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RIAA About to Transform?
It has been reported for a while that the RIAA was suffering some cutbacks and dwindling support, but techdirt is reporting that the cuts may be even deeper than most originally suspected. Who knew suing potential customers would ruin your business? "I'm sure some will somehow 'blame piracy' for this turn of events, but it's hard to see how that's even remotely the issue. The real issue is that the RIAA has basically managed to run one of the dumbest, most self-defeating strategies over the last decade. Rather than helping major record labels adjust to the changing market, it continually, repeatedly and publicly destroyed its own reputation and the reputation of the labels — each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers."
Well I would imagine the excess employees will be much in demand as witnesses.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
TERRORIZE!!!
...a Z Transform, a Laplace Transform or a Fast Fourier Transform?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Chasing down the links leads to this:
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/02/is-the-.html
But one seemingly knowledgeable but unconfirmed source tells Hypebot that the cuts run much deeper than previously reported.
And not much else. One can hope, but so far this is nothing but a rumor.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
If the book publishers are about to make the same mistakes as RIAA, then at least we know where they are heading now.
While it is no doubt that the people who run the RIAA and IFPI have no idea what they are doing I also wonder how much of a contributing factor that people are putting 2 + 2 together and recognizing who supports the RIAA. Companies are very protective of their brands and sony, emi, warner bros, and universal do not like the negative image this is bringing them directly.
take this infantile whining to torrent freak or the playground where such anti-corporate whining isnt seen as the transparent bullshit
I don't think we are "anti-corporate" enough in the U.S.A. They've more or less destroyed the economy with short sighted strategies that can't see past a 3 month horizon.
Businesses move jobs over seas. Umm? Who's going to buy your product? The list of offenses is pretty long from exploitation to pollution.
or get a job and pay for music for a change.
Um, I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value? I want it on my home stereo (CD, DVD, or a Linux box) and my MP3 player. (which is not an iPod)
I buy CDs if I really like the music, but I was so disappointed with Gnarles Barkley, one good song on a whole CD, I usually go to the library and borrow CDs.
I do, however, once RIAA is dead and buried, intend to dig them up once a year on the anniversary of their death just to make sure they're still dead.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers.
Worse than that, they were shrinking their market by blaming the very people who already were their customers. Contrary to the way we sometimes talk about it, "people who download music in violation of copyrights" and "people who buy music" are not mutually exclusive groups.
Often enough, the same people who will spend money on high-quality convenient products that they feel are worth the price will also look for alternate channels in cases where they don't think the product they are being offered is high-quality enough, convenient enough, or worth the price.
Now I'm not trying to excuse people who download music illegally. It's illegal. I don't do it. I don't advocate that others do it. I don't approve of it. I'm just pointing out that all those nasty/evil group of "pirates" and "thieves" that the music industry keeps blaming, vilifying, and suing-- that group has a fair amount of overlap with that industry's legitimate customers.
Same as the old boss. Heh, Just because the RIAA transforms, does not imply that the copyright laws they try to enforce or fight for have changed. Slam them all you want and call'em a failure, as far as I'm concerned this means nothing. When the laws change toward cultural liberation, (like they used to be) only then will I celebrate. Only then.
I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value?
Um, Amazon for starters? Or did you not realize that iTunes is not the only digital music store in the world?
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
I mostly buy from a used CD store in town, and even if I find an occasional new CD there, it's well under the usual price (usually around $10 for a normal CD, I got Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for $15 new). Combine the fact that I don't care if I buy a used CD (EAC does a good job with mildly-scratched CDs) with the fact that I've only bought 2 CDs made in the last 5 years, and the RIAA probably doesn't like me, even though I'm a paying customer.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Slashdot broken?
With that low user ID, you should have figured this out a long time ago.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
Unless Amazon added lossless support recently, I'd rather just buy the CD.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
Maybe it will involve skinning puppies or pulling the horns off unicorns? Perhaps ripping the wings from butterflies? There must be and endless supply of ideas for the RIAA, given all their experience.
I am not gonna make remarks that are uber pro-piracy, but I will say this about the RIAA, they should have seen this many years ago, they were just stubborn.
The market for blank media was not going to go away, and it was going to be filled with downloaded music, now regardless that it is illegal to download copyrighted material did not slow anyone down. And just like the article mentioned, it only soiled the name of those who tried to stop it, yeah I am talking about how people like Metallica a whole lot less.
Being Pro or Anti piracy aside I do not feel for the RIAA losing money (if in fact they did lose any money, and if that money was a substantial amount) because they blatantly starred the changing times in the face ignored all possible opportunities it could have afforded them, and now, just like the banks and the auto industry they will cry about how the oldschool ways don't work anymore.
I am glad that hard drives and blank CD's and DVD's are so cheap now a days!
To see a few of my Android apps goto: www.hartwired.com
Blu-spec CDs are just CDs. They hold no more data than a regular CD. The only difference is that the masters are made with a blue laser instead of the standard red laser, which supposedly lowers their error-rates.
Blu-spec CDs are nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Did you pay a commission for that lyric?
Nope. Blu-CD is compatible with regular CD players, and still plays back at 16-bit, 44.1kHz. The theoretical quality of the output audio is exactly the same. The only difference is that the physical process of making the CD will be more precise, so playing a Blu-CD back in realtime on a regular CD player will, Sony hopes, give better measured output quality.
However, if you rip a Blu-CD and a regular CD to a computer using cdparanoia or Exact Audio Copy, you'll get exactly the same files.
In short, if you rip your CDs, Blu-CD will give you no benefit. If you play your CDs on a home-theater system, however, if Sony implements the technology correctly you'll get fewer playback errors.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
With RIAA Lawyers running the DOJ, the RIAA is transforming into a US government agency.
Now their antics re. DoS'ing suspected torrent sites will not only be legal but an act of the gov't.
Not only will gov't money will be budgeted for catching the file traders, and probably some money from the economic stimulus packages to help bail out the recording industry and encourage innovation, it will be a gov't initiative.
Along with a new and improved patent enforcement department to help make it more cost-effective for companies having difficulty collecting license fees from people infringing on patents like one-click (due to millions of small infringers, and formerly expensive legal processes required to enforce a patent)
Does this mean the RIAA is more than meets the eye?
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
Its not over yet.. Transforming isn't always a good thing.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What, are they going to go from 'suck' to 'blow'?
Sig? What sig? Do I have to have a sig!?!?
"Who knew suing potential customers would ruin your business?"
SCO did. Worked for them as well.
-Charlie
Corporations spending money they didn't earn, working up ideas to get free anything *pay inflated maintenance costs later, but it looks great on the books now*, outsource jobs overseas, outsource data entry of your personal financial, medical and retirement records, make job cuts to cover losses due to multi-million dollar bonuses for cutting jobs previously, all while doing their best to cover up the fact that the companies are failing due to the cuts, overspending due to outsourcing (it costs upwards of 4 times as much to outsource a single position as to keep it insourced), so that the stock price can marginally rise a few cents so they can pay out a dividend and make the stock holders happy.
yeah - that's right - corporations didn't do *ANYTHING* to mung up the economy...
BULLSHIT you fucking idiot.
Left arm: MPAA
Right arm: IFPI
Left leg: SPA
Right leg: BSA
Torso: RIAA
Head: DMCA
Combined: WTMGDL! (Way too many god damned lawyers)
Hmm, any other suggestions for the copyright megacronym? :)
Ahh, but pressed from what? It's not like they have some kind of articulated pinbox with 6 billion elements.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The master CD is burned with a laser, then the distributed copies are pressed from the master.
To be honest, I don't think Sony is out to get us with this one, because these are just regular CDs, made in a better fashion. It doesn't sound like there's any DRM involved. It might be too late for Sony to make any money off of it, but I don't think it's a technology to be avoided for any reason other than possibly price.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
What does one thing have to do with the other, as if just BAD DRUGS are the source of income for Cartels in general around everywhere. May it be Coffee? yeah there is a cartel there, you don't have to shoot someone to make damage because you can pay farmers a misery for their products (as in the Colombian cartel of coffee) so they will grow dope instead, dope that it's so friking hard to sell there as nobody want that shit.
Someone made a comic strip this year about it
Even if it's something non related, Juan Valdez and Mule SUED the guy And he apologized rather quickly.. srcsm/ I think he was just afraid of the mule /srcsm
So maybe now IT professionals and their high intake of Coffee, and also trendy snobs on starbucks are sponsoring drug production.
BTW theres no Muslim Turrurists (TM) here.. the only terrorist here is the one Bushy boy help to get elected.
and the oblig..
also, fuck you.
Bzzt.
First, Amazon's download manager is available for Linux*.
Second, and more useful, IMO, http://code.google.com/p/clamz/
It sucks that Amazon hasn't heard of the newfangled .zip format, but saying that you can't buy albums from Amazon on Linux is a lie.
*Admittedly, it wasn't available when they launched the mp3 store, and it's a pain in the ass to get working if you're not running one of the 4 linux distro versions they make packages for, but it is available.
That said, I do appreciate Trent Reznor providing FLACs, both in CD-quality format -- 16/44.1 -- and in 24/96.
I wish everyone did this. Even if I didn't like the music I would've bought Ghosts anyway just to support people selling music in good format.
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
It is, but only with the second pair of cheeks.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
If they are being "transformed", I hope my work had something to do with it.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
The RIAA will never really transform itself as long as the same eggheads are in charge of its member companies.
I wouldn't call them "eggheads". I'd call them phonies.
They are failures as business managers, and have been trying to scapegoat the blame to everyone but themselves... and have no concern for the harm they do.
Meanwhile there are signs of a possible power shift: (1) the absence of new "John Doe" cases, (2) a possible change in lawyers (they did not use Jenner & Block on the Seeqpod case), (3) the firing of MediaSentry.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
this was a bad move by the RIAA because they didn't anyone would pay attention. well someone did. and it appears that enough help is being focused on particular cases that some unfortunate for the RIAA precedents have been or are going to be shortly set. lets not stop now. but score one for the internet.
Agreed. They embarked upon a ludicrous campaign and they have lost. It is now all over except for the mopping up. Unfortunately for the families caught up in it, though, there's still a lot of mopping up.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
It's a technology to be avoided because it is from Sony. The same people that installed root kits on it's customer's computers. We shall not forget that they despise their customers.
And I hope as much as the next guy that this means what it says in the summary. The RIAA is finally getting the results it has worked so hard for.
But it might just be the crappy economy.
Music is a luxury item, and they're usually the first thing to go when things get tough. This might be nothing more than a consequence of the current economic picture. I've seen massive layoffs pretty much everywhere lately.
Sorry if this dampens the mood in here. But it's worth considering. The last thing we need to do is to start bullshitting ourselves. Seeing things as they are best prepares you to deal with them.
But that being said, this is still a good thing. The less of these goons working the better. It would be nice if it was simply their just desserts for their failed plan, but if they go out as collateral damage to our ailing economy, well...at least some good has come from that.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Um, I use Linux, where would I buy digital music that plays on my system and has any value?
Magnatune.com, their collection of Classical music is huge and excellent, and as far as I'm concerned that's the only kind of music that has any value ;) though their Rock section has some pretty nice gems, too.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
ZOMG! Even for /., this is self-congratulatory beyond the pale..
Also, fuck you. ;}
What was once true, is no longer so
Ummmm, DRM doesn't work. I thought we'd established that.
DRM only ever hurts the paying customers. After they've been stung a few times it makes the pirate offerings more attractive. Downward spiral.
The best way to make money is to, um, listen to the customers instead of dictating to them. The RIAA thinks this is crazy talk so they'll sink.
No sig today...
>>>You, cibyr, can't tell the difference between a high-bitrate MP3 and a FLAC
You can when you hook it up to your 4.1 or 5.1 surround system. The difference becomes immediately obvious, even if you've used a 320 kbit/s MP3. There are weird sounds coming from the speakers which should not be there. AKA compression artifacts.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Oddly, making a scratch worse can make it better: a CD I own had a slight scratch that would 'jam' my players at that track (it ran roughly circularly, not radially), but by making it worse by deliberately scratching it into a slight 'v' groove, the laser is able to read the data under it again and the track plays fine!
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet;
A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell
I dunno if I'd call their mission a complete failure...
Well I always admire an independent thinker who's willing to go out on a limb and espouse a thought that no one else agrees with.
You've certainly established your credentials.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Why do people make posts like this one to undo their mod? Why not instead make a useful post anywhere else in the thread?
http://xkcd.com/546/
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.