Yo Ho Ho and the RIAA
p2p news / p2pnet: “Old as the Barbary Coast, New as the Internet – No black flags with skull and crossbones, no cutlasses, cannons, or daggers identify today’s pirates. You can’t see them coming; there’s no warning shot across your bow. Yet rest assured the pirates are out there because today there is plenty of gold (and platinum and diamonds) to be had. Today’s pirates operate not on the high seas but on the Internet, in illegal CD factories, distribution centers, and on the street. The pirate’s credo is still the same – why pay for it when it’s so easy to steal?”
So blusters the RIAA and, “This kind of archaic thinking is preventing the RIAA from changing with the times,” says Caelan MacTavish in Portland State University’s The Daily Vanguard. “Their refusal to adapt to new technology, and to create new and innovative ways to profit from it, is doomed to fail.”
The RIAA is expounding on file sharing, ignoring the facts that nothing has been stolen, no money has changed hands, no sales have been lost and no ‘piracy’ is involved.
But it looks good in biased, and virtually uncontested, mainstream media reports and headlines —— which is, of course, the name of the game.
However, “The RIAA is completely ignoring the benefits of increased, free media propagation,” says MacTavish. “If they were interested in more than bottom-line profits, they would see the advantages of peer-to-peer file sharing.
“On a P2P (peer-to-peer) network, I downloaded “The Hulk” and saw what all the reviews had said: it was long and plodding, and Eric Bana was unable to act his way out of a wet sock. But some of the directing techniques used by Ang Lee I found really remarkable. Based on this exposure to his work, I became interested in him as a director. When I came across a reference to another of his films, “Ride with the Devil,” I checked it out from a video store. I spent money I otherwise would not have, because of my swarthy status as a pirate. The big FBI warning at the beginning of every movie states that personal use of the film is acceptable. If you show a movie to make money off of it, then you are breaking the law. But watching it, selling the tape to a used resale store, or buying an old videotape are all acceptable methods of media transmission. Downloading a movie is functionally no more different than letting someone borrow your tape.
“The RIAA needs to work with the tendency of consumers, instead of against them. Our tendency is to spend money on what we like, and get whatever we can for free. After making a bundle at the box office, or during a musician’s tour, the media will be disseminated over the internet. It is inevitable. Instead of asking, how can we stop this, they should ask, how can this make us more money?”
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
blusters the RIAA – Anti-Piracy
The Daily Vanguard – The RIAA shouldn’t stop ‘piracy’, October 26, 2005
October 26th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
“Yet rest assured the pirates are out there because today there is plenty of gold (and platinum and diamonds) to be had.”
You sure about that? Seems like it’s mostly a whole lot of wooden coins and lead with a coating of gold paint and glitter to me. The only way to know the difference between this and real treasure is to take a closer look for ourselves.
“Downloading a movie is functionally no more different than letting someone borrow your tape.”
The problem is that this is not quite true. It’s more like making a copy of a video tape to give to a friend. In the case of the internet, a million copies to give to a million friends. Your friend(s) gets theirs, and you keep yours, all the for the cost of one single copy. Clearly this is copyright infringement. Does it actually hurt them, or does it truly balance itself out with people buying stuff they might not have had they never discovered it via downloading? We like to justify downloading by thinking this, in order to make ourselves feel better about doing it, but I know I don’t buy a whole heck of a lot when I can just download something for free.
The simple fact, as much as we hate them, is that the industry just can’t turn a blind eye. They can’t turn around and say everything is fine, go ahead and copy anything you want and as much as you want. That would be, quite simply, insane. I have no sympathy for them of course, but I do understand that they’re between a rock and a hard place. They can’t win no matter what they chose to do at this point. This is why going to such extremes, such as suing current and potential customers, is for them justified. They feel they have nothing to lose, but we know that is not entirely true now, don’t we?
October 26th, 2005 at 9:06 pm
They have nothing to lose?
They have already lost me as a customer. The lack of varience and the absolute greed that these cartels function at is amazing to me. I refuse to help them by funding financial terrorism. This isn’t negotiable. They can demand all they want, what they can not do is make me spend my money on their products. I, the customer, have a choice.
I don’t like their terms of use, I don’t like the materials being put out, I don’t like their business methods.
I’m not the only one feeling this way. See it all the time here in responces. If the RIAA thinks that sueing the customer is the answer, I got news. It is a sure way to sue ones self right out of business when done on a mass scale. Certainly no proof is evidently needed in the courts as to whether an infringement case has enough evidence to present. At present it appears that only a charge of “we believe” is adequate to draw you into the snare. How many of these “customers” you think will ever return to buy? How many of their close friends are going to continue to buy after seeing what it did to their freinds lives? This business of sueing customers will wind up with a mass resentment by the very ones they depend on to keep them alive. So be it.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:33 am
“I don’t like their terms of use, I don’t like the materials being put out, I don’t like their business methods.”
I totally agree with you, especially regarding terms of use and business methods, but I think the one about not liking the materials being put out is a bunch of bull, and is an overused excuse by file swappers. I mean, yeah a lot of it really is crap. No doubt about that. I’ve certainly noticed that ideas are getting rehashed more and more often these days as well, and this irks me the most probably. But I bet more often than not most so called “pirates” (copyright infringers) still download the stuff they consider crap, and keep it too. The bottom line is that people just can’t resist free stuff, even if it is technically illegal, or at the very least, immoral. It’s just human nature, that’s all, and saying the stuff is crap is just a way of making ourselves feel justified and righteous about doing it. Don’t bother arguing because nobody will ever convince me otherwise. It’s like a white lie. Nobody really gets hurt, right? Wrong.
“If the RIAA thinks that sueing the customer is the answer, I got news. It is a sure way to sue ones self right out of business when done on a mass scale.”
That may be true. Only time will actually tell, certainly not someones opinion whom is on either side of the fence. I suppose the industry does indeed have a choice as that’s something that can’t really ever be taken away by anyone, but what else do you propose? Give it all away for free? They’re job is middlemen after all, and they’re like any other business. They want to survive and turn a profit no matter what, even when it’s likely not in the cards for them to do so. No matter how justified you may feel, file swappers are technically breaking the law. Naturally the industry feels something has to be done about it, and rightly so. I don’t agree with the actions they’ve choosen either, and would rather see them change their business model, but I think it may be too late for that and they know it. The damage is done. Of course, your average joe isn’t willing to live without the entertainment he or she has grown up with and has become dependent on, so even if a few of us continue with our so called revolt, it may not change much in the end and the industry may yet survive. Personally I think it’s just a whole lot of posturing on our parts. For example, while I try to avoid giving them money when possible, I just can’t help it when it comes to something good I actually want to see or hear. Most recently it was Sereneity (yep, fan of the TV show), and I didn’t really see a problem with paying for something I consider to be of really good quality like this. Though it was indeed a bit on the expensive side, the wife and I had a really good time. Anyways, whatever happens, the internet was certainly a Pandora’s box for the industry, and it can’t be closed short of getting rid of the internet altogether. That’s never going to happen of course. Maybe in a police state it might, but that’s still a ways off yet for you American’s (I hope, I’m Canadian by the way).
“How many of these “customers” you think will ever return to buy?”
Most of them, because as I said your average joe can’t/won’t live without the entertainment they’ve become attached to. Especially my generation (my parents were baby boomers). I don’t know about you, but after my third speeding ticket, which cost and arm and a leg, I had enough and stopped speeding lol. When I sat down and did a risk versus reward analysis, it was clear there is no point to speeding at all. That was all when I was a lot younger of course.
I used to praise the police around here for the hard job they have, and grateful we have such a thing as law enforcement to protect us. But after the last ticket I got from an RCMP officer, which was only because of a new law that had come into effect that I didn’t know about (since I don’t drive or watch television as much these days), I don’t have quite as much respect for them anymore. I explained it to him but he just wouldn’t believe me, even though I was being as sincere as humanly possible. I could have fought it in court I suppose, but why bother? I doubt I would have won despite the fact that I felt it was all very unfair. I am a law abiding citizen after all, or at list consider myself one as most people probably do. I let it go, life goes on.
See, it’s easier to just give in sometimes, and this was one of those times. I knew the law just wasn’t on my side. How many people out there do you think feel the same way? A lot I’d wager, but many risk swapping pirated stuff anyways as the numbers show. They have all have a choice too you know, and they choose to knowingly break the law. So why should I feel sorry for them if they’re sued? As long as it isn’t me on the receiving end, I honestly don’t care any more than I care about the RIAA or MPAA.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:52 am
I couldn’t have expressed it better myself. You hit it on the head. I feel just as you do. Heck, I’m starting to make movies of my own… (not X-rated).
Since I’m an up-and-coming director/producer you might actually see one of my movies. I know I will have difficulty getting it to theatres, but there are many independent theatres. It is just that negotiating with each of them individually will be time consuming. I’m going to release an EXTEND PREVIEW (i.e. about 20-30 minutes of the movie/trailer) on P2P (bittorrent)… whatever method….
cheers dudes>>>>
October 27th, 2005 at 5:55 am
RIAA & MPAA produce crap!!!!
If you’ve seen what OTHER COUNTRIES produce…. you’ll understand!!! For example, other countries don’t fill their media with (1) propaganda to the hilt, (2) interesting and REALISTIC stories, and (3) no excessive commercials….
Check out what other countries produce. It’ll be REFRESHING dude!!!
October 27th, 2005 at 5:56 am
RIAA & MPAA produce crap!!!!
If you’ve seen what OTHER COUNTRIES produce…. you’ll understand!!! For example, other countries don’t fill their media with (1) propaganda to the hilt, (2) un-interesting and un-REALISTIC stories, and (3) no excessive commercials….
Check out what other countries produce. It’ll be REFRESHING dude!!!
October 27th, 2005 at 8:02 am
Hi again, I am the one that replied to your original post.
I can not speak for others, except for the comments I read in different far flung corners of the interent. What i can do is speak with authority of what I do.
I dislike their new material. I don’t care for it. That’s very true. I don’t download it, I don’t listen to it, I don’t seek concerts that feature new stuff. Mostly I am far more interested in the themes that the group “Greatest Hits” puts out. However, I am not interested enough to buy it. I find that after 30 years of listening to it, I have already purchased what I am interested in. It is all DRM free. Certainly an album of greatest hits might have a great arrangement that isn’t an original album. Since I already have those, they don’t interest me. If I like that particular arrangement better than the originals, I can very easily mix my own. Mixing my own, for my own personal use doesn’t cost more than the cost of a blank. It certainly has better quality than those now sold on line under DRM at “near cd quality”.
But this isn’t just about music either, in my life. Media has reached the same level of disinterest. While I still have a tv, I don’t possess an antenna hooked to it. I have cable access but it isn’t active. I have a satellite dish and reciever. It too, isn’t active. There is very little that interests me in the programming. So little that what is of interest is so rare as to not be worth paying for it. Rerun city has taken over broadcasting. Mindless entertainment isn’t for me. That seems to be the theme of todays broadcasting companies. I was very serious when I said that I don’t and won’t support them. Originality has been lacking in Hollydud forever. Remakes of remakes and revisits to comic books where one finishes watching a movie and realising they put more time into the blurb about the movie to make it sound interesting than they put into the plot leaves me feeling ripped off. I long ago quit going to the theater for this very reason. In that, I do echo your estimation but I also live by this. That is no boast, just reality.
“They’re job is middlemen after all, and they’re like any other business.”
The problem on my part is that they aren’t offering something I want. They can middlemen all they want but without something of interest, they have lost this customer. The main problem with being the middlemen is the same problem the buggy whip makers had when automobiles came out. The product wasn’t needed anymore. Charging more for what is already an undesirable product in my view is cool. It ensures that folks will buy less of what they offer, not more. In the final end, economics is what the business is interested in.
I used to listen to a lot of radio. That was pretty much poisoned by payolla. Those radio stations still today have replay as the main theme. If you missed a song, wait an hour and it will play again. I remember in my younger days, folks were leaving the AM for FM. I was no exception. Only what I went to might not have been what others went to. I loved the underground broadcasts done by colleges and unis. There you found not only new stuff that might peek your interest but the less played stuff. Certainly replay was not part of the fare.
Yeah, I got one of those tickets one time. Just the same sort of circumstances. Speeding. Only I had two drunk passengers that had come to my house to ask me to drive them home as they weren’t able. I was stone cold sober. Guess who got the free ride to the local jail house to test for being under the influance? The machine would not register alcohol in my breath because I am not a drinker (I still have a beer from a six pack in my fridge from 3 years ago.) The others were used one at a time in recipes.
Still those words of disagreeing with the materials, terms, and methods were truely how I feel and the way I live.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
less than 5 months after theatrical release, the much-anticipated and ultimately cinematic failure “batman begins” is now on dvd.
i took a look in a shop yesterday and saw 2 versions available. i thought they might be somehow different. but they aren’t. one is in a cardboard box, the other is in a metal tin. the contents are exactly the same – 2 dvds with all the same extras.
but the covers are different.
and so is the price. the metal-tinned one costs (where i live) approximately one-third more than the cardboard-boxed one. why? there is absolutely no need for this waste in money and production, especially for a crappy film.
the people responsible for harry potter 3 – another carppy film – at least had some sense. rather than wasting money on a fancy box, it was released in a simple plastic case.
in both films, there are 2 dvds with all the extras. that’s all people want – aside from a dvd that actually worth buying, which both aren’t.
this is also one reason why people don’t want to spend their hard-earned on crap. fancy packaging doesn’t make the film better.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
that’s ‘hear hear’ <snigger>
October 28th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
“As long as it isn’t me on the receiving end, I honestly don’t care any more than I care about the RIAA or MPAA.”
Ah, but you care enough to blather on and on about all this I see. I think you SHOULD have fought that ticket in court. You certainly have the moral highgrounding skills to talk a judge to death!
October 29th, 2005 at 2:26 am
“snigger” is slang for placing yourself in a position of supposed superiority. Be careful – that can come back to bite you.
October 29th, 2005 at 2:49 am
I’m about as moral as the next guy lol. Honestly, what I’m most sick of is file swappers trying to make other people believe that what they are doing isn’t really wrong. Justified perhaps, depending on the circumstances, but never morally or legally right. I’m not quite that deluded though, and I’m not afraid to say it. This was the original point I was trying to get across, but I’m on pain killers for a medical condition and my thiking isn’t always that clear, so I do tend to ramble as you have already noticed, hehe. If you’re wondering, I download stuff all the time actually. Mostly music and software. I use the Bittorrent, eMule, and the Gnutella networks primarily. I grew up using “pirated” stuff since the Apple II+ days actually, and I doubt I could stop even if I wanted to. I do try to limit the stuff I keep to only what I really need though, since I am more than a little bit paranoid these days. However I just don’t see the point in paying $1000 or more for a program I may only use a few times, for example. There is the law, and then there is what is fair. The two rarely see eye to eye unfortunately, but nevertheless this is why I feel some what justified. Make no mistake though, I haven’t convinced myself that what I’m doing is right or legal, nor do I try to convince others. Everyone else seems to try though, and some have obviously succeeded. Whatever it takes to make yourself feel better I guess.
October 30th, 2005 at 1:57 am
Good article