p2pnet - rss feed: RIAA Christmas humbug
p2pnet news | Music:- Remember, you get what you pay for.
Right. And ironically, the message comes from Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA in Part II of its cynical, distorted and desperate bid to use the Christmas holidays to boost sales.
Of course, it’s absolutely right.
So don’t make your son/daughter/husband/wife/or significant other unhappy with a gift of Corporate Crap.
Instead, spend your hard-earned cash on an indie release, or buy from one of the numerous online indie music sites and find COOL NEW MUSIC as well 
Meanwhile, in a mealy-mouthed misinformation release, “As the holiday shopping season picks up, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched a series of initiatives to offer consumers tips for avoiding pirated music, work with law enforcement to disrupt major distribution chains of counterfeit product in 15 cities with exceptionally high piracy rates, and highlight some of the innovative new legal products to fulfill music lovers’ wish lists,” says the RIAA.
ROTFL
Forget that, and all the rest of the equine feces being excreted in volume by the RIAA.
But DO remember this.
The Big 4’s interests are most definitely not your interests.
They answer only to their shareholders and IMHO, they’re defecating all over them as well.
“The members of the Big 4 organised music cartel, are having a thin time of it,” p2pnet posted yesterday.
“CD sales are down, way down, says Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield. And to add a further chill to the already bleak picture for the Big 4, of the eight albums with sales of more than 100,000 in the week ended December 9, four had zip to do with the major labels.”
We added:
Through their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the Big 4 recently made it clear they expect their customers to try to rob them blind over the Christmas season.
And with that in mind, as part of their sue ‘em all marketing campaign, they’re going after the music buying public in general and students in particular.
Could their vicious and unrelenting attacks on their own customers have anything to do with plummeting sales, do you think?
As DownhillBattle put it in What a crappy present Lo! those many moons ago, and as a p2pnet Reader’s Write reminds us:
… when you buy a major label CDs, you are paying companies to sue families and marginalise independent music.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
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December 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Greed is legal=sucks
December 15th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
“Greed is good.” - Michael Douglas in “Wall Street”
December 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Legal is good. Copyright infringement=sucks.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Hi Sam, whoever you are:
Different opinions are fine. I may not like what you have to say, but you’re welcome to say it here. But fair warning: make your point and leave it at that. If I see posts from you, or anyone, else turning into RIAA-type bullshit like the one above ^^, I’ll delete them.
Cheers!
December 16th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Copyright terrorist=We get ride of them by sending them to Gatanamo so that we can finally claim that we are keeping real terrorists in there.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Bought a Lynyrd Skynyrd compilation CD from my local major supermarket chain the other day. It was crap.
The one good track actually sounded WORSE than the MP3 I had! The other tracks were all rubbish and had the same poor sound quality.
I returned it to the supermarket and said I wanted to return it, because I didn’t like it. The fat & common customer service droid said, “We are not allowed to take back CDs unless faulty, because of copyrights.” I said, oh just say it’s faulty then, please! She gave me a REALLY dirty look and refunded my money. hehe
:)
For the record, it was so crap, it wasn’t even worth ripping and I still have that wonderful MP3, that I DIDN’T pay for!
Merry Christmas RIAA!!
December 16th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Oh, the mystery good track was “Sweet Home Alabama”.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
The two posts time-stamped 4:34 and 4:45 are not my own; someone else is posting here under my name. Nice.
But I’ll offer one last thought, a universal, reasonable guideline for any product created by any laborer in any industry under any business model:
“The act of taking for free the work of others that you know is properly intended by them for sale is wrong.”
Happy Holidays from Sam I Am.
[Both deleted - Jon]
December 16th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Sam I AM: Are you a musician/artist/filmaker or a member of the RIAA/MPAA? Do you think that each download is a lost sale? Do you think it’s a good idea to try and sue your customers into compliant consumers of corporate product?
We’d really like to know.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:35 am
The Music Revolution is here and it belongs to those who share, Sam YOU WERE.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Hey Jon, I’ve been trying to answer FreeThinker. Am I blocked from posting now?
December 17th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
” Hey Jon, I’ve been trying to answer FreeThinker. Am I blocked from posting now? ”
When that happens to me I go back to main page, refresh, and try again.
MOST of the time that clears up the problem
December 17th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Free Thinker …
just visit this thread.
http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14294
It explains Sam’s stance pretty well. and should avoid derailing another thread.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
To Free Thinker:
Are you a musician/artist/filmaker or a member of the RIAA/MPAA?
Yes, I’m in the arts and I’m allied with both art forms but no, I don’t belong to either organization. About 35 or 40% of my yearly income is royalty based now upon material I’ve created over the years and the copyrights I hold. Freelance entertainment employment is spotty at best, and royalties/residuals are essential for survival. This is why copyright exists. It’s a blessing there is no real way to pirate my work or my daughter likely could not afford college. Music is not so lucky. The devastation of the lives of good guys I know and their families, working musicians mostly, is sickening and shameful. Their incomes are down significantly since Napster and they are fighting to keep their homes. The folks who say there is no connection between illegal downloading and decreasing unit sales need less academic discussion and more real-world experience. What freeloading has actually done is impact on the working musicians, the little guys who depend on these royalties, the laborers of the industry. P2p doesn’t touch the superstars and the industry has such deep pockets they’ll just ride this nightmare out. The people who do this thinking that they are clever or somehow “sticking it to the man” are badly misinformed and display little courage. Really changing capitalistic markets takes more than just cowardly shoplifting.
Do you think that each download is a lost sale?
No, of course not. That’s like saying each auto theft represents one lost car sale. That’s ridiculous. Just because someone sees something for sale and they want it for themselves and they take it without payment because technology affords them a way to do it doesn’t necessarily mean they would have purchased it were it not “take-able.”. But having said that, if you pay for it, you have the right to possess it and enjoy it according to the licensing and copyright regs that govern your purchase and possession. If you don’t like the law, tell your congressman. But if you didn’t pay for it then in my book you have no right to possess it. Not morally. Not ethically. Certainly not legally.
Do you think it’s a good idea to try and sue your customers into compliant consumers of corporate product?
No. But the way you’ve phrased your question begs that answer.
When music cd’s were what we purchased to posses our favorite songs people grumbled about their cost while we bought them legally, but we still bought them. We always could have passed, right? This isn’t medical care or food, it’s entertainment.
We complain about the cost of gas or milk or blue jeans, too, but you don’t see a crime wave hijacking gas stations or supermarkets or LEVI’s stores. Why? Because THAT takes balls. It takes courage and conviction —however wrong headed—to fill up your tank and then drive away unpaid. But Napster and its descendants now give cowards in our culture the free pass to take the gas and pull away unpaid while cloaked in technology and to much of the worlds amazement, THEY DO IT.
Bear in mind that much of all entertainment product is still purchased legally at face value. World culture hasn’t lost its bearings. No one has found a realistic alternative model yet and that whole “touring and tee-shirt” thing is bull, especially for new bands with no profile. Have you noticed that less than a dozen acts have come out anti-RIAA and everybody else–thousands and thousands of acts and musicians—are quiet and waiting? Humankind suddenly didn’t wake up one day and decide to throw out a thousand years of moral and ethical development and start to steal for a change. Only the p2p’ers did, the ones who think they are being clever, the ones raised poorly by their parents who saw no conflict with “three clicks and full ownership” of the entire Rolling Stones catalog at no charge to anyone.
If illegal downloading succeeds—if taking without paying becomes a market force ignored by law enforcement, we’re all fucked and the industries of the world know this. The network is only going to get bigger. Everybody wants to move their digital product online but piracy has stalled this migration for the moment until piracy is curtailed.
This issue, then, is far bigger than a few MP3’s, or a couple of pilfered movies, FreeThinker. This issue in the bigger picture represents whether or not respect for the law will have bearing on internet commerce in the future. I love this network and the consumer always wins but the freeloader (a small percentage) is not the consumer. The consumer pays. The capitalist market can be brought to its knees properly by simply not buying. Don’t think for ONE MINUTE that we in the industry don’t know that freeloading will be curtailed so that new paying digital market models have a chance to succeed. These organizations are not suing their “customers” and never were. Real music fans put their money where their mouth is. The guy who takes a car without paying is not a “customer”, FreeThinker. The industry is suing only people who take and don’t pay.
World government sees this issue for what it represents very clearly now and they see what they have to do. They don’t want to, but they have to. France and the EU are out ahead at the moment. If you want to see where this is going check them out. The single biggest mistake the p2p community makes is believing that innovation will always find a way to keep pirating product online a norm. The internet can and will be choked off at the ISP’s if that’s what it takes. I really believe the legacy of p2p is going to be an internet blanketed with law enforcement and surveillance at pinchpoints just to keep online commerce a practical reality.
The irony is that these organizations have sunk millions and millions and MILLIONS into education at colleges, trade shows, concerts, you name it, since 1999. The real truth is that the RIAA and the MPAA have bent over backwards for years trying to right this mess without resorting to legal means. The p2p community is just unwilling to learn how the law works in this area and the disaster we have today is the direct result. Are you sincerely suggesting that a crime-wave should be regarded as a market force? I doubt even you would believe that were it your market being ransacked.
So Freethinker, at this point I support additional education and whatever measures need be taken to make the law clearer, but I will never support illegal activity as a market force just on principle. There are legal, fair ways to do this and in my view freeloading is not one of them. We need to return to paying for product so our people are paid for the work they do.
Then we can get down to the business of reordering the industry through the normal market forces. The artists can press for better terms, but LEGALLY, and we can implement very cool technology that supports free trade within the checks and balances of our capitalist model, but LEGALLY. Paid digital distribution deserves a chance to succeed and if you don’t like the cost DON’T BUY IT. But don’t take it, either. I think it would be a real shame if we had to sit through a zillion ads online to finally take a “free” copy of FreeBird. Ugh.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Sam, I was going to make a detailed reply to you, but I see that others on the thread all about you have pretty much said what I would have.
In short, after reading your waffle on how file sharing is “stealing” (what, do you think we’re retarded or something, that we’ll fall for that one??), I’ll just say that I suspect you are nothing but an RIAA shill sent here, because the of the great influence p2pnet.net is having in exposing the despicable & illegal practices of your corrupt organisation (well done, Jon!).
Why not identify yourself to the world and prove me wrong?
So we’re all “thieves” and freeloaders, huh? Funny how all the DRM infested Napsters are dying and the DRM free music sites such as allofmp3 and Amazon are flourishing then…
Man, you’re the best troll I’ve ever seen. I’m impressed!
All about Sam: http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14377
December 18th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Jon, please don’t delete my comments. My friend Sam says how he feels and so do I. Whatever happened to that free speech you’re so proud to allow? Thankyou.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Sam’s views aren’t mine, but they’re honest efforts to present a point of view. Yours are just trolling and I’ll continue to reserve the right to dump stuff which deliberately tries to stir up trouble without contributing anything.
Cheers!