Tennessee governor turns RIAA copyright cop
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol (arrow) is a contented man.
He’s recruited another important copyright cop on behalf of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, which explains the happy smile on his face.
In what has to be one of the most shocking examples of an American politician blatantly aligning himself with hardcore commercial interests, Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen has signed into law a bill aimed at, “curbing the disproportionate amount of music theft occurring on state campus networks via peer-to-peer (p2p) services”.
The words are those of the RIAA.
Behind the bill are the self-serving efforts by the Big 4 to turn American students into cowed consumers of corporate product, and only corporate product; and, to gain control of the distribution of music on the Net.
That’s Bredesen in front with a happy smile on his face.
“Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman & CEO Mitch Bainwol, along with several other members of the music community, participated in the signing ceremony and welcomed the enactment of the legislation, SB 3794, which passed the state legislature earlier this year,” says an RIAA ‘press’ release.
“It’s fitting that on the day the world focuses on Nashville and country music that Tennessee would take the lead in protecting the creativity that this state so uniquely inspires,” said Bainwol. “We have all seen the effects illegal downloading has had on Music Row too many record stores have been shuttered and too many songwriters are out of the business of writing songs. This bill, the first of its kind in the nation, addresses the issue of campus music theft in a state where the impact is felt more harshly than most.”
Now, “Tennessee public and private colleges and universities exercise appropriate means to ensure that computers connected to their campus network are not being abused for the purpose of illegally downloading and distributing copyrighted material through p2p file-sharing programs” —- by order of the Big 4 and their RIAA.
“Upon a proper analysis of the network, those institutions are required to implement technological support and develop and enforce a computer network usage policy to effectively limit the number of unauthorized transmissions of copyrighted works,” says the industry organised crime unit.
“The illegal downloading of music has a profoundly negative effect on the music industry,” Bredesen said, following the RIAA script, and adding:
“As home to so many record companies, music publishers, writers and artists, I am proud that Tennessee is taking action to prevent it.”
“The legislation also requires these higher education institutions to develop and enforce a policy for computer usage, network usage and ethics, in addition to analyzing the network to determine if copyrighted works are being transmitted.”
Definitely stay tuned.
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November 13th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
â too many record stores have been shuttered and too many songwriters are out of the business of writing songs.
The record stores have been shuttered true enough. The reason behind them being shuttered is as twisted as a politicians’ line. The reason they are shuttered is that the majors gave the box stores across the nation sweetheart deals for volume that no local record store could hope to match. Local record stores couldn’t even buy theirs for the price the box stores were getting, so how could they sell cheap enough to compete? Going farther, Walmart used those albums for loss leaders, selling them lower than they bought them for to get people in the stores so they might buy something else in addition which would make up the loss. Since Walmart sold albums cheaper than anyone could buy them, that became the accepted price for albums, much to the major labels regret later. Down the road, Walmart told the majors either sell us these albums at what we price them to sell in the stores or we will quit handling your product. As was remarked at the time, Walmart could do without music but major labels couldn’t do without Walmart selling them. Walmart and the other box stores had reached the point of handling better than 80% of the national sales for albums at that point.
Then there is the other reason. Traditionally when the majors have needed an infusion of cash in the past, they changed the format. Within a few years, no one could buy the old media nor the machines to play them with. Each time people would have to repeat buy to update their favorites. Vinyl, 4 track and 8 track tape, cassette, cd, dvd, and now they are wanting blu-ray to be the newest. In the past when vinyl was in it’s heyday, the 45 was the major seller; the single with a B side. They were very carefully picked for the majority to appeal to the largest group of purchasers. When the album came to be as the major lead seller, they had it made. If the group didn’t have enough quality songs, anything would do to fill an album space up. This led to filler which wasn’t worth a hoot and still isn’t. Because this practice of padding the album with lower quality goods became prevalent, people got to where all they wanted was that “one song” and not the rest of the trash that came with it. So they are faced with less income because of that. They got too greedy with the prices for too little. Now with less money to go around, the writers don’t have as much opportunity to get songs on the air. That’s why song writers are out of jobs, not because of the downloader.
It has hurt creativity something fiercely. Used to by with vinyl you had people that could play instruments well as it was their craft, stock, and trade. Now made entertainers can barely tote a tune without mechanical aids in the studio. The day of the concept album, where all the songs were great, tied to one another into a concept, and showed the world the talent of the group, is no longer. What replaces it, is poor fare indeed. The day of the computer picked song based on past hits has resulted in a homogeneous wasteland of blah, resulting in tunes from 30-40 years ago actually showing more talent than what is commonly passed around today as music.
But to hear the music industry tell it, it’s all because of piracy…
[sarcasm on] Right [/sarcasm off]
November 14th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Well stated.
Another obvious point would be the general downturn in the economy over the last decade. Less disposable income = less buying crap. I’m surely not going to spend my meager wages on an album that only has one good song on it anymore (see above).
November 15th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
What a F**King oke! Impement tecnhology? This means wasting taxpayers money, placing snooping software on university computers. Software that a kidergartener can block with peer guardian, or counless other blocks. Governoer Bredesen is so clueless. I’m glad he is kissing the butts of music row executives, and wasting money. Meantime healthcare is being slashed to millions of the poorest Tennesseans. Im glad he has his spending priorities in order.
November 16th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I think you spoil your argument slightly by the following line: “Behind the bill are the self-serving efforts by the Big 4 to turn American students into cowed consumers of corporate product, and only corporate product; and, to gain control of the distribution of music on the Net.”
This move does not stop students from consuming non-corporate product. Indeed, if they are presently getting corporate product free, and they can’t do so in the future, then this would surely make them more, rather than less, likely to turn to non-corporate product? Most students will surely have some mates who are in a band, and so there will be non-corporate options out there, which will appear more attractive if the corporate products start costing money.