p2p news / p2pnet: It seems the mainstream media not totally controlled by the entertainment industry are finally waking up to the serious problems with the Big Four Organized Music cartel and its bizarre marketing scheme.

The Big Four are using their RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to try to blackmail customers into buying over-priced, poor quality ‘product’.

Patti Santangelo, the New York mum who’s single-handedly taking on the four, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music an EMI, has now told her story on most of the major US networks including NBC’s Today Show, the CBS Early Show, Fox TV, CNN and MSNBC.

We haven’t seen any of the shows, but according to a CBS report, Kerry (Cary) Sherman, who last year pulled down $1.13 million as the RIAA’s chief truth adjustment specialist, is still trotting out the same disingenuous ‘What us?’ BS. For example, he claims file sharers are “decimating” his bosses, the multi-billion-dollar Big Four record labels so, Gosh, fellas, what else can we do but sue everyone in sight, including children?

Below are clips from the CBS show with CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith asking the questions.

Santangelo is taking a stand. She says she will keep up her fight for “as long as it takes.”

“I’d like to try. There are children being sued,” she said. “There’s 12-year-olds being sued and 14-year-olds being sued for doing something they don’t understand.”

Kerry Sherman is president of the Recording Industry Association of America, which filed the lawsuit.

Do blanket lawsuits like this one seem fair? Is it the right way to go after the problem of illegal file sharing?

“Well, it’s a way that is actually proven very effective,” he said. “I understand Ms. Santangelo looks at this from her unique perspective as a defendant. She has to understand that there are tens of thousands of other people who are engaging in this activity, and they are decimating the music industry collectively. Half the songwriters in Nashville don’t have their jobs from just five years ago. Their royalties are down. Artists can’t get signed to label rosters anymore.”

Sherman’s quote has nothing to do with file sharing. But it makes great TV and presented completely out of context, like this, gives the false impression that file sharers are responsible for Nashville’s woes and, by implication, the woes of similar music-based towns and cities.

“Is illegal downloading of music still an ongoing problem?” Smith asks Sherman. “I thought a lot of these sites were shut down and most people were using, are you know, systems where you actually pay your money and subscribe and pull it down off the Internet.”

Sherman’s response?

“The good news is - and it’s largely because of this enforcement campaign - that users of peer-to-peer services have gotten the message that it’s illegal and a lot of them have migrated over to iTunes, Rhapsody, the new Napster and Wal-Mart.”

But this isn’t even spin-doctoring. It’s an outright lie. None of these corporate online outlets are prospering. To the contrary, millions of people around the world who, totally disgusted by the labels’ flagrant overcharging for low quality mp3 digital music tracks worth only a few cents, are refusing to have anything to do with iTunes, RealNetworks, Sony Connect, Napster, Wal-Mart or the handful of other music download and rental sites backed, supported and supplied by the Big Four and the hundreds of labels they own.

Edgar Bronfman jr, the Canadian who runs Warner Music, claims the, “five-year legal fight against unauthorized downloading or sharing of songs is starting to pay off after thousands of music fans were sued and file-sharing companies such as Grokster Inc. were shut down”

In fact, at the least, 51 million people in America alone currently share music with each other via the p2p networks, and the number is going up, not down. In the US in November, 2004, on average, 5,445,275 people were simultaneously logged onto one or more of the p2p networks at any one time, says p2p research firm BigChampagne. By November this year, the number had risen to 6,530,408.

But the sue ‘em all campaign isn’t confined to America. Music lovers around the world are also being persecuted by Big Four enforcement organizations identical to the RIAA and which, like the RIAA, claim their terror tactics are having a marked effect. However, this, too, is a complete distortion of reality,

Globally, the number of people sharing at any given moment in November, 2003, was 4,392,816. By November, 2004, it had reached 7,452,184 and by this November, the figure was 9,168,812.

If the mainstream media were to do their jobs properly, they’d be asking the likes of Sherman to explain why statistics are proving that file sharing is going up, not down. Why his masters are being subpoenaed themselves – for price fixing? Why they’re having to pay millions in back royalties? Why they’ve been found guilty of bribery and a whole host of other charges, with more to come?

Meanwhile, Santangelo’s TV appearances are a great start. But that’s all they are. A start. Santangelo isn’t the only victim. Far from it.What, for example, about Cecilia Gonzalez? Or Brittany Chan, a 14-year-old scgoolgirl? Or Tanya Andersen, a disabled mother living on a disability pension? They, too, have also been singled out by the cartel for special treatment.

When the mainstream media do their research and start asking the right questions instead of allowing Sherman, et al, to scam them, they’ll get the story right

Meanwhile, the members of the Big Four Organized Music cartel won’t back off until they’re forcefully made to realize that they depend on you, not the other way around.

All the Shermans in the world won’t help them if you’re not buying their ‘product’.

Patti Santangelo’s stand is vitally impoprtant not only because she’s the first person to refuse to cave in to the Big Four’, but also because it’ll be the first time they’ll have to justify their wild excesses to a jury not of their peers, but of Santagelo’s.

We’re in the midst of organizing a fund raising campaign to help Patti . We’re waiting for a PayPal details but for now, if you’d like to contribute, you can send your donation to:

Patricia Santangelo
c/o Ray Beckerman
Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP
99 Park Ave (16th Fl)
New York, NY 10016

And please also email jon@fightgoliath.com with the amount you sent and your general location and country. We want to keep a running total of contributions. And if you’d like your name to on the master list of donations, include that too : )

The Patti Angelo Fight Goliath site will be online shortly.

Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.

Also See:
truth adjustment specialist - Millions spent on p2p battles, Ocober 17, 2005
CBS Early Show - Mom Fights Recording Industry, December 27, 2005

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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