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IFPI 'First Wave' Sues 247 In Europe & Canada
securitas writes "AP and many others report that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry - IFPI - has sued 247 accused file-sharers in Germany, Denmark, Italy and Canada as part of an unprecedented, coordinated attack. The IFPI represents the global recording industry through its members - national associations like the IFPIG, DRIA, FIMI, CRIA and RIAA - and says it will launch more international lawsuits in the months ahead. You may also want to read the official IFPI 'first wave' press release/related documents and a statement by the IFPI's chairman and CEO. Lots of coverage at AP/AJC, USA Today, the New York Times, Reuters/CNN Money, ZDNet/CNet, Bloomberg , netimperative and the BBC. The timing of the international legal attacks is especially interesting in light of the recent study that indicates file-sharing has a negligible impact on music sales."
How can they sue file sharers in Canada? I thought they had a media tax to make it legal to share files?
Jay | http://oldos.org
"This is our first co-ordinated effort to take this campaign over the range of countries where file stealing is a problem," said Allen Dixon, IFPI's general counsel and executive director.
Maybe I was asleep, but since when did copyright infringements become known as "file stealing"!?
These cartels have had it too good for too long.. they're trying to sell us both media, and a license, then claim the license is non-transferrable and the media is non-replaceable.
In effect, you're being sold a hunk of plastic along with a very limited set of rights as to what you can do with your hunk of plastic. This business model is now crumbling thanks to the Internet, and I say good riddance to them and their Executive Directors.. go back to the dirty holes you crawled out from, and make room for real musicians, that make music for the love of it.. they've have no trouble embracing the 'net as a distribution mechanism.
DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
In reaction, the german Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has called for a boycott: German Page
This banner with the motto "Industry kills Music" is especially nice. The german text at the bottom translates to "And you are surprised that things are going badly?" and was part of a recent speech at a german music price ceremony where except for one indie band only badly casted, out-of-TV and largely joke-"stars" were on stage.
Oh, and the big bosses of the german music industry were present. According to news articles, they didn't exactly like being told the truth so bluntly and on live television...
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I wonder how many sales are being lost because of the negative PR all these lawsuits must bring.
Personally, I've been boycotting the RIAA member companies for years now, and I have no intention of dropping it any time soon. Music is one of those things that if you don't know the band, you don't desire it. When you get exposed to it, you want more and more of it.
They waived their rights to sue people who use file sharing to steal music.
Yes it's stelling and yes it's wrong but the levy counts as cost recovery in other words if they sue they cant ask for money since they have already been compensated for their loss.
But i guess someone would have to explain that to them.
A psychopath can't tell the difference between right and wrong. A sociopath knows the difference - he just doesn't care.
Since when does a collection of business owners have a duty to uphold the law and prosecute violators? Did you skip class at law school the day they taught law?
Copyright law in many countries prevents you from distributing somebody elses work, plain and simple. These people are not being sued because they had some kind of tangible impact on sales, but because they were distributing copyrighted material to anybody (ie: nothing to do with fair use rights here).
These are the people that are making it bloody hard for the rest of us to get non-crippled CDs, because the recording industry thinks this is the way to fight them (which it incidentally is not, but that's a whole different story).
I'm glad the record industry is suing, because this is the way copyright conflicts should be dealt with: in court. Not with half-assed technological countermeasures that are making it a pain for the rest of us, and certainly not with lobbying legislation that will obliterate 'fair use' for their works.
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
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but does this mean in the entire area they can cover, they only found enough proof to accuse 247 of them? I'm sure more are to come, but why not just file suit against more? also, yes, I thought it said pornographic...
Well realistically they probably can't afford to file suit against all the thousand (perhaps millions) online sharing music at any given time. Even if they could financially (and what am I saying, they probably can), logistically coordinating it would be a nightmare.In the real world one would expect those 247 sued to be the biggest sharers they could find, but history (RIAA suits last year into this year) have taught us that the recording industry doesn't seem to share our reality. I will not be surprised if the IFPI finds itself in the same quagmire that the RIAA did. It'll be quite amusing if it's worse and over half the sharers are little kids or grandparents whose grandkids put the software on their computer without them knowing. Now that'd be a public relations nightmare! (Not that the IFPI and/or RIAA seem to care what anyone thinks of them anymore though.)
What's funnier is that I'll probably get modded Off-Topic for this post...
The artists are represented by their recording company. The companies are represented by the RIAA, and the RIAA is represented the IFPI? I think the artists are far enough removed at this point that the IFPI is a purely political organization only interested in money / power / self.
IFPI Switzerland seems to go down the same road according to this article (german).
As in Canada, only uploading copyrighted music is illegal here, not downloading. As Switzerland is not member of the EU, the laws between the EU and Switzerland are quite different in some points. Cracking copy protection for instance isn't illegal (yet) AFAIK.
In fact, it shows the idiocy of how godwins law is used. Calling someone nazi is entirely different from refering to a historical fact. Godwins law should definitely not apply in the later case unless you argue for suppressing information about, and references to a rather nasty but very important little bit of our history.
From the BBC:
There seems to have been almost no comment on this disturbing aspect. Who performed the raid and seizure - police? If so, is uploading songs now not only a matter for civil action, but a criminal activity? Were the people raided counterfeiters, or simply your average garden-variety music uploaders?
Considering the fuss in the USA over people being sued, I would hope that Europeans will be outraged when grandparents and twelve-year-olds are having their homes raided and PCs seized.
P.
The record companies are terrorists.
They use indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations in order to promote their own policies.
Here's some textbook definitions of terrorism:
Any act including, but not limited to, the use of force or violence and/or threat thereof of any person or group(s) of persons whether acting alone or on behalf of, or in connection with, any organisation(s) or government(s) committed for political, religions, ideological or similar purposes, including the intention to influence any government and/or to put the public or any section of the public in fear.
The use of force and threats to frighten people into obeying completely.
the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear
Can you think of a better term of what these litigious bastards are doing?
If the artists submitted the songs straight to ITMS, Magnatune, Napster or a similar system they could sell them at half the price and still make a greater amount since the middlemen who take most of the profit are gone.
I did a little research recently. Anybody know how much a copy of a song officially costs, according to the government? Anybody know how much a royalty for making a copy of a song is?
6.25 cents American.
If Apple's only breaking even at around a dollar a song, you have to wonder where the rest of the money is going.