p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Like all of the members of the Big 4 organised music gang, Warner Music is doing its damnedest to figure out ways to milk online music lovers, its latest effort being a little thing called Choruss.

Under it, students would pay Warner $5 a month for their music downloads.

TechDirt’s Mike Masnick (right) was one of, if not the, first to criticise it, saying the Warner Music Choruss licensing scheme amounts to a Bait-And-Switch operation.

Not so, said Jim Griffin, the man charged to put it together. Masnick’s story is “factually incorrect in every respect“.

But Griffin “refused to name a single factual mistake,” Masnick told p2pnet, noting, among other things, “He fails to address the key problems that we outlined: 1. Why is this program even needed when plenty of musicians are coming up with business models that work today and don’t need a new mandatory license (er… ‘covenant not to sue’) plan? 2. Why do we need a new bureaucracy and won’t that divert funds? 3. Will the industry continue to try to shut down file sharing sites? 4. Will the industry continue to push a 3 strikes plan?”

Now Recording Industry vs The People ’s Ray Beckerman has joined in.

Masnick said Choruss isn’t something students will be able to opt out of, he says, quoting Maswnick as explaining, “one of the problems with Choruss is that *users* won’t have a choice. That’s because it’s designed for universities and ISPs to sign up *on behalf* of all of their users. So, individuals won’t even get the chance to say no — which is part of the reason why there needs to be much more focus on what it’s trying to do.”

Now, “There’s a big controversy going on about some plan arch RIAA bad guy Warner Bros has, which it named ‘Choruss’, to peddle its music to college campuses,” Beckerman says, going on:

“Apparently its sales pitch doesn’t conform to the actual terms. See, eg p2pnet.net story.

“Regardless of what the reality is — and experience teaches us that what an RIAA member says is usually false — the answer is simple: those of us who are knowledgeable about what the RIAA does to people should urge colleges, universities, and ISP’s to stay far away from this product carrying the RIAA taint. And we should ask our friends to do so as well.

“So if your college, university, or ISP is being offered something called ‘Choruss,’ please — for the sake of all those who have suffered at the hands of Warner Bros. and its 3 coconspirators — urge them to say ‘No, thank you.’

“We do not want our colleges, universities, and ISPs to become business partners of some of the most unethical corporations on the planet.”

It’s, “also permissible to urge them to say ‘No, thank you, you SOB’s,” Beckerman adds.

Stay tuned.

Jon Newton - p2pnet 

factually incorrect in every respect – TechDirt Choruss story `factually incorrect`, March 19, 2009
TechDirt – Choruss` Music Tax Plan: Bait-And-Switch, March 18, 2009
Recording Industry vs The People - Problem with ‘Choruss’ … not so simple after all. The RIAA scamsters are making their pitch directly to colleges & other ISP’s, March 19, 2009