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SBC Fights RIAA Over DMCA Subpoenas
NaDrew writes "SFGate.com is running an AP article about Pac Bell's Internet arm suing music industry over file-sharer IDs. 'The suit also called to question some sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the federal law the RIAA contends supports its latest legal actions. A spokesman for SBC said the RIAA's use of the DMCA in its legal quest for online song-sharers butts up against the privacy rights of SBC's customers.
"The action taken by SBC Internet Services is intended to protect the privacy of our customers," said SBC spokesman Larry Meyer.'" So SBC, like Verizon, is concerned about the cost/hassle of complying with all the subpoenas it has been receiving.
BuyMusic.com Ripping Off Artists
from http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/29/151021 1
posted by Cannonball on Tuesday July 29, @09:57AM
from the oh-this-sounds-interesting. dept.
Jody Whitesides writes "My name is Jody Whitesides, I'm an artist that is about to be brought to the Apple iTunes Music Store. Of course I recently heard about BuyMusic so I decided to point my Mac browser at it (with Javascript turned off you can see the site)." Jody ran into some trouble with BuyMusic that is very troubling: they're ripping him off. Dig Deeper for the whole story.
I did a search for one of my old CD's that will be going onto iTunes and It turns out my CD was there on BuyMusic.com. As were the CD's of several other bands that I'm friends with. All of whom were not contacted about being placed for sale there.
Here's what I've deduced... BuyMusic.com (which I will refer to as BM) got their "vast" music library of 300,000 plus songs from a company called the Orchard. The Orchard is a distribution company that has consistently shafted artists by not paying them for CD's sold nor returning unsold CD's or cancelling contracts. So, without the express consent of what is likely lots of the Orchards catalog, BM has put it up for sale at the bargain price of $.79 a song.
So now, they can tout they're selling tracks at $.79 and they can say they have a library of music of over 300,000 songs. But what they don't tell you is that it comes from musicians/bands that were not asked for permission, and who will likely not see a penny of any sale made through BM. By their very own site policy they are committing copyright infringement. They have done this to lure PC/windows users to their site in hopes to sell the few major label aquired songs they do have, at a price that is much higher than Apple's $.99.
I'm currently looking into legal means to have my music removed from their site and strongly encourage users to not browse BM's site nor purchase from it."
We contacted Jody this week to discuss his story, and he's promised to keep us informed in his battle with Orchard and BuyMusic.com. He also gave us the following information:
"At that time I did a distribution deal (1997-98). The original contract was to set me up with Brick and Mortar distribution, nothing else.
Fast forward a couple of years. I dissolved the band, but kept the disc and still sold it, since I own it. At one point I was notified. That I had some sales with the Orchard, but since it was so random and I hadn't dealt with them in so long, I never got paid. Though they asked for more CD's.
Then they announced they were having financial troubles and were going to go out of business. At this point lots of artists with them were having difficulty getting their merchandise back. I just decided to "screw it" not worry about it, that I would never see the small amount from the sales and call it a loss.
Fast Forward again to last week. It came to my attention that BuyMusic was up. So I tried to get in to see the hubbub. Mostly cause I'm so excited to be finally getting onto iTunes. Immediately I wasn't happy with BuyMusic, being a Mac lover. I then got word that anyone who was with the Orchard may very well be on BuyMusic. I went to double check and sure enough my old CD (Amalgam - Delicate Stretch of the Seems) that I still control and own was up there, for sale without my permission. This made my blood boil.
I contacted several of my friends who had also done deals with the Orchard and found they are on BuyMusic as well, not mention that they were not told of this either and all of them thought the Orchard was out of business.
I started going to the Orchard's site, found that they still seem to be conducting business, unfortunately I can no longer get into my account cause the information there is so old that I don't have it anymore. I also started going through their catalog
Suggestion for /code update.
Make people pass a test where they know the definition of troll before they are allowed to post or moderate...
_____________________
< Thanks for the fish >
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\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
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...in a single sentence?
/ They smear your computer \ /
\ with cow shit, thats how!
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
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You're right, those two quotes do have something very important in common: you made them both up.
American girls and American guys will always stand up and salute;
Will always recognize
When we see ol' glory flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our head.
My daddy served in the army,
Where he lost his right eye.
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.
Now this nation that I love has fallen under attack.
A mighty sucker punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man we lit up your world like the Fourth of July.
Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
It's gonna feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!
Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage.
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A
'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way.
Hey Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly,
And there's gonna be Hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!
Of the Red, White and Blue..
Of my Red, White and Blue...
The new Slashdot business model inserts a line 15 in there that says to pull news links from Fark.com.
2) Read the instructions
3) Start posting cows to slashdot
Example.MOOKORE - At the herd of the game!
Why was the parent modded Troll? It's obviously just a joke using a bunch of acronyms. Sheesh, mods having a bad day at home or something?