Few Takers For RIAA's "Clean Slate"

gbulmash writes "In the wake of the RIAA's highly-criticized "Clean Slate" program, a recent article about P2P United reveals that the RIAA has only had 838 takers for their file swapping amnesty offer. That's less than 1/1000th of one percent of the estimated number of P2P users worldwide."

Comments

they must be kdding...

[cRueLio]

do they think that i'm gonna turn myself in and possible be closely watched etc. when I can just keep on sharing files with almost 0% chance of getting caught!?? heh! this is the funniest thing i've ever heard. i'm gonna take my chances and keep on sharing ... (using PeerGuardian - you can never be too careful) ...

This surprises me

[scrote-ma-hote]

I would have thought that it would have been more than this. There's a lot of P2P sharers out there, and surely some of them wouldn't understand the ramifications of what they were doing. Then they see this, think "that's good, I won't get into trouble now", and get a clean slate. 838 is ridiculously low.

Re:This surprises me

[Davak]

An older buddy of mine got scared, called, and said that he would stop sharing files. They told him to delete everything and that he would not be charged. End of story. They never took his name, number, sent him a get-out-of-free card, or anything.

So...

I'm assuming if they come after you. one can just erase everything and say, "I called and the guy said if I erase everything, you would forgive me."

Misplaced use of the word "only"

[Transient0]

I think that one in a thousand is actually a pretty high rate. Considering the rather dubious ground that the law-suits are actually resting on, and the fact that this dubious ground has been at least mentioned in a lot of media, I'm not at all surprised to hear that 99.9% of people are at least waiting long enough to talk to their lawyers before caving in.

All us "geeks" know better than to jump at the chance to prostrate ourselves before the RIAA, let's give the rest of the world a little credit for common sense too.

May have to stop search for intelligent life jokes

[Crashmarik]

The other question is are these 838 people the ones that actually buy the things spammers sell ?

Seriously I am surprised anyone actually took this. Even if you were worried, and believed that the amnesty was worth something you could have checked for your name in the subpoena databases and if it wasnt there just stopped. Why expose yourself needlessly.

I guess the public is more savvy...

[vonsneerderhooten]

I guess the public-at-large is more savvy than we give them credit for. People saw the loophole in this "amnesty" offer glaring them in the face, and decided it wasn't a good idea. FYI, the loophole was(is?) that signing up only guarantees you won't be prosecuted by the RIAA; you're wide open to anyone else. And no one has enough faith in the RIAA to think that they would actually do something to protect you.

my $.02


-D

Try ignoring the RIAA

[saskboy]

And try supporting the alternatives:

http://magnatune.com/

Apples and oranges

[lightspawn]

Why compare the number of takers for an offer only available in the U.S. to the number of file sharers worldwide?

It's like feeling really safe because the number of murders/year in your town is less than 1/100000 of the total murders/year worldwide, or something.

get free music from the library

[vonFinkelstien]

I was just wondering how many others (besides me), who use the public library to try out and rip CDs instead of P2P. Sure the selection is not as good as P2P (except for Classical music, which is my primary choice), but there is no problems with RIAA, lawsuits, viruses, crappy downloads, etc. You only have to look out for scratches and dirt on the CDs before ripping.

Or is it too uncool in the U.S. to go to the public library?

Re:get free music from the library

[radja]

many people I know do this. it's perfectly legal in most countries, but I'm not sure if it is in the US.

Re:get free music from the library

[3terrabyte]

Actually our libraries have quite a good selection. You can even request the latest hot cd if you want (and willing to wait).

And box sets...well those are nice.