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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?"
I can see it now....
you have bought the new Britney Spears CD...congratulations on your excellent choice and fine musical selection...
LEGALESE: - This CD may not be resold or reproduced in any matter...opening this CD certifies that you agree to this stipulation.
----
and the legal warning will be on the inside of the CD...bastards..
on the bright side, that should galvanize mainstream support against them...maybe only a small percentage download mp3's, but I'm willing to be a higher proportion of people use used mom and pop shops....if for no other reason then to acquire out of print material...shut those down and America will maybe open their eyes...
of course...they do buy Britney Spears...how smart can they be...
RB
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ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
Well, first the public has to know that there *is* an RIAA.
The Slashdot crowd may be familiar with them, but I guarantee that 99% of the music-buying public has never even heard of them. And I'm sure the RIAA likes it that way.
Anyone have details about this? I can't find anything on google. Who is the "they?" Is this Illinois law, or Chicago or Cook County? Is this even true that I would have to have my photo and SSN taken when I buy a used DVD? Are the RIAA and MPAA behind this? What the hell is going on?
Call me a cynic, but this is a handy opportunity to:
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
Commercial outlets (valid copyright infringers) is where they SHOULD have started with in the beginning!
Back-in-the-day it would torque me to no end buying discount tapes (cassett thank you) in retail stores, only to open them and find they were obvious, cheep bootlegs even before playing them twice before breaking.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
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%?
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
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.
The article just talks about *counterfeit* copies.
RTFA first.
I think it's good they turn to something they can actually enforce. 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.
[sarcastick grin]Go RIAA[/sarcastic grin]
I hate the fact that you people don't salute me
Could the speculation please be saved for the comments page? The blurb for the article is about 1/3 informative, and 2/3 wild speculation about how it's an evil attempt to shut down used music stores (even though the article said nothing about it.)
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
I say Hillary should go on down to the Salvation Army and get into a fight with a drunk about whether or not he can buy those "New Kids on The Block" and "Menudo" cassettes.
Maybe they'll take her in the back room and beat her head with a 40 Oz. 'till the white meat shows.
Sigh...dare to dream...
Seems like some of these are actions would be legitimate. The problem, of course, is where to draw the line. Personally, I think as soon as you start burning CD's for profit then you are pirating. Burning for your own use? That's when the overzealousness kicks in.
My own personal theoary as to why CD sales are down has to do with local bands. Your local garage band can now make tonnes of CD's of their music fairly cheaply, by-passing the usual media outlets. People buy the music they want from the concerts they go to, and the particular bands that interest them.
Until the record labels realize that, however, they are going to continue to bleed green.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
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.
of course their declining record sales have nothing to do with the public is now fed up of mass marketed pop music where record contracts are won not by original musical talent and song writing , but by nieve and desperate individuals in f***ing competitions while real talent falls into the gutter, leaving a trail of destruction in its path while the instigators get rich.
The only thing killing music is not kids downloading mp3's or pirating dvds at market stalls
why is it that so many companies have so much contempt for their customers and choose to be greedy instead of actually concentrating on superior products ?
1)Open a CD Shop.
2)Sell the original with a copy CD with the tracks in mp3/ogg/whatever as a backup/digital medium copy.
3)Shovel millions to lawyers.
4)Counter sue for violating fair use.
5)After losing every court battle give up and bitch about it on slashdot.
Isn't this the same RIAA press release that spawned a recent Reg article?
Well, that's only fair. I mean, it's pretty obvious they've lost their own...
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
They need to blow Electronics Boutique out of the water for trafficking in used DVDs (including music video DVDs)... not to mention played (and presumably copied) games.
Then they can go after Walmart because they re-release some of their products after editing the content.
After that, might as well go after Borders & FYE, because of those machines that let you listen to the music before you buy. After all, not buying a CD because it sucks is bad for business.
I've been with EMusic for a while now too, and for the most part I like 'em.
However, be aware that it's not totally unlimited now. There are a number of posts on CNET from customers who have had their accounts terminated after downloading too much in too short a time, and when I asked (quite politely) their customer service department about this, I got a response back that started:
"Although EMusic is an 'unlimited' service, there have to be some restrictions on this policy. EMusic is similar to a buffet advertised as 'all you can eat.' For the restaurant to be successful, it has to have reasonable limitations that apply to people that stay too long, eat more than their fair share -- or waste food."
So their definition of unlimited means unlimited up until a limit. They claim in their e-mail that it's "more than 2,000 tracks in a 30-day period", I haven't personally tested this myself.
At least in the time since I got their e-mail (November 23rd), they've changed the "Unlimited" on their webpage to say "Unlimited*".
As a business plan, suing everyone is not very clever. What happens when the RIAA has sued all of their customers, retailers, and distributors?
Does that mean they'll finally go away?
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.
Just a quick comment:
1. Ask to talk to the manager of the store. Explain the CD won't play. Get another one to replace it. If it will not play, ask for another one. Continue until either they give you your money back or you get one which will play.
2. If the manager won't do #1, then call the district office. Nothing makes a manager more willing to bend over backwards than to have someone higher up telling him to kiss your...er...feet.
3. If #2 doesn't work, then call the state office.
4. If #3 doesn't work, call the regional office.
5. If #4 doesn't work, call the national office.
6. By this time you should already either have your money back or five or six CDs as they try to appease you.
7. If #6 hasn't happened, then write a letter to the president of the corporation care of their national office. Presidents do NOT like to be disturbed by peasants....er customers and, truth to tell, I've never had to go past this point.
8. However! IANAL says: "Because CDs are sold shrinkwrapped they can not be listened to (in most major stores) before they are purchased and thus fall under the auspices of state and federal laws which guarantee that, if you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may return it." This is where the big controversy comes from. People are buying CDs and games, copying them, and then returning them for a refund. That isn't right. Either buy it and live with the outrageous costs or boycott it and live without the CD/game. Anything else is illegal. (And yeah - I know - second hand games, CDs, etc....blah blah blah. I'm talking about first time purchases at a store. Not over the internet, from your neighbor's dog, or whatever.)
There is no such thing as "You can't have your money back" in retail. My mom used to work for Montgomery Wards - ladies underwear. People would bring back underwear they'd worn for the past ten years and ask for brand new replacements! One lady only had the elastic left. The cloth had rotted away. Doesn't that strike you as going a bit overboard on the "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back?" I do and I've never worked for Montgomery Wards.
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
I thought they were something specifically produced for this market, but after reading the article I think the RIAA has the right to go after these guys. Its one thing to make copies for personal use, but entirely another to mass produce and sell them in a convenience store chain.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
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.
Rather they seem to be using this as an opportunity to intimidate alternative outlets and spread their unique interpretation fo the truth. I always find it amusing that they continue to blame various forms of piracy for the decline of sales, even in light of continuing revelations to the contrary. Of course, the sad thing is that the report just regurgitate the alleged facts.
The RIAA is probably most concerned about lack of control. They went through a lot of trouble insuring that they had control over the record stores. They have lost some of that control though discounters, but managed to minimize the loss through marketing deals. This is just another symptom of their compulsive control behavior. It is impossible to control all these little outlets, and therefor their price fixing policies will not be as effective.
Clearly, the media is not going to fix this. The congress is not going to fix this. I encourage everyone to go out into their communities and find independent music. Buy tickets to local concerts at local venues. Buy the CDs. Do not copy the music. We will only create a new market if we are willing to support the new market.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I think your local mom and pop have an excellent opportunity to provide entertainment to their customers, while at the same time supporting musicians who are not under the thumb of an RIAA member's oppressive contract scheme.
;)
Tell the people who run Geraldi's - as well as the owners of other local stores - to get into the local music scene in your city, and to buy the CDs of unsigned local musicians. Tell them to talk with the musicians and get their approval and blessing to play their music in those local stores and restaurants.
It's free publicity for the musicians, especially if the merchants put up a sign indicating what CDs they are playing that day (and how to get your own/where to go to listen to a live show), and the merchants provide an interesting feature to attract more customers.
Then, when Hilary Rosen shows up at Geraldi's and says, I thought I told you to stop playing music here or pay our licensing fees, he can tell her to go fsck herself.
If you can simply go to the local library and borrow a cd what is to stop you from ripping it. And since all customers are pirates, the only logical conclusion is to sue those libraries.
Oh, wait, we had better call the MPAA because I just found out you can get the books that some movies are based on, then you can take them home and type them into Word and print them out. Maybe they should sue MS for creating a software program that can be used to copy copyrighted material.
I'm glad we have some responsibe organizations looking out for our interests.
You can't take the sky from me
When I was in Moscow three years ago I bought the complete works of R.E.M. and Brian Eno in MP3 format for 3 dollars each from a street vendor. I could have also bought Windows ME (except I have better taste than that) and hundreds of other titles for the same price. Mom and Pop, gas stations and the dude with the duffle bag selling pirated music at the bus stops in Richmond, VA (where i'm currently located) have nothing compared to the overseas countfeiters.
Car makes to sue all used car dealerships.
And, I just can't wait until the day I have to pay royalties for a cd that I have already purchased.
Good thing parroting disinformation never happens here.
Don't get me wrong, I can't stand lazy journalists. Some simply copy press releases into their stories. It is galling when you catch them at it. As soon as you have some expertise in an area, or even read enough, news that previously looked credible falls apart.
That's a reason to be very distrustful of reporting on legal proceedings. It is so easy to blow the details, especially if you're being lobbied by one side or the other and not trying to hard in the first place. Making deadline becomes everything.
There are some great reporters, learn their names, follow them if they change employment. Linda Greenhouse at the Times is a superb legal reporter, and a very good writer for everyone. Here is her 12/11/02 report on a free speech and cross burning case (this has more in common with the DMCA than you might think!).
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.
...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.
To add to this advice: remember that the ASCAP and BMI licenses are in principle for the songwriters, not the performers. You'll have to be very careful not to play anything that's even remotely close to a cover of a copyrighted song.
Here's a thought:
People should e-mail CNN or Associated Press about their shoddy article and let them know we prefer reading news reports from people who can regurgitate press releases accurately?
-- Askari: Give JavaScript the bird.
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.
Now the RIAA will provide us with EULA's, since they are the only way I can think of to prevent me (legally) from re-selling a cd which is not a pirated copy, nor a demo "not-for-distribution" disc.
I think the RIAA needs to take a step back from the glue machine, as the fumes are obviously affecting them. You idiots EXIST to provide us with entertainment, that's what we pay you for... not to be called thieves and have even the most basic of property rights twisted and abused to the point where our founding fathers would run screaming in terror. The people who run the RIAA are EVIL "tin-plated dictators with delusions of godhood" (fair-use quote, *ptttb*), and their monopolistic hold over the recording industry needs to be broken.