When I built mine I planned on the max - 32GB. If it would have taken 64, that's what i'd have put in. If you like to game - it's kinda a given that you max your ram at the highest stable speed the Mobo will allow. Not crazy at all IMHO.
Ya, that all makes sense and one would assume a given. However, that would take more man hours and the devs would likely have to actually spend some time writing code, rather than just cut/paste chunks in and write a few lines to tweak or bridge (not that they couldn't do it - would just mean more resource allocation). This push it out the door as soon as possible and patch later paradigm (old and tired) is lately coming around to smack them in the face for the reasons you point out. The project managers and department heads push this agenda - generally in response to the sting on their backs from the board room cracking their whips and demanding a product that generates revenues before the close of the next fiscal quarter. Not much one can do in this event until the culture in the board room changes is my take... Just my $ 0.02 worth.
If my family's name is "Palin" this means she owns the rights to my daughter if she's was named Sarah? What about the "prior" art argument? According to howmanyofme dot com there are 790,847 named Sarah, 1,178 people with the sir name of Palin, and 3 people named Sarah Palin. Do the other 3 people have to pay a licensing fee if the former governor get her patent (very likely give the behavior of the U.S. PTO of late)?
I don't know... how long would it take to write new filter rules and reconfigure a few handfuls of firewalls? Probably about the same time it took to post this article!!!!
I can imagine all those borderline acrophobics freaking out about 10 secs after the plane leaves the ground. Unless, like one previous poster, the floor and the ceiling are covered with boxes and cables, etc.. Airbus' head of research and technology, Axel Krein must not have taken into account that many people may not be too keen on being constantly reminded that they sitting in a "glass" airplane 30,000 feet in the air - especially when they're flying over the ocean with no land in site. Talk about feeling like a canary in a coal mine!
According to the website, Konqueror (3.5.10) isn't supported. One gets bumped to a page informing one of this advent and you are further instructed to use Safari or Firefox (2 or 3). Way to go Novell/SUSE! Gotta love a website promoting a product that doesn't support the primary webbrowser provide by said product maker! Sheesh!
Perhaps you might garner the services of a willing post-grad or similar colleague to assist you! I can't believe some individual, at least from time to time, would not be willing to summerize your entries for lay persons so that they may be able to wrap their heads around the legal proceedings and their meanings therein more readily. I personally have had to do this in my profession. Unlike your situation, however, I did this in the context of my profession in the performance of my duties (critical care cardiac RN). So, I trust the most people fully understand the constraint you've mentioned between pursuing your case load while posting entries in your blog. Is there no viable remedy to this situation? Can anyone of those possibly qualified "/,'ers" perhaps contribute to this end?
So the heat is on and the RIAA find themselves in a less than desirable position - e.g. their "respondant superior" entity, aka SafeNet was breaking the law by "invading peoples privacy" (by their own admission) . So the RIAA and their members throw SafeNet under the bus and exclaim their amazement as to the unsavory tactics that their "employee" has been conducting. Like they had no clue that this was going on??? Ya Right, that's the ticket. Tell it to the judge!
"...the outright destruction of Big Music since now any even reasonably competent band can record, produce, and distribute their music outside of the traditional channels for a tiny investment in hardware and software."
Yep, and it scares the industry to death (hence the Draconian methods). For a couple of thousand dollars one can setup up their comp with a Pro-quality (e.g. multi-input/track @ 16,24,32bit/44.1 to 96kHz rates) interface, along with a bit of knowledge about recoreding, mixing/mastering and produce finished works (mastered down to 16/44kHz CD quality). The only thing then is exposure and marketing to build a fan base. It's now pretty common for major-labelled musicians to have MySpace sites. so with a (somewhat) trustworthy agent and a bit a savoy - away you go. The Music industry has lost the major part of their market lock and are clueless as to how to regain it. Since in this new scenario it's not as easy for them to handcuff their musicians with stringent contracts - people are wise to this and see a viable alternative that levels the field - Hence (again) their desperate and Draconian methods to hold on to what they can. They (the labels) may not fade completely, but it will amount to a "mind over matter" effect. People won't "mind" the Record labels screaming bloody murder because the "labels" won't "matter" as much anymore (and in time may not matter at all).
Take my situation. I recently enrolled back into my old Junior college (actually the largest in the nation - San Diego Mesa College). The reason? After being out of state to get my 4 year Clinical Degree (RN BSN), I discovered the music department gutting over 1/3 of the practice rooms and installed a Pro Quality recording studio. It has a 32 track Sony MXP3000 series mixing console (formally in an well known L.A. studio) with a patchbay from hell, Mackie HDR system with a Rack full of sig processors and ProTools 7 rackmount for mastering. It's taught by a working pro sound engineer that's worked in the industry for over 40 years (and oh boy - the knowledge he has is invaluable for the students, whether they know it or not). No longer is this arena the sole province of the industry and it's insiders. Another thing I've noticed is many attending the class are networking and all kinds of music is spewing from these highly motivated people. The sun is setting on the "labels", insofar that they had exclusivity in regards to successful career paths for musicians. The new landscape is one where musicians have greater control over their content and destinies. As for myself - I'm now doing Latin Jazz in a band (my roots are as a heavy metal stunt guitarist) and getting offers to play and record on a consistent basis - and I haven't seen an A&R rep or industry "insider" to date and likely won't need to. Now the only other thing I might be able to do to further the cause is to go back to beta testing Linux systems with a focus on DAWS setups and systems... LONG LIVE THE PENGUINS (and Mac's:) )
As posted on the Wikepedia site:"Respondeat superior"
"When applied to physical torts an employer/employee relationship must be established and the act must be committed within the scope of employment (i.e. substantially within time and geographical limits, job description and at least with partial intent to further employer's business). Historically, this doctrine was applied in master/servant or employer/employee relationships. If the employee or servant committed a civil wrong against a third party, the master or employer could be liable for the acts of their servant or employee when those acts were committed within the scope of the relationship. The third party could proceed against both the servant/employee and master/employer. The action against the servant/employee would be based upon the direct responsibility of the servant/employee for his conduct. The action against the master/employer is based upon the theory of vicarious liability, by which one party can be held liable for the acts of another. Employer/employee relationships are the most common area wherein respondeat superior is applied, but often the doctrine is used in the agency relationship. In this, the principal becomes liable for the actions of the agent, even if the principal did not directly commit the act. There are three considerations generally: Was the act committed within the time and space limits of the agency? Was the offense incidental to, or of the same general nature as, the responsibilities the agent is authorized to perform? Was the agent motivated to any degree to benefit the principal by committing the act? The degree to which these are answered in the affirmative will dictate the degree to which the doctrine can be applied. Common law distinguishes between civil and criminal forms of respondeat superior."
If it is proven that the RIAA/lawyers did violate civil or criminal law while under contract and acting at the behest of the Labels the "Labels" may very well be determined at fault as well and therefore liable for the cost of damages. Now in all honesty if this is established the Labels will try to obfiscate their responsibility (aka - "we never told them to go that far") or pay/buy their way out with a settlement - with an NDA and no admittance of guilt. But eitherway the cat would be out of the back and the publicity would be... well, very undesirable to say the least.
For an artist or band getting signed for the first record deal (usually a 3 or sometimes a 5 record deal - think the band Boston) most artist/bands are doing well if they get 5 points on the contract. If the band is successful and makes money then when it comes time to sign a new contract they can arbitrate for a larger percentage of the take - but the Labels almost always take the Lions share of the income.
Indie bands and indie labels paired with internet distribution channels are really what scares the shit out of the RIAA affiliates (case in point... the brick and morter record shops are dust and so is the market lock the labels had).
Expect to see more artist saying bye bye to the Labels and if enough critical mass happens then Apple and iTunes will be left with little recourse at that point. But it will most likely get a lot nastier before it's settled - the RIAA affiliates feel as though they're fighting for their life - and given their inability to adapt to the new market and putting their client base in the role of a criminal, one could say "a fight for their life" may be an accurate characterization of the RIAA/Labels position...
Personally my heart bleeds for those relying on DRM to secure their market channels.
Ok, the part that caught my attention was when she was at the dinner table and the summons came. If it were someone that had a bit of knowledge about how computers actually work and the insight at the time, they might just take their hard drive right out of the boxen. The the first thing they do, at the earliest convience, is take it to a qualified shop and have the forensics done on it. Unless you do a complete hdd overwrite wipe their would be mp3 file reminents all over the place. Actually have them image the HD and then take it to another shop and do it again (2 or 3 times). Then I get a lawyer and show him the evidence and the report.
I find it interesting that not one person in IT (except for those that actually had illegal songs on the sys - they usually were admins running repos for p2p anyway) have been sued by the RIAA. I can't help but wonder if these vultures don't reseach their victim with the explicit notion of avoiding people with technical background (save the admin running a music p2p sys). If they sued me, they'd find the drive wiped completely. Why, I have my own songs on the disk (I wrote, recorded) and some of my paid for *.wavs from my disk to analyze the master mixdown level and frequencies. So, I'd be in a position to have to explain myself - and even being legit I'd be tied to a defense lawyer for many years and dollars. But someone like this housewife/mother being attacked is nothing more than sheer predatory behavior - that's why she was picked. She's very vulnerable and to the RIAA looked like an easy kill! Even a cornered rabbit can inflict some serious wounds. Tally one for the rabbit!
Unless your running Novell/SUSE - they signed a non-infringement agree specifically so their users could get sued by one or the other for using either vendors products or technologies in a heterogenous environment.
Looks like a way to push some people toward SUSE???
Don't subscribe or buy any online services or products. How do you get recourse when the company or representative basically lives in the ether? If I have a problem with my telephone (old style land line) or cable TV or net provider I can go to the main/branch office. I guarantee you if you go talk to an actual person and look them in the eye your likely to get better service. Just like on line behavior in games and chat rooms often differ from what said person would behave like if you had direct person to person contact, the company representatives likely will not behave so poorly if you're standing in front of them, And if you refuse to leave and then they call the authorities you'll have a nice police report on file - and when confronted by a judge as to why you wouldn't leave and you tell them they wouldn't cancel your account or kept billing you for services you haven't used or disconnected some two months ago... well, they'll likely want to avoid this sort of publicity (or having a hard copy record on file about their business practices).
Bottom line is thst Internet commerce has been set up to favor the "business" and not it's patrons. The problem with this situation is further exacerbated if congress were to get involved - they'll just want to tax it, or control it in favor of the largest campaign contributor.
Until I can get the same level service online that I can get at a brick and morter establishment - I'll pass thank you!
On that note, consider the tobacco industry. You'll remember that a few years back the U.S. congress and the FDA were considering making Nicotine a controlled substance. One of the reason they took this stance is because the tobacco companies usually put up to 30% dried and shredded cabbage in their cigs as filler and then use liquified nicotine to spray over said cabbage filler before rolling it the tobacco leaves proper. The original argument went something along the lines that using cabbage cut costs and that the liquified nicotine was used to give the cigs back their original/natural content if they'd used all tobacco leaves. The real thing was that they were "spiking" the cabbage with nicotine as a means to "dose" the cigs and therefore control the addictive nature of the cigs - hence why the Congress and FDA started the hearings. All was going along smoothly on the Congressional/FDA front. But as with most things involving courts or hearings they tend to be rather slow. The end result was that the tobacco companies had time to fold up their labs and relocate them, along with all their research scientists. Where they moved them was fairly of little consequence (though most were moved to Germany). The object was to get them out of the U.S. since you can't serve a subpoena in another country! Game, Set, Match.
Why am I blathering on about a seemingly Off Topic matter. Because the knife cuts both ways! If it's legal in Russia then what the hell does the RIAA lawyers expect to happen. So prosecute ALLofMP3, get a judgement by default (due to non appearance at the court on the prescribed date). Win you default award and then try to collect - GOOD LUCK! Maybe the RIAA lawyers think the Russian owners are actually going to send a legal team to N.Y. courts and address this issue? That would be silly since where they are IT'S LEGAL!
The California courts addressed the "can't having it both ways" issue with these RIAA clowns already. You'd think they'd get the hint and try using their heads besides something besides hat rack. Or maybe their just getting desperate and have no other ideas.
Then M$ has just put companies like Steinberg, Tascam, Frontier, Ableton, Digidesign, Edirol, EMU, MOTU, Propellerhead, Soundcraft, Sonar, FL Studio, etc, etc, etc, and all those vendors that rely on these products such as Digital Village, Turnkey, Guitar Center, ad nausea in dire straights.
This also applies to many musicians that have systems built for these products. So what your saying is that if we in the independent music industry up grade to Vista and it doesn't work or screws up "product" then we have no one else to blame? That since "Vista was never intended for a producer's use" that we should either pony up for a system that does run my software (at likely a much higher cost) or stay with the existing OS - GUESS WHAT? We'll stay with the existing OS and the word will spread to avoid Vista at all costs.
Being a fairly tight knit community I can guarantee two things. 1) The negative outlook on Vista, if indeed it does hinder the artist creativity and production, will spread very very fast. 2) That if indeed Vista DRM and protection schema does as feared (as well as being viewed as another attempt by large corporations to yet again lock down and control/strangle it's would be artist) it will be viewed as a pariah and I garner that many industry OEM and SMB music system vendors will not upgrade their offerings for Window Vista and stay with XP/W2k/W2k3.
Vista could indeed one of the longest suicide letters in history - at least for a corporation.
"In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying."
They seem to have no original ideas themselves these day - outside of what the NSC tells them (that being the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Defense). And we all know where their advice has gotten us so far. Could Tom Cruise be any worse?
Furthermore, correct me if I'm wrong, but my ISP uses my cable modem as a router for my network node (though they will neither deny or confirm this - they just play dumb). In this event if you're track where a specific file routed through how do you know that my device is the end-point and not just another hop on the line? What are you basing your contentions and conclusions on? It has been shown time and again that both the legal staff and those trying the case on both sides of the isle have a limited understanding of some very technical issues? How is it that unless you can prove that said person did actually have file sharing software, pirated materials and a consistent amount of network traffic logs to provide a point to point transfer of files, how can you say with any certainty that indeed person X is the culprit and not just some poor sap that's either a zombied computer or just another knot in the rope?
It's seems to me that your ignoring the bigger picture overall. That being that the brick and mortar revenue streams are all but dead. One would think that you'd be more interested in trying to figure out a more viable means of distribution rather than all the money you throw at generally inept lawyers to boast your sagging revenues. You're not getting it. Last time I went to find music the selection was dismal to say the least, and the cost was no different than essentially 20 years ago. So the RIAA affiliates are not dropping prices, offering poor catalogs and then screaming bloody murder when their sales plummet and people turn to online sources to find something they actually want to listen to. Your organizations solution for this failed market strategy is to cut off as many heads of your client base as possible? You start treating people like criminals, regardless of whether they are or not, and they'll gladly oblige you.
Why should I fork out $18 or more dollars for music that's not of my interests when I can search for what I'm after in the comfort of my home. Would I pay for this - just ask the people at Apple and the Itunes servers! It must have really irked the suits back in the day when people used to share and exchange the vinyl albums or cassette tapes. The behavior is essentially the same - they just found a new way to do it. Of course the Napster mentality snuck up on the Labels. But talk about brain dead and not getting it. I often make compilation CD's to use in my car or on my home system. I have an album that only has 2 or 3 songs I want to listen to and instead of constantly changing CD's I burn my own song lists. Now with media players and large libraries I can customize a play list and away I go.
I'm sure if your so called experts were to look at my net traffic and hard drive they'd think I was pirating a fair amount of music - IM NOT!!! As a musician I can whole heartedly assure you that I don't steal other musicians music and revenues - that's the job or the RIAA members. I just think they're peeved because they hate two things. 1 is that musicians will find (and do find) the labels less and less an essential for success. 2 is that you can't monopolize on the talent that you use to bank on. Once again a case of mind over matter - the more independent from the labels musicians become the more labels won't matter.
The more I read about the RIAA's tactics the more obvious it's becoming as to just how out of touch you guys are with both your audience and market. Might as well give in now - you're fighting a losing battle and further entrenching those you fear most. In the meanwhile your putting a lot of people through the ringer for no other reason than the lazy clueless leadership of Record label execs. I see a large amount of class action suits in your future - I'm sure there are a host of lawyers just waiting for the right time to swing their axe at the RIAA. I'll be there with my grinding wheel to help sharpen the edge (but not too sharp - that would show a little too much mercy IMHO).
How true! The RIAA affiliates generally give newly signed artists/groups only between 3 to 5 points on a contract, and if you get 5 points you're doing well by comparison. You do the math. At ~$18.00/CD if you sold 1 million you'd get only $900,000.00 out of 18 million in sales. Granted that there's some overhead to consider such as advertising, packaging and distribution. But nowdays most musicians use their own studios (or local studios) to produce their music and the RIAA affiliates simply have some engineer master the work (if that's needed in the first place).
So, the profit margins of the RIAA affiliates have been well over what most businesses get (usually 5 to 10%). The RIAA affiliates usually get well over 25% on a mediocre return and as much as 50% or better for popular groups. So, for some artist that were too young and not very business savoy they may have gotten as little as $500,000.00 as part of their return ($18.00 x 1,000,000.00 x 0.03 = $540,000.00). That leaves $17,460,000.00 to the RIAA affiliate contract holder, less overhead - which still leaves an exorbitant amount of profit compared to the creator - aka the Musican!
Now that the RIAA memebers marketshare is being supplanted by an alternative that is vastly more equitable to those that do the "real" work of writing, composing, recording and mastering the work.
My heart bleeds! My most fervent hope is that these greedy bastards end up in poverty and squalor! A fantasy perhaps - but without hope what does one have? Oh ya! That people such as myself can hope to make some real money and let the distributors take their fair share - that would be about 10 to 15% on average IIRC!
Hey, I have music! Come download it from me! I made it, recorded it, mixed it, mastered it, and for a buck a song you can have it to - no royalties or taxes. Of course if you give it to your friends I'll have to sue you. I have no money or lawyer. But if your a invalid with MS or dying from a terminal afflictions then you're a good target! If it works for the RIAA it works for me! The RIAA didn't make any music, they just market it. So unless they give all the proceeds to the artist (to whom they claim are getting ripped off), I DON'T HAVE ONE IOTA OF SYMPATHY FOR THE BIG LABELS.
It would be a kick if my music was successful (as in liked and profitable) and the RIAA didn't get a dime. Even if people in China, India, Greater Europe, or Appleton Wisconsin are dl'ing my songs illegally - I'd let them just to further poke holes in the RIAA's boat.
Slashdot Mirror
When I built mine I planned on the max - 32GB. If it would have taken 64, that's what i'd have put in. If you like to game - it's kinda a given that you max your ram at the highest stable speed the Mobo will allow. Not crazy at all IMHO.
Case in point: EA and Battlefield 4.
Ya, that all makes sense and one would assume a given. However, that would take more man hours and the devs would likely have to actually spend some time writing code, rather than just cut/paste chunks in and write a few lines to tweak or bridge (not that they couldn't do it - would just mean more resource allocation). This push it out the door as soon as possible and patch later paradigm (old and tired) is lately coming around to smack them in the face for the reasons you point out. The project managers and department heads push this agenda - generally in response to the sting on their backs from the board room cracking their whips and demanding a product that generates revenues before the close of the next fiscal quarter. Not much one can do in this event until the culture in the board room changes is my take... Just my $ 0.02 worth.
If my family's name is "Palin" this means she owns the rights to my daughter if she's was named Sarah? What about the "prior" art argument? According to howmanyofme dot com there are 790,847 named Sarah, 1,178 people with the sir name of Palin, and 3 people named Sarah Palin. Do the other 3 people have to pay a licensing fee if the former governor get her patent (very likely give the behavior of the U.S. PTO of late)?
I don't know... how long would it take to write new filter rules and reconfigure a few handfuls of firewalls? Probably about the same time it took to post this article!!!!
I can imagine all those borderline acrophobics freaking out about 10 secs after the plane leaves the ground. Unless, like one previous poster, the floor and the ceiling are covered with boxes and cables, etc.. Airbus' head of research and technology, Axel Krein must not have taken into account that many people may not be too keen on being constantly reminded that they sitting in a "glass" airplane 30,000 feet in the air - especially when they're flying over the ocean with no land in site. Talk about feeling like a canary in a coal mine!
One of the funnest games I've ever played! Had various modes, vehicles, various turrets and sensors - and sniping was very fun! HELLO STEAM???
According to the website, Konqueror (3.5.10) isn't supported. One gets bumped to a page informing one of this advent and you are further instructed to use Safari or Firefox (2 or 3). Way to go Novell/SUSE! Gotta love a website promoting a product that doesn't support the primary webbrowser provide by said product maker! Sheesh!
Perhaps you might garner the services of a willing post-grad or similar colleague to assist you! I can't believe some individual, at least from time to time, would not be willing to summerize your entries for lay persons so that they may be able to wrap their heads around the legal proceedings and their meanings therein more readily. I personally have had to do this in my profession. Unlike your situation, however, I did this in the context of my profession in the performance of my duties (critical care cardiac RN). So, I trust the most people fully understand the constraint you've mentioned between pursuing your case load while posting entries in your blog. Is there no viable remedy to this situation? Can anyone of those possibly qualified "/,'ers" perhaps contribute to this end?
Cheers!
So the heat is on and the RIAA find themselves in a less than desirable position - e.g. their "respondant superior" entity, aka SafeNet was breaking the law by "invading peoples privacy" (by their own admission) . So the RIAA and their members throw SafeNet under the bus and exclaim their amazement as to the unsavory tactics that their "employee" has been conducting. Like they had no clue that this was going on??? Ya Right, that's the ticket.
Tell it to the judge!
"...the outright destruction of Big Music since now any even reasonably competent band can record, produce, and distribute their music outside of the traditional channels for a tiny investment in hardware and software."
Yep, and it scares the industry to death (hence the Draconian methods). For a couple of thousand dollars one can setup up their comp with a Pro-quality (e.g. multi-input/track @ 16,24,32bit/44.1 to 96kHz rates) interface, along with a bit of knowledge about recoreding, mixing/mastering and produce finished works (mastered down to 16/44kHz CD quality). The only thing then is exposure and marketing to build a fan base. It's now pretty common for major-labelled musicians to have MySpace sites. so with a (somewhat) trustworthy agent and a bit a savoy - away you go. The Music industry has lost the major part of their market lock and are clueless as to how to regain it. Since in this new scenario it's not as easy for them to handcuff their musicians with stringent contracts - people are wise to this and see a viable alternative that levels the field - Hence (again) their desperate and Draconian methods to hold on to what they can. They (the labels) may not fade completely, but it will amount to a "mind over matter" effect. People won't "mind" the Record labels screaming bloody murder because the "labels" won't "matter" as much anymore (and in time may not matter at all).
Take my situation. I recently enrolled back into my old Junior college (actually the largest in the nation - San Diego Mesa College). The reason? After being out of state to get my 4 year Clinical Degree (RN BSN), I discovered the music department gutting over 1/3 of the practice rooms and installed a Pro Quality recording studio. It has a 32 track Sony MXP3000 series mixing console (formally in an well known L.A. studio) with a patchbay from hell, Mackie HDR system with a Rack full of sig processors and ProTools 7 rackmount for mastering. It's taught by a working pro sound engineer that's worked in the industry for over 40 years (and oh boy - the knowledge he has is invaluable for the students, whether they know it or not). No longer is this arena the sole province of the industry and it's insiders. Another thing I've noticed is many attending the class are networking and all kinds of music is spewing from these highly motivated people. The sun is setting on the "labels", insofar that they had exclusivity in regards to successful career paths for musicians. The new landscape is one where musicians have greater control over their content and destinies. As for myself - I'm now doing Latin Jazz in a band (my roots are as a heavy metal stunt guitarist) and getting offers to play and record on a consistent basis - and I haven't seen an A&R rep or industry "insider" to date and likely won't need to. Now the only other thing I might be able to do to further the cause is to go back to beta testing Linux systems with a focus on DAWS setups and systems... LONG LIVE THE PENGUINS (and Mac's :) )
As posted on the Wikepedia site:"Respondeat superior"
"When applied to physical torts an employer/employee relationship must be established and the act must be committed within the scope of employment (i.e. substantially within time and geographical limits, job description and at least with partial intent to further employer's business).
Historically, this doctrine was applied in master/servant or employer/employee relationships. If the employee or servant committed a civil wrong against a third party, the master or employer could be liable for the acts of their servant or employee when those acts were committed within the scope of the relationship. The third party could proceed against both the servant/employee and master/employer. The action against the servant/employee would be based upon the direct responsibility of the servant/employee for his conduct. The action against the master/employer is based upon the theory of vicarious liability, by which one party can be held liable for the acts of another.
Employer/employee relationships are the most common area wherein respondeat superior is applied, but often the doctrine is used in the agency relationship. In this, the principal becomes liable for the actions of the agent, even if the principal did not directly commit the act. There are three considerations generally:
Was the act committed within the time and space limits of the agency?
Was the offense incidental to, or of the same general nature as, the responsibilities the agent is authorized to perform?
Was the agent motivated to any degree to benefit the principal by committing the act?
The degree to which these are answered in the affirmative will dictate the degree to which the doctrine can be applied.
Common law distinguishes between civil and criminal forms of respondeat superior."
If it is proven that the RIAA/lawyers did violate civil or criminal law while under contract and acting at the behest of the Labels the "Labels" may very well be determined at fault as well and therefore liable for the cost of damages. Now in all honesty if this is established the Labels will try to obfiscate their responsibility (aka - "we never told them to go that far") or pay/buy their way out with a settlement - with an NDA and no admittance of guilt. But eitherway the cat would be out of the back and the publicity would be... well, very undesirable to say the least.
For an artist or band getting signed for the first record deal (usually a 3 or sometimes a 5 record deal - think the band Boston) most artist/bands are doing well if they get 5 points on the contract. If the band is successful and makes money then when it comes time to sign a new contract they can arbitrate for a larger percentage of the take - but the Labels almost always take the Lions share of the income.
Indie bands and indie labels paired with internet distribution channels are really what scares the shit out of the RIAA affiliates (case in point... the brick and morter record shops are dust and so is the market lock the labels had).
Expect to see more artist saying bye bye to the Labels and if enough critical mass happens then Apple and iTunes will be left with little recourse at that point. But it will most likely get a lot nastier before it's settled - the RIAA affiliates feel as though they're fighting for their life - and given their inability to adapt to the new market and putting their client base in the role of a criminal, one could say "a fight for their life" may be an accurate characterization of the RIAA/Labels position...
Personally my heart bleeds for those relying on DRM to secure their market channels.
Ok, the part that caught my attention was when she was at the dinner table and the summons came. If it were someone that had a bit of knowledge about how computers actually work and the insight at the time, they might just take their hard drive right out of the boxen. The the first thing they do, at the earliest convience, is take it to a qualified shop and have the forensics done on it. Unless you do a complete hdd overwrite wipe their would be mp3 file reminents all over the place. Actually have them image the HD and then take it to another shop and do it again (2 or 3 times). Then I get a lawyer and show him the evidence and the report.
I find it interesting that not one person in IT (except for those that actually had illegal songs on the sys - they usually were admins running repos for p2p anyway) have been sued by the RIAA. I can't help but wonder if these vultures don't reseach their victim with the explicit notion of avoiding people with technical background (save the admin running a music p2p sys). If they sued me, they'd find the drive wiped completely. Why, I have my own songs on the disk (I wrote, recorded) and some of my paid for *.wavs from my disk to analyze the master mixdown level and frequencies. So, I'd be in a position to have to explain myself - and even being legit I'd be tied to a defense lawyer for many years and dollars. But someone like this housewife/mother being attacked is nothing more than sheer predatory behavior - that's why she was picked. She's very vulnerable and to the RIAA looked like an easy kill! Even a cornered rabbit can inflict some serious wounds. Tally one for the rabbit!
Unless your running Novell/SUSE - they signed a non-infringement agree specifically so their users could get sued by one or the other for using either vendors products or technologies in a heterogenous environment.
Looks like a way to push some people toward SUSE???
Don't subscribe or buy any online services or products. How do you get recourse when the company or representative basically lives in the ether? If I have a problem with my telephone (old style land line) or cable TV or net provider I can go to the main/branch office. I guarantee you if you go talk to an actual person and look them in the eye your likely to get better service. Just like on line behavior in games and chat rooms often differ from what said person would behave like if you had direct person to person contact, the company representatives likely will not behave so poorly if you're standing in front of them, And if you refuse to leave and then they call the authorities you'll have a nice police report on file - and when confronted by a judge as to why you wouldn't leave and you tell them they wouldn't cancel your account or kept billing you for services you haven't used or disconnected some two months ago... well, they'll likely want to avoid this sort of publicity (or having a hard copy record on file about their business practices).
Bottom line is thst Internet commerce has been set up to favor the "business" and not it's patrons. The problem with this situation is further exacerbated if congress were to get involved - they'll just want to tax it, or control it in favor of the largest campaign contributor.
Until I can get the same level service online that I can get at a brick and morter establishment - I'll pass thank you!
"I'll bring the popcorn"
And I'll bring the first case of beer!
On that note, consider the tobacco industry. You'll remember that a few years back the U.S. congress and the FDA were considering making Nicotine a controlled substance. One of the reason they took this stance is because the tobacco companies usually put up to 30% dried and shredded cabbage in their cigs as filler and then use liquified nicotine to spray over said cabbage filler before rolling it the tobacco leaves proper. The original argument went something along the lines that using cabbage cut costs and that the liquified nicotine was used to give the cigs back their original/natural content if they'd used all tobacco leaves. The real thing was that they were "spiking" the cabbage with nicotine as a means to "dose" the cigs and therefore control the addictive nature of the cigs - hence why the Congress and FDA started the hearings. All was going along smoothly on the Congressional/FDA front. But as with most things involving courts or hearings they tend to be rather slow. The end result was that the tobacco companies had time to fold up their labs and relocate them, along with all their research scientists. Where they moved them was fairly of little consequence (though most were moved to Germany). The object was to get them out of the U.S. since you can't serve a subpoena in another country! Game, Set, Match.
Why am I blathering on about a seemingly Off Topic matter. Because the knife cuts both ways! If it's legal in Russia then what the hell does the RIAA lawyers expect to happen. So prosecute ALLofMP3, get a judgement by default (due to non appearance at the court on the prescribed date). Win you default award and then try to collect - GOOD LUCK! Maybe the RIAA lawyers think the Russian owners are actually going to send a legal team to N.Y. courts and address this issue? That would be silly since where they are IT'S LEGAL!
The California courts addressed the "can't having it both ways" issue with these RIAA clowns already. You'd think they'd get the hint and try using their heads besides something besides hat rack. Or maybe their just getting desperate and have no other ideas.
Then M$ has just put companies like Steinberg, Tascam, Frontier, Ableton, Digidesign, Edirol, EMU, MOTU, Propellerhead, Soundcraft, Sonar, FL Studio, etc, etc, etc, and all those vendors that rely on these products such as Digital Village, Turnkey, Guitar Center, ad nausea in dire straights.
This also applies to many musicians that have systems built for these products. So what your saying is that if we in the independent music industry up grade to Vista and it doesn't work or screws up "product" then we have no one else to blame? That since "Vista was never intended for a producer's use" that we should either pony up for a system that does run my software (at likely a much higher cost) or stay with the existing OS - GUESS WHAT? We'll stay with the existing OS and the word will spread to avoid Vista at all costs.
Being a fairly tight knit community I can guarantee two things. 1) The negative outlook on Vista, if indeed it does hinder the artist creativity and production, will spread very very fast. 2) That if indeed Vista DRM and protection schema does as feared (as well as being viewed as another attempt by large corporations to yet again lock down and control/strangle it's would be artist) it will be viewed as a pariah and I garner that many industry OEM and SMB music system vendors will not upgrade their offerings for Window Vista and stay with XP/W2k/W2k3.
Vista could indeed one of the longest suicide letters in history - at least for a corporation.
Cheers, and happy music making.
"Are people really so dumb as to need every size estimate in "football fields?"
Unfortunately, considering the state of public education in the U.S. over the last 2 or 3 decades.... YES!
"In the 1960s, the CIA used to watch Mission Impossible to get ideas about spying."
They seem to have no original ideas themselves these day - outside of what the NSC tells them (that being the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Defense). And we all know where their advice has gotten us so far. Could Tom Cruise be any worse?
Furthermore, correct me if I'm wrong, but my ISP uses my cable modem as a router for my network node (though they will neither deny or confirm this - they just play dumb). In this event if you're track where a specific file routed through how do you know that my device is the end-point and not just another hop on the line? What are you basing your contentions and conclusions on? It has been shown time and again that both the legal staff and those trying the case on both sides of the isle have a limited understanding of some very technical issues? How is it that unless you can prove that said person did actually have file sharing software, pirated materials and a consistent amount of network traffic logs to provide a point to point transfer of files, how can you say with any certainty that indeed person X is the culprit and not just some poor sap that's either a zombied computer or just another knot in the rope?
It's seems to me that your ignoring the bigger picture overall. That being that the brick and mortar revenue streams are all but dead. One would think that you'd be more interested in trying to figure out a more viable means of distribution rather than all the money you throw at generally inept lawyers to boast your sagging revenues. You're not getting it. Last time I went to find music the selection was dismal to say the least, and the cost was no different than essentially 20 years ago. So the RIAA affiliates are not dropping prices, offering poor catalogs and then screaming bloody murder when their sales plummet and people turn to online sources to find something they actually want to listen to. Your organizations solution for this failed market strategy is to cut off as many heads of your client base as possible? You start treating people like criminals, regardless of whether they are or not, and they'll gladly oblige you.
Why should I fork out $18 or more dollars for music that's not of my interests when I can search for what I'm after in the comfort of my home. Would I pay for this - just ask the people at Apple and the Itunes servers! It must have really irked the suits back in the day when people used to share and exchange the vinyl albums or cassette tapes. The behavior is essentially the same - they just found a new way to do it. Of course the Napster mentality snuck up on the Labels. But talk about brain dead and not getting it. I often make compilation CD's to use in my car or on my home system. I have an album that only has 2 or 3 songs I want to listen to and instead of constantly changing CD's I burn my own song lists. Now with media players and large libraries I can customize a play list and away I go.
I'm sure if your so called experts were to look at my net traffic and hard drive they'd think I was pirating a fair amount of music - IM NOT!!! As a musician I can whole heartedly assure you that I don't steal other musicians music and revenues - that's the job or the RIAA members. I just think they're peeved because they hate two things. 1 is that musicians will find (and do find) the labels less and less an essential for success. 2 is that you can't monopolize on the talent that you use to bank on. Once again a case of mind over matter - the more independent from the labels musicians become the more labels won't matter.
The more I read about the RIAA's tactics the more obvious it's becoming as to just how out of touch you guys are with both your audience and market. Might as well give in now - you're fighting a losing battle and further entrenching those you fear most. In the meanwhile your putting a lot of people through the ringer for no other reason than the lazy clueless leadership of Record label execs. I see a large amount of class action suits in your future - I'm sure there are a host of lawyers just waiting for the right time to swing their axe at the RIAA. I'll be there with my grinding wheel to help sharpen the edge (but not too sharp - that would show a little too much mercy IMHO).
How true! The RIAA affiliates generally give newly signed artists/groups only between 3 to 5 points on a contract, and if you get 5 points you're doing well by comparison. You do the math. At ~$18.00/CD if you sold 1 million you'd get only $900,000.00 out of 18 million in sales. Granted that there's some overhead to consider such as advertising, packaging and distribution. But nowdays most musicians use their own studios (or local studios) to produce their music and the RIAA affiliates simply have some engineer master the work (if that's needed in the first place).
So, the profit margins of the RIAA affiliates have been well over what most businesses get (usually 5 to 10%). The RIAA affiliates usually get well over 25% on a mediocre return and as much as 50% or better for popular groups. So, for some artist that were too young and not very business savoy they may have gotten as little as $500,000.00 as part of their return ($18.00 x 1,000,000.00 x 0.03 = $540,000.00). That leaves $17,460,000.00 to the RIAA affiliate contract holder, less overhead - which still leaves an exorbitant amount of profit compared to the creator - aka the Musican!
Now that the RIAA memebers marketshare is being supplanted by an alternative that is vastly more equitable to those that do the "real" work of writing, composing, recording and mastering the work.
My heart bleeds! My most fervent hope is that these greedy bastards end up in poverty and squalor! A fantasy perhaps - but without hope what does one have? Oh ya! That people such as myself can hope to make some real money and let the distributors take their fair share - that would be about 10 to 15% on average IIRC!
Hey, I have music! Come download it from me! I made it, recorded it, mixed it, mastered it, and for a buck a song you can have it to - no royalties or taxes. Of course if you give it to your friends I'll have to sue you. I have no money or lawyer. But if your a invalid with MS or dying from a terminal afflictions then you're a good target! If it works for the RIAA it works for me! The RIAA didn't make any music, they just market it. So unless they give all the proceeds to the artist (to whom they claim are getting ripped off), I DON'T HAVE ONE IOTA OF SYMPATHY FOR THE BIG LABELS.
It would be a kick if my music was successful (as in liked and profitable) and the RIAA didn't get a dime. Even if people in China, India, Greater Europe, or Appleton Wisconsin are dl'ing my songs illegally - I'd let them just to further poke holes in the RIAA's boat.
BigTime! lol.