RIAA files 757 more P2P lawsuits

[flowerpot]

The organisation, which represents the US divisions of the world's major recording multinationals, this week issued lawsuits against 757 individuals it claims have shared its members' content without permission. Around 64 of those sent lawsuits are connecting to the net via college networks.

 

Since it began attempting to sue individual file-sharers, the RIAA has issued lawsuits against 14,800 people.

 

The lawsuits come two weeks after the RIAA sent cease and desist demands to P2P companies on the back of a Supreme Court ruling that they can be sued for contributory copyright infringement if it can be show that they encourage such an activity.

 

Since then, popular P2P company WinMX has gone offline, and eDonkey president Sam Yagan this week told Congress he had "thrown in his towel". LimeWire has vowed to build technology into its software to prevent copyright infringement. ®

 

Fp

[Steelio]

Fucking hell, this shit is getting out of hand.

[Mixologist]

bastards

[2tall]

release and album and then we will see how you guys feel.

[Steve]

The last quarter of 2004 showed the highest CD album sales ever in this country. Fact is, some people wouldn't buy certain albums anyway even if there were no mp3s. Other people download tracks and then buy the album. The RIAA is talking bollocks because if there is a direct relationship between P2P programs and CD sales as they say, then all you can derive from that is file sharing via P2P increases CD sales.

 

However you feel about it, the fines system is totally out of proportion. $100,000 per song? It's fucking ridiculous.

[Liam]

Music sales have never been higher. Interest in music and cinema have hit an all-time peak thanks to the internet. Sales have followed.

 

These lawsuits always seem to hit the 'sharers' of music, not those who download. News reports never seem to make this clear. Be sensible about what you share, where and how you share it and who you share it with and I doubt you'll ever have a problem.

[Steve]

^^Good advice.

[2tall]

yeah i should say that i think its terrible making people who download things into criminals, all our system does is make a solution which needs more solutions upon solutions instead of attacking the cause, i use P2P to download music videos (mopstly live jazz concerts and such) and the occasional album, i have probably downloaded 4 or 5 albums in the last year.

 

no doubt cd sales are up, because there is simply more shit music being piped out to younger and younger kids with more and more buying power and at cheaper prices than ever before, the stats mean fuck all if you compare sales percentages.

 

what matters is that when everything is digital, it loses its value in terms of materialisticaly having something in your hand, i just copped 5 poetry records from the 60's and 70's - that shit will never be available on mp3 or cd! so much is going to be lost, intellectually, to younger generations, one of the records i got is childrend poems writen and read by small kids in 1964, i don't know any adults who would be able to write such beautfiul language, although some of it actually reminded me of aesop rock! - intellectually this is all part of the landslide in intellect and access to artistic material - there is a lot of important and amazing spoken word and music that will simply dissapear, its a damn shame.

[Mista_Ed]

what he said ^

[Liam]

mopstly live jazz concerts and such

 

You should hit me up dude. We have BARE jazz DVD's and shit at my house. You ever seen some of the shit Joe Pass (sp) does? Crazy! I'll work on ripping some for ya if you like mate.

 

no doubt cd sales are up, because  there is simply more shit music being piped out to younger and younger kids with more and more buying power and at cheaper prices than ever before, the stats mean fuck all if you compare sales percentages.

I keep hearing that the sales that are down the most are the hit pop, and that the niche stuff is up. But unfortunately, you never seem to hear anything unbiased on this part.

 

what matters is that when everything is digital, it loses its value in terms of materialisticaly having something in your hand, i just copped 5 poetry records from the 60's and 70's - that shit will never be available on mp3 or cd! so much is going to be lost, intellectually, to younger generations, one of the records i got is childrend poems writen and read by small kids in 1964, i don't know any adults who would be able to write such beautfiul language, although some of it actually reminded me of aesop rock! - intellectually this is all part of the landslide in intellect and access to artistic material - there is a lot of important and amazing spoken word and music that will simply dissapear, its a damn shame.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Agreed, but at the same time doesn't that strip back the packaging to the pure product? Music in the purest, unembellished form?

 

I disagree with your sentiments on an 'interlectual landslide', there's probabbly more exchange of these kinds of material than there ever has been, since it now costs nothing to put out such work. You just have to look for it -and people really do! The internet provides a constant exchange of genuinely stimulating material (crack a porn joke, wiseguys), thought provoking stuff. You can't mean to tell me that these records you've found were major releases, or that they had any significant impact? But they're important in their own way, for real.

 

As for spoken word and music that simply dissapear... it's the job of people like you to make sure it doesn't! Take the stuff DJ Shadow samples and plays, tracks that would be otherwise forgotten have become immortalised through his work. It is the job of todays music archeolegists to find the forgotten relics and preserve them for future generations. Nothing remains preserved forever without love and care, not even ancient monuments or sacred writings. Anyone feeling me on this?

 

It's definately interesting to hear your viewpoints though, not many here can speak from the perspective of a serious published musician. It's driving a rift through the musical community today, and I really feel it is worth serious discussion, way beyond that of the simple ethics behind it, so I think it is great that you raise these other points.

 

Whatever way you look at it though, 800 odd lawsuits is FUCK ALL, and it is patently obvious to anyone that this represents an incredibly small portion of those file-sharing today. If it were a fraction, it might be best measured in millionths. Meaning filesharing is HERE TO STAY, regardless of how many fingers they want to stick into the dyke. Making examples of a few is clearly a very unfair practice and ought to be stopped. The music inducstry should be dealing with this change in other ways, turning these developmets to its own benefit, but instead it prefers the ostrich approch, blaming the consumer. I would challenge anyone who feels this conduc is in the best interests of either the consumer OR the musician.

[la ressistance]

as far as i'm conserned p2p is the only thing that'll save the music industry from the bullshit pop and comercial house we've had for the last 15 years.

To say this steals from musicians pockets is bullshit .record companys steal from musicians pockets.If music becomes less marketable then you won't have your robbie williams and westlifes anymore but you'll always have serious musicians who make music because they got something to say ,not sell.

 

My opinion is download as much as you can.as d.j.s were in a unique position since we spend more on music than your average buyer.I've got many of the same albums on c.d. and vynal and i'm sure lots of others on here have also.and i've spent more on albums in the last year since getting broadband than i did before,simply because now i can find new music to buy ,from stuff i downloaded.

 

Fuck the RIAA.