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RIAA Warns Individual Swappers
Joey Patterson writes "CNET News.com reports that the RIAA has sent cease-and-desist letters to four individuals for allegedly pirating its music on P2P networks." They have yet to publicly release the names of who they have contacted, but 4 of the 5 were Verizon subscribers involved with their previous high profile case.
First of all, these people aren't 'swapping' anything. That implies a trade where one item (or file) is exchanged for another one, with an implied transfer of ownership. They are COPYING music from one another, not trading it (and trading CDs is NOT illegal, contrary to what some seem to believe).
And that brings me to rant #2. It's easy to regard the RIAA as an Evil(tm) organization when you read (and believe) some of the things people claim the RIAA believes/practices. People here have claimed that the RIAA wants such things as making individual backups of personal CDs, and playing said backups on their computer illegal, and that is simply not true! People make these claims without providing a shred of evidence to back up their assertions. They might as well be accusing Hillary Rosen of violating young children, with as much proof they base their statements on.
Please read this article which clarifies many of the misconceptions about the RIAA's position on fair usage. I think some of you will be very surprised (I know I was).
Is the RIAA perfect? Not even close. But putting words into their mouth for the sake of tricking people into thinking you know something they don't is no way to conduct an honest and meaningful discussion.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
In a word, NO. They ratted a customer to the US Navy without any legal basis for doing so. Check here
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I'm no lawyer, but aren't there laws regarding selective enforcement? How were these people chosen over the rest of their p2p buddies?
e y-to-pay-settlement people, then it could probably be argued they are profiling. But I'd guess they'd send C&D letters to everyone they can, and take a few high profile traders and make examples of them.
Selective enforcement only comes into play when there's a possibility of civil rights being violated. Firing an employee because their age, race, handicap, sexual lifestyle, etc, is illegal.
In a long line of speeding cars, the officer can choose any car he wants to pull over. If all cars were identical, with tinted windows so the officer could not see inside, and everyone had the same plates, then there would be no concern about "profiling", which is illegal.
Since all the users were anonymous until Verizon released their names, there's no "selective enforcement", as long as it sent C&D letters to all the people. If they got 100 names, and sent letters to 30 that seemed to be middle-class can't-afford-a-good-lawyer-but-still-has-some-mon
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
This week, NPR reported that indie labels are doing better than the Big Record Companies; for example, one major folk label (I believe 'twas Rounder Records) just had its best year EVER.
The clear and obvious conclusion: Folkies and indie listeners are less prone to dastardly thieving music piracy than, say, Metallica listeners. Of course, the other explanation, that some labels are actually carrying acts people WANT to listen to as opposed to pushing mass-produced synthetic sound-alike cardboard cutout bands and buying air play for them, THAT explanation is too preposterous to consider...
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."