RIAA Threatens ICANN Over Music-Themed gTLD Standards

think_nix writes "A letter to ICANN (PDF) from Victoria Sheckler, Deputy General Counsel for the RIAA, demands modifications to the future implementation of the .music gTLD, threatening to 'escalate the issue' if certain concerns about 'wide scale copyright and trademark infringement' are not addressed by ICANN in compliance with the RIAA. 'Under the current proposed standard, we fear that we will have no realistic ability to object if a pirate chooses to hijack a music themed gTLD to enable wide scale copyright infringement of our works,' Sheckler said."

Comments

RIAA is still going?

[funkatron]

According to their lies they should have gone bankrupt by now. Maybe this year they can finally fuck off?

Re:RIAA is still going?

[mcgrew]

Lies is right. From TFA:

1. String Confusion. The sought after gTLD is "confusingly similar to an existing one, or one making its way through the application stage.
2. Legal Rights. The applied-gTLD somehow "infringes" on the rights of the protesting group.
3. Morality and Public Order. The proposed gTLD is "contrary to generally accepted legal norms of morality." One guesses that the gTLDs '.extortion' or '.kickstraydogs' would fall under this rubric.
4. Community Objection. "There is substantial opposition to the gTLD application from a significant portion of the community to which the gTLD string may be explicitly or implicitly targeted." See '.lawyerssuck' or '.justinbieberfansmustdie.'

1. .music is close to .info? Who do these lying assholes think they're fooling?
2. TFA pegged it. How in the world could it infringe on their rights? What rights, in fact? They act as if nobody but the RIAA is allowed to write, perform, or record music.
3. "Legal norms of morality?" legal != moral, moral !=legal, immoral != illegal, illegal != immoral. There's nothing immoral about smoking marijuana, but its posession is against the law. There is little that is more immoral than adultery, yet it is legal in most jurisdictions.
4. What community? Most musicians are not RIAA members, and in fact almost every musician I know personally hates the RIAA's guts.

And Jesus H. Christ, who is the RIAA to preach to anybody about morality? Satan himself has better morals.

Re:RIAA is still going?

[dkleinsc]

Are you at all familiar with the accounting practices rampant in the recording and film industries?

They typically keep at least 3 sets of books - 1 for the royalty payments (which will invariably state that the actual content earned nothing so nobody with net royalties earns a dime), 1 for the tax collectors (which will invariably state that the company owes no taxes), and 1 for the stockholders (which will show the massive profits they're making). That the math has never added up hasn't stopped the very small number of big conglomerates so far.

Re:RIAA is still going?

[robot256]

I'm sorry, that sounds too much like a song, please have your payment ready when our lawyers come to sue you. ~ RIAA

Re:RIAA is still going?

[funkatron]

To the funny moderator: I meant it, you insensitive clod.

Space in a Parking Lot

[NReitzel]

Isn't this akin to the DEA informing a grocery store that they can't have a parking lot, because a lot of drug deals are taking place there at night?

Re:Space in a Parking Lot

[spun]

Not really. I don't think the RIAA is concerned about piracy on .music gTLDs. They appear to be more concerned that they will not have as much control over domain names as they would like. They object to three specific things: "Ultra high standards for community objection," which means it will be more difficult for them to stop things they consider to be cybersquatting; "Lack of transparency" means they will not be able to easily figure out who owns what domain name, and who to sue; and "Malicious Conduct" which means that they suspect people might do things on the .music gTLD that they do on other parts of the Internet, like pirate music. They seem to want to force ICANN to be their unpaid police force, or to do their thinking for them and come up with a technical solution that protects their interests.

Basically, I believe RIAA wants to control anything remotely related to music. The idea of a huge new marketplace of independent music scares the crap out of them. I think they want ICANN to basically say, "The RIAA owns .music. If you want to put music of any sort on the Internet, talk to the RIAA." And I want to date supermodels, plural. Come on, RIAA, you are thinking too small. Take getting paid for doing nothing to the next step and force everyone with ears to pay a music tax directly to you. After all, if they have ears, they might hear some music without paying you for it, and we can't have that.

Thanks!

[xMrFishx]

Oh hey thanks for your information about the parking lot, I used to buy my drugs at the chemist, where there was a limited selection. Now I can get the drugs I want from this source without the hassle of getting them through proper channels.

Stupid?

[Nemyst]

You'd be pretty stupid to paint yourself in a corner like that, as a pirate. That's akin to the .xxx TLD that'd make porn sites way too easy to filter.

I don't think .music would be used for much pirating. Plus, even if it does, it would've happened WITHOUT it anyways... The RIAA is apparently trying to piss off everyone they can. I don't get it.

Re:Stupid?

[MartinSchou]

Well, if ICANN had a sense of humour, they'd just refuse to register any music related domain names. Period. Nothing that could even remotely be associated with any of the RIAA companies, their subsidiaries, their artists or employees.

I mean - to avoid lawsuits.

Re:Stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's akin to the .xxx TLD that'd make porn sites way too easy to filter.

As someone who's done business with porn sites, they're all about it. Porn sites want to be filtered by libraries, schools, parents, etc. because it lessens the hassle and negative image they have to deal with while not seriously effecting their business (very few people in any of those situations buy porn instead of looking at free stuff). Heck, most of them voluntarily add tags to help filtering programs know to filter them.

P.S. going to company mandated sexual harassment sensitivity training being done by an outside consultant is a riot when a number of the "rules" they tell us to follow would prevent us from doing work. The trainer eventually just blanked over, stopped taking questions, and read from her script pretending like no one had asked anything.

Re:Stupid?

[plover]

So ICANN should issue a .riaa gTLD, and give the RIAA the authority to be the regsitrar.

Then everyone business and and ISP on the planet could block .riaa resolution, keeping us safe from being subjected to lawsuits for infringing their rights by looking at their content.

Brilliant!

Why this one?

[amicusNYCL]

How exactly is any one TLD more or less capable of being used by pirates than any other?

simple solution: .riaa ghetto

[bugi]

There's an easy solution to this. Give them their own .riaa gtld and let them ghettoize it however they like.

That can be the official newspeak channel for angry out of touch distributors, and the rest of us can get on with appreciating music for its aesthetic value.

Fuck Everyone, We're the RIAA

[eldavojohn]

The RIAA is apparently trying to piss off everyone they can. I don't get it.

Dear Everybody,

You're not us. So that means you're either a pirate or a pirate pretending to be a consumer. That includes ICANN. That includes the Vatican. That includes OPEC. That includes the United States Government.

You want to use the word "music?" We can assure you, only if you pay royalties to us and right now all we see is people profiting off of our artist's copyrighted works (i.e. all music) that we broke our backs locking down with crippling contracts.

Remember our motto: "If you're not us, you're against us."

No, that wasn't a typo. We're sick of making weak individuals our enemies -- it's time we pick on someone our own size.

Notes, scales, chords, percussion, etc. It's only a matter of time before we own those words and what they represent.

The RIAA

P.S. Resistance is futile.

Re:My understaning

[careysub]

The RIAA wants special considerations for rights holders that no other business or perons on the Internet has today and wants to limit criticisms under the guise of morality...

17 USC 1008, Section 1004 imposes a 3% tax on blank music CDs since 1998, even though making copies of music for your own use is legal, and the music industry did just fine with no tax on analog media supporting them. Once they got a taste of having a special tax in which the proceeds flow directly to private for-profit businesses they have been eager to extend this "business model."

You may have seen proposals being floated by the RIAA for some sort of Internet tax to replace their "lost" revenues (compared to their all-time high banner year of 1999). This idea does not seem to have gotten traction yet, but the more Congress resembles the U.S. Chamber of Commerce the more likely they are to dust this one off again.

Yessiree - protecting private intellectual property is best done through tax-supported corporate welfare.