RIAA caught in an(other) outright lie
p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- Bald-faced lies are an essential and integral element of the Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG sue ‘em all marketing campaign.
That’s a given.
But now Ray Beckerman has caught the Big 4’s primary extortion unit, the RIAA, in a Big One.
Yesterday, using the Wall Street Journal as its primary dissemination unit, the RIAA said it was adjusting its approach.
“After years of persecuting and terrorising thousands of innocent families and their children across the United States, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG are trying another way to to force people to use their ‘product’,” said p2pnet, going on, “Their RIAA is, ’set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy,’ says the Wall Street Journal.
“Instead, the RIAA will get ISPs to do its dirty work, getting them to rat-out their customers, using the results to continue the sue ‘em all war from behind the scenes.
” ‘The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003,’ says the story,” going on »»»
Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.
Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider’s customers making music available online for others to take.
Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.
But, “This is little more than a realignment of a policy already being implemented in American universities,” we pointed out. “Administrators and teaching staff are used as corporate copyright cops funded by school fees and state and federal taxpayer disbursements.”
Says Beckerman on his blog, Recording industry vs The People »»»
According to a report on Wired.com, the RIAA spokesman claims that the RIAA has not filed any new lawsuits “for months”; according to the Wall Street Journal report the RIAA stopped filing mass lawsuits “early this fall”; and the Associated Press was apparently told that the RIAA had stopped bringing new lawsuits in August.
Being very familiar with the RIAA’s penchant for “misspeaking”, even when under oath, I investigated the matter a bit, and learned that a large number of suits have been brought by the RIAA quite recently, one as recently as this Monday. Here are just a few:
Atlantic Recording v. Williams 08cv01710 W.D. Pennsylvania 12/15/08
Sony BMG Music v. Linus 08cv14413 S.D. Florida 12/11/08
UMG Recordings v. Gulledge 08-cv-00973-MHT-TFM M.D. Alabama 12/10/08
Warner Bros. Records Kelley 08-cv-02295-CLS N.D. Alabama 12/10/08
Sony BMG Music v. Van Ornum 08-cv-04205-JLH E.D. Arkansas 12/10/08
Interscope Records v. Tabor 08-cv-03068-JLH W.D. Arkansas 12/10/08
BMG Music v. O’Brien 08-cv-02244-HRH D. Arizona 12/10/08
Priority Records v. Easterling 08-cv-08131-PA-JTL C.D. California 12/10/08
UMG Recordings v. Ibarzabal 08-cv-08136-R-SH C.D. California 12/10/08
Interscope Records v. Doe 4 08-cv-01880-JBA D. Connecticut 12/10/08
Arista Records v. Doe 2 08-cv-01874-CFD D. Connecticut 12/10/08
Arista Records v. Doe 3 08-cv-01876-SRU D. Connecticut 12/10/08
UMG Recordings v. Burmeister 08-cv-02295-MPM-DGB C.D. Illinois 12/10/08Here are the most recent cases I found involving multiple John Does, which were filed the week before:
Warner Bros. Records v. Does 1-4 08-cv-01425-HA D. Oregon 12/5/08
UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Does 08-cv-00717-TCK-PJC N.D. Oklahoma 12/5/08
UMG Recordings v. Does 1-3 08-cv-00139-DLB E.D. Kentucky 12/4/08
Stay tuned.
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December 20th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
You know … I think we now know where that Iraqi Information Minister went … he’s now an RIAA PR flack!
December 20th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Internet-service providers that work with the riaa should suffer a mass cancellation of services. What I have read about the methods used
to collect their data is far from solid. The key ( appear to be uploading music illegally) statement just follows what is most likely the truth, they are guessing. So if your ISP turns against you, turn them off! ONE STRIKE YOU OUT
December 20th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I see this as an RIAA plan to shift lawsuits towards the ISP’s.
If an ISP cuts off someone’s service based on flimsy evidence, the ISP is liable for a lawsuit and possibly an investigation by the FCC. The ISP’s only function is to provide a service, NOT police the network. That’s why the DMCA included provisions to protect the ISP.
December 20th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Well, what would it take for your ISP to know that you where engaged in piracy?
The easiest way would be to monitor ports and protocols, but that would only tell them that you where using Gnutilla or Bittorrent on a default port, not what you where downloading. It could be the latest Linux distro or MP3s of the first Edison-Wax-Cylinder-Recordings, right? to know what you where downloading, they would have to do deep packet inspection on most of what passes through their hubs, right? which i understand slows all the data by between 30 and 80% according to the Australians. And you can still beat it with encryption.
So. Question:
Is reducing the speed of the general internet by between 30 and 80% worth it inorder to net a lucrative haul of first-time offenders that don’t have the sense to encrypt their traffic, and likely have relatively small collections pirate swag? Because in my experience, the people that have enough music to fill up a large ipod have all picked up some basic data-smarts and some little tips and tricks on the way.
December 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
THEY LOST!
This is the end of the curent recording industry and their swarm of legal “parasites”!
This is our turn to shoot and we will put them out of their misery permanently.
Some should never have been born and now we neecd to go after the RIAA the four majors and law firms executives in order to return the money they stoll to their victims.
Meanwhile:
CONTINUE THE BOYCOTT: NO CD, NO DOWNLOAD AND NO MOVIES UNTIL THEY ALL DIE!