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RIAA Writes Its Own News For Local TV
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Did your local news recently do a two-minute clip on music copyright infringement? If so, you can thank the RIAA. They sent out a video press release to local news stations as part of their 'holiday anti-piracy campaign.' In it, they warn people that the best way to avoid counterfeit music is to avoid 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan' and to trust their ears, because illegally copied music usually sounds 'atrocious.' Instead, they encourage watchers to buy ringtones for Christmas."
Hmmm... compilations... Track list encompassing exactly the finest output of Led Zeppelin... check Mastered so hot it sounds atrocious... check SOMEONE RING UP ATLANTIC. LED ZEPPELIN HAS BEEN PIRATED.
is to listen to music made by independents who freely share their creations on the Internet often under Creative Commons, and reject any music made by people who are associated with big labels or the RIAA.
and start fighting.
Why doesn't the EFF release a press release occasionally, like this, mentioning the things being done by the [MP|RI]AA to inform the consumers about fair use, laws going into effect and how they will affect us, asking people to contact their reps, etc.?
Lets stop blocking and start punching a bit. Face it, we're geeks, are faces weren't exactly pretty to begin with, it's not like we have much to loose if we get hit there once or twice...
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
"compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan"
So what are they saying here? They know exactly what their fans "dream" about and they aren't selling that? Why not? What possible sense could it make to refrain from selling their target audience the products for which there is maximal demand?
Pirated music sounds atrocious? If so why is it so popular?
So they're saying we should avoid the allegedly "atrocious" quality of pirated CDs and buy ringtones? I don't know about you, but there are few things more hellish and foul than a 30-second clip of a song encoded at 64kbps playing through a mobile phone speaker.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Who the fuck with a brain buys ringtones? Just drop a needle, take a sample and shuttle it off to your phone via USB... Jesus the RIAA are a bunch of fuckin' morons.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Charming man. I wish I had a daughter so I could forbid her to marry one. -Arthur Dent
From TFS:
avoid 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan'
Why aren't these compilations legally available?
If they recognize it is in the "dreams" of their customers, why not give the people what they want?
I used to DJ as a hobby and am proud to say my mixtapes were a big hit among friends. These compilations were fun to make, fun to listen to, and got people exposed to some music they otherwise would've missed or ignored.
The recording industry, the labels, the RIAA, even many of today's "artists" are completely out of touch with their fans and customers. It is stunning and sad.
It's not that News posted to Slashdot is not biased. It is that people can comment on that bias and point it out that makes Slashdot great.
steal a baby!
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
There are, in fact, very few artists who can produce a consistently good album from first track to last. It was Phil Spector that once famously observed that albums are two or three good songs and a bunch of filler. He was, of course, much more of a singles producer, much more interested in producing hit songs than hit albums.
There are a few acts out there that can make interesting albums, but when it comes to Britney Spears and that ilk, they simply don't have the talent to do it, and the album really is a few hits surrounded by a bunch of garbage. Because the single was all but killed by the end of the 1980s, this is the only music distribution they have.
That is until the Internet, but because the record companies so thoroughly have fucked that up, they're now stuck with an overpriced format that's largely unlistenable junk, and have declared such a tremendous war on consumers that the obvious route of again going back in time to selling singles is a door they simply refuse to open.
They are unimaginative dinosaurs, a pack of accountants and lawyers (whatever happened to the old A&R guys and producers who actually had some independence). These guys don't understand music, to them an album should function like any economic widget, and they have so muddied the water with people who have no business even being in a studio that now people are increasingly unwilling to pay their artificially high CD prices and want the few actually good songs the industry really produces.
I think the most telling thing isn't the complaints of younger artists, but of older artists who have been in the business for decades now. Paul McCartney, who has probably made more money for EMI through the Beatles and his solo work, than most of these crap bands they have now, thinks that the company is old and staid.
Unfortunately governments, rather than recognizing that no amount of legislation can ever keep an out-moded business model alive, have been bought by RIAA and its various international act-alikes, and thus rather than politicians saying "Look, solve your own problem." are allowing the record industry to drive further down the road of absolute extinction.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The RIAA is just about the only business entity that I can think of that is dead set against giving consumers what they want and sues their customers when they try and satisfy that want on their own.
Legally bought RIAA music has electrolytes. It's what ears need.
"I never understood why you would *buy* a friggin ringtone. Most phones these days have usb plugs built in, or an transflash slot. A little sound editing and some technical jiggery-pokery later, and you have WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT as a ringtone."
I have no doubt that all of your friends are not only capable of the technical jiggery and the pokery, it's actually your hobby. You just love you some technical jiggery, particularly when it's with a side of pokery.
Next time you're at Walgreens, look at five people (your friends don't count, assuming you pulled your friends away from their jiggery and/or pokery sessions to get them to come with you to Walgreens). Any five people. The middle-aged cashier. The jailbait playing with the lipstick. The creepy guy in the photo section. These people just don't have the jiggery/pokery aptitude necessary to roll their own ringtones. Okay, maybe the creepy guy in the photo section does. But those other four people: they're the ones who are buying ringtones.
It's like that other question that boggles a lot of Slashdotters: why would anybody *buy* a friggen TiVo when with some spare computer parts, an IR blaster, a Linux distro and five troy ounces of jiggery/pokery, they could build their own? Sure, it smells like burned solder and you had to recompile the kernel a few times (the secret is "patch -pl -jiggery -pokery"), it doesn't have that cool lighting or the nice case or that bee-boop sound when you push the buttons, but you're STANDING UP to the MAN.
"Best thing in the world to get a phone call in a public area to have your phone shout, "My anus is bleeding...""
Interestingly enough, that's exactly what the creepy guy in the Walgreens photo section was shouting, too.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.