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Mom, and Now Judge, Stand Up to RIAA
Nom du Keyboard writes "First there was the mother, Patricia Santangelo, who has refused to roll-over to RIAA demands to pay their extortion fee because they claim to have identified her IP address as involved in Kazaa file sharing. Now Judge McMahon doesn't seem to be letting the RIAA have it all their way either in this case. Godwin's Law summarizes the rebuke of Judge McMahon to the RIAA lawyer now that a court case has been filed. A transcript of the entire court appearance is also available."
I think it's about time that someone is standing up to the **AA's in the world!
There's no place like localhost
Good this is getting ridiculous. Law suits should not be a legitimate business model.
...armed with a soccer mom at our side, I seriously doubt any branch of the government will take our opposition seriously. Because the **AA's buy the politicians, but they still have to sell them to soccer moms.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
An even cheaper way to f*ck over the RIAA is to just not buy any CDs.
Your method of the free distribution of CDs still gives them a target to attack and a scapegoat to blame for all the ills of "sharing" music.
The RIAA is interested in just *one* thing - money. That means they want everyone to buy their own copy of every CD or every downloaded song because that way they get even more money. Your demonstrations of "non-compliance" are irrelevant to the RIAA borg.
The solution to the RIAA problem is to remember that as a consumer in a capitalist society, you simply *don't* buy a product you do not think is value for money or is being sold by a corporation with dubious business or political motives - no matter how much you personally may *want* that product.
Do that and you start denting the profits of the record companies who, in turn, stop financing the RIAA because they're not achieving anything.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
lives in the same world as you.
I know many peopel who don't knwo what kazza is, or more importantly, how it works.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Good cough. However...
;) Touché.
While Clinton signed the DMCA, the RIAA were the ones that decided to use it for extortion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion). Luckily, a judge that Clinton appointed is trying to put a stop to that. Checks and balances...more than just an idea?
Good cough none the less
I have mod points, but there's no -1 asshole option.
So back in your face fuckwad...
Why don't you pull your ass out of your world of warcraft fantasy world, turn off the computer, walk outside and TALK TO PEOPLE.. you might just find that very few people care that much about computers, software and gadgets and of those few that do, maybe 3% have any real understanding of "what it's all abut".
And just how much time do you think a single mother of 5 has to devote to figuring out all the nifty shit a computer can do when she has work, bill, and five pesky kids to watch over and feed? Hell, I bet she uses her computer to do her taxes, pay bills and chat with family when she has time to use it at all.
So to you and others like you, wake the fuck up and get out more because you're a borderline sociopath who's clearly lost touch with the real world.
Hats off to the judge, but you forget Mr. Clinton was the **AA stooge who signed the DMCA into law.
My rights don't need management.
So the judge says: "okay, big boys, bring on the lava. Don't try to lure the virgin into the forest
Better yet, what she said was, Don't expect me to lure the virgin into the forest. Once you've brought her to me, she's under my protection, I decide, not you and your gang hidden away in the forest.
Infuriate left and right
Homosexuals sue to get married, which is an act under GOD and not man.
Really? I wasn't aware of that. And here I got legally married by a district magistrate and didn't even know he was working for God. And all those papers I filed, did they go to God too?
Is God responsible for insurance coverage and cost differences based on marital status of a household?
Marriage is not only a religious institution. Historically, it's been used as a way to determine inheritance, cement alliances, transfer property, and establish responsibility and rights for others. Saying it is only a religious institution is a fairly narrow view. It can also be legal, cultural, societal, economic, and religious.
I'm an author, and that means I'm an intellectual rights advocate. And quite frankly, I can see the basis for wanting to stop music piracy. And while recording artists are treated quite poorly in comparison to authors and actors, every time some music is pirated, it IS money that would have otherwise gone to the artist (and a lot more that would have gone to the recording studio, of which quite a bit should be going to the artist instead in my opinion, but that's another issue).
Unfortunately, the RIAA goes about it in such a thuggish way that it's just an embarassment, and makes it impossible to support them. It's like saying that guns are dangerous and some people might have some without a license, and then breaking into every house within five blocks and performing a search. The ends here just do not justify the means.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
They do if you aim carefully.
That's what preview is for, huh?! Attn: Slashdot, it's 2k5, how about editing posts as long as there aren't yet replies?!
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All you have to do is tell your kids "don't break the law." It's just so easy isn't it? (You guys all have kids, right?) Well it would be easy, if the U.S.C. wasn't so huge; and we didn't need law degrees to understand it and all its implications.
Here's an idea - a new book called U.S.C. 2005, For Kids!, or maybe a weekly cartoon show would be better. Anyway, then parents might have a chance when it isn't merely enough to to know right from wrong. The test isn't "son, did you know this was right or wrong" it's the U.S.C.
When I was or was not phreaking as a 'kid' I had a pretty good sense that it was or could have been wrong (essentially fraud, trespass). However, earlier than that, when I was playing games (or drawing pictures with Doodle or Print Shop) on the C-64 I didn't think/know it was breaking the law to (hypothetically) copy games/softwares at the CUG. Even though copying was rampant back in those 'hobbiest' days, it didn't make it any more legal. What's the statute of limitations on this kind of stuff? (That would be covered in my book/cartoon! How long you have to keep it secret!)
What I'm saying is -- I don't think I could rely on a 6- to 11-year-old's sense of copyright infringement even if they have a sufficiently developed sense of 'right and wrong'. (It might be obvious not to hit Suzie, but it might be harder to tell about making a certain noise before dialing a phone number or duplicating a certain disk.)
Hmm, this is probably why the *AA's are trying so hard to indoctrinate -- er, educate -- children in their schools.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
a harried, overworked stressed out recently divorced soccer mom and mother of five comes into a courtroom and she says she doesn't know what the hell is going on
you think she's stupid?
i think she's innocent
innocence has a funny way of appearing stupid to cynics in this world, you know?
but more important than that should be to you is this: it is upon this poor woman's back that an EXTREMELY cynical enterprise, the RIAA lawsuit mill, might actually be broken
so don't look your gift horse in the mouth
you should BLESS this woman and THANK her for being technically clueless!
there is a certain amount of knowledge in this world that is assumed to be necessary for you to survive: you have pay your taxes, you need a driver's license, etc.
but i hardly see that what you are saying is true at all: that the knowledge "p2 is bad" is common or even necessary
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It didn't matter whether Clinton signed it or not... unanimous Senate vote. Sure, he could've vetoed, in which case it would have went back and his veto would have been overturned. In the process Clinton would have lost good faith with the legislators, making everything else that much harder to push through.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
The RIAA will pay her to settle with an agreement to "never share music again" or some idiot language. Unless her lawyer thinks a countersuit would bring a whole hell of a lot of money in damages, the lawyer will advise her to settle. After all, they'll probably only offer her enough to pay her lawyer.
Since IANAL, I can't answer that, but let's look at the transcript. The judge tells the defendant to try to find a lawyer, and allows time for this, squashing the plaintiff's attempt to get material from the defendant under oath before the legal advice is available. Then she tells the defendant she wants her to fight the case, and tells the plaintiff's lawyer that he has to present his case in court now they've started a lawsuit. Throughout, the judge is fairly clearly in favour of the defendant getting a fair day in court.
The one thing she doesn't do is give any indication of whether she thinks the defendant should actually win the case, and to my legally untrained mind, that seems to be the only thing that would have been inappropriate. In fact, I find it rather reassuring and highly appropriate that a judge was heavily in favour of a defendant fighting against a fair case in court, and not being intimidated into doing things that aren't in their best interests without the benefit of counsel.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
So, lets say I go out and buy a DVD movie...
And I go out and buy a CD of music...
Then I go out and download every scene on that DVD from KAZAA or (insert your favorite file sharing thing here)...
Or I download every song off the CD from (share system)
Have I broken the law?
How do they know that I didn't buy it, how do they know that I don't have rights to make copies or download copies of something I have purchased...???
Hmmmm...methinks that something is smelling, and it wasn't beans and cabbage...
--E--
There should really be a good disclaimer for downloading kazaa. Something like:
"Warning, downloading music illegally may put your family in jail".
Im sure there is some kids who really just dont know its wrong. They figure, hey, they play music on the radio and it costs me nothing , why can't i just download a song I want to hear?
From http://www.stereophile.com/news/082205riaa/ ...
I wonder what the markup is on commercially produced CDs and DVDs ... 8000% ??
Such ... irony ... the recording industry complaining about the high price of pirated content ... cannot ... suppress ... gales of laughter ...
Yes, but the current proceedings will have very little if anything to do with the final outcome, so really, this is all just a bit of masturbation going around about whether it's good spin or bad.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
What's illegal about using P2P networks to share information you have a right to distribute? Always keep in mind that P2P isn't illegal, but sharing copyrighted material without permission to distribute it is.
Hey ought to act on it anyway, just because otherwise that landlady will do the same thing again to another student -- and maybe one who doesn't have a job at Google to fall back on!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It is when the looters are shooting at the rescue workers - they called off the air-ambulances when one of them was shot at.
In Soviet Russia you own your cat
I just wish Slashdot stopped posting summaries like that. We're adults; we don't need rhetoric spoonfed to us.
First there was the mother, Patricia Santangelo, who has refused to roll-over to RIAA demands to pay their extortion fee because they claim to have identified her IP address as involved in Kazaa file sharing.
"Extortion fee?" They identified an IP address from her computer that was infringing on their copyrighted materials, and so they legally went after her. I don't see "extortion" thrown around when people are demanding to sue companies that violate the copyright of the GPL.
I just think people use the RIAA as a scapegoat too often just to justify piracy. Five years ago, Slashdot, editors included, were ADVOCATING that they go after individual downloaders and lay off the companies like Napster. Five years later, they're doing just that, and suddenly that's wrong too.
"Sufferin' succotash."
You should probably sue your landlady and use the legal system for persecuting people who really do deserve it.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
I'm an author too, I write software. I'm an intellectual rights advocate as well. I advocate considerably shorter copyright terms and an entire restructuring of the patent system. Copyright is completely broken by the existence of copyright terms lasting for life + 75/95 years. Copyright should last a maximum of 28 years. Given the extremely efficient means of distribution and production that we have today as opposed to 200 years ago, I would even support shorter terms. Special interests and politicians like Sonny Bono have stolen what rightfully belongs in the public domain. In doing so, they have created an environment where the people at large see no reason to respect the system. Because the system is so imbalanced, people feel no shame infringing on an author's copyright. Who here would refuse to sing "Happy Birthday" to their child in public on grounds of infringing Time Warner's intellectual property?
Additionally, they've created an environment where innovation is no longer possible. An author cannot build on the work of others because once written, the work is monopolized perpetually. Due to the system we have now, innovation is dragging to a halt. The systems that made this country mighty are now killing it. Look at how horribly broken the patent system has become. Numerous 'businesses' exist solely to patent everything thinkable and sue anyone who dares to create. Empty shell companies do nothing but collect 'Intellectual Property' and sue others who attempt to make an idea into reality.
The fundamental reason for copyright, patents and the whole morass of 'intellectual property' is to encourage innovation and progress, not to impede it. The only way to restore intellectual rights is to restore balance to the system. Even if they weren't suing grandmothers and children, I'd feel no pity for the RIAA. They and their lobbyists have only brought this upon themselves. Massive and flagrant infringement is the symptom, not the disease.
No. It doesn't. Automated file sharing has been around for over 10 years and the media industry still turns a profit every year.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
"They should be the last people pointing fingers and accusing someone of being a crook"
I think the saying "Takes one to know one" is fairly relevant in this case
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though