes, but I'll be damned if they're going to make me feel guilty for copying that $20 single I stupidly bought onto my computer so I can load the one song I like onto my iPod. That's right. The RIAA is saying that even if you bought an album, if you copy it onto your iPod or burn it to a disk, you are a criminal. And the RIAA could give a shit about helping to produce good quality music. All they care about is $$$.

[kineneb]

13. RIAA can take long walk off short pier

If I want to create my own compilation CD of music from albums which I have purchased, I will do it. I am not selling anything and I believe I have fair use of the music for which I have paid money. The RIAA can stuff it. It is like making a backup copy of data, so the original is not damaged.

I used to make cassette tapes of my favorite vinyl albums so as not to wear them out. Now I just need to figure out how to get them from vinyl to CD (I think I know how, but have not yet tried it).

And let me mention... the music which I am copying (for my own use) is mostly "Classical" (symphonies, early music, etc.) so in no way am I cutting into anyone's profit.

[Norrin Radd]

30. You can connect your turntable to your sound card,

or pay these people to do it. http://www.lptocd.com/records_to_cd.htm

[undergroundpanther]

7. Riaa can go fuck themselves

They have controlled culture for too long.Time for the people to make thier own damn culture and fuck the for profit cultural engineers.


If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.

Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it.

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property.

– Thomas Jefferson


And that is why the Riaa is wrong.
http://praxeology.net/anticopyright.htm
http://www.detritus.net/vircomm/projects/anticopy/
Anticopyright

[populistdriven]

25. Dems (esp Conyers) need to understand the RIAA is more hated than HALLIBURTON

Get in touch with the people John!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.riaa.com/newsitem.php?news_year_filter=&resultpage=74&id=C6B53939-B00B-B370-2F9B-D709442CAF87

Washington, DC - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) last night recognized the Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), with an honorary community service award for his contributions in support of the music community at a reception in his honor.



http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051218-5797.html

A frightening bit of legislation was introduced to the US House Judiciary Committee on Friday. The Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005 (PDF) is sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)

[MilesColtrane]

31. I blame these guys.

"The Congress shall have the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries"

[mark414]

8. a friend of mine is in a very successful, extremely well known band (signed to a major of course)

and while he's obviously doing well, he and his band mates get a fraction of the actual amount of money their label pulls in via album sales (and they've sold millions of copies)

most of his newfound wealth comes from merchandising and touring....

i have many friends who are dealing with/have dealt with major labels. and all of them will tell you that the "we're trying to protect artists from losing money" argument is a load of shit. the RIAA is trying to protect the RIAA from losing money.

[babylonsister]

10. Thanks for that dose of reality from musicians. They don't all feel

that way, but I was wondering if there were differences of opinion with musicians.

[Zodiak]

27. There is

Most musicians I know (myself included) just want to be heard by lots of people so when they show up t town, people attend their concerts. That is where the money is made for the artist.

For me, supporting the band means showing up to their gigs and buying their T-shirts. Buying their albums only makes their slavemasters more powerful. And we all know what the slavemasters do with that money....go after the fans.

Fuck the RIAA. I hope the whole goddamned industry tanks...my musician friends (a couple of which are nationally famous) wouldn't give a shit if it happened and would be glad to get out of their horrid contracts.

[BlueJazz]

11. Yep...Fellow DU'er..Truer words were never spoken.

I've been there (in the ditches with the Riaa) and they are the lowest scum on earth...

[kineneb]

14. classical musicians rarely make money on recordings

Most of their income comes from concerts (for big names), and other performances: "weddings, bar mitzvas, birthday parties, and funerals". The sales of classical recordings is so small that unless you are well known, your album may only sell a few thousand copies before it goes out of print, (or onto the Musical Heritage Society label). The revenue from the recordings may cover the cost of the time to make them.

Been there, done that. Gigs are where the money is, at least for us classical types. Have shawm, will march in Renaissance Faire processions.

[babylonsister]

16. I love that you play despite the apathy for classical. What do

you play? And Renaissance Faires are fun!

[kineneb]

19. the list is long

I worked for a musical instrument builder for over 20 years, and built most of my own collection. Right now I am not doing much musical stuff (another long story), but I did have a church gig playing keyboard, and I still teach piano lessons. I have played/studied, at one time or other... piano (since I was 6), guitar, lute, flute, recorders, organ, harpsichord, violin, viola, vielle, rebec, viola da gamba, krummhorns and shawms, plus some other odd instruments. I actually own most of these instruments, except for guitar.

Now that my own woodshop is finally working, I am building a monochord- a Medieval music theory instrument designed to illustrate the mathematical ratios of the overtone series. It is for a children's art and science workshop being put on by a local non-profit.

one of DU's resident music history geeks, Swamp Rat is another...

[babylonsister]

21. You are really cool, sight unseen. You own all those instruments ,

'except guitar'. Ha! And a friend of Swamp Rat is a friend of mine!

Also, your woodworking shop is terrific; my dad does that.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1281213

Have you ever read a Kellerman novel? His honey Robin used to build and fix string instruments.

[crikkett]

9. Is it time for a boycott YET?

[babylonsister]

12. Of who/what? why?

:shrug:

[crikkett]

32. I propose a boycott of music that the RIAA represents, so as to negotiate

a new copyright agreement.

We are the people who keep the RIAA funded well enough to persecute and harass individuals.

Support the bands. Go to the concerts, buy the tshirts, but don't buy the CD's of bands represented by the RIAA, until a new copyright that is reasonable and reflective of modern times is agreed upon.

[tinrobot]

18. I've been boycotting for years.

So have many others, which is why the RIAA is pulling these stunts.

[Tesha]

28. Are you actually boycotting? Or just stealing everything you listen to?

Just wondering...

Tesha

[JeffR]

15. The RIAA is a dinosaur defending its right to get sucked into

a tarpit, where it belongs.

I've been advocating a new paradigm for composers and musicians since the new technology was in its infancy. Since the technology has matured, the new paradigm is NOW. I can actually make money online, and I don't have to owe my soul to the company store to do so.

Time has passed them by. I'm tempted sometimes to feel a bit sorry for them; then I read stuff like this and remember that they deserve no sympathy. None whatsoever.

[babylonsister]

17. This article spells out how bad the RIAA is, but I didn't know whether

to believe it or not. They are fighting time, to all of our detriment.

[JeffR]

20. I have to be clear

I don't think the RIAA is evil per se. They're no more or less self-serving than any "industry association". They do, however, mask much of their agenda under the guise of advocacy for their membership. In practice recently, this mostly amounts to persecution of consumers, and any benefits derived therefrom accrue mainly to established acts who will make millions with or without their advocacy.

As for those of us who toil in obscurity with our music, if we can turn a humble profit working outside of such groups - and even if we can't make a profit - we'll do what technology now allows us to do. I happily give some music away, figuring that the freebies attract some people who like what they hear enough to pay a modest amount for what I sell. And it works. I might feel differently if my stuff were overtly targeted at a popular market, but most of it isn't. Neither the RIAA not the major labels care much about the music people like myself make, but these days with a little effort, we can find an audience just the same. That to me is extraordinarily cool, and matters much more than getting rich off what I do.

PS - I would, however, like to be rich.:evilgrin:

[OneBlueSky]

22. RIAA would hate me . . .

I have something of a knack for putting together song compilations that people seem to like a lot, and for years I've been making custom tapes (now CDs) for friends and family . . . in my view I paid for the damned songs, and I'll use them privately (as opposed to public performance) any way I want . . . so there! . . .

[Tesha]

29. Your view is, of course, legally incorrect.

Please don't be surprised someday when they catch you.

Tesha

[populistdriven]

23. NIN and RADIOHEAD tell RIAA to go to hell!

If the sites are swamped, try back later

NIN: Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the
following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally
free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have
been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the
business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very
different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a
direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.
Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008.
Exciting times, indeed.
official site http://www.nin.com/ (free?)
open source remixes http://www.9inchnails.com/

RADIOHEAD: Mon, 01 October

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

official site http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/
new release downloads http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex2.html (name ur price)

[AdvancedProgress]

26. May not be directly related to RIAA, but

pisses me off just the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLGA