Slashdot Mirror

First of all, this guy seems to think that monetary damage is the only form of damage possible, but there are plenty of worthless trinkets that have meaning to people.

during the height of Kazaa, they were posting record breaking profits.

sigh. it was a copy of a post about the RIAA and music on another thread. basically people advocating stuff like this http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ that tell you not to buy music from your favorite artist.

Hey, looks like it works! I went to http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ and looked up the Irish artist Enya, and it pointed me to Celtic Woman and Méav. I haven't heard of them. I might just download a song or two, and if I like the style, I think I'm going to buy some CD's.

(Yeah, I know, the irony of downloading a copyrighted song to see if I'll buy the CD.)

Anyone know how their site looks for equivalents? Do they go to Amazon's site and scan the "People who bought this CD also bought ___" comments?

Hasn't been mentioned yet. You tell it about big-label artists you like, and it points you to non-RIAA artists that are similar.

http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

Creative Commons

Defective by Design's List of DRM-Free Music Sites

dmusic

Electronic Frontier Foundation List of "Artists Online"

emusic.com

Fading Ways Records

FreeCulture.org

harveydanger.com

Janis Ian.com

last.fm

Lime Light Radio

live365.com free downloads

MagnaTune

myspace.com

Nettwerk Download Store

R.evolution I.n P.rogress

RIAARadar.com

uncoolcentral.com

Vision Metal Records

I keep a list on my blog and welcome more suggestions.

>How many of you 'acquired'?

Me? Nothing new, actually, since the RIAA vendetta started. Not out of any great sense of morality. Mostly because I have hundreds of pre-vendetta CDs to tide me over and I've been able to buy "used" CDs at Sound Exchange. I know this is kind of indirect support, but I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face.

Someone recently http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ here. You can check artists RIAA affiliation there, so maybe I can buy a few again - there are a bunch I'd like to have. All that said, I don't want to hose my favorite artists out of their "due", so I'll gladly support them with my dollars as long as I'm not lining the pockets of the RIAA.

When I do get a "new" CD, I rip it to my hard drive and put the original away. Then I burn whatever I want for the car. You shouldn't use your CDs in most car CD players anyway - they get scratched to hell and then you have to re-buy them.

Just the view from here ...

Yes. Only it would be called EFFAid (pronounced "F Aid" like "Chief Aid" from South Park). It would be sponsored by the EFF, RIAA Radar, and Downhill Battle. It would probably be held in Austin Texas and MC'd by the members of Cult of the Dead Cow or Wierd Al.

RIAA of course whould down play it as insignificant and tell the media to not promote it until the last minite then run it into the ground with bad puns and poorly designed pop-culture references (similar to how the press made Snakes on a Plane look bad).

Out of curiosity, I looked up the album on RIAA Radar. Ironically, the label (Volcano) is apparently a member of the RIAA. In fact, pretty much all of Weird Al's albums have been released on labels that are RIAA members.

First, artists would quit their labels.

Unfortunately this probably won't happen anytime soon. Most bands have long and drawn out contracts with their labels, especially the major labels.

Other than that I completely agree with you. I've never given much thought to boycotting shows too,probably because I don't want to but that's gotta stop.

I am in the habbit of checking if a cd I'm going to purchase is on a label in the RIAA and RIAA Radar works wonderfully for that.

When I started reading these comments it occured to me that passive boycotting isn't enough and a letter should help. I'm going to start working on a form letter that people can send to the band and label everytime they don't buy something from them.

One question I have about a letter of this nature. Would including contact info attract an unwarrented law suit? It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the RIAA willingly sued people they know haven't actually shared files. Although I'd like to think if I was actually innocent it could be shown so and at least put out the idea to the public that I was being targetted because of a letter someone wrote.

I no longer buy music unless it's non-RIAA.

The madness will not end until the money does.

Every RIAA afiliate album you buy is money for another lawsuit.

If, like I do, you disagree with the business' tactics, there is only one language they understand: money.

Stop buying CRIA/RIAA tunes, but spend the same money on other (independant) albums.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of CDs released outside RIAA. I'd like to see them try to claim ownership over that data. Oh, who am I kidding. Yeah, they'll likely try.

Here's an easy way to figure out if an album is a release...

from a BPI label:
BPI Radar

from a RIAA label:
RIAA Radar

I haven't used the BPI one yet, but I use RIAAradar all the time. My advice, for what it's worth, is to support the independant labels by buying their stuff. On the other hand, if you want a physical copy of a RIAA/BPI album, consider buying it used.

These aren't mutually exclusive means of reaching a desirable goal: ending DRM-tainted media. You can simultaneously not buy CDs from RIAA labels and call them to tell them why you're not buying. For all they know, the reason why you're not buying is because your wage forces you to cut back on entertainment, or perhaps you've bought all the other Britney Spears CDs but her most recent CD isn't quite as good. Maybe you decided that you'd rather drink up your surplus money with your friends rather than buy any CDs. Being vocal and clear is better than being ambiguous and letting them fill in the blanks.

Goddamnit, I meant http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ (RIAA Radar, not RIAA watch)

FTFA: "NEW YORK (Billboard) - As the recording industry tries to block file trading of songs across peer-to-peer networks, blogs and other viral distribution channels, the major labels suddenly have a whole new piracy concern: music videos."

Interestingly, every new and (arguably) useful tool on the Internet seems to somehow allow people to pirate the *AA's protected content. Somewhere in all that, somebody, group, or even countries should be hitting the *AA et al with the clue stick.... hard! Not that I think if they did get a clue it would make anything cheaper or easier for anyone that wants to use their content.

Instead of inventing licensing models that make sense, they simply seem to be trying to stop all use of their content.

Personally, I think it would be sort of sucky for a few months, but if everyone just stopped buying music and videos from *AA affiliated musicians, perhaps the hint would work. Try http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ for music that they don't benefit from. See if buying music they don't get paid for makes them any happier?

When I want to buy new music, my purchasing process it pretty simple:

1- Load RIAA Radar
2- If label is a RIAA member, buy from allofmp3.com
3- If not, buy CD.

I love allofmp3, it's really how online music stores should be. I believe it to be legal, but I frankly don't really care on way or the other... I'm not sleeping any less at night. Want me to buy your CD? Make good music, don't put DRM on it and don't make deals with the devil to publish it. Pretty simple.

RIAA Radar will list non-RIAA albums that are similar to any given album you search for. I've used it a few times and it's always given me good results.

"We hate to do it, 'cause the fans really have enjoyed the other key signatures. But we can't afford black keys on our pianos anymore. Sorry. It's 'cause of piracy. So really it's the listeners' fault."

Please use RIAA radar to avoid giving these tools another cent, ever.

If you're giving money to the RIAA cartel, then you're funding their legal bullying, and you're funding their legislation-purchasing efforts. This is simple to realize, and not some bullshit argument like buying weed from the neighborhood grower funds terrorism.

I am not suggesting that you stop buying CDs! Although I do suggest that you do not purchase new CDs from the companies that contribute to this problem. In addition to boycott, there are other legal ways to make your point. Use RIAA Radar to see if an album is tainted; tell your friends about the service. Buy directly from small artists. Browse MySpace to find new stuff by indie bands. Go to Used CD stores. Tell people about how you spend money on music and how you will not spend money on music. Warn people about corrupt Sony CDs and whatever the next violation is. Tell people what copyright was supposed to mean versus what it means today.

You may not topple the giant alone, but when the daughter of a senator learns about the issue and feels strongly about it, when an exec of a smaller music label makes *less* money with the cartel and drops out of the RIAA, when a cavalier journalist with CNN or Fox hears about today's story and decides to air it, you've made a difference.

Hereare a few suggestions regarding what you can do if you don't want to support the RIAA:
1- Use the tools at RIAA Radar: http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ to avoid buying RIAA artists' work.
2- Borrow music from your local library (they often have a surprisingly good, though not up-to-date, collection).
3- Buy your music at concerts, where the artist gets most of the money instead of a handful of RIAA executives and all the pointless middlemen.
4- Put in the extra work to find free music on the Net in the form of free downloads and Creative Commons licensed tracks. (Music blogs and the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/audio) are good sources.

I am not, and I use the RIAA radar to avoid them. Like e.g. I'm a big bjork fan but alas... good news is that her Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack is non-RIAA. Can't decide how far to take the boycott -- boycott albums directly or any artist who generally releases under RIAA?

one can view all of the RIAA labels at their site.

a nifty tool can also be found here to search the RIAA radar database

http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

Unfortunately, according to the RIAA RADAR, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkely is published by WEA records (German Warner Bros.) making it an RIAA 'property.' It doesn't matter to me how talented they might be, I will make no purchases as long as they associate themselves with the RIAA.

I don't think that's the case with all consumers. I've stopped watching TV, most movies in the Theatre (by companies I reject), buying CDs from RIAA-signed artists, etcetera because I either don't like the methods of the industry behind them or the single company.

I'll be the first to admit it's not always possible to apply this method in all areas, but I consider it the only form of democracy I can exercise daily.

But it's not hard to do, beyond the checking (and there are websites to do that), because of all the entertainment choices out there (this is how I got into some manga/anime) you might find even better stuff because you venture out the safe zone into something unknown/untried.

Or simply find the chance to get away from big entertainment and actually do something physical enjoyable - like hang-gliding or whatever your form of poison happens to be.

It's a pretty liberating experience not to have to have anything in particular, especially the latest thing that the mainstream pushes on you.

There are even pleasant surprises when checking, I was for sure all my favorite artists would be signed onto a RIAA Company before I actually looked:
http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/search.asp?searchtyp e=ArtistSearch&keyword=The+White+Stripes

The Essential Clash huh? From Sony? Rootkit fiesta Sony? I think I'll pass. Regarding 12 songs for $12... albums are $9.99 at iTMS. 12 songs from 12 different albums... $12 bucks. RIAA style? $12 x 12 albums == $144.

My choice is to use Xine-based apps, and I think it is in the average user's best interest to do the same.

When people start being sued left and right and thrown in jail, they'll gladly throw away their DRM-crippled CDs, DVDs, Bluerays, HD DVDs, and all the other garbage the RIAA and MPAA spew out.

"This is one of those urban myths like alligators in the toilet. MP3 is just a technology and the technology itself never did anything wrong! There are lots of legal MP3s from great artists on many, many online sites. The problem is that some people use MP3 to take one copy of an album and make that copy available on the Internet for hundreds of thousands of people. That's not fair. If you choose to take your own CDs and make copies for yourself on your computer or portable music player, that's great. It's your music and we want you to enjoy it at home, at work, in the car and on the jogging trail. But the fact that technology exists to enable unlimited Internet distribution of music copies doesn't make it right. "

Could they be contradicting themselves, or just trying to see what they can get away with? It irks me, because I do exactly what they describe above. I rip all of my CDs to a central server at home that is connected to my stereo, and queue up tracks all day long. I also burn custom CDs to listen to in the car. All of this I would consider fair use. I bought the CDs. I'm not uploading them to a file sharing service. Quite frankly if the RIAA is going to take this position described in TFA, then I am thinking that it may be time boycott them all together. I found a really great site that allows users to choose not to buy from any artist that supports them. I think it's been listed here bfore but I'll post it again.

It's all well and good complaining when the RIAA start doing things like this, and it's great to inform your friends, to donate to the EFF or contact your Representative (or MP), but if we still buy music from RIAA members, we are in danger of sending mixed signals.

There is a world of great music out there that is NOT published by RIAA members, including many independent labels that really support artists and treat them with more respect than industry heavy-hitters who - despite their protests to the contrary - really only care about their bottom-line.

Compare, for example, independent music retailers, such as bleep who allow unlimited backups (for your own personal use, of course) of their non-DRM MP3 files with today's announcement from on high by the RIAA to see that there really IS a viable alternative to the dominance of the RIAA/BPI and similar organisations - but it will only ever become a true success if we put our money where our mouths are and stop supporting the RIAA.

http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

Here's a list of sites that sell DRM-free music by independent artists:

UseFree.org/drm

Songbird works with most if not all of these sites, and thus makes it easier than ever to break our dependency on RIAA's music and the cancerous DRM technology that it is pushing.

I igree, boycot RIAA altogether, meaning don't pirate the music either.

Check your CD's/songs: http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

But it's nice to see that yet another company is telling off the RIAA.

I thought Nettwerk was a member of the RIAA. Check it out on RIAA Radar .

But this action raises their Karma to where I will not rule out CDs from Nettwerk. This is just in time for the next CD from Delerium!

The RIAA is the Recording Industry Association of America - it's basically what it says on the tin. A lobbying and management group that represents its record company members by bribe^H^H^H^H^Hlobbying the US government for new laws, and suing alleged copyright infringers of the RIAA members copyright for obscene damages. They are not a part of the US government, merely a corporate association.

Not all US record labels are members of the RIAA, though it often acts as if they are. Their list of members is rather lengthy, but they are largely sub-labels or labels for a particular favoured artist of the 4 big international companies - Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI group and Warner Music. These are the companies that control 85% of US music and 70% worldwide, and the RIAA is their mouthpiece in the US. They have other industry associations in other nations; the BPI is the equivalent in the UK, for example.

Remember, the RIAA itself is only acting on behalf of the big 4. They are the companies directly responsible for music DRM, retarding new music business methods and any technology that they don't control. If you wish to avoid purchasing music from these dinosaurs' stable of artists, use the RIAA radar to determine if the label on a particular CD is actually a RIAA member or truly an independant.

I haven't stopped buying music, I've just stopped buying it from the big 4. If we want music to survive in its current form, as opposed to windows-only DRM restricted versions backed up by permanent copyright, then only buy from true independent musicians and labels. For example, CDBaby.com is a big site for truly independant musicians, as is magnatune. As a bonus, you know most of the money you spend will go directly to the artists, rather than the tiny percentage they get when selling through the major RIAA member labels.

I'm not sure accuracy-wise, but the RIAA Radar (http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/tree.asp) list is what I go by.

I think you're failing to realize that there are MANY MANY musicians out there whose music is NOT being sold by any affiliate of the RIAA.

There is NO REASON to cease purchasing music by these musicians.

The RIAA doesn't own the entire music industry. They might own an unbelievable percentage of the pop music industry, but I assure you, to say that no more music should be bought is completely ludicrous.

Instead, before making a purchase, check to see that the record label you're purchasing from is not RIAA-affiliated.

Check out RIAA Radar to search albums and see if they are released by RIAA-member record labels or not.

I fully support boycotting all RIAA-affiliated products but trying to kill the music industry is, to say the least, going a little overboard.

First off, all that means is we get something new to hack. Those that will be pirates will continue to pirate. All this is going to do is really pi$$ people off when the go to watch their movie and the stupid thing won't play. I've already stopped buying music because of the RIAA.

I urge all of you to join in boycotting the RIAA and MPAA.

RIAA Radar is here - http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ This site will tell you if a band is a member.

I'm unable to find a site that lists the MPAA members, however, there is a partial list on the MPAA's own site that includes Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (A Disney Company), Sony (big surprise there), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers.

I'd like to suggest that for the companies that have other products that you boycott the entire product line. For example, don't buy that Sony Televison set. Don't go the Universal Studios theme park. You get the idea...

If they do the same kind of ridiculous copy protection with movies, I'll be boycotting them too. Frankly, I'd urge all of you to hit them where it hurts the worst. STOP BUYING THEIR STUPID PRODUCTS!!! If their crap quit selling, perhaps they'd get the message. You cannot continually pi$$ on your customer base and expect to remain profitable. Best Case - it works and they go out of business and all their music becomes public domain. Worst Case - it works and they remove their heads from their butts.

2 cents,

Queen B

Yeah, but in that case, they'd actually be losing money. Right now, they're making money hand over fist AND claiming they are losing money due to piracy. Once they ACTUALLY start to lose money, they're screwed. Lobbyists don't work for free.

Boycott the RIAA. Check your music on the RIAA Radar before you make a music purchase.

Exactly.

I still buy music though, but most of my preffered artists (like Chiasm) aren't part of the RIAA.

I use http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/ (aka www.riaaradar.com) to check if a CD I'm about to buy is signed onto a company that's part of the RIAA.

According to RIAA Radar most of her cd's are unclean, except for the stuff released outside the US.

Since I don't want to be on the whole defensive of the RIAA, here's a link to the RIAA Radar to balance things - boycott the RIAA!

I beg to differ RIAA Radar will help music listeners Find out if a band or artist Should be boycotted or bought and supported ;)

so instead of just boycotting the artists of the lobbying group formed by profiteering labels.
you can do Much better if you Acutally Support smaller artists who don't want to have anything to do with those evil profiteering exploitative labels.

That way musicians can continue to sing, people can continue to enjoy music, and only the fools who believed they were entitled to the ears and pocketbooks of everyone in the world will suffer..

Just avoid RIAA related cd's using http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

go to the RIAA Radar Home and put in any artist or album or UPC code and it will tell you if it's from a RIAA artist or not.

I used it a lot when Pepsi and Apple were giving away all those songs and I only redeemed the songs from Indy acts.

Check it out.

Link to search results

I suggest people consider boycotting _all_ RIAA member labels, not just Sony. They just happened to be the fools who fell for this particular version. It's not hte implementation that's anathema, it's the concept of DRM. When in doubt, consult RIAA Radar. Don't buy discs produced by RIAA members, it't that simple.

The RIAA Radar says she is clean! Unfortunatly it's a POST form so no direct link to the results.

If you take a look at their top 100 list at:

http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/zeitgeist_topamazon. asp

You'll quickly notice that 95 of the 100 selling records are associated with the RIAA. Hell, the first "RIAA free" album is ranked 34.

http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

I buy CDs if I want to support the artist, though not before some background checking on the album. I think it's fairly obvious that allofmp3.com does not share profits with the artist, particularly since the RIAA tried to get them shut down. So if I think an artist has enough talent to deserve my support, and if I have no reason to beleive there is any sketchy software on the CD (ie if it has the Compact Disc label on it), and I am relatively confident that buying an album won't support the RIAA, then yes, I'll buy a CD. (And I can't back this up with anything more that a serach for sony on RIAA radar, but i'd say chances are the last two "if"s pretty much coincide other). That being said, I'm still spreading the word about allofmp3.com to anyone I know.