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."

Comments

Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[HornWumpus]

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

Gotta upgrade to USB3. Copies take days.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[characterZer0]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[cfulton]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[Baloroth]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[characterZer0]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[equex]

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)

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[Genda]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[CastrTroy]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[interkin3tic]

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.

Re:Portable HD with 25K+ CDs worth of music.

[characterZer0]

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

No category for free legal downloads?

[diversiform]

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?

So 1990s ...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Logic

[davester666]

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

Maybe not the point

[nine-times]

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.

Yeah... right.

[Zontar The Mindless]

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

Re:The real sneakernet

[Genda]

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