Comments on: Big Music’s climate of terror

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 13 May 2004 02:01:56 +0000

Yep … I stopped downloading .mp4 dvd movie rips when I realized I could get the actual DVDs from the library. Better selection than blockbuster, free rentals (late fee is only $1), fewer scratched discs. Course, it’s still a lot easier to get music over p2p. But it’s funny … when I’m picking up my movies, there’s always a ton of people taking out music cd’s. What’s the chance that someone DOESN’T copy them? I understand that with the movies, the majority of folks still don’t know how to copy dvd’s efficiently enough to make it worthwhile timewise, or even have the hardware and software required. But who doesn’t have what it takes to rip a cd?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 13 May 2004 01:19:19 +0000

I like it that he used the “T” word… Since even writers that are sympathetic to the idea of file sharing continue to use the irritating and misleading terms PIRATE and PIRATING over and over, we might as well refer to the RIAA as TERRORISTS. That’s what they are, right? Gosh, maybe the RIAA is somehow linked to Osama?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Thu, 13 May 2004 00:53:41 +0000

The “big 5″ had a very healthy increase in overall music sales in 2003. Just a tidbit to chew on…

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 12 May 2004 21:59:09 +0000

Big Music has never confronted the fact that copywritten materials such as books and more recently music CDs, videos casettes and DVDs have been available to all at no charge via public library systems throughout the world. Why is downloading any different? Why arn’t they sueing the public libraries? M ight it be because they would be laughed out of court?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 12 May 2004 21:58:21 +0000

Will the RIAA and CRIA ever stop their misleading crap? To hear them complain, they never made a penny since people started sharing files on the internet. Here is a bit of info.
Total sales are down because of 2 main reasons. The economy has been on a downward slide since 2000 and was pushed farther down by 9/11 . Remember “It’s The Economy Stupid” ? Every damn industry except weapons manufacturing was down. Tourist industry, car sales, small and large product manufacturing: it ALL was down for over 3 years.
And total new releases by the artists themselves for 2000 and 2001 were down by over 25% . That means the choices to pick from was down by that much. But miraculously the dollars per release was up from $376,000 to $533,000. Those numbers are from the following site : http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html
So the record industry cut their inventory (and artist investment) by over 25 percent and sales only dropped 4.1 percent, even though the economy is at rock bottom. Not bad. There were almost 12,000 fewer new releases for the consumer to choose from in 2001 than 1999, but the record companies are making more money per release than ever. Interesting stats that you don’t hear the RIAA talking about. chuckthecanuk also has a rant page that is truly insulting to the RIAA and thier “gestapo tactics” as he calls them. hahahaha. oh btw i dont share mp3’s online, only because i hardly ever listen to music.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 12 May 2004 21:30:15 +0000

I find it interesting that the music industry blames downloading for it’s loss of business. How do they come to that conclusion? Can they prove that the only or even the major factor causing their slowdown is downloading? The media never seems to challenge this conclusion. Surely other factors can be attributed to the music industry’s woes. How about price, content, etc.? The RIAA must employ the same PR angency that Bush used to convince America of the existence of WMD and the connection between Bin Laden and Iraq.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 12 May 2004 21:10:52 +0000

I like this article.

I’m surprised that no one in the US is clever enough to counter a lawsuit from the RIAA by saying that they aren’t paying the artists anyway (they’ve recently been forced to pay millions to artists who weren’t being paid royalties).

The main emphasis of their lawsuits was that downloading was hurting artists because they weren’t getting royalties, but then they weren’t paying them anyway ?

This appears to be a major breach of ethics by the RIAA.