p2pnet - rss feed: RIAA trail of destruction
p2p news / p2pnet: The Big Four Organized Crime (oops, Music) family, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal, Warner Music and EMI, are suffering under the delusion they’ll be able to continue victimising their own customers with spurious lawsuits, ad infinitum.
They’re wrong. They’re leaving a long trail of destruction - their own destruction.
DarkLanternist has a few thoughts on the subject >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
RIAA shooting itself in the foot and quickly releoading
By DarkLanternist
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) seems to be putting out its best effort to make sure they stomp on the little guy and have the highest slimeball profile possible. I would think that they would have a hard time doing a worse job if they tried. Consider the following evidence:
- Disabled women and single mothers representing themselves in court after being sued by RIAA.
- The Attorney General of New York, Elliot Spitzer is issuing subpoenas after RIAA puts pressure on iTunes for selling songs too cheaply.
- Suing 67 year old grandfather for $600,000 for something a 12 year old did on his computer.
- RIAA praises SONY for putting rootkits on their music CDs that infected tons of consumers opening their computers to attack from the Internet.
- Oregon woman counter sues RIAA under Organised Crime RICO Statutes.
- RIAA staging police raids on store selling unlabeled garage band CDs.
- RIAA going after sites that have song lyrics and tablature? What next? Are phrases going to be outlawed for public use. No kids named ‘Jude’, no storing ‘Toys in the Attic’, electricians can no longer use the words AC/DC? Yes I know this is the MPA doing this, but they are all the little brothers of the RIAA in spirit watching to see what they can get away with.
- RIAA going after all gadgets that can play music to make sure they are locked down.
- RIAA now taking on whole countries. When NASA beams music into space to the astronauts for wakeup calls, is that illegal because some alien culture may intercept the transmission a few millenia from now?
- Coutney Love explaining in succinct detail why the record labels are greedy asses. And their rather lame response.
- Follow the money blurb about RIAA lawyer salaries that probably explains why they don’t care that they are being cast as the anti-christ incarnate.
After reading through some of those you’ve got to ask what’s next? Drowning puppies that happen to be sitting near a computer that has P2P software installed? They had better take a step back pretty soon or they are going to be spending more and more of those millions on defending themselves against counter suits instead of their salaries.
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.
January 3rd, 2006 at 8:10 am
I clicked on the Courtney Love link, and highly recommend that everyone does the same. My estimation of this artist reached unparalleled heights. And the information she provides is eye-opening to many of us who are not familiar with the way things work in that industry.
What I found most refreshing was her definition of art and the artist. Personally, I listen almost exclusively to the great classics (symphony, opera, ballet, concerto, instrumental soloist); therefore a lot of what she said was lost on me; but not the human aspect of her artistry and her dedication to that art. In fact, she reminded me of a line from a great Italian Opera, Adriana Lecouvreur, where the lead soprano sings a tremendously moving and sumptuous rhapsody to her own art – in Italian, the words are: Io son l’umile ancella; in English: I am the humble handmaiden (of my art).
Bravo, Courtney! Bravissimo!