‘We won’t sue ‘em all’ ploy Cuomo’s idea: RIAA
p2pnet news view RIAA | P2P:- New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, and not Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, is the author of the RIAA’s new we won’t sue ‘em all ploy.
We knew Cuomo is employed as front man for the new RIAA tactic, but we weren’t aware he’d actually originated it.
However, “During this past summer, we began discussions with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who suggested that now was the time to take our practice of last resort – lawsuits – and replace that form of deterrence with productive engagement by the ISP community in the form of graduated response programs,” The Flat Hat, the College of William and Mary’s student newspaper, has RIAA boss Mitch Bainwol flatly stating.
He’s mistaken in calling the RIAA sue ‘em all campaign a practice of last resort, of course. The law suits, launched in 2003, were, and still are, the corporate music industry’s weapons of first resort.
The Flat Hat post refers to the RIAA claim that ISPs are ready and willing to take action against their own customers on behalf of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG.
“AT&T and Comcast, two of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, are expected to be among a group of ISPs that will cooperate with the music industry in battling illegal file sharing, says CNET News, quoting “three sources close to the companies”.
The RIAA last month used the Wall Street Journal to launch the claim that it’d, “enlisted the help of ISPs as part of a new antipiracy campaign,” declining to, “identify which ISPs or how many”.
However, Cox is now firmly on board and if CNet is correct, AT&T and Comcast soon will be, although, “It’s important to note that none of the half dozen or so ISPs involved has signed agreements,” says CNet.
“The companies are ’skittish’ about negative press and could still back out, said the sources.”
Skittish, eh? One has an image of a four or five colts prancing about nervously when in fact the ISPs are hoary old nags who see their customers as dupes to be manipulated rather than customers to be valued.
Meanwhile, The Flat Hat states unequivocally, “research shows that the downloading of illegal music is a major concern for the United States economy as a whole,” citing a ’study’ from the Institute for Policy Innovation which, “found that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion in U.S. economic losses every year and is accountable for approximately 71,060 lost jobs in the United States”.
However, the IPI is very far from being reliable or credible when it comes to anything on anything related to Hollywood or the Big 4 record labels, and certainly shouldn’t be quoted without considerable qualification.
Stay tuned.
we won’t sue ‘em all – RIAA claims of ISP support: equine excreta, January 6, 2009
employed as front man – New York AG Andrew Cuomo: RIAA coordinator, December 24, 2008
The Flat Hat – RIAA no longer suing students, January 30, 2009
CNET News – AT&T, Comcast may help RIAA foil piracy, January 28, 2009
firmly on board – Cox touts traffic throttling scheme, January 28, 2009
reliable or credible – Statistics, the RIAA and media-backed flim-flam, December 28, 2008
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