Derwood

From Yahoo News:

Recording Industry to Sue Internet Song Swappers
2 hours, 13 minutes ago Add Technology - Internet Report to My Yahoo!


By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A recording-industry trade group said on Wednesday it plans to sue hundreds of individuals who illegally distribute copyrighted songs over the Internet, expanding its anti-piracy fight into millions of homes.


The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) said it hopes to curb illegal song downloading by tracking down the heaviest users of popular "peer to peer" services like Kazaa and suing them for thousands of dollars in damages.


"We're going to begin taking names and preparing lawsuits against peer-to-peer network users who are illegally making available a substantial number of music files to millions of other computer users," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a conference call.


The RIAA believes the popular peer-to-peer services, which allow users to copy music, movies and other files from each others' hard drives, are partly responsible for a decline in CD sales, and has aggressively sought to shut them down.


But until now the industry has shied away from directly suing users, opting instead to send them online warnings and clutter up the networks with dummy files.


Some advocates have argued the networks provide a harmless way for music fans to discover new artists, but Sherman and other music-industry figures likened them to shoplifters who steal groceries and other tangible goods.


A recent court ruling makes it easier to track down copyright violators through their Internet providers, and Sherman said investigators would begin to track down hundreds of users who make their digital-music collections available for copying. Lawsuits asking for statutory damages of $150,000 per count will likely be filed in six to eight weeks, he said.


The industry will not initially target those who do not allow others to copy their music collections, he said. Music fans who wish to avoid legal action should change the settings on their peer-to-peer software to block access to their hard drives, or uninstall the software completely, he said.


The RIAA has managed to shut down Napster (news - web sites) Inc., the first peer-to-peer service, and several successors. But the trade group suffered a setback last month when a judge ruled that two other networks, Grokster and Morpheus, should not be shut down because they do not control what is traded on their systems.


"The RIAA, in their infinite wisdom, has decided to not only alienate their own customers but attempt to drive them into bankruptcy through litigation. So therefore they probably won't be able to afford to buy any music even if they want to," said Grokster President Wayne Rosso, who added he does not support copyright infringement.


Four college students agreed last month to pay between $12,000 and $17,500 each after the RIAA sued them for allegedly operating illegal song-swapping networks on campus.


RIAA members include AOL Time Warner Inc (NYSE:AOL - news). Vivendi Universal (NYSE:V - news), Sony Corp (news - web sites) (6758.T)., Bertelsmann AG (news - web sites) (BERT.UL), and EMI Group Plc (news - web sites) (EMI.L).

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rusholmeruffian

Ho hum. More RIAA nonsense. It's a shame they are so uptight about this shit. If they paid attention to how the internet has been successful in selling music (iTunes, anyone?) and stopped complaining about piracy, they might be able to resurrect their industry from its slow downward spiral.

Derwood

While I agree with your assessment that the RIAA isn't at all using the internet to their advantage, I would argue that allowing free file sharing of copywritten material isn't exactly helping them out either. Whether they get their shit together and embrace the internet's file downloading capabilities or not, they have to stop free trading of their music.

CD prices will never come down as long as people are downloading the albums for free, so it's a big Catch 22. People say they download cuz it's too expensive to buy, and yet the CD's will remain pricey because of all the downloading..

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Unknown Poster

The thing is though, that CD's were pricey before the MP3 boom.

gerg01

They are only hurting themselves.

emopwr

Yeah. the RIAA spins its wheels once again getting nowhere. What a waste of time

TenDeuChen

i have over 600 cds...frell the RIAA

nico

nonsense indeed

jwoody

Programs like Kazaa have only dented sales of shitty albums coz' we can now listen to couple of tracks and decide for ourselves whether an album is good or not before we buy it.

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emopwr

yeah they said sales fell 9%. i still dont see eminem or britney have ANY trouble selling millions of cds. fuck the riaa.

Pyrate

Thank God I do all my downloading from my college's computers.

Them bastards won't get me!

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quest1mark

anyone have any ideas on how to get mp3s now that the man is taking p2p away?

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Tom Thumb

P2P will stick around. They haven't managed to find a way to shut down Kazaa ('spect, Sharman), and, even if they do, others will pop up.

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Derwood

they don't need to shut down KaZaA if they make it so you have to pay thousands in law suits if caught using it

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emopwr

well, kazaa sucks ass for mp3s. random quality. takes forever to get whole albums. disconnecting users. ftps and mp3 trading groups are the way to go. fserve or xdcc on irc isnt that bad either but, the best by far is a private mp3 trading group.

cockmonger

IRC forever...simply the best way to get your full albums. i havn't downloaded a SONG in a long time. thanks to the wonders of XDCC transfers and IRC. however, P2P does have it's advantages. seeing as you don't have to deal with Elitest fuckers in IRC "chat" rooms.
On a different note. i hate the way that the RIAA trys to make you feel bad about "NOT SUPPORTING THE ARTISTS." I say fuck that. the artists see what? 8 cents from ever cd they sell. now go into a local FYE or some other Bullshit conglomerate Music store. 23.99 for a fucking piece of plastic. naw. don't buy into the RIAA hype. if they wanna sue you? move to canada ay. no but seriously. Support artists. go see them in concert, buy they're merch. it's much more gratifying then putting money into the pockets of the Greedy-ass RIAA!

The Atomic Boy

$23.99 for a CD? Sounds like a shop that over prices about as much as Sam Goody. Best Buy usualy has its Cds for about $15 unless its a double CD that could go from $20 to $30 while having a pretty good selection. Heck I think even if you add in shipping prices you may be able to get CDs for less off Amazon.

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MacGnG

can they waste more time and money?!?

spectre

I do that whenever someone tells me there's a band that I would like. I bought a CD once based on that kind of recommendation. I will never do that again. I hated the CD. That's why I download, if I like a few songs, I'm more than willing to buy the CDs. Best to know first before I spend my money.

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Pyrate

And there was me thinking that the artists get a major cut of their record sales...

I now know why so many are setting up their own labels.

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Derwood

It's not 8 cents per CD. Read the similar thread in the General Discussion section, as it breaks down where the money from each CD goes

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Jadey

I'm the same way.

crow_daw

They don't seem to understand, the most hardcore users of p2p are huge music fans, and who in the HELL sues there biggest fans and customers?
What they're doing makes horrible business sense I think.
It won't stop it, it can't be stopped.
Bring it the fuck on RIAA.

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Mr.Deflok

All I use p2p for is Porno... and don't you fucking dare taking that away from me or God help me you will pay with my furious anger.

mikeman

They are suing their customers

viveleroi0

fuck the RIAA

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Bobaphat

This is why I buy most of my music on good old fashioned records in thrift stores. First, the music's just better than the crap they are putting out today, and second I can get albums for less than a dollar apiece. I have thousands of Records, tapes and cds and I listed to the records more than anything.

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Spartak

Just curious, is there anything in American statutes that gives RIAA the power to sue people living in other countries ?

I'm guessing there isn't

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intecel

Well, it's a good thing the new Kazaa Lite comes with this feature: New!) Block RIAA and other organizations from connecting, downloading and uploading to you.

Gotta love those guys

Drider_it

but here is what im not getting

a) you can record music all day off the radio...

b) how come cd's cost more than tapes.. uh me thinks cd's are cheaper to make

b) i might be wrong but unless they change the bill of rights or constitution... they cant go on your computer with out a warrent? thats invasion of privacy and felony criminal tresspass?


Way I see it.. I can recored the same songs off the radio or.. internet radio for free why not be able to download songs for free... And who likes every song on a cd? last i checked you got the one or two songs that are popular on it.. then you get a ton of mid to junk songs added.. not my way of blowing 20 bucks..

although you must understand they RIAA is a bunch of greedy peps.. and i wont go into ticketmaster.

all i gotta say is im gonna install my programs i took off a while back.. i catch them snooping they are toast.. God I love my h>x<orzs friends

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gar1976

Update on this:

The RIAA has issued several hundred subpoenas, trying to find the identities of hundreds of kazaa users. They're having trouble getting colleges to comply (colleges arguing on a technicality), but the way the legislature is written the RIAA can force the colleges/ISP to comply or sue the pants of them.

Right now, they're focusing on some of the major "uploaders" (I *think* downloaders are exempt from the law due to a burden of proof issue, but don't quote me - I'm no lawyer) and some random minor uploaders to scare people into not sharing songs. US residents only.