RIAA Grinds Down Individuals in the Courtroom

Iphtashu Fitz writes "The Associated Press recently reviewed many of the copyright infringement lawsuits that the RIAA filed against individuals charged with illegally sharing songs on P2P networks. According to the article over 800 of the targeted individuals have settled for approx. $3000 in fines. One man in California had to refinance his house to pay his $11,000 settlement. Many of the defendants are unwilling to face the possibility of even higher fines by fighting the suits in court despite the fact that it could resolve important questions about copyrights and the industry's methods for tracing illegal downloads. It seems that even some of the judges presiding over these cases question the RIAA's tactics. 'I've never had a situation like this before, where there are powerful plaintiffs and powerful lawyers on one side and then a whole slew of ordinary folks on the other side,' said U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who blocked the movement of a number of these cases in her courtroom for months. She wanted 'to make sure that no one, frankly, is being ground up.'"

Comments

dear plagiarising bastard.

[Anonymous Coward]

if you're going to trumpet Brian Martin's work, do it with a link and a few excerpts.

Against Intellectual Property, Chapter 3 of Information Liberation by Brian Martin

Legal defence insurance?

[Teun]

Where I come from (The Netherlands) lots of people, if not most, have a Legal Support Insurance.
The Insurance might decline certain cases for example for gross misconduct but usually you've got some support when needed, typically for less than 50 Euros per year.

In cases like this it is not uncommon for such insurances to bundle their efforts, sometimes including consumer organisations, to get a more fundamental ruling.

Of course littigation on the scale we now see in the USofA is not (yet) as common/rampant in Europe.

Are CD Sales Really Down? Is P2P the Cause?

[gvc]

There are conflicting reports about whether or not CD sales are down, and if so, whether file sharing is a causal factor. RIAA may well be fudging both so as to fake damages.

Here's a report that says "Nielsen Rating System At Odds With RIAA's Claim Of Lost Sales".

Here's a report that states "downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero".

Music Industry Their Own Worst Enemy

[HangingChad]

My wife and I were driving home from dinner and she pointed out that the music on the popular radio stations all sounded the same. The instruments, the type of singing, she called it modified grunge. Grunge Lite if you will. All angst and woe is me, which means they're probably singing about their record contracts. I used to joke Sarah Mclaughlin and Alanis Morissett were actually the same person working for different labels.

So at a time when they're suing thousands of their own customers...not a good business strategy IMHO...they're also cranking out really boring, insanely depressing music that all sounds like it was stamped out with an audio cookie cutter.

If this keeps up they'll have to give up the cocaine, private jets and porn star girlfriends! I'm having a hard time working up any sympathy for them.

So, yeah, hit them back in the wallet. Go out and sample free downloads, there are thousands of legal songs you can check out. Here are a couple links to get you started:

• www.goingware.com/tips/legal-downloads.html
• music.download.com
• irate.sourceforge.net

You can also shop at used CD stores. The only way you're going to get them to change is to stop buying their crap.

Re:Once again, protest with your money

[dotwaffle]

I found irate today, and have fallen in love with it. There are three things wrong with it though:

1) There appears to be no main site where you can submit possible new download places, such as MachinaeSupremacy.com (hint hint)

2) There is no "more from this author" button, just a search that types the artist and title in Google. When I listened to Beth Quist I immediately wanted to buy her album, but couldn't, unless I did research.

3) Not really irate's fault, but I want the music on CD as well as a download. Fair enough, you can burn your own etc, but it would be nice if they could send you a CD for an extra GBP 5 (about $10) or something. Even if it is a CD-R with a printed cover and track list... Or have I missed the point?

So essentially, irate radio is a really good idea, needs a lot of work on the interface etc, preferably a Winamp plugin or something, and needs our support!

BTW, Beth Quist (one of the MP3's I downloaded was from her) is on Magnatune (the non-evil people). If we could only get message out to kids about Magnatune, as I think it's a good lesson to be learnt. The "Why I set up Magnatune" section made me not want to buy any more commercial CD's that have touched the hands of the RIAA ever again...

RIAA radar

[mesmartyoudumb]

I suggest everyone check out the RIAA RADAR, It has a list of most artists and their releases, and tells you if the artists company is RIAA or not. Check it out at: http://www.magnetbox.com/riaa/

Enjoy!

Re:Once again, protest with your money

[tombeard]

AFAIK, there is no law that prevents you from storing your music anywhere you want, including in publically available places. It IS illegal for others to copy those files. Funny the RIAA isn't going after downloaders who are violating copyright law but are going after those that have violated no law, as long as they are defenseless. They never want a case to go to court, it would be laughed out. Just because you can't find the violators is no excuse to persicute the innocent.

Re:Equal Protection under the Law

[rgoldste]

$20 in 1789 (when the Constitution was ratified) would translate to $415.22 in 2003.

Here's the nifty calculator that I used: http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/