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I like to listen to mp3's and watch SVCD's in my SUV while I am high.

I knew that there were plenty of good bands that go indie, but I never thought they actually earned more than the commercial guys.

Actually, its funny, but the riaa's site is currently down. But its proably due to the ms sql exploit, as they are running IIS.

This doesnt matter for many, many reasons. Yes this woman has been irritating, but she is just a representative of a larger industry. The RIAA is just a lobbying body, the real problem is the member labels that support this crap, not the RIAA. You can block the RIAA IP's all you want, but what about the hundreds and hundreds of member labels...did you remember to block them too? And dont forget the sister org of the RIAA which has gotten some press here on slashdot recently, the IFPI. Ha! And you thought the RIAA was the problem all this time. Just remember the concept of 'lightning rod' here.

If you doubt any of what Im saying, and your halfway competent, dig into it a little deeper instead of going with the quick and visible enemy. Sooner or later, you will realize that the RIAA website is just a 'honeypot'. I mean come on, nobody is as stupid to do what they have done, and leave it that way after its been hacked for months...you say I am making this up...oh no...look at this security hole wide enough to fly the whole planet through. This problem has been exploited at least twice now to deface the page in recent months and nothing has been done to make it even the slightest bit better. All though as I test these links, the whole site seems to be down yet again. I cant imagine how that happened.

This doesnt matter for many, many reasons. Yes this woman has been irritating, but she is just a representative of a larger industry. The RIAA is just a lobbying body, the real problem is the member labels that support this crap, not the RIAA. You can block the RIAA IP's all you want, but what about the hundreds and hundreds of member labels...did you remember to block them too? And dont forget the sister org of the RIAA which has gotten some press here on slashdot recently, the IFPI. Ha! And you thought the RIAA was the problem all this time. Just remember the concept of 'lightning rod' here.

If you doubt any of what Im saying, and your halfway competent, dig into it a little deeper instead of going with the quick and visible enemy. Sooner or later, you will realize that the RIAA website is just a 'honeypot'. I mean come on, nobody is as stupid to do what they have done, and leave it that way after its been hacked for months...you say I am making this up...oh no...look at this security hole wide enough to fly the whole planet through. This problem has been exploited at least twice now to deface the page in recent months and nothing has been done to make it even the slightest bit better. All though as I test these links, the whole site seems to be down yet again. I cant imagine how that happened.

I'm sure the RIAA will find another shill in no time: All they need is an entertainment lawyer who will set aside ethics and the common good in exchage for a large bundle of money. Goodness knows how long it will take them to find one of those.

According to the Court Decision [pdf], the complaint alleged that "John Doe" downloaded 600 songs over the KaZaA network in one day.

600? That's it? When I was serving MP3s in IRC a few years back, there were some users serving over 10000 songs a piece.

Here's hoping they stay away from IRC... at least for a little while :P.

Also, here's a link to the full text of the Judge's ruling. Feel free to Slashdot the RIAA site :D.

RIAA got cracked. bwahahaha

• One)
  1330 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 300
  Washington, D.C. 20036
  
  
• Two)
  15503 Ventura Blvd.
  Encino, California 91436
  
  and
  
  
• Three)
  One Microsoft Way
  Redmond, WA 98052-6399
  

Geez, I hate these knee-jerk responses. If you guys had actually taken the time to read the letter, you'll see that it is not a letter accussing anyone of anything, but merely a "this is happening a lot at other places, so you should check up on it too" letter. And from what I read from the story, the Naval Academy just decided to do a random computer audit, which is entirely standard procedure in the military.

The cause of fighting for digital rights would be a lot easier if we weren't screaming bloody murder everytime the RIAA mails out a form letter!

For the sound quality that is good enough for most people and their portable use, or use in the automobile: Pretty much everybody is capable of buying a microphone and making a recording.

Which is why they want a law that makes non-DRM devices or removing/changing watermarks illegal...

If as a side-effect that will hamper people in making their own content and then distributing it without involving the riaa or a riaa member, then that is just a nice side-effect for the cartel lobbyists...

Now, as for the ISP...

Some say that email is free, which makes it different from smail. This isn't entirely true; while smail requires "stamps," email works on a subscription service. Pay your ISP, the ISP provides you with an address which you can send to and from. Because they have costs too -- supporting the lines and hubs you dial in on, connecting to other hubs, etc.

If you change addresses, and start getting mail sent to a different address, what happens?

In the case of the smail, you get the stuff forwarded from your old address to the new address -- and that's perfectly fair because the sender paid to get the letter or package to you. This is helped considerably by the fact that all the post offices are owned by the same company. BTW, this is probably the only case I can think of in which a monopoly helps the consumer.

In the case of email, what happens? One person pays a fee to send the email, which goes out onto the network. (This is a recipe for disaster in some peoples' minds -- we promisenot to read it. Really!) All other systems agree to pass it along, until it gets to the other end.

The receiver pays as well, to send and receive messages. This would seem to last as long as the user pays. But some of that time is wasted at the start because people have to publish or otherwise get that new email address out, same as if you changed your smail address.

And when the user changes services, what happens to the email still inbound to the box? Some people will say that the email should be shut off, any new messages bounced. Anyone with any sense of fair play would also say that since there was a lag time before the address could be used that anything new that comes into the address should be bounced to the new address, with a message back to the sender that a new address is being used. These are ethical solutions that may be overlooked because we are talking about "business" here, which seems to work by different rules.

The article on C|Net is clear enough on the point: ISPs' handling of email under special circumstances is not merely twisted but actually sprained.

And I consider it a very good point.

Much of the Internet is still frontier-grade in its rules, with its share of rail barons and robber barons and common horse thieves and a government that lives very very far away and has little hope of understanding this wild frontier for the next several generations.

What's missing here is not legislation but common sense.

I think that when a user stops service, old and new mail should be forwarded if possible for two to four weeks, and then simply handled like any other bounce. I consider this ethical and sensible. Other peoples' common senses and ethics may say other things.

Which leads to the questions: a) How do we decide on an optimal solution, and b) how do we make the non-ethical, non-sensible people follow suit?

Found here> states "using technology to steal music and movies is no different from walking into a store and shoplifting a CD or DVD"

I can note a bunch of differences:

I don't have to be hassled to go to a store, actually find music i like which is there, remove the security device, stuff it into my coat and go home, rip it to mp3/ogg/whatever.
The internet just makes stealing so easy!

Don't other companies say, "Trust us" and look at what DVDs you view? None come to mind, however... I have been using Linux too long to remember. And does that Hillary Rosen take us for idiots?

"We are Microsoft. You will be assimilated. Your technological and biological uniqueness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."

Wait! Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't files spread across the P2P network, or at least the index so everyone has a part of a file and/or index? If this is so and the RIAA is flooding P2P networks with bogus files, then they are taking our disk storage! How much are we being paid to donate our disk storage to those bastards? Nothing. It costs me money to get online storage, so it should cost them -- especially on my drive! Wait! This could be considered tresspassing. It is like having your neighbor store his couch in your bathroom. Sometimes you gotta piss, but the couch is in the way... same thing with your drive. Sometimes you need your (legal, that you righfully own, but left your disc at home when you left for colege)Beethoven, but (not so)nSync is taking up all of your drive! What should we do about this? DRIVE RIAA's BANDWIDTH BILL THROUGH THE ROOF!

*chanting crowd outside RIAA hq* Slashdot them! Slashdot them! Slashdot them!

"Record companies see it as mutiny. Musicians call it an overdue rebellion. Either way, the artists' rights movement has set the stage for combat that could revolutionize the music industry."

Just like napster did?

All we (artists and music lovers) need to do now is find each other, and direct sales will cut out the middlemen.

"Ready to launch ship B, the planet is doomed" said the scientists and engineers to the middlemen...

If Mozart had lived in our modern age, with our recording industry, his end would have been the same. The record lablels rip of artists, and fans, then call both theives. Check out this article. They accuse artists of "biting the hand that feeds them," if they don't repeat the RIAA party line. Fans' hands feed them, not those record company leeches! Boycott the recording industry. Don't buy CDs.

no, she's not. Read the text.

But, she's "chairman". Oh well.

I'm afaraid he's referring to that other Hilary .

(Someone USian may be better able to explain how she beacme to be "chairman" instead of "chairwoman", though)

according to RIAA.com, Righteous Babe Records is a RIAA member.

curiouser and curiouser...

Hmmm... I'm not the best person to give you the list you're asking for... but here are 3 sites I know that have both downloadable MP3s and non-RIAA CDs for sale:

• Courtney Love. She was the first "name" artist to denounce record industry business practices publically and effectively. Bookmark and wait a couple of weeks, the site's down for upgrading.
• Janis Ian is the one who recently wrote some remarkable articles on piracy and the record industry which have been slashdotted, she also sees MP3s as promotional tool, not product.
• Elian Gedeon. She's an independent artist who's just beginning to get the word out about herself. I know who's going the e-commerce route to market her CDs and merchandise. "New music" by definition.
• Here is what should be a complete RIAA membership list. If the label isn't listed, it's safe to assume that it is NOT RIAA.

However, the great majority of artists you've never heard of who are selling their own CDs and making downloads available are non-RIAA. If in doubt, ask.

before the big backbone providers start blocking 208.225.90.120.

The RIAA member labels can be found here. Don't buy music from them. There are plenty of good independent labels with good artists that deserve your money. Don't give it to those RIAA shills.

Copyrights are handled by the Libary of Congress.


Really? I would have sworn they were handled by the Copyright Interests through their agents - the congress, the house, and the president.

Now excuse me. I have to clean my computer after checking those links. Where did I put the hydrochloric?

Since some definitions of P2P networks are broad enough to include the web, I suggest they begin by targeting major nodes here, here, and here. Rumor is they're the worst offenders. Shut them down and maybe everything will be fine again.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but sometimes they cancel each other out.

Then come marketing and promotion costs -- perhaps the most expensive part of the music business today. They include increasingly expensive video clips, public relations, tour support, marketing campaigns, and promotion to get the songs played on the radio. For example, when you hear a song played on the radio -- that didn't just happen! Labels make investments in artists by paying for both the production and the promotion of the album, and promotion is very expensive.

Xix.

I like haxing HTTP... heh

http://www.riaa.com/Contact_Confirm.cfm?Name=Someo ne&Email=laserbeams@juno.com&Subject=Go+suck+on+a+ big+fat+lemon&message=Your+legislative+ideas+are+m ore+stupid+than+a+cloud+made+of+bricks+and+they+de serve+to+be+drug+out+in+the+street+and+SHOT.+Good+ day+to+you.&Submit=Send

I hope that worked... :)

Prove the RIAA is a Monopoly and should be taken apart piece by piece.

Hilary Rosen [SMTP:hrosen@riaa.com] Does this help at all? *evil grin*

(And look watch for the sellouts.. several used-to-be indie artists are now minions of the RIAA... and if they are, speak your displeasure and add them to your avoid list too.)

ooh, you're so punk you're making me hot over here. fight the man! fuck the system!

what you don't realize is that most of the bigger indie labels are in the riaa, as well. it's not just the big 5. epitaph, fat wreck cords, moonshine, 4ad, six degrees, rykodisc, and rhino are all members. go ahead, take a look at the list. my policy is to (get this) buy the music i like enough to shell out the money for. i like the pixies who are on 4ad. i like tweaker, who's on six degrees. i like soul coughing who was on warner, but their greatest hits were put out by rhino. i like jane's addiction who was on warner for most of the time they were together. i can't remember off hand who put out the gorillaz album, but i know it was one of the big ones.

don't be so sanctimonious about your record buying habits. buy what you like, not what sticks it to the man.

With these sorts of press releases, it should be more obvious how the RIAA is slanting things. I mean, "internet radio companies"?? Internet radio stations are people in basements and bedrooms - not giant corporations like Hillary would have you believe. They undertake the expenses of web broadcasting at little or no benefit to themselves. They were playing music that for the most part could not be heard anywhere else, and giving new artists a chance to get promoted. Anyway, I'm sure that's all been said.

The murder of internet radio by the RIAA is nothing less than cultural destruction.

http://www.riaa.com/contact.cfm

Here's a contact form to make your views known to the RIAA.

Those SOB's at the RIAA still haven't gotten it... if they just keep quiet, then actions like the following will not be neccesary...

Click Here to help the /.ing of the RIAA website or alternatly click here

When Microsoft came out and said that they would fix all of our security and privacy problems with Palladium, most of us scoffed.

If the RIAA were to say, "Pay us for music downloads," I'm betting the farm that most of us will give them the finger, or at least a large enough of a percentage that they find the new venture to have too little benefit to sustain.

the site has been offline twice more:

??? to Wed Jul 31 18:22:31 2002 GMT (at least 3 hours)
Wed Jul 31 20:15:39 2002 GMT to Thu Aug 1 02:49:26 2002 GMT (about 6.5 hours)

Here: RIAA does not represent artists directly but we do work on behalf of such artists' rights as freedom of speech and the right to control your own music.

Here: When asked, most consumers describe CDs as a good value. ...the most significant cost of a CD today is the marketing and promotion of that music.

My Favorite FAQ:
What is the RIAA? The RIAA is a membership organization. Our members are record labels who pay membership dues to have the RIAA represent them on different issues. This includes everything from speaking out in support of free speech -- and against attempts to pass legislation to censor music, to traveling the world in support of free trade, to defending artists and record labels from pirates who sell and distribute fake copies of their music. We also work with our members on issues of new technology and how that technology can best bring artists together with music fans.

Lots to think about there. Amazing how the RIAA talks out of both sides of its mouth. "We support artists rights, prevent censorship of music, and help Santa out every Tuesday...." Yet they are busy trying to take away my legal abillity to create and distribute my own music.

If irony was a drink, I'd be wasted.

Oddly enough, the list doesn't contain Website links.

I mentioned this because several people have mentioned that the RIAA exists to take the heat for the rest of the old-model record industry.

The list on the site is the traditional record industry.

Yeah, but just hit refresh 15 or 20 times, and you're in. While you're at it, try downloading their marketing info- it's not that big of a pdf, but I'm sure every little bit helps.

*

-S

I want to show my support of the RIAA.org and RIAA.com but I keep getting this message:

HTTP Error 403

403.9 Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected

This error can be caused if the Web server is busy and cannot process your request due to heavy traffic. Please try to connect again later.

Please contact the Web server's administrator if the problem persists.

So I'm going to send a message to the server's administrator as they have asked, to see what the problem might be...<giggle>

From riaa.com's "What is Piracy" pages:

"4. Online piracy is the unauthorized uploading of a copyrighted sound recording and making it available to the public, or downloading a sound recording from an Internet site, even if the recording isn't resold. Online piracy may now also include certain uses of "streaming" technologies from the Internet."

Sorry, did I miss a memo? When was streaming declared illegal? Shouldn't someone notify Apple and Real that thier streaming server software is facilitating illegal activities?

Time to eat lunch, I'll just load up my favorite website and hit f5 a lot to see if they've updated yet...

That's funny...

You guys must have put up the wrong address for the RIAA website.

I tried to go there to get their side of the story, but www.riaa.com doesn't work for me.

Can somebody please find the right URL for them so that we can all go and get their side of the story so othat we can make reasoned and informed opinions on this issue.

(giggle giggle)

Oh wait, that is the right URL?

Nevermind

Yeah, but RIAA.com is still up. Maybe we can fix this too...

HTTP Error 403

403.9 Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected

This error can be caused if the Web server is busy and cannot process your request due to heavy traffic. Please try to connect again later.

Please contact the Web server's administrator if the problem persists.

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?mode_u=off&mo de_w=on&site=www.riaa.com&submit=Examine

The site www.riaa.com is running Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98. FAQ

NT4/Windows 98 users include ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, Gillette, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd and Ernst & Young International

Microsoft-IIS is also being used by www.dellhost.com, www.datapipe.com, Ferrari and Intel Corporation

Do you want to look for an SSL site at www.riaa.com ?

Uptime Charts and Statistics for www.riaa.com

No uptime is currently available for www.riaa.com.

Netblock Owner
UUNET Technologies, Inc

They're using UUNET and Microsoft products ... hehehe I think a DoS should be the least of their worries ... I would almost go so far as to say it wasn't a DoS attack, but more a BSOD attack ... heh heh heh

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?mode_u=off&mo de_w=on&site=www.riaa.com&submit=Examine

The site www.riaa.com is running Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98. FAQ

NT4/Windows 98 users include ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, Gillette, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd and Ernst & Young International

Microsoft-IIS is also being used by www.dellhost.com, www.datapipe.com, Ferrari and Intel Corporation

Do you want to look for an SSL site at www.riaa.com ?

Uptime Charts and Statistics for www.riaa.com

No uptime is currently available for www.riaa.com.

Netblock Owner
UUNET Technologies, Inc

They're using UUNET and Microsoft products ... hehehe I think a DoS should be the least of their worries ... I would almost go so far as to say it wasn't a DoS attack, but more a BSOD attack ... heh heh heh

http://www.riaa.com

HTTP Error 403
403.9 Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected

This error can be caused if the Web server is busy and cannot process your request due to heavy traffic. Please try to connect again later.

Please contact the Web server's administrator if the problem persists.

---

LOL.

riaa.org is still up, keep at it. :)