p2pnet - rss feed: How low can the RIAA go?
p2p news / p2pnet: “I have NO words to describe the RIAA’s latest actions. Targeting children, single mothers, and other people who have no clue what they did wrong.”
So says Lennart on Holland’s Torrentfreak, going on:
“The RIAA precisely selects its prey, the less money, the better. Everything that’s vulnerable is perfect. Completely ignorant to the fact that peoples lives are completely RUINED.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating piracy here, I just want people to know that the RIAA is acting totally out of line here. Come on, how low can they get?
“Most victims have absolutely NO clue, hardly know how a computer works, have NO money to fight back, and have NO life left.”
Lennart then quotes Jim Trojan, a Pennsylvania father who’s being nailed by the Big Four Organized Music cartel. Jim’s email is on lawyer Ray Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People blog.
We also have a post from Trojan.
Meanwhile, Torrentfreak also carries an appeal for Patti Santangelo, the New York mother’s who’s taking on the multi-billion-dollar Big Four, Warner Music, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal and EMI, wholly and solely supported by p2pnet readers.
So far, well-wishers and supporter have poured an amazing $11,769.76 (as of 1:04 Pacific) into the Patti Santangelo Fight Goliath fund.
Patti and two of her children - Yes, the RIAA likes going after kids - have just been interrogated by Big Four lawyers - and discovery is slated for May 5. Some time after that, the trial will start.
So a lot more money will be needed.
Why is p2pnet, a Canadian site, worried about an American family?
The RIAA’s bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign is portrayed by the mainstream media as a US incident. However, it’s merely a component in the carefully orchestrated world-wide scheme to use local laws and government and police authorities to blackmail ‘consumers’ into buying high-priced, low-quality Big Four ‘product’.
What’s happening in America can happen anywhere, and it will, if the labels have their way as they suborn governments and law enforcement agencies.
We don’t want to see anyone else, anywhere else, subjected to the same brutal Big Four ’sales’ tactics.
By helping Patti to a victory, you’ll be helping all the other existing and potential Big Music victims around the world.
And if you don’t want to use PayPal, snail-mail your contribution to:
Patti Santangelo
C/O PO Box 274
Hartsdale
New York 10530-0274
If you’re a site owner and you’d be willing to display a Fight Goliath button, go here.
And go here for an update on contributions.
Cheers! And thanks ….
Also See:
Torrentfreak - Help To Fight The RIAA, April 14, 2006
post from Trojan - Organized Music strikes again, April 14, 2006
April 15th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Should this be May 5? March has come and gone;)
April 15th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Fixed. Thanks.
April 15th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
If you break the law, and know you are doing so (repeatedly I’d wager), then I have no sympathy for you. Live by the sword, die by the sword. You reap what you sow. As my mother liked to often say; you make your bed, you lie in it. Too bad, so sad. Nobody to blame but yourself, and if your going to rant, rave, and very likely cry, better do so while looking in the mirror. You are a criminal in denial. Then again, aren’t you all? Go right on ahead, keep saying you’re innocent. You may have convinced yourself, it’s very easy to do after all. However, others will never be quite so easily deluded and you’re just wasting your time by trying to delay the innevitable.
If you didn’t know you were breaking the law, well then, in that case ignorance is certainly no excuse. I don’t know of many cases, if any, that were won using the argument of ignorance. You would have to have a really understanding judge/jury that also happened to be in a good mood that day, that is for sure. Certainly didn’t help me with my last moving violation though, a fine that cost me a small fortune by the way, and that’s despite the fact that I have a squeaky clean record and always abide by the law. Unfair? You bet. Life will always be unfair though. Get used to it and stop whining like a baby.
Now the people I do feel sorry for are the ones getting nailed whom are actually innocent. For example, tracking down a person using an IP address, and a dynamic address most likely too, is just one extremely flimsy bit of evidence being used these days and that is really sad to see. But have no fear because if you are truly innocent, then this will certainly be borne out during a trial, and you then at the end usually have the recourse to make the plaintiff pay in one way or another. Sucks having your life turned upside down, but it’s better than nothing. It’s your chance to be just like them and strike back. Revenge!
So, are organizations like the RIAA, whom are simply trying to protect (and rightfully so) the intellectual property rights of their corporate members and the artists they have contracts with, evil? Hell yeah! Corporate greed is the very definition of evil in my book. Well, one of them anyways. But the law is the law and they have the right to pursue all avenuses legally available to them to discover whether those laws have actually been broken or not. That is how the legal system works. Always has, always will. After all, if things were actually fair and truly righteous, it would be called a justice system instead, wouldn’t it. And this is just one small part of the package you accept by being a citizen of the USA or other free country, to follow the law and do your civic duty when asked of you. I mean, you didn’t think your rights and freedoms were actually free now, did you? If so then your more ignorant than I thought, and it’s no wonder you’re in trouble with the law.
Welcome to our little imperfect world, filled with imperfect people and an imperfect system of government and law. The harder you try to grasp at making everything perfect, the less perfect it actually becomes. Hope? Sure you can hope, but the darker side of human nature will always triumph 100% of the time in the end. Life sucks, there is simply no way around it. Perhaps you might be interested in, and be better off with, this website:
http://www.a1b2c3.com/suilodge/metfor1.htm
April 15th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Enough said.
Cheers!
April 16th, 2006 at 12:23 am
Jon,
There may be legitimate arguments for balanced copyright rights but you weaken your argument tremendously by so seriously missing points of fact. Lennart from Torrentfreak says that the RIAA selects its prey. Over and over again I have to keep correcting you about the way the process works.
The RIAA was barred early on by the courts from having the identity info and details about P2P suspects without going through a probably cause and subpeona procedure. So from the RIAA perspective it is a totally blind process- they don’t know who they are “getting”. In all probability the RIAA would love to target people other than children or sob story cases because of the bad PR.
Also, please don’t attack the other poster who submitted a thought out response. I don’t work for the RIAA just because I see merit in part of their argument and part of your argument.
Thanks and keep up the debate!
April 16th, 2006 at 5:03 am
—Over and over again I have to keep correcting you about the way the process works—
You do?
I really enjoy these muffled mumblings from anonymous posters. Keep up the good work ; )
Cheers! And thanks …
April 17th, 2006 at 3:26 am
“Also, please don’t attack the other poster who submitted a thought out response.”
A thought out response? I drop by this site on a daily basis and not once have I read a pro industry troll or shill provide irrefutable facts. And again NO, a download OR upload does NOT equal a lost sale and is NOT criminal.
The RIAA might of won the PR battle had it started thinking outside the propaganda box for the slightest second.
April 17th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Work from home!!! Flexible hours!!! If you have a computer and internet connection the RIAA needs you! No thought process required, just go to p2p sites(we supply urls) and post pro RIAA messages(again, no thought required, we will supply them to you) It you are looking for a great way to start your day, come work for the RIAA!!!
April 18th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
“If you didn’t know you were breaking the law, well then, in that case ignorance is certainly no excuse.”
Pardon me, but you need a primer.
You are living in the era when companies had many rules that were verbally explained to employees, some of which if violated could get an employee fired. And employees were fired, even though they no longer remebered the rules they had been told.
Well, that is no longer legal (in the USA) for obvious reasons. It was unfair. So now you have to give employees an employee manua that clearly specify the company rules and the consequences of breaking them.
Now, the laws in the books that anyone may unknowingly violate are many thousand time as many as workers rules in a company employee manual. So, if you hold the people responsible for complying with all laws, many of which are in dispute among lawyers, judges and jurisdictions (as are practically all copyright related laws and jurisprudence) then the unfairness if far greater. Actually it is totally unfair.
Pardon me, but you are obsolete and lack all understanding of what is just and fair. I am sure you are repeating what you have heard without any thinking. Sorry to tell you this but you and those judges and lawyers and commoners that think like you are failing to think.
You and others like you should realize that as legislators write more and more laws the percentage of laws that the people can know and remember (if you don’t remeber a law, it doesn’t exist) is reduced. For example, some people cannot remeber more than X number of rules when performing a task. If you add another one and exceed the X number, then another rule may then be forgotten or not followerd properly. X depends on many factors, sch as intelligence, education, practice, complexity. The point is each person is different and the legal system must accomodate everyone.
Please come into the new millenium. Get off the cloud.
Ignorance is no excuse. It is a reason.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
April 19th, 2006 at 2:16 am
If Hitler had finished the job there wouldn’t be any RIAA left.
April 26th, 2006 at 2:05 am
Hey, don’t lump me in with those pricks! Devil’s advocate, well maybe. I’m just being realistic. Everyone else is in denial and living in a fantasy world I guess.
Some facts that may surprise you. I have tons of pirated software and music for what it’s worth. Actually I think the quantity of pirated music I have finally surpassed my actual paid-for collection recently. In fact I have about 100 lossless albums waiting for me right now that need organizing, tagging, and what not. I took a break and it sure piles up fast. I try to use good free software when I can, particularly the open source stuff, but it’s sometimes hard to avoid certain programs which are the industry standard (like Photoshop for example). I also occasionally download movies, but it takes so damn long despite having a really high speed connection, and the quality always sucks in the end. I tend to rent DVD’s instead, which I copy if we don’t have enough time to watch them all. The wife and I rent too many occasionally and I think this is actually fair since we paid for at least one viewing. I do buy the really good titles to add to our collection. I, like most folks here I’m sure, like getting everything for free and sticking it to the man even though it does quite clearly mean breaking laws. Oh, I also often download shows too, particularly those that don’t play in our area or are played much later (like shows on HBO and The SciFi Network).
Despite all this, I know what I’m doing is wrong and so I try to get rid of as much of it all as possible when not needed anymore. After all, no need giving “them” extra fuel to burn me with, right? Generally it’s the movies and TV shows that get deleted after watching. Outdated software gets deleted as well, as well as programs that I’ve managed to find a good free replacement for which is getting easier every day thanks to the open source movement. Music I keep.
The fact is that I’m not deluding myself like so many others do, which only makes them look pretty damn stupid in my eyes. I mean, sharing with friends and family, well I guess I don’t see a problem with that, but that’s not what most people are doing. This site is about P2P after all. I know what I am doing is illegal where I live and may carry severe penalties if I am ever caught. So far so good. You won’t convince me that in this day and age most folks don’t know that what they are doing is wrong according to the law though. Of course I’ll do what I can to fight back if I’m ever caught. Who in their right mind wouldn’t? But come on, playing the ignorance card? I believe the human race as a whole is pretty damn stupid most days, but even so good luck with that defense. Play with fire enough and you WILL get burnt eventually. Nobody is THAT stupid thank you very much.
I do kind of feel sorry for those we actually are hurting out there too, and I’m sure there are more than a few. Usually it’s the pirated software from small time companies made up of a few guys just trying to scratch by in life like everyone else. Getting your desires fulfilled for free is a lot like an addiction though, and this is why we all find it so easy to turn a blind eye in the end I’d wager. Very few can resist temptation when it’s placed right in front of them. I’m sure it also doesn’t help that nobody seems to care about anybody else anymore. Sigh, no wonder the world is all going to hell at such a rapid pace. We’re all on a sinking ship (literally if you listen to the climatologists) and it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. What was it Red was always saying on That 70’s Show? Oh yeah. Dumbass!