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RIAA Smacked by DoS
nekid writes "ZDNet is reporting that the RIAA's website was hit by a denial-of-service (DoS) attack over the weekend, most likely in response to their endorsement of legislation that would give them permission to do the same to personal computers that are pirating music (see earlier article). Seems to me that they are killing themselves with bad public relations..." But it seems to me that they don't care, and are instead
banking on the ignorance of the bulk of the world.
add this:
/ www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/ proxy-list/ :)
--user-agent="MSIE/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt)" --execute="http_proxy=xxxx:zzzz"
where xxxx:yyyy is the IP:port of a HIGH ANONYMITY web proxy, which you can get from one of several online lists, such as:
http://www.stayinvisible.com/page1.html
http:/
etc.
Frankly, as a human being sometimes you may be forced to break the law to do the morally correct thing. For example, just before the Civil War there was a federal law called "futive slave law". It said that an escaped slave was to be returned to its owner.
However, many people in the North disregarded this law and did the morally correct thing of helping runaways slaves (this was not without risk - you could wind up in jail).
Current situation may not be as clear cut as slavery. But you can argue that we are protecting our individual freedom of expression and normal methods (i.e. letter writing etc) are not working, so extraordinary measures are needed.
...richie - It is a good day to code.
"When Napster was big, I purchased 75-100 CDs in two years and enjoyed about 80% of them. Since then, I have purchased about 10 CDs and enjoyed about 20% of them."
While that may be the case for you, unfortunately in my experience, for every one person who purchases more cd's, ten more think, "Hey, why the hell should I spend money on CDs when I can get them for free?" I know that at first I bought more CDs due to Napster/Audiogalaxy, but as time went on it began to get easier and easier to justify not shelling out the $18 ("Why don't I wait and buy ***** DVD instead...oh wait...I can download that too.) Maybe that says more about the RIAA's price structure, I don't know.
But with entertainment and diversion literally everywhere we go, it seems to me that most people will take whatever they can get for free, no matter the moral justification. We live in a culture that has taken the concept of "me-first" and run with it.
While I think your view is ideal, I think the truth of the matter is quite different. (Not that it justifies the draconian actions of the RIAA/MPAA and their congress-critters.)
The RIAA doesn't have the knowledge or the skill to do it themselves so they hire companies who do this sort of thing for a living. They pay a certain amonut per song as a base, so many cents (usually about 1.5 cents) per scan, per protocol, then pay the same amount again when they find the files, then so much to send a Cease and Desist Letter. They scan about every 15 minute, or determined by the label. They can run up huge numbers in just a couple of days for popular acts. Who pays? The artist of course, as it goes into their recoupable account, that never shrinks.
DMusic.com has an article with audio of the California Senate Hearings if you want the lowdown on the labels accounting. (Streaming MP3)it can be found Here especially enlightning is Don Engel's and Fred Wolinski's testimony.