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RIAA Campaign Against Students Hits Stormier Seas
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "It's been astutely observed that the RIAA's "ex parte" campaign against "John Doe" college students seems to have run into much stormier waters than its campaign against regular folks. Discovery motions were thrown out by the judges in cases involving the University of New Mexico and the College of William and Mary, and motions to quash have been made by students at Boston University, Oklahoma State University, and the University of South Florida. The RIAA might find it particularly troubling that the students are coming in armed with substantial expert witness declarations attacking the entire underpinning of the RIAA's case, that the students are finding each other and banding together, and that the Chairman of Boston University's Computer Science Department went to bat — as an expert witness — for the BU students."
The problem the RIAA is facing is that college students - as a demographic - have a combination of passionate beliefs, raging idealism, little to lose, and nothing but time. I saw this one coming a mile away.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Saruman didn't factor in the ents....
At some point, decent people get riled up over injustice and finally do something about it. These RIAA lawyers have been bullying pre-schoolers long enough. "I'm telling my big brother" is coming home to them.
Use the market RIAA. Learn to compete. Give up on old technology and old ways of distributing music. Nobody wants to buy your 5 cent disk with 9 bad songs for highway robbery prices just to listen to one song you should allow to be downloaded at a cheap enough rate so that folks will stop bothering to pirate (not steal; remember, pirates are simply a form of entrepeneurs).
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Forgive my near-total ignorance on matters of copyright law and my failure to RTFA, but if these college kids' cases are attacking the basic underpinings of the RIAA's case, is there a chance that this will benefit the regular folks who are under attack? It'd be nice if those darn kids did something productive for a change, instead of spending all their time at the Woolworth's drinking malteds, or whatever they do nowadays.
I've always been a huge supporter of the rights of these people that the RIAA is attacking - and I still am. But I'm realizing lately that I can't think of a better way for them to protect their rights, either. I was in a conversation the other day where somebody was asking someone to send them a copy of limewire, because they couldn't get it themselves for some reason. I made a joking comment about how ya know, installing Limewire on a work computer probably wasn't the smartest idea, and he could always *gasp* actually purchase his music (his stated goal was pirating music). Somebody else then said "why would anyone do that anymore"?
Now, I'm sure most people have music that isn't theirs on their computer. But I really hope that most peoples attitudes isn't "why would we buy music when we can pirate it" these days. If it is, maybe the RIAA should be suing people. I think that people shouldn't be crucified for having some songs that aren't theirs on their systems, if they also buy plenty of music. But if you never or almost never buy music, and your entire collection is pirated, then by all means, the RIAA should go after you.
I oppose the RIAA on privacy grounds, and because the logic used (downloading is NOT piracy, if you own it, I believe), but if peoples attitudes really now is that they should pirate rather than buy, then I think the RIAA is between a rock and a hard place, and they can't simply ignore that.
And please, keep the arguments about RIAA music being not worth the money out of this - if you don't think it's worth the money, then you don't have a right to have it. You've made that choice.
-Daniel
This is the way my band is doing it. We're recording our new CD ourselves in our home studios, and the wonders of online distribution (MySpace, Purevolume, etc) allow us to sell the tracks. We're still going to print up some CD's to sell at shows though (for old times sake)
In the SCO versus IBM + The Entire Linux Community, Groklaw provided a full-time forum for commentary and suggestions, and Slashdot covered the subject often. Among all the First Posts and other chaff must have been more than a few nuggets of wisdom.
In the fight of The RIAA versus The Entire Civilized World, this is taken yet another step further. While IBM was as technically savvy as its opponent, lawyers (apologies to Ray), Judges (no apologies to too many of them still, but some are getting it finally), and most users aren't very knowledgeable about computers, software, the Internet, the law, and what it all means. Neither is the RIAA knowledgeable in these areas, as they are too often making very evident.
Because of widespread interest in the subject, along with a general dislike of big business in general, there is a collaboration here the likes of which couldn't have ever happened even a few short years ago. The RIAA has thousands more enemies than they've yet sued, all of whom are willing to contribute what bit of knowledge they have to bring that lying (we're only doing this for the poor starving artists) colossus down. And because of their identical, boilerplate cases, they only have to lose on one point to lose them all! And its the Internet that's making all this possible. People communicate in ways they never could before.
Students, among other things, also have a lot of time on their hands, and a great ire when they think they've been wronged. That's a volatile mix that the RIAA may soon wish they'd left alone. Suing grandmothers (unless it happens to be Neville Longbottom's Gram) is safer than motivated students just looking for the next cause celeb.
All in all, I'd say the RIAA has made yet another major misstep. Maybe this will be their last one, since if successful, the students will provide the roadmap to kill all of these cases where they should be killed -- at the illegal, unethical, ex parte stage. If so, the world will be a better place for you and me (lyric used under Fair Use provisions).
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Musicians are going to have to go back fifty years and relearn everything. We've had a couple of generations that have been raised on the album being the ultimate musical expression. Singles became some increasingly dimly understood entity to many of the people that started buying music in the mid-60s and later. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, all these guys were album artists, and from them sprung the record industry as we know it, at first selling long plays aplenty and then moving on to CDs.
Now, it's songs again that rule. The ease of obtaining (legally or illegally) single songs means the death of the album as a major profit center. The fact is that Phil Spector was right when he called the album "two hits and ten pieces of junk". The vast majority of long play vinyl and CDs are populated by junk. Is there some reason that people like Britney Spears or Madonna have to release twelve song collections? Let's face it, in the vast jungle of albums out there since the LP took off in the late 1950s, there are perhaps a few dozen genuine masterpieces in any given genre of music.
I think the smart artists and studios will realize that there is a golden opportunity here to shed the 800 lb. gorilla of the record company and its distribution networks. For decades, these guys have been robbing artists blind, while they made untold millions. That's okay for the upper echelon of artists like U2 or the Beach Boys, whose volume of sales is such that even a fraction means big bucks. But there's all those middle tier and Indie guys who don't sell that number, and for them, being able to direct sell, or hell, even just give away the music and make their money off of the gigs and the merchandising that this new era could mean prosperity.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Seems more likely that the legislators of tomorrow are the rich kids of today, who can afford as many CDs as they want. Even assuming the downloaders of today do become the legislators of tomorrow, why would a few memories of free Ja Rule make them refuse thousands or millions of dollars from RIAA lobbyists?
ResidntGeek
College students are an inherently problematic target for what the **AA's are doing. One, they are not yet "mature" enough to "conform" to the adult status quo -- that usually takes place later on when paychecks, taxes, and family brings them back to Earth. Two, they are sowing their wild oats and see file-sharing as a minor pecadillo (if they see it as wrong at all) on a par with using their fake ID to drink when they're 19. Finally, they are still much more idealistic and full of that youthful vim and vigor that makes them believe they can change the world -- they haven't yet become jaded enough to just throw up their hands at injustice and take that "well, what can you do/that's the way the world works/you can't fight city hall/etc." attitude. If the "syndicate" were smart, they'd stick to extorting single mothers, low-income workers, children, the sick, and the elderly.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
But don't artists need the album? In order to do the one or two hits, they have to throw a lot of things on the wall and see which ones stick and which ones don't. In other words, to develop their skills as an artist, they need to make mistakes and see that they are mistakes. How else can they do this but by releasing songs and seeing which ones get panned by critics, and which get played?
And radio stations and critics would rather deal with an album at a time instead of a single every few weeks. It could be that albums turn into delivery vehicles to critics, stations, and DJs, and no longer become something that the public gets hold of, but I wonder if the economics would support that model.
Anyway, classical music and soundtracks will always be delivered in album form.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
But they tell me that voting for a minor party or independent candidate is wasting my vote!
However, imagine a scenario where an established band dumps the traditional publishers and elects to publish exclusively through iTunes. Instead of getting a tiny fraction of that 99c, the band would get 79c for each track sold. How much does a band net from a CD sale? It is still quite small, so the number of tracks sold on iTunes would probably be less than the number of full CDs sold for the band to make more money.
Why has no-one done this? Risk? Laziness?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
What I'm looking forward to is the day that artists don't have to scrabble around, trying to make every godawful song they ever wrote sound good enough so they can fill in the five or six tracks needed to make an album. The artists themselves have been bitching about the filler they have to put on albums for decades. I hope for a day when a band has four good songs, records those songs, releases them, and then waits until they have a few more good songs and releases them.
LPs are probably one of the biggest rip-offs in recording history. There's some argument for them as far as classical pieces or extended jazz pieces and the like. But come on, for every Dark Side of the Moon out there, there are hundreds of piles of crap with maybe one or two redeeming songs to be found.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Don't know where y'all get your information to make some of these outrageous claims. I've asked at my university how I should respond to those RIAA takedown notices and they were unwilling to put up much of a fight as our administration legal advisors don't see it as a wise use of diminishing resources to ignore the orders. Students who allegedly "pirate" RIAA protected material are clearly not in compliance with our campus computing policy. Personally, I'm in no mood to help the recording industry and I always wrote back to them that we would gladly comply with any DMCA-compliant requests. Their messages were more intimidating and never complied with the specific takedown notice requirements. We were quite happy they helped us identify network utilization hogs so we could cut them off.
To those of you who think our university should provide free and unfettered access so students can do anything they want might want to consider how that activity infringes on other educational and business activities of the institution. Those who want to collect and or otherwise make available MP3s are welcome to do so at their personal expense on their home networks. To date, nobody has come forward attempting to justify a bona fide educational need for collecting or sharing MP3s, et al.
signature pending slashdot approval
... as long as it isn't illegal, I have no problems with that.
...
Well, the supreme law in the US is the Constitution, which says:
Congress shall have power
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
So if they vote for copyright or patent laws that interfere with scientific or artistic progress, they are clearly doing something illegal, and they should be prosecuted for it. Taking bribes^Wcampaign contributions to violate the Constitution isn't exactly legal, as far as I can tell.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
This is the way my band is doing it. We're recording our new CD ourselves in our home studios, and the wonders of online distribution (MySpace, Purevolume, etc) allow us to sell the tracks. We're still going to print up some CD's to sell at shows though (for old times sake)
Ah, a fellow musician! Greetings from an old bluesman! My band is going somewhat the same route. What we've decided to do is take advantage of the offer of assistance (for about $1500 for a mastered CD..about half what he normally charges due to his and my bass players' friendship) of an acquaintance of our bass player, (who works as artist relations for a major string company) who is a professional producer/engineer who contracts regularly with UMG (Universal Music Group) to do "Live Album" type recordings and soundtracks, that also does independent projects. He travels the country with a recording truck, recording national and regional acts. He has well over $500,000USD in recording and editing equipment in said vehicle, which is way above what we poor blues players would be able to afford, as well as 30+ years experience recording, editing, mastering, and producing.
Going this route, we'll end up with a professional-level CD, and total ownership of all the material, including the masters, with all our options open. He's even willing to help us shop it around to various major and indie labels. Any deal we make will be on our terms, as we already have the product ready to distribute, and all we'll need is basic marketing and distribution. Meanwhile, we can do our own online sales via the usual outlets, as well as sales at shows (and the more unit sales you can show a prospective label, the better position you're in negotiation-wise). Even if you had to pay the full $3K or so for similar services, it's still very worth it, IMHO.
Cheers!
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.