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RIAA Now Targeting Retailers
merodach writes "According to this story on Headlinenews.com the RIAA is now targeting retailers in it's 'war on piracy.' I think everyone will agree this is something that should be done if the retailer is deliberately pirating. The thing I wonder about in hearing this news is how many of the retailers include used copy stores. With the way the RIAA and some artists *cough*Garth Brooks*cough* have labeled these stores as pirates and theives in the past it seems likely they would be the biggest targets. Have any in the /. crowd actually seen one of the letters sent or know how many of the targeted businesses are used stores? Further - how would the RIAA know how much to demand in 'settlement fees' and is it possible these are being used to shut down the mom-and-pop outfits that trade in used CDs?"
Those mom and pop stores are merely selling plastic and aluminium disks...They are not selling/ the rights to play those disks in a CD player.
Now, if I remember correctly, 90% of record companies belong to the RIAA. What about the 10%? what gives the RIAA the right to pretend to represent that last 10%?
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I went to WalMart the other day and was told by the manager that it was against the DMCA to allow returns or refunds of computer software and/or CDs.
:-/
It took a while (and I had to go pretty far up the chain of command) to assure them that Congress never wrote "All businesses have to give refunds/returns except WalMart" in the DMCA.
Something to be on the look-out for.
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
But I'm so damn disgusted with the whole mess I don't even bother. In the napster heyday I was buying music like crazy. More than I had in years. I'm in my 40's and way out of the demographic for music comsumers, but I was downloading on napster and finding new music and buying cd's like I was a teen again. Since the riaa nonsence I've stoped buying cd's (althoug I did become a member of emusic, what a great collection of jazz and blues. actually I see emusic as the worlds largest cut out bin.) I refuse to buy my teenage daughter any cd's this christmas. screw the greed of the record companies. And to top it off, my mother bought some crappy cd at target that refuses to play in her older cd player. she's returned it twice and they refuse to give her a refund. I just can't believe how insanely stupid the record companies are. treating your customers like thieves and criminals is no way to run a business... but a perfect way to ruin one. fark the record companies right in the arse. they desirve it. morons.
Further proof to feed the engine that says the RIAA/MPAA are paranoid and greedy.
Biting the hand that feeds isn't particularly the smartest move they could make, I mean it is retailers that sell their product, and they are the reason that retailers went over to selling used CDs on the side. It allows them to get by the high margins that the RIAA/MPAA set. If the RIAA had reasonable pricing that still allowed for the media retailers to put a comfortable margin on top for their operating costs and keep the prices under $15 (which we all know they could) then there wouldn't be as many shops going the used CD route.
There is plenty of room for everyone to make money, but the RIAA isn't interested in sharing, by keeping prices artificially high the RIAA makes it so that only the very big chains can afford to sell their products and actually make money (through bulk orders). They choke out the smaller stores, and then only have a few large, very sue-able, entities in which to do buisness. THis way they can control the distribution almost as much (if not as much) as they do the production.
but thats just my take on the situation.
"If I were bound by all laws everywhere I'm sure I would have committed a capital crime somewhere."
Last week, Secret Service agents in New York arrested three men and seized 35,000 illegally copied music discs, 10,000 movies on DVD and 421 compact disc burners that are used to make the counterfeit products.
I guess the "equivalent of 421 compact disc burners" has now officially become 421 compact disc burners.
+1 for the RIAA spinmeister team.
-1 for truth.
Just last week I went down to Geraldi's, my favorite local mom and pop sub shop (seating capacity of about 8, counting the outside table) here in downtown Portand, and noticed a handwritten sign taped to one of the coolers. It reads Now, I guess I'm still ambivalent/undecided about the greater argument here, but this particular injunction - visited upon a struggling and honest small business owner - just struck me as being thorough to the point of malice.
Obviously the owner isn't making any additional sandwich sales from having RIAA-approved background music playing as opposed to the TV news or whatever. Certainly not $265/year's worth.
Decentralization: the brief interval between the decline of one centralized regime and rise of another.
There has been a dramatic drop in the release of new artists and CDs in the last (approximately) two years. Something around 30% less. These sort of figures would show a court that the RIAA would seem to be interested in nothing more than control and to gain control distortion of the facts is a legimate tactic.
/. or TheRegister (possibly the BBC or New York Times).
Distortion of the truth is nothing new. Politicians, newspapers and even myself are guilty of it by omitting facts or over emphasis of point. But all three of us have some accountability, in my case either my manager or my wife.
Can a group like the EFF get a test case going (like in the original BetaMax case) to see what the courts would decide. Then the FUD would die right off.
I forget where I read it. It would have been either
"There is magic in the web." - Othello Act 3 Scene 4.
I mean, come on... we didn't think we were actually buying anything, did we? We haven't allowed ourselves to believe that the physical media into which copyrighted information is embedded actually becomes property once paid for, have we? How silly... we're lucky, some may even say blessed, to have so wonderous an oportunity as to pay a one-time (and fully taxable) fee for indefinite rental rights to said vessel of copyrighted creation. Resale? Don't you feel that this is asking a bit much? The RIAA can only do so much, and I feel that it is childish (perhaps even morally wrong) for us to continue whining in this fashion. All we do is take, take, take from this honorable, upstanding congregation of the most hardworking individuals in the recording world. Perhaps, instead of crying over some antiquity that is the idea of "used" record stores, we should take this moment to give something back to the RIAA. I say: rush out and show the true colors of your consumerism this instant! Don't be shy, you know you want the "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" soundtrack...
Isn't this the same RIAA press release that spawned a recent Reg article?
the problem with the riaa's strategy against used cd shops is that the shops themselves don't carry pirated cds.
customer a sells a cd to the shop. shop marks up the cd 20 to 50%. then sells to customer b. customer b copies the cd at home (or several selected songs) and returns the cd. the result is that customer b gets his or her music for a couple of bucks all of which goes to the shop.
the problem for the riaa is that the shop never has an illegal cd, never has to copy them. and i sincerely doubt that used cd shops keep records of their customers. and even if they did, the riaa has no grounds to simply requisition customer lists and search their residences.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
It's much easier to walk into Bob's Illegal CDs and bust the poor Bob than some dynamically assigned IP of a poor script kiddy.
Honestly have you ever been to a retail store which deals in pirated CDs? Is this really a problem in Amerika today? If I was a retailer who had to make rent and keep customers happy I'd probably find it easier to play by the rules and sell legit stock. The ONLY place I have ever seen pirated software for open sale was on the streets on NYC. I find it hard to believe that the problem is as widespread as it is being portrayed by the RIAA.
And while I'm on the topic the notion that used CDs are a "pirate market" because the license only applies to the first sale is insane and hypocritical. If all they are is alumiminum disks (completely unconnected to the license agreement) then I should be able to copy/transmit/backup the physical media at will and there should be a mechanism for me to sell my legally purchased license. Possesion is 9/10 of the law.
alex
--- Wherever you go, everyone is always connected...
Umm... you do know requiring a person to give their SSN for anything but tax and social security purposes is a federal crime right?
Here you go: Missing RIAA figures shoot down "piracy" canard, which is based in turn on RIAA's Statistics Don't Add Up to Piracy by George Ziemann
I submitted this very interesting piece yesterday but it was rejected.
You gotta be shittin me..you sure they ask for it?
I know the previous post was a troll, but I'll bite. Yes, many do ask for it so that they can look into your background and check your records. But it's also perfectly legal to not have a SSN...My newspaper ran a story the other day about an old lady who thinks that SSN's are like the mark of the beast so she doesn't have one. The article also mentioned that these colleges and retailers by law can't discriminate against people without SSN's. Just food for thought.
A lot of smaller bands also encourage people to copy their cds and give them to their friends.
Its unfortunate that every sale lost to completely legal alternatives is going to be used by the RIAA as a sale lost to P2P filesharing. Which, in turn, will be used as ammo by them to convince beurocrats to pass laws in their favour. In the end it will make it harder for the little guys to freely distribute their music.
We could very well have an internet in 50 years that looks the same as radio today. There will always be "pirate" stations, but the liscenced and government-approved ones will hold the vast majority of the audience.
there are 3 places with in a 10 min drive from my house that sell counterfiet and bootleg CDs. Usually in this area they put stickers on them stating 'surface noise' or 'import' or something similar. The scary thing is that they sell well even at 'import' prices. I have seen this trend through out most of my travels. They are usually found intermixed with the legit stock. Keep your eyes open and you will see them (I refuse to beleive that this is isolated only to the areas where I travel and do business)
They certainly do. I worked with applications records once, and the SSN is certainly in there. It's not mandatory - people can choose to not give it, although I don't know if we advertised this. We had lots of international applications which didn't have SSNs. We would just make up a number for these people, and for anyone in the US that didn't want to give out their SSN.
Note that you have to give out your SSN when applying for federal student aid, but that's usually a separate thing....
I like how riaa links the drop in sales to pirating , but they never bring up the fact that the price of new CD's is now closing in on $20. Economics 101 says that when the price increases sales should fall. Could this be the real reason for the drop ion sales?
Why do we continue to complain about this ?
I simply stopped buying music
I do listen to the radio, but I dont even have any MP3's because, well I dont like the fucking music anymore!!!!
If you really want to cost the RIAA money stop funding them, make them profit-less so they cant afford their attorney fee's and go the way of Enron
Once the RIAA is dead, support your local bands and live freely and happily
A lot of music stores near me, in predominantly Black neighborhoods, advertise that they sell "mix tapes". When I've been in NYC, I've seen mix tapes to be basically illegally recorded "greatest hits" from various artists, usually the popular songs of the day. These have always seemed fairly illegal to me.
I wonder if the RIAA is going to go after these people, and if this is going to raise an uproar in the Black community; these tapes seem to be part of the culture.
Electronic Boutique is pretty cool about it. I bought a couple games there last month, and they said I could return them for any reason within two weeks. Exchange for anything else in the store, no problem. It could be that they recognize me by now, I do spend a certain amount there every year.
But I also checked their website, and they'll accept returns on anything within 30 days.
Not all merchants distrust their customers.
This is incorrect.
In the US, it's illegal for the government to ask you for this information without a law stating they can, and they have to explain to you why they need it and quote the law authorizing it.
None of this applies to the private world. A company is perfectly within their rights to ask you for your SSN as part of a transaction.
But you're also perfectly within your rights to refuse. In many cases, it just means escellating to a manager to see why they'd need something like your SSN, and whether they could use something else instead. In other cases, it means walking out and taking your business elsewhere.
Sometimes they just want a unique ID number and aren't smart enough to come up with something better than your SSN, and the clerks just don't know any better.
...they imposed a similar requirement on pawn shops, that they get ID and I think even take a Polaroid. The reason of course was to make it harder for either thief or merchant to fence stolen goods. There was some controversy because of the expense, and I'm sure someone had to have complained about privacy. It does seem intrusive, but so are the burglars that feed this thriving market. Good idea? Bad idea? I'd like to see more information first. Legal idea? I think so.
Who is "they"? I thought it was by local ordinance, the city of Chicago, maybe Cook County. You can find out from an affected merchant or City Hall. They *might* be online.
Oh hey, I'm right. Check for more news on this, especially challenges anyone has raised.
Anyway, extending a pawn shop reg to used DVD stores is not much of a stretch, so perhaps this is the City again. It sounds legal and reasonable under the City's police powers but, again, intrusive. Although the basic idea is OK, I imagine the fight would go to just how much information is collected. The details are critical. Don't forget to contact your aldermen and the mayor's office if you need to.
In a way, what we are seeing here is gratifying. It's pretty clear that the RIAA has completely abandoned all pretense of being the good guys. Notice that they've even lightened up on the "protecting artists" blather lately? They know nobody buys that crap anymore. The RIAA has entered the thrashing, raving, foaming at the mouth stage, where they don't care how ugly they are or who sees it.
The RIAA is a doomed vampire that knows it is about to turn into dust and blow away. It is frantically looking around for any exposed vein it can still suck before the sun comes up.
Nice.
This kind of thing might be covered under laws for Pawn Shops, which in my area are the ones that usually cell used CD's.
I've bought tools and such from Pawn shops and never had to show ID, but when I sold to them I had to fork it over.
Suck it Trebeck! Suck it long and Suck it Hard.