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I, well, by RIAA's logic actually, also suggest prison time - hey, it's only fair, they did benefit financially from this.

RIAA is the Recording Industry ARTISTS Association.

Only on bizarro world. Here on earth it's the Recording Industry Association of America.

Then you'll get sued by RIAA and Compression Labs at the same time! Two for the price of one! Can't beat that.

First, you have to obtain a copy of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF METALLICA and listen to it. (You can download the music (~280mb) using BitTorrent, by clicking here.

Second, you need to succeed in posting an RIAA "first post" on slashdot.org, a popular "news for thieves" website

Third, you need to join the official RIAA irc channel #RIAA on irc.riaa.com, and apply for membership.

Fourth, you need to pay the nonrefundable RIAA MEMBERSHIP FEE of FIVE MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US$5,000,000)
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today!

If you are having trouble locating #RIAA, the official RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is lawsuitnet, and you can connect to irc.riaa.com as our official server. If you do not have an IRC client handy, you are free to use the RIAA Java IRC client by clicking here.


If you have mod points and would like to support RIAA, please moderate this post up.

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| _"#ga#9!01___"#01______"4Lj#!_4#g_________"01_ |
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| __#1_,%________$^_____________________________ |
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| __jk___58___RECORDING INDUSTRY_ASSOCIATION____ |
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| ______________________________________________ | (c) RIAA 2003, 2004
` _______________________________________________'

I need money.

Hilary Rosen used to be the Recording Industry Ass Head but now Mitch Bainwol is the Recording Industry Ass Head.

Hilary Rosen used to be the Recording Industry Ass Head but now Mitch Bainwol is the Recording Industry Ass Head.

I'm a huge fan of the iTunes music store.. So huge, in fact, that I'm actually PURCHASING music through this outstanding service and bought myself a 20 gig ipod. My inclination is hardly to convince the world to pay for their music vs. downloading them ilegally; rather it's because I happen to like paying only $10 for an album. I'm a bargain hunter.

It was bad enough that the RIAA shunned legal digital downloads long enough for the pirates to take over the industry. Add to that their decision to continually fight a customer-driven demand for a more flexible (and cheaper) medium of distribution.. Now just when something out there is working, they want to jack the price up to a level that will send all of those wouldbe legal customers back to the P2P world using anonymousnetworks.

The RIAA needs to wake up and recognize their issues here.. Their customers want a more flexible delivery mechanism, they want to pay less, and need the flexibility they currently have with a CD. Apple accomplished much of this with their product, which the RIAA will subsequently destroy with their greedy price increases.

Let's face it - in business customers drive the industry. When Americans stopped buying domestics, the industry responded with better products that met customer needs. When New Coke flopped, Coca Cola wisely switched back to the old formula.

The RIAA and its member companies had an opportunity in 1997 when illegal MP3's first surfaced to nip this problem. The early adopters were trading heavily on the IRC network, which led the rise of Napster and later Kazaa. These networks suceeded because it was just so darn tough for file traders to find the songs they were looking for. Had the RIAA member companies set up a site at any point between 1997 and 2000 (even without digital rights management), they could have easily circumvented the rise of these illegal networks. CD's themselves were insecure enough to create this massive proliferation in the first place!!

Fight them. Write to them and tell them what a stupid decision this is.

These people must be really, really, really stupid. If you jack up the price of music downloads, people are simply going to stop paying for the downloads and go back to the glory days of Napster 1.0. As my subject says, they're a bunch of greedy bastards. The kiddies on gnutella and limewire aren't gonna be the ones responsible for destroying the music industry, it'll be the moron execs (although the downloaders will be blamed for it in the history books, because that's the spin the RIAA Beast has given it).

Well, almost no impact. According to a new study, "downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero". Monday's NYTimes (free registration) describes the study, in which two economists analyzed file-sharing and sales data over a 17-week period in 2002, using "complex mathematical formulas" to determine that "spikes in downloading had almost no discernible effect on sales", and estimating that "it would take 5000 downloads to reduce the sales of an album by one copy". Naturally, some organizations disagree. Also, according to the RIAA's 2003 year end numbers [PDF], sales of CD singles were up 84% from 2002, while overall revenue shrunk from $11.55 to $11.05 billion... which makes perfect sense when you consider economic tendencies since 9/11.

Total U.S. music shipments, including to direct and special markets, dropped 7.2 percent from 859.7 million units in 2002 to 798.4 million units in 2003. In dollar value, this represents a six percent decrease. The three year decline (2000-2003) of music unit shipments is 26 percent and the value of those units declined 17.2 percent since 2000.

there is no need for this crackdown. Everyone knows internet trading will bring pr0n to its knees. er, economically speaking.

"The real pirates (selling illegal copies) are also making money, but that's not who the RIAA/MPAA is chasing."

The RIAA has always been chasing the big guys of the pirating world -- the ones who run the duplicating houses and sell their wares in Times Square -- and they still do. However, many people incorrectly assume that their recent suits against file sharers come at the exclusion of all other activities. This is probably because we don't read about those sorts of things on Slashdot. However, it was pretty trivial to find these stories on the RIAA web site:

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/021804.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/122303.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp

There are more cases which aren't listed on the RIAA web site because it's law enforcement who are handling the job, with little or no help from the RIAA. Anybody who is interested can find plenty by googling on "criminal copyright infringement indictment."

"The real pirates (selling illegal copies) are also making money, but that's not who the RIAA/MPAA is chasing."

The RIAA has always been chasing the big guys of the pirating world -- the ones who run the duplicating houses and sell their wares in Times Square -- and they still do. However, many people incorrectly assume that their recent suits against file sharers come at the exclusion of all other activities. This is probably because we don't read about those sorts of things on Slashdot. However, it was pretty trivial to find these stories on the RIAA web site:

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/021804.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/122303.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp

There are more cases which aren't listed on the RIAA web site because it's law enforcement who are handling the job, with little or no help from the RIAA. Anybody who is interested can find plenty by googling on "criminal copyright infringement indictment."

"The real pirates (selling illegal copies) are also making money, but that's not who the RIAA/MPAA is chasing."

The RIAA has always been chasing the big guys of the pirating world -- the ones who run the duplicating houses and sell their wares in Times Square -- and they still do. However, many people incorrectly assume that their recent suits against file sharers come at the exclusion of all other activities. This is probably because we don't read about those sorts of things on Slashdot. However, it was pretty trivial to find these stories on the RIAA web site:

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/021804.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/122303.asp

http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp

There are more cases which aren't listed on the RIAA web site because it's law enforcement who are handling the job, with little or no help from the RIAA. Anybody who is interested can find plenty by googling on "criminal copyright infringement indictment."

But enough about RIAA already!

(Sorry I couldn't resist)

I mean, come on. This isn't going to work. They can't sue everyone in the country, and sampling has proven itself ineffective at best. They need a new strategy, if they ever hope to stem the tide. Legal alternatives may be doing well too, but sometimes you just can't be free. They should just give up and find some other way to increase sales. Perhaps they could make better albums.

Still, it's not as bad as this slashdotting. Five days now and counting.

You've got it the wrong way around ...

They've spliced snake brain capacity, 800-pound gorilla brain capacity, and dinosaurs brain capacity into humans.

How likely are you to get ambushed by RIAA (or European equivalent) goons?

Since you aren't planning to distribute the MP3's, IMHO you are ethically free to record them again in the medium of your choice.

So- obtain a (legal) copy of software than can record from your sound card's Line In jack, then play the CD into it, convert the stream to MP3, then save it on your device. This way (passing through an analogue phase) you loose a tiny bit of quality but effectively strip copy protection.

That is, of course, if your question is as it seems. If instead you're trying to point out how stupid and counterproductive such things as the DMCA and its ilk are, I wholeheartedly agree, but you're preaching to the choir (as no doubt the other responses will confirm).

Good luck and happy listening!

Word is, they've spliced human brain capacity into snakes, 800-pound gorillas, and dinosaurs.

Columbia Journalism Review's Who Owns What is an interesting read.

<a href="http://www.riaa.com">RIAA</a> - Raping Independent Artists of America
RIAA - Raping Independent Artists of America

Please check out the RIAA website at www.riaa.com. if anyone knows of other sites that are relevant to this, please post them. If anyone has it, I'd also like to find a phone number so that I can call in and let them know how I feel, would appreciate it if someone could post the relevant info.

The RIAA cannot get money from an artist or company that is not member. The RIAA is NOT a record company but a trade group whose main goal is to represent the U.S. recording industry (the record companies, artists, distributors, etc.). Its mission is to protect the right of artists, etc.

I believe membership fees for the RIAA are based on gross revenues... ahh this outlines it.

In some ways the RIAA is like the ACLU, almost everyone hates it at some point until it is defending a constitutional right that they care about.

-Shawn

The RIAA cannot get money from an artist or company that is not member. The RIAA is NOT a record company but a trade group whose main goal is to represent the U.S. recording industry (the record companies, artists, distributors, etc.). Its mission is to protect the right of artists, etc.

I believe membership fees for the RIAA are based on gross revenues... ahh this outlines it.

In some ways the RIAA is like the ACLU, almost everyone hates it at some point until it is defending a constitutional right that they care about.

-Shawn

Yeah, because corporations with bad business models have never done any damage to the internet.

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No, they're just saying that the RIAA lawyers are more likely to be slimeballs than porn site operators.

Before, I'd have expected them to be about on par, but this article does make a rather convincing arguement...

SCO.com is blocked by Google as a top result for "Litigious Bastards", I have a viable alternative:

Litigious Bastards.

I'd like to see which software Mitch Bainwol has on his desktop: Shareaza, eMule, BitTorrent, or DC++.

Bainwol had worked closely with then-National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Frist during the 2002 campaign cycle while serving as Executive Director of the NRSC.

With an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from Rice University, Bainwol began his career as a budget analyst in President Ronald Reagan's Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He went on to become a U.S. Senate leadership staff director from 1993-97, chief of staff of the Republican National Committee in 1998, and then a top lobbyist for the management consulting firm Clark and Weinstock in 1999.

During his career, he has managed two successful statewide campaigns and advised on numerous others. Before forming The Bainwol Group in 2002, he also served as chief of staff for U.S. Senator Connie Mack (R-FL) for nine years (1989-1997). Mack praised Bainwol's "ability to manage an organization, fully appreciate all the nuances of issues, and grasp in a very short period of time the essence of a debate."

The article also mentions: "Most customers don't care about the format they're downloading."

This is blatant BS. Most customer's would prefer non-DRMed MP3s, but due to one specific industry cartel there won't be any supply to meet that demand (except P2P).

This drives me nuts. People, remember who you are bashing. The RIAA is just a front for media companies that don't want their images tarnished.

This is a list of RIAA members

Remember - they *want* you to be upset at the RIAA. It is a convenient way to keep your attention focused on an antagonist, rather than the companies that it is backed by.

The RIAA is a membership organization. Their member list is online (it looks like a lot, but in fact most entries are labels that are owned by fewer than a dozen major media publishers).

They might have a contractual basis for enforcing copyright violations by their member organizations (i.e., Sony and Warner). The have NO basis for enforcing copyright violations by other publishers.

For the RIAA jack-booted thugs to enforce for labels or artists they don't represent is the same as you or I enforcing, on behalf of someone else. There's just no basis. Under the copyright law (US Title 17 USC, it's the infringed party that needs to pursue action -- not ANY party, and generally not even law enforcement (at least for garden variety copyright infringement....the feds get called in for fraud, for when banks are involved, and other cases).

In the LA Times article, the only title specifically mentioned was some sort of Latino hits from the 70s and 80s. Chances are that material is not represented by the RIAA. At a community radio station I worked with, the music directors decided not to put any RIAA member music on the play list. Know what? It turned out 80% was not, already! The other 20% wasn't painful at all - it was just a matter of putting it on another shelf, rather than the playlist shelf.

In short, there is a LOT of music that is not represented by the RIAA (a far higher proportion than video that's not represented by the MPAA). They have no business getting involved in any kind of enforcement action for artists or labels they don't have a relationship with.

Have at it

One of the most important jobs of the RIAA is to investigate the illegal production and distribution of sound recordings. It is estimated that such illegal product costs the music industry more than 300 million dollars a year domestically. The RIAA pursues a global policy comprised of education, enforcement, developing technologies, and when necessary, litigation.

The RIAA assists authorities in identifying music pirates and shutting down their operations. In piracy cases involving physical product, the RIAA works with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors? offices to coordinate seizures of pirated product. The RIAA-assisted raids have closed down hundreds of U.S. and overseas manufacturing and distributing operations, and significantly reduced illegal CD and cassette vending around the country.

So I guess they need to update it to inclue "taking the law into our own hands".

This tax benefits mainly folks like Celine Dion and Brian Adams and whomever sings those beer commercial songs. It doesn't benefit the artists of the rest of the world.

First, it's not a tax. It's a levy, tarrif or royalty, depending on who you talk to.

Second, it is imposed by international convention just about anywhere you would like to live. http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/resources/around_world. jsp. It is infact well-distributed around the world.

Third, they succeeded in imposing a very similar system in the U.S., it happened twelve years ago. The RIAA http://www.riaa.com/issues/licensing/default.asp is a member of the AARC, who admisters the royalties in the U.S. http://www.aarcroyalties.com/.

AHRA requires manufacturers of digital audio recorders and blank digital discs and tapes to pay royalties to the United States Copyright Office ("Copyright Office") for the benefit of eligible artists and sound recording copyright owners. This is to compensate artists and copyright owners for lost revenues because of the displaced sales caused by home taping.

I don't really understand this stuff myself, but just check out the websites. They have lots of info up there about what they're doing and why.

One thing I really don't understand, is why "Happy Birthday" can demand royalties direct through AOL/Time Warner, when systems like this are in place. Urban legend?

Nope, Okokrim is a state-owned unit prosecuting economic, computer and environmental crimes. At least in theory, they are pursuing lawbreakers on behalf of the Norwegian state (i.e. the Norwegian people).

RIAA is a trade association, an interest group for lobbying lawmakers and protecting the interests of publishers of recorded music. They are purely interested in squeezing the most amount of money out of music artists and consumers.

--Martin

There is a genuine bias and propaganda going on against Microsoft, the RIAA, and so forth.

Go to www.microsoft.com or www.riaa.com if you want to see true bias. All slashdot.org is doing is balancing out the absolute crapflood of biased, deceitful trash coming out of those camps. Slashdot on it's own may not be unbiased, but it certainly makes the net as a whole more balanced.

Any inkling of a worm, no matter how minor and ineffective, gets breathlessly reported the minute it's submitted.

Only major worms/viruses are reported. Unfortunately for M$, since its software is widely used, almost every worm/virus may have a major impact.

Meanwhile, you never hear a thing about the faults of Linux security, except when they're forced to, like with the breaches of GNU/FSF, GNOME, Debian, and Gentoo, all within the span of six months or so.

The volume of security posts here is comparable for linux and windows. We can't help it if M$ can't take valid criticism. There are entire websites devoted to Linux security and they are regularly mentioned here.

Personally, I'd like to see truth-in-advertising laws enforced in spirit as well as a technicality. That would force the marketing droids at M$, RIAA etc. to be a lot more honest than they are now. Send astroturfers to jail and make lying by burying conditions in unreadable contracts illegal for a start.

"Traditionally, radio is lesser quality than what the RIAA offers for sale, and previous comments have mentioned that the audio sounds compressed, so the possibility of the RIAA persuing any increased fees for XM or Sirius is slim, in my opinion."

Very slim, because the fees that radio stations pay go to artists, not the RIAA or even record companies.

The fees are paid through licenses from BMI and ASCAP, non-profit societies run by and for artists. And you can be sure that these licenses were negotiated with BMI and ASCAP long before the first satellites were launched.

"But this is because the RIAA is too busy chasing after the digital pirates, and don't have time for the "small time" operations of bootleggers, like Napster/KaZaa/etc. is the first time piracy has ever occured."

They bust CD pirates, counterfeiters and bootleggers quite a bit:

• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111703.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111303_2.asp

...it's just not discussed on /. much.

"Traditionally, radio is lesser quality than what the RIAA offers for sale, and previous comments have mentioned that the audio sounds compressed, so the possibility of the RIAA persuing any increased fees for XM or Sirius is slim, in my opinion."

Very slim, because the fees that radio stations pay go to artists, not the RIAA or even record companies.

The fees are paid through licenses from BMI and ASCAP, non-profit societies run by and for artists. And you can be sure that these licenses were negotiated with BMI and ASCAP long before the first satellites were launched.

"But this is because the RIAA is too busy chasing after the digital pirates, and don't have time for the "small time" operations of bootleggers, like Napster/KaZaa/etc. is the first time piracy has ever occured."

They bust CD pirates, counterfeiters and bootleggers quite a bit:

• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111703.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111303_2.asp

...it's just not discussed on /. much.

"Traditionally, radio is lesser quality than what the RIAA offers for sale, and previous comments have mentioned that the audio sounds compressed, so the possibility of the RIAA persuing any increased fees for XM or Sirius is slim, in my opinion."

Very slim, because the fees that radio stations pay go to artists, not the RIAA or even record companies.

The fees are paid through licenses from BMI and ASCAP, non-profit societies run by and for artists. And you can be sure that these licenses were negotiated with BMI and ASCAP long before the first satellites were launched.

"But this is because the RIAA is too busy chasing after the digital pirates, and don't have time for the "small time" operations of bootleggers, like Napster/KaZaa/etc. is the first time piracy has ever occured."

They bust CD pirates, counterfeiters and bootleggers quite a bit:

• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111703.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/121603.asp
• http://www.riaa.com/news/newsletter/111303_2.asp

...it's just not discussed on /. much.

I believe you can find the list of RIAA affiliated labels on their webpage here.

"Although it seems like more music companies are getting directly involved in the online music biz, I haven't seen any reports on what orgs like the RIAA really think about these commercial online music offerings."

RIAA on Napster/Penn State agreement

iTMS is a reseller, just like Amazon or Tower Records. And, a sale is a sale. Apple launched iTMS with the cooperation of the artists and record companies. I'm sure the record companies who've shared in Apple's good fortune are thrilled.

This leaves the economy. In one way the economy is definitely a big cause, as an unemployed person may be more liable to resort to pirating music than the same person would if they still had a job. But it's tough to blame the drop in CD sales entirely on the economy, for a couple of reasons: other forms of entertainment (including those that aren't piratable) haven't dropped nearly as much, and while the economy has had its ups and downs over the past several decades, this drop in CD sales is unprecedented.

You might want to look here.

It is worth noting that CD album sales began to drop right about when the economy tanked.

Mega Troll Lots of Good Trolls for Fodder Each entry is seperated by =====

CmdrTaco's "Gaping Anus", the true story of one faggot who turned a god awful deformity into a music career

It has recently come to my attention that the entire Slashdot crew engage in homosexual activities. CmdrTaco [cmdrtaco.net] is one such person, and has dedicated his life to this disgusting habit and many others [e-t-r.net]. For further information on Taco-Snotting please refer to George WIPO Bush's Taco-Snotting FAQ which can be easily found by searching for the Slashdot journal of George WIPO Bush [slashdot.org] or by looking in the comments of Slashdot articles (Usually modded -1).
Update: The WIPO Troll has passed away [slashdot.org] but he lives on in our hearts.

It has also come to my attention that CmdrTaco has other interests besides homosexuality (Believe it or not). One such interest includes a budding music career with a song titled "Gaping Anus". The details are sketchy on this topic but I do know that besides the lead vocals of CmdrTaco, it includes Timothy and CowboyNeal (Also members of the Slashdot crew). There has been no release date set for this album or which record label it will be produced under. I believe CmdrTaco is planning to set up his own label, Taco-Snotting Records [riaa.com], with the intention of releasing [massivecumshots.com] the song on a cd-single with various remixes as soon as possible (To catch the current popularity of the Taco-Snotting fad). Various remixes of Gaping Anus will include: "Extra Jizz", "Snot Me Baby One More Time" [britneyspears.com], "www.Goatse.cx" [goatse.cx], and "Once You Taco-Snot, You Can't Stop" [pringles.com]. I am sure many, many, more are sure to come. I predict this album will be a very hot seller this holiday season, especially with in or out of closet homosexuals [resist.com], and with those who have no self-respect (Readers of Slashdot) [goatse.cx].

Through a good, non-homosexual [bsnn.net] friend of mine, I have recieved a copy of the lyrics to Gaping Anus. Included after the lyrics is a very speical tribute written by yours truely. Perhaps CmdrTaco will ask me to provide the vocals. Please feel free to read the lyrics and post your comments and disgust.

BTW, please do not reply with the intention of flaming [advicemeant.com] me because the lyrics are a rip-off of Insane Clown Posse's [insaneclownposse.com] "Slim Anus" [realjuggalos.com]. For more information on ICP and Slim Anus refer here [planet-eminem.com] and here [mp3mtv.com]. CmdrTaco is the author of this fine musical work and not me. So, it is obviously he who has ripped off ICP and not me. Thank you.

Hi, my name is what?
My name is who?
My name is Gaping Anus
Hi, my name is huh?
My name is what?
My name is the fudgepacker
Hi, my name is what?
My name is who? (Excuse me)
My name is the nutlicker
Hi, my name is what? (Can I have the attention of your ass?)
My name is who?
My name is the buttsniffer

Hi, kids do you like Anus?
I let Linus Torvalds fill up my butt for a chance to be