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RIAA Now Blames Journalists For Its Piracy Trouble
adeelarshad82 writes "RIAA executives have written a letter to PCMag expressing 'deep disappointment' for publishing an article on Limewire Alternatives. While the article includes a disclaimer from PCMag that it does not condone the download of copyrighted or illegal material, RIAA executives believe that 'PCMag is slyly encouraging people to steal more music.' The letter goes on to ask PCMag to retract the article from their website. PCMag's Editor in Chief has responded to the letter by stating that music industry's charges remain groundless and that it reeks of desperation. He points out that PCMag covers all aspects of technology, which includes the products, services and activities that some groups and individuals might deem objectionable. He defends publishing the article by saying 'We covered these Limewire alternatives because we knew they would be of interest to our readers. We understand that some might use them to illegally download content. We cannot encourage that action, but also cannot stop it. Reporting on the existence of these services does neither.' PCMag has also refused to retract the article."
In this day and age if your still using limewire or its alternatives for the majority of your music your doing it wrong.
I'll have to check out PCMag and see if it's worth subscribing to.
^^vv<><>BA
Heaven forbid someone should use radio waves for transmitting illegal information! Or, even worse, terrorists might call each other! Let's forbid the very mention of phones and radios too!
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Shouldn't the RIAA be going after them for reviewing CD burners that can burn copied files? Or for reviewing software that rips .mp3 files or .wav files from audio CDs? Shouldn't PC Mag and all other publications be restricted from writing about anything that could potentially assist in copying music?
PCMag is as much motivated by economic considerations as the RIAA. The difference is that PCMag is informing its readership and generating publicity for itself, while the RIAA is advertising its rent-seeking behavior and ignorance of the Internet. There is no way the article could be "unpublished" even if PCMag were to comply with these notorious intellectual monopolists.
PCMag is not a music magazine. If it were, there would be ground for such contention; blaming PCMag is saying that a medical journal is pornographic. But then again, the "music industry" isn't at all about music and is not as much concerned about delivering music as it is about owning all the content that exists out there.
More illegal downloading = more lawsuits = more profit for the RIAA.
It cost the RIAA $16 for every dollar they collected with the lawsuits. 2009 sales were off more than 67% compared to 2000. EMI is on the edge of defaulting on its CitiGroup loan and being foreclosed upon.
Yeah, this "everyone is a pirate" angle is pulling in the big bucks, isn't it?
Speaking of which, I am hereby putting everyone on notice who has ever mod'ed me down, that they have cause me emotional distress and based upon the mathematical formulas that the RIAA uses, I will be suing you for
One hundred billion dollars for each moderation. But, we can settle now for just $50,000.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
It cost the RIAA $16 for every dollar they collected with the lawsuits
I've heard a lot of different takes on that. Some attorneys I've talked to about it the say quite the opposite, that given the way their scheme worked, the probably turned a profit. Regardless, you're absolutely correct: the music industry is going down because of their own inability to manage the business in the face of anything even resembling competition.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
So writing an article about P2P programs is encouraging the stealing of music?
I guess, by the same logic, that automobile magazines encourage drunk driving and gun magazines encourage murder.
There's no scientific consensus that life is important.
To be fair, the summary doesn't claim that "RIAA Now Blames Journalists For Its Piracy Trouble".
When it comes to organizations like the RIAA, fighting fair with fair just gets you burned. In this case, PC Mag is helping matters, so far as the general public is concerned, by getting a few facts out. The simple fact that the RIAA disagrees with them is sufficient indication that PC Mag is doing the right thing here. Kinda like the old saw, "When the competition threatens a lawsuit, you must be doing something right."
Helping the RIAA, from any reasonable perspective, serves no legitimate purpose.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
RIAA artists slyly encouraging ( underage sex | adultery | drive-by shooting | etc... )
You get the idea. Interesting how a certain media group displays a shocking ignorance of their own industry and the industries immediately adjacent to it.
From the TFA: We wanted to send a direct response to the letter writers, but they failed to include a return address.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Why not blame Google for makeing it easy for people to find info on how to download music.
EMI is on the edge of defaulting on its CitiGroup loan and being foreclosed upon.
Can't happen fast enough!
Actually, I would be sad to see them go down. Not because I feel sorry for a bunch of idiots who can't manage a business, but because I am sure that there is actually a good amount of music on EMI that IS worth listening to.
A much better alternative would be if EMI were actually able to market their products in a sustainable way. It is a shame that the music will suffer. I am not sorry that in this case a terrible company is going out of business, but that when they do go out of business, a certain amount of music will be lost to a degree.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
"The simple fact that the RIAA disagrees with them is sufficient indication that PC Mag is doing the right thing here." Kinda sounds like a variation on "Hitler was wrong about everything, therefore always do the opposite and you'll be right" fallacy. Did you know that Hitler was a vegetarian? That's a reason not to be a vegetarian, right?
Yes, but the reason that Hitler is universally hated isn't because of his dietary choices, it's because was a warmongering, empire-building, genocidal maniac. Generalizing beyond that is, I agree, ridiculous.
Which I wasn't doing. Given the history and predictability of the RIAA on these issues, you can pretty much be sure that doing the opposite of anything they suggest is, if nothing else, probably ethical.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Bad example. If a magazine published an article on how to get a bomb past airport security they would improve security. Why? How?
Simple their exposure of an obvious "security gap" would force the airport security to be improved.
Not knowing about a security hole and not telling anyone about it is not security.
It's a kin to someone writing about a hole in the airport fence that's hidden behind a bush.
Security through obscurity is not true security.
Similarly PCMags discussion of lime wire alternatives is simply pointing at the airport and telling you there are other holes in the fence that would need to be fixed (or in this cant be fixed).
The truth is that for the past 50 years the technology to distribute music to a large audience was not financially accessible to musicians and artists except through record labels. The technology has changed and the artificial lock that record labels had on artists is gone forever.
It's called disruptive innovation. Any business that does not innovate or compete through innovation will eventually experience it from a competitor (eg. Death of the walkman, the end of photographic film, horse and carriage, steam engines etc...) and if they don't have another way to make money they will go out of business.
So sad too bad... one more middle man cut out of the equation.
----- "Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand."
Then we should all be sure to pirate as much as possible before that happens, so we can save the music for later generations!
Actually, I would be sad to see them go down. Not because I feel sorry for a bunch of idiots who can't manage a business, but because I am sure that there is actually a good amount of music on EMI that IS worth listening to.
EMI actually does have a lot of good music. EMI is a large collection of smaller labels ranging from Blue Note, which publishes tons of classic and modern jazz, to Earache Records, which publishes many of today's best up and coming metal bands.
I'd like to provide my feedback to both parties in this. I found the email addresses of a couple people at PCMAG that I could write to an express my views. So far, I have found NO email addresses of ANY of the executives who wrote that letter to PCMAG (as seen on Billboard).
My conclusion is clear. PCMAG has at least some interest in what its readers, and the general public, think about this. But the music industry executives clearly have no interest in what people think. They have their heads in the sand. They have some idea of what product they want to deliver, and all they want is to push it so hard that people will just accept it.
I really just wanted to ask them ... personally ... and that means NOT some secretary answering ... I want to hear directly from these executives themselves since they think their names are so important ... just where I can BUY music that will work for me (beyond what Magnatune has). Do they even consider me to be part of their target market? I have some serious doubts. And I bet a lot of people do, now.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The question here, once EMI goes under, is what/to whom the rights devolve to under the terms of their contracts with the artists and labels under the EMI banner. If they devolve to the musicians, great. If they do not, then expect to see a fire-sale to pay off the bond-holders with whatever few scraps leftover to go to the (remaining) share-holders. Frankly, that would probably be the worst result since the musician will have new masters determing to flog the most out of them before the new entity goes bankrupt as well. Indentured servitude is a bitch and well should I know since both sides of my family came over to the US that way. Definitely not bed-side story fodder.
"[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
the problem is the music industry continually fails to cite any context for their lost sales, other than the idiotic claim that the pirates took all their music.
when was the last time you bought a CD?
when was the last time you bought a DVD?
consumers will typically not buy both. if you're buying a movie, you'll use your "entertainment budget" on that, and skip on the CD for next time.
CD sales have dropped consistently since the late 90s. guess what happened in 1998? DVDs hit the market.
let's compare and contrast with CD player sales. see how they correlate with CD sales? now let's pop DVD and DVD player sales on the same graph. i wonder whether as CDs dip, DVDs increase?
i'm not saying piracy doesn't exist, but i think there's a much bigger culprit for lost CD sales in the mix here.