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RIAA Paid $16M+ In Legal Fees To Collect $391K
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In a rare outburst of subjectivity, I commenced my blog post 'Ha ha ha ha ha' when reporting that, based upon the RIAA's disclosure form for 2008, it had paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 to recover $391,000. If they were doing it to 'send a message,' the messages have been received loud & clear: (1) the big four record labels are managed by idiots; (2) the RIAA's law firms have as much compassion for their client as they do for the lawsuit victims; (3) suing end users, or alleged end users, is a losing game. I don't know why p2pnet.net begrudges the RIAA's boss his big compensation; he did a good job... for the lawyers."
Perhaps people who own shares in the RIAA's member companies should sue for misspending?
Our household has been contacted a couple of times by our ISP for downloading shows through bittorrent. They said they were contacted by rightsholders. If we are "reported" again, we will lose our connection. As they are the only game in town (outside of satellite) we have stopped.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
So what do you suppose happens when there is a certain cost for the artist to deal with a major label, and the RIAA as a trade organization is making decisions that drive up costs for every major label that is a participating member?
They're "the little people" because they have no veto power, not because they don't bear the costs.
That's generally what happens when there is a significant increase in cost for a corporate entity: all of its clients and/or members experience an increased cost, either in terms of increased fees or in terms of fewer services for the same fee. The question is whether the increase is a legitimate cost of doing business or the direct result of mismanagement.
The bottom line is that this goes on because we (collectively) fund it.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
That is almost true, but let us not forget the "snake oil salesmen" that sell the DRM that can never do what it is promised it will do. Anyone that invests big money on software to perform DRM is throwing money at a lost cause. Where else can you get millions for handing the end user the media, the algorithm, and the encryption key, and expect them not to be smart enough to put them together? Or better yet, to even use a felt tip marker to defeat it? Oh, their solution is to make doing that illegal. Yet again the lawyers can all have a field day, and not just the ones working directly for the RIAA.
They could cut the price of the CD's by 50%, not pay for the DRM'ed media/software cost, time to manage the high tech drm-keying process, and save the misery of user support/returns, and still stand to make more money by just selling more music. The problem with that volume-selling concept as the RIAA sees it is the artists would make more money because there would be lower overall overhead expenses to deduct out of the revenue stream before paying out the remaining fraction of profits to the artist. The RIAA depends on this contrived overhead to reduce what is actually paid to the artists. More overhead, more profit at the top! I would hope the artists catch on to this concept one day and actually ask for a 'reality check' (the paper kind preferably) from the RIAA management.
"...are using up their infinite mod points to protect some of the stories more than others."
Doesn't even have to be that.
One person with 15 mod points(for me, that is about 75-80% of the time) can go back in your post history (further they go back in time, the less likely you are to notice it) and mod down 15 "+0" posts, knocking them all into the -1 state. Two people? 30 posts in negative land. Really, it takes very few people to completely ruin your reputation here...except the smart ones on /. know better--they actually read your posts rather then the fucking mod points.
Let it go. Most of us don't need moderation to know intelligence and wisdom when we see it.
And yeah...I could see Apple shills working the forums. I could see that quite clearly.
You want to know what is sad? A few years ago my sis had a neighbor with a violent ex. She had restraining orders, didn't matter, he would come by and beat the shit out of her whenever. She would call the cops, they would show up three or four hours later. Sis asked me what to do because she was afraid the asshole would kill her, I told her to take me to the girl. When I met her I said "You want his ass beaten and thrown in jail? Say the D Word(Drugs). Tell the cops he is beating on your door and you think he has dope"
Guess what happen next time he showed up? Cops were there in under 3 minutes and after they got done tearing his truck down to the frame looking for the stash they manhandled the fuck out of him, slamming him on the cop car, and then hit him with every little charge they could possibly tack on. He ended up with something like 4 years behind bars by the time they were done. While there are still a few good cops they are damned few and far between. From what I've seen most are just bullies with badges looking to score free dope and cash.
As for TFA I'll be surprised if the RIAA doesn't cook up a nice powerpoint showing this loss and then end up getting YOU, the American taxpayer to foot the bill. After the whole "too big to fail" bullshit expecting corps to pay their own bills is so passe anymore. Whether you agree with his politics or not I think Ron Paul said it best "What we are seeing from Obama and even from my own party isn't socialism, it's corporatism. The corporations are making the laws and the People simply aren't getting a say anymore". I'd say that with eternal copyrights and DMCA we are seeing perfect examples of that, and I have NO doubt the RIAA will end up sticking us with the bill somehow. It is just how we do business in the United Corporate States of America today.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.