Obamas dance to RIAA tunes: CORRECTION
p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P | Politics:- Now Barack Obama is in charge, will things be any better for the thousands of innocent American men, women and children who are being attacked by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA?
Reports that he and his wife “danced late into the night after the presidential inauguration” at an RIAA-sponsored event were apparently erroneous.
Earlier, “The ball, one of 10, was dressed up as a charity affair, but with the RIAA, the only charity is the ‘devastated’ corporate music industry,” we said. “Anything else is pure PR.”
“To help fund the ball, which will benefit the anti-hunger organization Feeding America, the RIAA is seeking donations of up $200,000,” said the Washington Post, going on »»»
A solicitation emailed to lobbyists and corporations (which was subsequently forwarded to the Sleuth) listed asking prices of $25,000, $50,000, $75,000, $150,000 and $200,000. The lowest level gets you 10 tickets to the ball and your company’s logo on the invitation while giving the top asking price gets you 120 credentials to the ball, top billing with the RIAA on the invitation and prominent signage at the event.
It’ll be interesting to see which corporations, if any, go for top billing in this brutal economic environment. But the RIAA’s move to team up with a charity organization at least provides some gut-check cover to companies anxious about displays of opulence in such hard times.
As Lamy puts it, the ball is a “charitable event that will raise money for [Feeding America] inaugural night.”
What kind of a message does this send to the millions of ordinary Americans who are potential targets for the RIAA, particularly with RIAA devotee Joe Biden as vice president and and ex-RIAA attack lawyer Tom Perrelli as deputy assistant attorney general?
Doubtless the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) who are, to all intents and purposes, the corporate music industry and effective owners of the various strategically located ‘trade’ groups such as the RIAA, are well pleased with the way things are going.
“My daughter called to tell me that one of the inaugural balls attended by the Obamas was hosted by the RIAA,” says Recording Industry vs The People’s Ray Beckerman.
But in an update, “My previous report, that the RIAA’s ‘inaugural ball’ was attended by the Obamas, appears to have been incorrect,” Beckerman posts, adding:
“Apparently the Obamas attended official balls only, and did not visit lobbyist-run events.
“I guess the RIAA’s calling it an ‘inaugural ball’ was just another attempt to (a) curry favor for its monopolistic practices and/or (b) misstate the facts.”
Washington Post – Rihanna to Perform on Obama’s Inauguration Night?, December 16, 2008
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January 21st, 2009 at 9:30 am
You know, I hate to say this, and hopefully I’m wrong, but I think its gonna be the same old shit as before.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:49 am
Of course it is.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:39 am
When it comes to lobbists, met the new boss…same as the old boss. This is one of the more pressing needs of the country. To remove the corporation’s legal voice and it’s pets from the halls of legislature.
Doing so, would remove a lot of the pet bills, pork barrel, and uncounted billions in wasteful and misdirected spending.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:51 am
Jon, where do I go to sign up so I can make a contribution?
January 21st, 2009 at 10:56 am
Redundant when you think about it. The RIAA & directv causes people to go broke through litigation costs. Then those people need money to live so they might receive the proceeds from the event. There should be a law about suing an innocent person. Something along the lies of knowingly file a lawsuit you know to be false for profit.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:59 am
You people are dreaming if you think things will be better.
Go read this:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133425-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
January 21st, 2009 at 11:12 am
Its awful naivete to think that this new president would turn the country around kick the corporations into touch, reform copyright law to a simple ten or twelve year term across the board and to get rid of all the illegal wiretapping nonsense, stop the unnecessary wars and clean up all the nonsense laws and bills that were put in place by the previous incumbent.
This is not going to happen. He isn’t in charge and never will be.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:19 am
^^ Silly us.
Cheers!
January 21st, 2009 at 11:29 am
Yeh I watched the daily show last night, they showed how the great Obama’s speach yesterday paroted previous Bush speaches.
This generation of hope/change/obama love is going to wake up to politics in a bad way.
January 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
“the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) ”
Hm, where have i read that one already…
Jon, can you please correct the interpunctation(sp?) error you made.
ME(!) looks stupid when I steal your writing and take the “,” behind “EMI (Britain),” too!
You know, according to my grammar teacher since the counting ended there with your usage of the “and” for the last count then you don’t put a seperation “,” behind the last one in the row.
I guess that is called chuzpah that the guy that so blatantly has C+P’ed your sentence tells you to correct it, isn’t it?
January 21st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
re ^ grammer
Ahh grammer, I’ve been told both ways are “the way” in my short life. In the end it all becomes a US/Old Brittish/New Brittish/Canadian/Canadian US/International fight over a few spelling/grammer/both rules.
English .. those who don’t know … demand you do it their way.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Not a bit of wonder the worlds in resession the riaa have peoples money in there accounts haha !!!
January 26th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
It surprises me how many people are surprised that the current administration is owned by the RIAA. Did you really expect things to change? Do you really think it would have been different had McSame been elected? Obama ran on a platform that stresses a willingness to cooperate and compromise with the Republicans and now he is doing just that. Democrat, Republican, there is no big difference. One wants outsourcing, the other wants insourcing. Either way I’m F**ked.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
It.s nice to finally hear the President speak and not cringe like a soft tyranny.