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RIAA Admits SOPA Wouldn't Have Stopped Piracy

jfruh writes "One of the arguments against the now-dormant SOPA legislation was that, in addition to eroding Internet freedom, it would also be ineffective in stopping music piracy. Well, according to a leaked report, the RIAA agrees with the latter argument. The proposed laws would 'not likely to have been an effective tool for music,' according to the report. Another interesting revelation is that, despite the buzz and outrage over P2P sharing, most digital music piracy takes place via sneakernet, with music moving among young people on hard drives and ripped CDs."

153 comments

  1. Hmmm by eternaldoctorwho · · Score: 0

    Hindsight rationalization, anyone?

    1. Re:Hmmm by NettiWelho · · Score: 1

      More like sour grapes.

    2. Re:Hmmm by RandomFactor · · Score: 1

      Those grapes would have likely been yummy. SOPA...not so much.

      --
      --- Mercutio was right.
    3. Re:Hmmm by NettiWelho · · Score: 1

      [...] SOPA...not so much.

      For you and me maybe, but for the fox(RIAA), it wouldve been delicious.

  2. Um... by BrownLeopard · · Score: 1

    ...duh?

  3. Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I almost feel guilty every time I make a copy for someone. Almost.

    Gotta upgrade to USB3. Copies take days.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell me you have an Ampache server I can connect to.....

    2. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't.

      Make the labels feel guilty for making such a system possible by not upgrading their ways.

      They are the ones who actually came out and straight-up said they don't give a damn about the digital age and won't support it, and will do anything in their power to destroy it.
      Megaupload was the most successful thing they have ever had against such a digital service.
      Of course, now the evidence is piling up that the entire case was illegal to begin with and not a single shred of evidence was in their favor in the slightest.

      Just keep spreading around that the labels are corrupt, make as much noise as possible and let the artists themselves know about it.
      They are the ones who need the most help.
      They are the ones who are duped in to thinking the labels are even needed anymore. It was true over a decade ago, not so much now.
      The labels job as-is is completely useless for any artist. You could take them out and artists, choreographers, singers, bands, CG modellers, stores, printing companies and so on could still find each other pretty damn easily.

      Maybe one day we will have a world where creative content is free of these restrictions and it is loyalty that is rewarded.

    3. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Go away RIAA! You are not taking him down.

    4. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by characterZer0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The labels are not needed for the artists, but they are needed for the entertainers. Do you really think Justin Beiber would have gotten anywhere without a billion dollar marketing machine? With independent artists, music would be about the music and people would find the music they like. The marketed entertainment industry dwarfs the music industry, and that is what they are fighting for.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    5. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by cfulton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Once again the "Free Market" prevails. We have Justin Beiber instead of good music. Thank God! Who would want a world in which talented creative people are well rewarded for their work and untalented teen age boys were simply teen age boys instead of semi-iconic sex idols for prepubescent girls. I for one happily bow to the marketing overlords.

      --
      No sigs in BETA. Beta SUCKS.
    6. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    7. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by characterZer0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People do not want good music. People want to be popular. Entertainment marketing is about convincing people they will be popular if they like (and purchase) a particular kind of entertainment. The trick is producing entertainment watered down enough that you can get a large number of people to not hate it.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    8. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by equex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Justin Beiber is what people want, because it is marketed that way. People don't just have a terrible taste in music, they are also willing products of the marketing industry. (aka fashion)

      --
      Can I light a sig ?
    9. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah... they "like his music"... I think the other post had it right, they like his cock. Little girls get horny too, don't believe everything they tell you...

    10. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are TELLING people what they want. The people are just too alarmingly retarded to tell the difference. Sad truth

    11. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Genda · · Score: 2

      And Pavlov was able to get dogs to drool when they heard a bell... your point is?

    12. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Genda · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Its way more than that.... they will be popular, they will be young and beautiful forever, they will never die, have bad breath, fart, or be embarrassed. The machine whispers in your ear and tells you anything for the privilege of lightening your wallet, and locking down a few more neurons. Its ultimate goal is to rob the world of the capacity to form individual thoughts or make rational decisions. Is it not time to kill the machine.

    13. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not only that, but Justin Beiber (going from info on his movie) actually had to go around the standard labels and get popular by putting videos up on YouTube and touring around the US doing concerts at highschools and county fairs as well as doing radio appearances. This is because the labels didn't think music from a 16 year old boy would sell, especially from a person that was previously unknown for anything. By the time he had an album released, he already had quite a following. There's a million examples of artists that are the result of the music industry marketing machine. Justin Beiber is probably one of the worst examples you could pick.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    14. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.

      Exactly right. If you went to some English-speaking desert island where they've never heard of Justin Beiber and you played a teenage girl his music, and some 'indie' artist's music and you asked her which she liked better, she'd pick Justin. His music is popular because his demographic likes it. Look at Rebecca Black. Her terrible song rocketed in popularity with no marketing behind it. Why? Because her demographic liked it.

    15. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by jxander · · Score: 1

      I fail to see the downside.

      --
      This signature is false.
    16. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Insightful
      And yet, if marketroids were geeks, they'd be hailed as successful culture hackers. But they're not part of Us, so they are reviled among Polite Company[tm]

      Here's another thought: maybe some people out there are different from you, and prefer different forms of entertainment. Nah, crazy idea. We all love NPR, don't we? Every last one of us. I mean, if you don't love Peruvian hick music...I mean folk music...then you're hardly a person, eh?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    17. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once again the "Free Market" prevails. We have Justin Beiber instead of good music.

      This is like complaining about McDonald's not serving fine cuisine. When you go to sources which serve the lowest common denominator you're not going to get anything exciting (lest it upset someone)

    18. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe.

      No, I think most people dislike Justin Bieber. It just happens that the very specific demographic that likes his music is also a demographic that has nothing but disposable income, oodles of time to waste listening to bad music, immature musical tastes, and a greater need to follow the crowd than any other age group. Their customers are fools with nothing they're saving their money for. That makes it the most profitable sector of the music industry, and that's why they're the most influential.

      It has nothing to do with popularity among most people.

    19. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      Exactly. It's better to feel guilty when you actually pay for stuff. That gives the MAFIAA money.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    20. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by SuperTechnoNerd · · Score: 1

      Yes but the Beiber's of the world are grown by the record labels, for the record labels, instead of a garage band that moves up through the scene because they are good. So no, Beiber and the likes need the labels because no talent needs a lot of help and pimping to be be successful.

    21. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well... without the bilion dollar marketing we would have proper original music, not the same-old-same-old pap... :)

    22. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't Beiber already popular on Youtube before the labels "discovered" him?

    23. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by characterZer0 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nobody liked Rebecca Black. People liked making fun of Rebecca Black.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
    24. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Dragonslicer · · Score: 2

      This is because the labels didn't think music from a 16 year old boy would sell, especially from a person that was previously unknown for anything.

      And this after how many decades of "boy bands"? One could argue that The Beatles are the original boy band, although they actually had some amount of talent. Certainly it wasn't much less than 20 years ago when boy bands really became popular.

    25. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      And yet, if marketroids were geeks, they'd be hailed as successful culture hackers.

      Only if they actually hacked the culture in a fun and interesting way.

      Based on their past and current performance, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    26. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good music supposedly came to market when labels were run by older guy who had no clue about music, and so would market anything that walked in the door.

    27. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by blind+monkey+3 · · Score: 1

      An interesting experiment would be to play Justin to a group of girls that have not heard of him but put a video of an overweight, myopic, pimply boy singing the Beiber song.
      Another would be to get an indie artist's song, and show it to a group of girls - this time show Beiber singing it.

      --
      BM3
    28. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but we MIGHT have been better off with Beiber and the like...so...

    29. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. He wouldn't have, instead maybe someone talented would be on the fricken radio.

    30. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whats music got to do with it? Music is the by-product of the rest of the marketing machine (like image, videos, etc).

    31. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Once in a while, I feel the need for an "insightful troll" modding.

      And yet, if marketroids were geeks, they'd be hailed as successful culture hackers. But they're not part of Us, so they are reviled among Polite Company[tm]

      This is the trollish part - controversy without a base, just for the sake of controversy.

      Here's another thought: maybe some people out there are different from you, and prefer different forms of entertainment. Nah, crazy idea. We all love NPR, don't we? Every last one of us. I mean, if you don't love Peruvian hick music...I mean folk music...then you're hardly a person, eh?

      This is the insightful part.

      (Oh, God... what am I to do?)

    32. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once again the "Free Market" prevails. We have Justin Beiber instead of good music.

      This is like complaining about McDonald's not serving fine cuisine. When you go to sources which serve the lowest common denominator you're not going to get anything exciting (lest it upset someone)

      Except that I feel the majority of "food joints" in the music nowadays are "fast food joints" rather than "honest restaurants".

    33. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe.

      While I don't blame the people having a terrible taste in music, this doesn't stop me in blaming the record companies for disregarding the "good taste music" (whatever that may be) in their hunt for the buck. Am I wrong for blaming them?

    34. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Don't.

      Make the labels feel guilty for making such a system possible by not upgrading their ways.

      Labels, feel?

      Pull the other one.

      Right now in Australia there is an inquiry as to why the Australian prices are far higher than prices in other nations, Especially for digital goods. Publishers are still trying to claim tax, duties and wages. Most of which (especially tax and duties) is much lower than the UK yet prices are often twice (or more, some times as much as 4 times) what they are in the UK (Taxes get my goat, GST in AU is 10% whilst VAT in the UK is 20% how the fuck is that more?). Wages do not matter seeing as they don't have retail presences in Australia. Yet they continue to use these as an excuse, treating digital products as if they had the same cost as physical products and pretending the AUD is not as high as it is.

      Publishers and labels do not feel guilt, they don't feel remorse or empathy or anything else. They aren't human so stop trying to apply human values and human characteristics to them. The only thing they care about is money, if you want to affect their decisions, you have affect their bottom line.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    35. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Justin Beiber wouldn't be popular unless a lot of people actually liked his music, as hard as that is to believe. A result of marketing he may be, but they are marketing something people clearly want. The fundamental problem is most people have terrible taste in music. The labels are just pandering to that.

      To answer your comment, I will quote the following:

      PINK FLOYD:
      Welcome my son, welcome to the Machine.
      What did you dream? It's all right, we told you what to dream.

      BILLY JOEL:
      I am the Entertainer, and I know just where I stand,
      Another serenader in another long-haired band.
      Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts,
      But I know the game, you'll forget my name,
      I won't be here in another year,
      If I don't stay on the charts.

      So don't rush to the conclusion that the populace just spontaneously agrees to like certain bands or singers "en masse". Those people have a propaganda machine that Joseph Goebbels would have fallen in love with.

      Posting anonymously because I haven't paid any royalties to reproduce those lyrics.

    36. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Beatles were hardly a boy band - they were all 20 - 22 years old when they first came to prominence.

    37. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aww. Did cfulton offend a Beiber fan?

    38. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Tell me it's not hilarious to make people run out and purchase music by crappy performers? If "Anonymous" somehow pulled it off, once, it would be a source of merriment for years. Marketroids do it regularly, and make a mint doing it. What's not to admire?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    39. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Seeing how little effort is required to get people to do amazingly stupid things quit being a source of merriment for me about 20 years ago. Since then, trying to bowl a perfect game has proven more interesting to me (lifetime high 284, average 187, if you're interested).

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    40. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The term "boy band" is generally reserved for groups that don't actually play instruments. Otherwise, every group of male performers (including the Rolling Stones) could be called a "boy band."

      The Beatles wrote music, played instruments, and actually had a lot of talent and involvement in the process. There's no comparison between them and JB, or the boy bands of the 90s. It's a different genre. (Sure, most of the Beatles stuff isn't much heavier than the pop of today, but the music itself is different.)

    41. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      If marketroids were 'successful culture hackers' they would pick on adults.

      All they do is sell junk to dumb children. Southpark nailed it. Don't mess with Mr. Mouse.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    42. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The Beatles _barely_ played their instruments. To be fair George eventually learned to play his. Ringo still can't keep a beat.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    43. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by thunderclap · · Score: 0

      No. This is one of the reasons why he is hated. He shouldn't not be wealthy. Most of us are sick of the quasi-talented being massaged into superstardom while the truly talented (those who can sing, write their own music and play an instrument) languish. ( You could take them out and artists, choreographers, singers, bands, CG modellers, stores, printing companies and so on could still find each other pretty damn easily.) Yes but the cost would still be prohibitive. Labels are only going for marketing. They charge way too much for that now.

    44. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by thunderclap · · Score: 0

      A lot of people don't. Here's a shocking fact: There is actually more love for Rebecca Black than Justin Beiber. Go listen her current stuff now that she's free of the ark fools. Its cheap teen pop but better than his massage garbage. Onion is right, he's secretly a 50yr pedophie. ;)

    45. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by thunderclap · · Score: 0

      No. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by American talent manager Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with entertainer Usher Raymond in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), and then to an Island Records recording contract offered by record executive L.A. Reid.
      Braun got his launch into the world of hip-hop via producer Jermaine Dupri, the director of So So Def Records. Braun was 19 years old when Dupri asked him to join So So Def in a marketing position, and 20 when Dupri named him So So Def's executive director for marketing. See the problem? You have a tinear talent manager who gains his experience from a hip-hop producer so he watches videos on youtube and finds Beiber? No. Biber was marketable. Plain and simple.

    46. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by thunderclap · · Score: 0

      And her. The immense hatred caused a viseral reaction. Also, she's genuine, honest and got all the royalites from "friday' because Ark retained nothing. She didn't need marketing. The hatred did it for her.

    47. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by thunderclap · · Score: 0

      You mean this: http://youtu.be/uIJUaay4yBg
      the end of the video has the actor singing a jb song.

    48. Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music. by characterZer0 · · Score: 1

      The point of music is music (and to get laid). The great artists will be remembered and the art will be enjoyed for years.

      The point of entertainment is to part fools from their money (and to get laid).

      Sometimes artists get rich, sometimes not.

      --
      Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
  4. Logic by SJHillman · · Score: 2

    Next up: Legislation requiring all hard drives, thumb drives and other storage devices to be registered with the government. You will need to transfer ownership of all devices and must submit monthly logs of any device your storage medium has been connected to regardless of whether or not it was accessed or even powered on.

    Additional fees may apply for concealed carry SD cards.

    1. Re:Logic by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      Next stop: Wetware and stacking your brain.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    2. Re:Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's okay, SD cards are getting small. And the number of places you can conceal them is therefore increasing.

    3. Re:Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real trojan for access to your pc is the mp3 you, or even other people, pirate.
      In Italy we already pay the local performing right organization for every hd we purchase to cover the costs of piracy. Would that mean we can put a lil pirate stuff there? nope.

    4. Re:Logic by daem0n1x · · Score: 1

      And you are not allowed to memorise any song or film. Your memory must be erased after exposure, or else you might commit piracy by singing the song or telling the plot to someone.

    5. Re:Logic by interval1066 · · Score: 1

      I just can't wait for the legislation sponsered by the RIAA that simply allows the labels to send armed gaurds to anyone's home and hold them up for wallet cash and loose change at any time.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    6. Re:Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you go on to read the original article as linked from the IT world article http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-riaa-report-sopapipa-ineffective-tool-against-music-piracy-120727/ It appears they currently just plan to go through with some 6 strikes think for p2p.

    7. Re:Logic by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Nah, no need for any of that. Just bully manufacturers into building a backdoor into their products, include something in the EULA that states that the big 5 media companies can access your device at any time for any reason. No need to spend all that money on lobbyists or deal with that pesky publicity.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    8. Re:Logic by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      The title of the bill will feature both "child pornography" and "terrorist".

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    9. Re:Logic by interval1066 · · Score: 1

      You just made me shit.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    10. Re:Logic by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      And you are not allowed to memorise any song or film. Your memory must be erased after exposure, or else you might commit piracy by singing the song or telling the plot to someone.

      Didn't they try that with 'Men In Black'? They even had the tagline 'See it again for the fist time". It worked better for "Men In Black II". The movie simply wasn't as memorable.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    11. Re:Logic by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Nah we should cut off everybody's tongue as a preemptive measure in case they decide to sing a song they do not have a license for.

    12. Re:Logic by Baloroth · · Score: 2

      I just can't wait for the legislation sponsered by the RIAA that simply allows the labels to send armed gaurds to anyone's home and hold them up for wallet cash and loose change at any time.

      Won't happen, the government doesn't like anyone infringing on their monopoly.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    13. Re:Logic by Genda · · Score: 1

      No, the parent has it right, they want to stack you brain. Any time you have a thought, think of a song, remember a movie, or a passage from a book, a small bit of money is deducted from your account. Since you account will be completely empty within about 4 minutes of your receiving a pay check, and since you'll still be having thoughts, the powers that be will inform you that you are now a ward of the state (a wholly owned subsidiary of the folks who stacked your brain.) You will do as you are told, or they will activate their right to carve out any memories they deem as their IP. Welcome to heaven as envisioned by he XX-IAA.

    14. Re:Logic by interval1066 · · Score: 1

      ~chuckle~ Good Point!

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    15. Re:Logic by Shagg · · Score: 1

      Why not, the BSA already does it.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    16. Re:Logic by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 1

      In Italy we already pay the local performing right organization for every hd we purchase to cover the costs of piracy. Would that mean we can put a lil pirate stuff there? nope.

      In Finland, we already pay a levy on all external media (SD, CF, USB sticks, external drives, media players, etc.). Does this mean we can legally copy - for private use - any material published in Finland? Hell, yes, of course we can! The levy is distributed among rights holders by a number of copyright societies.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    17. Re:Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget about e-mail. With high enough bandwidth, it's easy to files over e-mail, so it will have to be registered and monitored, as well.

      Or they will just force everyone to use a government certified cloud service instead of their own secondary storage facilities. Of course, there will be nominal montly fees to cover the government's costs in monitoring such services, on behalf of content companies.

      And device players that monitor you, allowing you to properly compensate the content companies based on usage, rather then just an up-front fee.

    18. Re:Logic by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      And how does the government having a monopoly on taking people's money away preclude the RIAA from taking people's money away? I was under the impression that the three branches of the American government are the RIAA, the MPAA and Monsanto.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  5. Yes I must agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Piracy only happens because hardware permits it...

        We must out law sneakers.

    1. Re:Yes I must agree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or at least, have a fee on all sneakers going to the four-letter associations to compensate all the sneakernet piracy.

  6. The real sneakernet by CheesyMoo · · Score: 1

    The real 'sneakernet' is flash drives embedded in tennis shoes

    1. Re:The real sneakernet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real 'sneakernet' is flash drives embedded in tennis shoes

      Thank you for confirming your age to Slashdot. We didn't even need to set up a trap to get this information out of you, further fueling our disdain for and cynicism towards the general state of cleverness and ingenuity of kids these days. We will be certain to hide all the alcohol and cigarettes from your view and dispatch a squadron of old-timers to dutifully inform you about how life was back in the day and then instruct you as to the most appropriate location for you to stand in relation to their lawns.

    2. Re:The real sneakernet by OhSoLaMeow · · Score: 1

      Wow! The Usenet Oracle has joined /. !!!

      --
      They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
    3. Re:The real sneakernet by Genda · · Score: 3, Funny

      I believe you need the following display to assist with proper sneaker net age determination...

      AGE .................... MEDIA

      Babylon 1 Star ............. Clay Tablet
      Beyond Farting ............ Papyrus
      Farts Dust .................. Parchment .... (What's a sneaker?)
      Forbidden Planer star . Printed paper
      Star Trek star ............ Reel Tape
      Old Fart ................... Paper punch card deck
      Star Wars star ........ 8" 180 KB Floppy
      Middle Aged .......... 360 KB Floppy
      STNG Star ........... 1.44 MB Floppy
      Babalon 5 star ..... Tape Cassette
      Young Man .......... CD
      Youngun ............. DVD
      Todler ............... Flashcard
      Infant ............... Flashdrive

    4. Re:The real sneakernet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, but it's the "embedded in tennis shoes" part that's important, I feel. That is, the point where it's no longer data transfer so much as a company manufacturing a trendy shoe with flash media installed in it. Do we have an "Embryo" category yet?

    5. Re:The real sneakernet by Genda · · Score: 1

      I believe that would be the "Zygote" rating.

    6. Re:The real sneakernet by cpu6502 · · Score: 1

      >>>Middle Aged .......... 360 KB Floppy

      (looks-around). Is there a camera in my parents' basement watching me? I'll have you know these C64 SIDs of Axel F and Madonna are quality entertainment.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  7. No? No! by Sasayaki · · Score: 2, Funny

    Of course not. The point was NOT to endlessly funnel more money towards the RIAA, the MPAA and their respective legal teams, but to take the modest and humble earnings from lawsuits and return all of it to the artistssshhhahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa.

    Man I crack myself up sometimes.

    --
    Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
  8. No category for free legal downloads? by diversiform · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I get most of my music via free, legal downloads from artists and labels that offer them for promotional reasons. But I don't see this on the chart at all. Am I unusual, or was this deliberately left out of the RIAA's calculations?

    1. Re:No category for free legal downloads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Free legal downloads are as big a threat to their business model as piracy, so they just lumped them together.

    2. Re:No category for free legal downloads? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's how I find new stuff, free promotional downloads (samplers on Amazon, creative commons DLs on artists' sites). Then I try to buy direct from the bands I like at performances (cash for CD, direct) if they perform nearby. If not, I'll purchase through CDBaby, Amazon, etc. Hoping to see more Humble Music Bundles, too!

  9. Yeah, it still left too much internet Freedom by Andrio · · Score: 2

    "SOPA wouldn't have stopped piracy... It wasn't powerful enough! We'd need legislature that takes away even more internet freedom! The new bill we're going to be lobbying for will allow us to stop piracy once and for all. In addition, it'll stimulate the economy, create new jobs, and combat terrorism."

    --
    The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
    1. Re:Yeah, it still left too much internet Freedom by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      "SOPA wouldn't have stopped piracy... It wasn't powerful enough! We'd need legislature that takes away even more internet freedom! The new bill we're going to be lobbying for will allow us to stop piracy once and for all. In addition, it'll stimulate the economy, create new jobs, and combat terrorism."

      Outlaw this pesky internet thingy. And all forms of writable media including paper.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    2. Re:Yeah, it still left too much internet Freedom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stimulate pedophiles, create terrorists, and fight jobs?

    3. Re:Yeah, it still left too much internet Freedom by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Does it provide unlimited orgasms to those that submit to it?

  10. SOPA by Dmritard96 · · Score: 2

    RIAA dropped the SOPA?

    1. Re:SOPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RIAA dropped the SOPA?

      Yet the artists are the ones getting screwed. Ironic, isn't it?

    2. Re:SOPA by Genda · · Score: 1

      DON'T PICK IT UP!!!!!!! Aaaaaahhhhh, poor bastard!

    3. Re:SOPA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ain't nothing "poor" about that bastard...had that one comin'....

  11. Damn you by thomas8166 · · Score: 1

    Either they had really short hindsight, or they knew all along. Either way, these guys are asses.

    --
    I make hardware RNGs, which give 2.5849625 bits of entropy per use in theory (actual performance dependent on usage).
  12. What assholes! by Xtense · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So we knew RIAA were assholes, but up until now i always thought they were just deluded idiots who bought research that supported their imagination. After seeing the percentage slide from that ITWorld article, I'm still brimming with viking rage.

    Assholes, every one of them - they just lost my one last excuse to at least feel a tinge of sympathy for them. Sympathy for their illness, mind, but sympathy nonetheless.

    --
    "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
  13. foresight by DynamoJoe · · Score: 1

    That just means they'll try harder next time.

    --
    bah.
  14. Momentarily Dormant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    FTFY

  15. MPAA backed SOPA by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

    From what I've heard, it was the MPAA that really pushed SOPA. The RIAA didn't think it would help them much, but, of course, weren't going to say no if given SOPA-powers. (Yes, I notice that looks like "super-powers." Does this make the MPAA a "SOPA-villain?")

    Don't think for a second that the RIAA has gone all cuddly and pro-sharing, however. With SOPA defeated, the RIAA is making themselves busy pushing laws that they think would benefit them at the expense of customers.

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    1. Re:MPAA backed SOPA by hillbluffer · · Score: 1

      That's _PRECISELY_ what they want. They would prefer you don't "own" anything, but instead have to pay every time you access their media. As for those pesky "silver discs"...If the only media you have is DRM encumbered, they can force you to rebuy every few years by simply shutting down the existing validation servers (for some lame reason). THAT is big media's wet dream.

  16. Don't know if you can still do this... by MikeRT · · Score: 1

    But in 2004-2005, a friend of mine and I discovered that you could mount the iPod Classic as a hard drive and bring the files over from Terminal.app or a Linux equivalent despite Apple's attempts to make it hard to access. Since the files all had ID3 tags, their attempts to obfuscate the file names were pointless if we wanted to share our collections.

    1. Re:Don't know if you can still do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just plug your iPod into a computer... you can drag and drop apple's files and if needed, convert them to an mp3.

    2. Re:Don't know if you can still do this... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      that's how they learnt their lesson with iphone/touch ipods.
      no standard moving of data around or 3rd parties uploading music without itunes.

      seriously, itunes sucked soooo much for setting up 160gb classics..

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Don't know if you can still do this... by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I imagine Apple deliberatly made the iPod a write-only device in order to maintain a better relationship with the labels.

    4. Re:Don't know if you can still do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just plug your iPod into a computer... you can drag and drop apple's files and if needed, convert them to an mp3.

      It's amusing how you slipped that teeny-tiny modifier in there ("APPLE'S files"), almost as if we weren't supposed to notice it.

  17. So 1990s ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The RIAA wants us to repurchase our media collection every few years to change formats so they can include DRM. It was bad enough that my 500+ cassette tape collection needed to be repurchased as CD audio. I was pissed, but the difference in audio quality really did matter to me for most of them. OTOH, my Judas Priest tapes weren't repurchased.

    Around 1996, I converted my thousands of music CDs bought during the years of BMC Music club membership into MP3 files. It took me over a year doing about 5 CDs every day to finish. Usually 2 before work and 1-3 in the evenings. Computers were much slower back then, so doing a rip/lame was about 45 minutes per CD. It was like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

    Every few years, I need to move those files to new storage media. Of course, they are backed up too - there's no chance that I'll be redoing all that time and effort again. When I need to move the data, I don't use a sneaker net. I have a real network, thank you.

    I was unhappy with some of the prices of those CDs, but at least I "own" it. Clearly I was confused. I'm unhappy with current pricing for electronic music and don't believe I "own" anything afterwards. It isn't exactly "property". It feels imaginary. At least the question whether a music file will play on my systems today or in 50 yrs from now has finally been answered - no DRM.

    SONY's attempt with a rootkit convinced me to never put a music CD into a mainstream OS again AND it proved to me never to trust big content companies AND never to buy software or hardware that is required to support their business failing DRM models.

    I've tried a few different DRM-encumbered music files over the years through free samples.
    The "Plays-for-Sure" stuff never played.
    The Apple stuff never played.
    Those failures convinced me to never buy music electronicly.

    RIAA - "You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
    I'm not "breaking the law" here.

    1. Re:So 1990s ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could also just hold "shift" whenever you insert a CD into a Windows PC. That prevents autorun.

      I believe you can tweak the registry to turn autorun off by default, too.

    2. Re:So 1990s ... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      It's much easier to rip now with modern amenities like batch rippers (dbpoweramp), online tag databases and USB where you easily support 6-10 drives per box.

      It may even be worth it if you are fussy enough to want essentially error free rips.

    3. Re:So 1990s ... by laffer1 · · Score: 1

      I had a pentium 100 in 1996 and it took me much longer than 45 minutes to encode a CD's worth of music. First I had to dump it to WAV files which back then dumped at near regular playback speed. Then i setup a batch script to run the command line client to convert the wav to an mp3. Due to limited disk space, I couldn't queue up too many at a time. My PC only had an 850MB HDD and it was only 5400RPM. That was before I had winamp too.. playing back an MP3 used like 25% of my CPU in stereo. For disk reasons, I only kept tracks that I really liked, not whole CDs. I'd burn them to a CD using a friend's burner starting around 97. It was pretty awesome.

      As for buying music electronically, check out Amazon. They give you MP3's. No DRM. Apple has some of their audio in DRM free format, but it costs extra. Plus amazon hosts the files for you in thier cloud player for free so you can play them from any browser in additional to having the files locally. Things have changed.

    4. Re:So 1990s ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those failures convinced me to never buy music electronicly.

      I'm impressed that you know enough about the internet to post on Slashdot (of all places), yet you seem to be applying that blanket statement as if to somehow ignore the non-RIAA musicians on the internet who release music electronically without any DRM or other nonsense.

    5. Re:So 1990s ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, RIAA comes off as the 'Tyrant' or 'Dissadent Aggressor' in these types of situations .... It's almost completely 'beyond the realms of death' what they are trying to do. All you can do is take a ' painkiller' and go in with 'all guns blazing'. In the end , the RIAA will end up being a ' victim of changes ' wrought by 21st century tech innovations.

    6. Re:So 1990s ... by Svartalf · · Score: 1

      RIAA (To us...): "Bend over...here it comes AGAIN!!"

      In truth, they (RIAA and MPAA members...) have very, very little I've any interest in anymore. I've not bought anything for years from those bastards and I've pretty much quit seeing movies over the last 3-4 years because it's tripe in the large and buying into it just simply fuels/powers them taking rights away from you and I.

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  18. well of course it wont. by nimbius · · Score: 1

    as we all know by now SOPA wasnt the legislation we needed. it would never pass because under analysis by our patrio-tastic legislators it didnt work, so therefore we at the RIAA havent failed in our mission. We've merely come to appreciate the system of checks and balances that our freely elected government sees fit to impose to ensure whats just, right, and proper is applied to society.

    this upcoming legislation however is correct and will prevent download piracy, a form of terrorism used by iranian homicide bombers, from taking place by using digital locks and content protection to preserve freedom. please disregard its passage.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:well of course it wont. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Needed? Not even traded freedom for safety, traded it for private companies profits. And now results that is not even that. So you just gave up your freedom for nothing, and not yours only, because it is being pushed anyway to other countries.

      Welcome to slavery Y2K edition.

  19. Maybe not the point by nine-times · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Call me paranoid, but sometimes I think that some of the anti-piracy proposals are not about stopping piracy. SOPA, for example, could have made it impossible for a site like YouTube to exist, which in turn would make it difficult to share user-generated content. Because it made it dangerous to host user content and content from independent sources, it would risk forcing sites to only allow content being distributed from major corporate sources who could be verified to own the content.

    It's not certain, but it could have been viewed as pushing us back towards broadcast networks where ISPs and large media companies act as gatekeepers on what information and entertainment you have access to.

    1. Re:Maybe not the point by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

      As an internet giant, youtube would be safe. It's smaller sites that would be shut down. If SOPA had been around back when youtube was a new startup, it'd have been crushed then. One big effect of SOPA would be to make it easy for larger companies to shut down smaller competitors, ensuring that control of the internet remained in the hands of a select wealthy few.

    2. Re:Maybe not the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is that paranoid? I thought they did not make it a huge secret that this is one of the goals. This was the great thing about the old system where you had to get a record pressed which could only be done by the labels. If YouTube uploads could only be done by the labels they could "guarantee" the quality for a "modest" fee. Its just like pressing records minus the costs of duplication (for the labels!). The artists would get shafted just as much

    3. Re:Maybe not the point by digitalaudiorock · · Score: 2

      It's clear that these groups just don't like the nature of the open internet at all, and they won't be happy until it's reduced to the likes of pay TV, where we're all just spectators.

    4. Re:Maybe not the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always found it interesting that they only shut down mp3.com after they started selling artist's music direct to the consumer. A lot of artists used their platform. After mp3.com was shut down with a bombardment of lawsuits no one else tried the model again.

    5. Re:Maybe not the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Call me paranoid, but sometimes I think that some of the anti-piracy proposals are not about stopping piracy.

      Paranoid? You're delusional if you think some of the anti-piracy proposals ARE about stopping piracy. The media industry associations want to have full control over production, distribution, and promotion of the content in their industry so the barrier to entry is too high for any competition to enter. They want everyone consuming their content on approved devices from verified sources so everyone gets used to being a passive consumer who happily pays and pays without thinking of whether they're getting any value for their money. Never mind what you used to be able to get for free or whether buying the physical media was cheaper than a here-today-gone-tomorrow digital download (and don't even mention buying used content, that goes against their business model!). Piracy barely even factors into the discussion.

    6. Re:Maybe not the point by jxander · · Score: 1

      Even more alarming, SOPA would have made it impossible for a site like Wikipedia to exist, and I've got a term paper due in a month. How would I write it without Wikipedia?? I'm pretty sure over 75% of all college students would crash and burn the instant Wikipedia went away.

      --
      This signature is false.
    7. Re:Maybe not the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's all about criminalising a civil offence. This way the recording industry doesn't have to shoulder the cost of prosecution as it's now transferred to the state. The state get the benefit of ambiguous language to spy on people and silence vocal opponents.

    8. Re:Maybe not the point by nine-times · · Score: 2

      I don't know if that's true. Apparently one of the complaints that SOPA was meant to address was that people were posting content on Youtube and Google wasn't necessarily taking it down until the copyright holder requested a takedown. One of the big parts of the bill was that it took the legal responsibility from the copyright holder to seek out and police violations of their property, and instead placed it on the web host to be policing their sites for violations of other people's copyrights.

      So essentially it would mean that Google would be held legally responsible for copyright violations on Youtube, even if no one had notified them that there was a copyright violation and given Google the opportunity to take it down. That would make Youtube too large of a liability to keep active, which was to my understanding one of the reasons Google vehemently opposed SOPA.

    9. Re:Maybe not the point by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 1

      I always found it interesting that they only shut down mp3.com after they started selling artist's music direct to the consumer. A lot of artists used their platform. After mp3.com was shut down with a bombardment of lawsuits no one else tried the model again.

      Does mp3million.com have a different model to mp3.com? They are based in Ukraine and claim to be legit. They appear to charge 10cents per track, which might almost be reasonable...

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  20. 1996? Really? by silverspell · · Score: 2

    Around 1996, I converted my thousands of music CDs bought during the years of BMC Music club membership into MP3 files. It took me over a year doing about 5 CDs every day to finish. Usually 2 before work and 1-3 in the evenings. Computers were much slower back then, so doing a rip/lame was about 45 minutes per CD. It was like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

    Every few years, I need to move those files to new storage media. Of course, they are backed up too - there's no chance that I'll be redoing all that time and effort again.

    1996? Either you're off by a few years, or you were a very early adopter...and at an average of 50MB per CD, you would've needed at least 100GB for "thousands" of CDs (i.e. 2000 CDs minimum). Hard drives that large weren't commonly available for another five years.

    Plus I'd imagine those encodings sound dramatically worse than what you could get five years later at the same bitrate. Moreover, 128k was the custom at the time (onion on belt, etc.), and the old 128k files I have from the late '90s sound truly horrible today. All the high frequency transients turn into jangling keyrings.

    So, uh...are you sure that Clinton was in office when you started this project?

    1. Re:1996? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and 45 minutes per CD sounds awfully fast. I think it took about that long per track in 1996-1997 and there weren't many easy tools to do the job (I was an early adopter and I splurged on a massive 8GB hard drive somewhere in early 1998).

    2. Re:1996? Really? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Uh I think I was using MP2 in 1996. I remember playing MP3 files in a Pentium (i586) computer so it should have certainly been possible to play the files in 1996. I do not remember which was my first MP3 encoder but I remember it was not LAME.

    3. Re:1996? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You may be correct. Perhaps it was 1998?

      I know that I started ripping around 1996 ... I was at a specific job that year and other guy showed me how. I may not have ripped everything in a systematic way for a few more years.

      Initially, my MP3 player was a audio/data CDROM device from iRiver, so every 5-10 ripped CDs were burned to a data CDROM. As HDDs sizes increased, I made more and more of the audio files "live" on the network. BTW, I still use those same CDROMs in my 2001 vehicle to listen for hours at a time.

      Sorry if it was implied that all those files were always on a harddrive. I don't think that happened until around 2001. I've looked up my HDD purchases ... that was an interesting exercise. In 2001, I bought 4x80G drives to add to the multitude of 1.6G, 3.2G, 13G, and 20G drives already here from 1996 on. Fortunately, I'd retired the 2[45]0MB disks years earlier.

      Oh and "thousands" in my marketing class taught me that is 1001 or more. ;) Anything over 1000.00000 is "thousands."

    4. Re:1996? Really? by silverspell · · Score: 1

      Oh, MP3 (and MP2) were certainly around in 1996, as well as a couple competitors that never went anywhere (anyone remember VQF?). But I don't remember MP3 taking off until the late 1990s, and I certainly don't remember anyone with consumer-grade HDs big enough to store the equivalent of thousands of CDs, even at 128kbps, until at least 2000. In 1996, a 2 GB hard drive was still a big deal.

      And like I said, encodings from 1996-1998 are likely to sound terrible by today's standards, and I'd be inclined to re-rip them. The encoder I was using in the late 1990s was just awful -- you wouldn't need to be an audiophile to hear the way it totally wrecked the music's top end.

    5. Re:1996? Really? by silverspell · · Score: 1

      Oh and "thousands" in my marketing class taught me that is 1001 or more. ;) Anything over 1000.00000 is "thousands."

      Ha! :) Thanks for your detailed and good-natured reply. I think 1998 would make more sense, as it started to become more feasible then. Still, you were definitely ahead of the curve!

    6. Re:1996? Really? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Yeah. I don't understand how the other poster did it either. I only had 1GB of HD space at the time. Then again it was common to use lower bit rates. 128kbps was seen as a luxury and often the MP3s were in 96kbps. VBR was often not supported properly in the early days either.

  21. never to buy software or hardware that is required by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly.

    I haven't paid for a commercial OS license in years, use Linux instead.
    I haven't bought a Bluray player, Roku, a 3D HDTV or netflix device. My thoughts are that until these work without DRM on my systems, it would be bad to give them any more money. Alone, my sacrifice doesn't do anything, but together with all /. readers, we really could send a message. What message? "Support Linux or early tech adopters won't support you."

    I do take advantage of Amazon Free MP3 albums when they are available, but I'll never pay any money for audio files. I'm older now and current music isn't very important to me. With all those CDs ripped 15 yrs ago, I can go for months without hearing the same song twice.

    If I were going to buy music, it would only be directly from the artist after a local show.

    A big metal-band got me pissed about record companies. I was a big fan, but since they filed that lawsuit, I haven't bought ANYTHING with {that crap name} on it since. Again, I doubt my little boycot matters to the band.

    I'm a man of principles on this stuff. Don't worry, I don't have any principles on many (most?) other things ... I did some work for SONY in Japan in the late 1990s, as an example.

    Oh, and I don't have a bookface account either, so watch out! ;)

  22. Lousy logic, as an old person, I can do better by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 1

    Outlaw young people, round them all up and put them in work camps. That will teach them and get them of my lawn too!

    On a more serious note, Brein (dutch RIAA) knows its block on the piratebay is meaningless. It is just the first small baby step to get politicians to swallow the poisoned pill. They know what they want to achieve in the end, a completely locked down society where every bit of content is payed for repeatedly and all creation belongs to the 1% no matter who created it or when it was created or how free that person made it.

    But you can't ask for total control at once because most politicians are not completely amoral yet. But every small step, readies the ground for the next step.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:Lousy logic, as an old person, I can do better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you can't ask for total control at once because most politicians are not completely unafraid of crowds bearing torches and pitchforks yet.

      TFTFY.

  23. what would stop Hollywood Accounting? by Dan667 · · Score: 1

    It is a much much bigger problem as artists / musicians don't get paid and US Taxpayers are being cheated.

  24. Sneakernet piracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is it really piracy if you copy music from friends? Isn't copying between friends and family members completely legal in most jurisdictions?

    1. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by JimProuty · · Score: 1

      please tell me you are not serious.

    2. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least I am (not the same AC as above). In Belgium it is mostly legal to make copies and do downloads if this happens in the family or with close friends. As far as I understood id, a tax on every writable medium pays the copyright holders.
        See e.g. http://www.fwdmagazine.be/fwd/135823/is-illegaal-downloaden-stiekem-toch-legaal-/ (In Dutch) . Or google for yourself.

    3. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 1

      please tell me you are not serious.

      Serious? In Finland one's rights go even further: it is legal to copy any published material for private consumption, even if it's material obtained from the public library. We already pay a levy on blank writable CD/DVD disks and on all sorts of external media (SD/CF/USB drives, media players, etc.). This levy is distributed to rights holders in lieu of copyright fees or attempts at extortion through the legal system.

      In my case, the levy is more than generous enough, considering that my SDHC cards are for my own creations (photos, videos), and most of my external drives are for backup of my main drives or archiving of my created materials. Our CDs and DVDs are ripped to our media server, and we copy stuff without hesitation to our MP3 players. In other words, either we've paid for it once already, or we're actually the creators.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    4. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it really piracy if you copy music from friends? Isn't copying between friends and family members completely legal in most jurisdictions?

      Legally define "friends".

    5. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, it is not legal.

      I doubt a lawyer could get the 10yr old child off if she copied her daddy's MP3 files to her play-laptop in the USA. I joke, but it is almost that serious an infraction here.

      In the USA, the laws are reinterpreted all the time. Most of the music copyright laws seem to have been interpreted to be "like a book" uses. That means it needs to be 100% impossible for the audio file to be heard in more than 1 location at a time to be legal. That means 1 copy and 1 backup that can't be used to listen. Apple may have altered that with iTunes on the desktop and portable music devices. Seriously, what happens when a child goes to college, should they delete all the music from their "household" that is on the cell phone, but owned by Daddy?

      Use within a single home, might not be considered copyright infringment, but if you give music to your friends who don't live in the same "household" in the USA, that is definitely copyright infringment. Even if those files are freely given away by the record companies, you do not have a license to re-distrubute the songs. Only record company has that control; many artists do not retain that right, so they can't do it either.

      I think perhaps only Norther Europe and places that don't have any copyright enforcement (South America) would allow what you're asking. Not because their laws allow it, but because law enforcement has more important things to do.

    6. Re:Sneakernet piracy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (Context: I'm in the USA, and I write software for a living.)

      This private copying seems sensible to me: if you buy something for yourself, how you use it for your own purposes should be allowed as part of owning the thing you paid for.

      It's when the object is replicated for another person where I get cranky. The Trichordist "Artists For An Ethical Internet" addresses this best: http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/

      And I'm skeptical that the levy on blank media reaches all the people who we rely upon to create new music: the musicians/producers/roadies/sound engineers/etc. I suspect that only the music industry execs and their signed artists get a cut of that paltry fee.

      Personally, I wish people would think of music/movies like a "patron of the arts". People who had money commissioned art by paying up front. This created more music. I see that some places still encourage this: http://www.randallgiles.org/commissioning.html for example. I don't want to pay thousands of dollars to commission a single piece of music, but paying $10 or only $5 (used CD) for ten tracks of music surely isn't burdensome to most people. And there are libraries with CDs of music for basically free. It is sad to hear that the most popular use of library CDs is people taking them home and ripping them to their hard drive. Some people have no shame.

  25. Who's the real pirate here by fluffythedestroyer · · Score: 1

    I wonder if when the RIAA or any other organisation that goes against the people and they win millions or some cash..do they really give it back to the artist like it's logically suppose too or they keep it ?

  26. Yeah... right. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And if SOPA had passed, we'd be hearing from the MAFIAA all about how it was a decisive, history-making victory for artists.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  27. Too late for that... by rkhalloran · · Score: 1

    Check out Steve Albini's often-quoted piece on recording contracts and tell me otherwise...
    At this point albums are promotional materials for concert tours, where most bands make their money.
    At least until Ticketmaster and Live Nation get bought up, at which point musicians may as well go back to flipping burgers....

    1. Re:Too late for that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if they sell tickets through ticketmaster... not like that's the only way of selling tickets.

  28. Agree with you on buying electronic music by bbbaldie · · Score: 1
    I would never, ever, ever pay a buck for a downloaded song. I used to say that once the RIAA backed companies that would sell the songs at Russian rates, i.e. 10-20 cents per song, that I would support them.

    That was a couple of years ago. Now, i hate these greedy bastards so much that i would pay more for music just to bypass them.

    Fortunately, as long as i can access mp3million.com, it's a non-issue.

    1. Re:Agree with you on buying electronic music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i would but only for a flac version. $1 for an mp3/aac? no thanks.

  29. Re:Man I crack myself up sometimes. by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 1

    That's a pretty good trick.

    1. Take the "propaganda meme" (money to the artists)
    2. pull in a slashdot story from a few days ago, http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/07/29/0555208/ifpi-wont-share-pirate-bay-damages-with-musicians
    3. ??
    4. Karma Profit!

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  30. OMG! by formfeed · · Score: 1

    You actually misspelled Justin Bieber's name!

    ...And so have 10 more posts following yours! OMG! Can you see what you have done??
    You misspelled Bieber and now there is "Bieber" and "Beiber", you created a Bieber-fork.
    Don't fork the Bieber!

    It's so easy to remember: Just think of beaver and translate it into German.

    Beaver fever!

    1. Re:OMG! by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      First the Chipmunks and now Justin the Singing Beaver (and the Chipmunks yet again). Rodents and generic pop really go well together, don't they?

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  31. MPAA / RIAA were scapegoats. by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 2

    My theory is that the US Government was using the RIAA/MPAA as a proxy to get this rammed through.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"