Recording companies sue hundreds of music swappers

[Nottingham]

Recording companies sue hundreds of music swappers
Associated Press
RESOURCES

LOS ANGELES - The recording industry filed hundreds of lawsuits today against individual music lovers whom music companies accuse of illegally downloading and sharing songs over the Internet, a music industry source said.

The lawsuits were filed in federal courts around the country and had been expected, as the industry has become increasingly aggressive in cracking down on the trading of pirated music files online.

The 261 lawsuits were filed by the Recording Industry Association of America on behalf of its members, which include Universal Music Group, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music, said the industry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The music industry says file-sharing is a violation of copyright laws and blames the practice for a three-year decline in compact disc music sales, which have dropped 31 percent drop since mid-2000.

more...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2087764

I wonder if we could get Legal caps on this by Bush?

This is gonna turn ugly! :bounce:

[Patriot_Spear]

1. 261 out of tens of millions?

I'll take those odds...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Why don't they blame their sagging sales on a poor economy?

How can they prove that file sharing is the source of this? People tape recorded records way back when as well. Radio stations use to pay entire albums and people recorded them off their stereo.

I really think that an economy that has seen similar losses to other industries might be to blame for people buying fewer overpriced CD's.

[AndyTiedye]

8. They Missed the Boat

The old way was they promote it and we buy it. It didn't matter if it was shite,
because it was all we ever got to hear, so with enough promotion we'd buy it anyway. This was great for the recordiing industry execs, kept radio DJs supplied with fun drugs, but was horrible for everyone else, especially those creating the music.
Even the most successful musicians have tales of being ripped off by their record company.

There have been a few changes since then, and the recording industry has failed
to adapt to any of them.

The rise of the Internet provides new ways for music to get around. The RIAA
speaks of it entirely as new ways to steal their copyrighted material, but the
much larger threat is that we get to hear, and buy, other material by other
artists, in genres that the big companies choose to ignore.

Which brings us to raves and dance music. The entertainment industry regards raves as another grave threat to their business model. We stay out all night dancing instead of sitting at home watching TV. We churn through music faster than the big record companies can crank up a marketing campaign. So they refuse to sell our music and try to destroy the dance scene despite its popularity, rather than trying
to sell to it. So those of us who love this music take our business to tiny independent record labels, or even buy CDRs directly from the artist.

The recording industry has massively alienated its own customers and those who could supply it with fresh, new music. They are trying to recover by preventing
us from hearing any of this music.

[kysrsoze]

37. Even with the crap they churn out now, they're missing the boat...

The whole problem is that they won't allow unlimited downloads at a regular rate. That's how everything is these days. What do you get on satellite radio for $12.99 a month?

It would still be cheaper and probably more profitable than producing an actual CD to have a monthly subscription service. Think about it - how many people buy maybe one or two albums a month? How many don't buy any these days. For 20 bucks a month to have unlimited downloads, you get people to pay you $240 a year and you can sign on more users if the music's good. It's still a pain using kazaa. Don't tell me that's not more profitable.

[Zhade]

42. Technology could make the world a better place - if corporations cared.

Using this topic as an example: if music distribution were handled digitally, instead of via record stores, think of all the extra space where those stores used to be.

Now imagine other things in that space - new forests, low-rent housing, alternative-energy collection areas...the list is literally limited only by one's imagination.

I dream of a world in which technology and nature complement, rather than fight, each other.

[Zhade]

41. Indeed. I used to buy crappy Limp Bizkit albums.

Now, I have all kinds of eclectic tastes - thanks to the internet (listening to Infected Mushroom right now, in fact).

[tedzbear]

26. Right on. I didn't think of that...

We used to tape record albums like crazy to play them in the car, or tape off of the stereo FM stations. That didn't seem to hurt the music biz back then, so the RIAA's argument against file sharing is BS.
Like you, I think the music biz sucks because of the shitty economy and all of our good paying factory jobs going to China. Let's see, if those 3 million lost jobs stopped buying CD's that might account for some of the lost sales, right?
Also, most American music sucks right now. It sounds like repackaged muzak to me.
:kick:

[toopers]

3. Why not blame it on the truth

music sucks right now, and has since the mid 1990's. The music industry keeps rehashing the same acts and sounds with different faces and expects me to keep purchasing. Now way.

[sfwriter]

4. Compare the cost of a CD to a DVD....

Where is the value in a CD anymore? And the music, CRAP!

-Sandy

[Superfly]

5. People I hate

1) RIAA
2) Professional athletes making $25Million/year

Nothing like fucking your biggest fans/customers.

[Nottingham]

6. Ya Know I hope its worth suing hundreds and Pissing off Millions

What is the Music Industry doing???? to itself!

:bounce:

[toopers]

7. Right on . . .

You said a mouthful!

[toopers]

9. I'm waiting for the Justice Department

to investigate the Recording Industry for price fixing. The price of recorded music CDs has not come down since inception. However, the price of recorded music/video DVDs has steadily moved down.

[yankeedem]

19. It's been done

And this nifty web site tells how you could have gotten $20... months ago

http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.htm

[bluestateguy]

25. I never got my check

They keep pushing more paper...everything it seems except actually mailing the damn checks out to people!

[Dogmudgeon]

47. They actually did

The DoJ reported that there was extensive and systematic price-fixing and cartelization in the music industry. And the day after Bush was selected as pResident, they recommended that no punitive action be taken.

So much for that.

--bkl

[Selwynn]

10. Why don't the blame their sales on SHITTY FUCKING FAILURE MUSIC

The reason the recording industry has enjoyed three years of decline sales is becasuse american music sucks utter ass right now and its completely devoid of anything fresh and exciting. I'm sick and tired of people blaming everything else instead of their own shitty "product."

I guaruntee you, if Kazaa/Napster and all that had been out with the Alternative wave broke in the 90s, and Nirvana shook up rock music, and literally all music - sales would have STILL been through the roof. They are not through the roof now because there is an unbelivable glut of SUCKY BANDS out there right now.

I'm not "downloading more" - I am listening to American Music LESS.

[trogdor]

11. You can also blame the death of the "single"

For those of you who are under 30, this was a seven-inch vinyl recording medium with a 1.5 inch hole in the center, with an analog recording consisting of a continuous spiral groove cut into its surface by a vibrating stylus as the music was being recorded, and played by means of a similar stylus placed inside the groove and made to vibrate in a similar manner as the record rotated at a speed of 45 revolutions per minute. The vibrations were then translated into electrical signals via a electromagnetic pickup, and transmitted to the amplifier and loudspeakers. Recordings made on this medium typically ran between three and four minutes on each side of the disc, and cost about $1 each (about $2.50 in today's money) in the late 1970's.

Since the advent of the digital compact disc, the 7 inch 45 RPM record fell into disuse without anything replacing it. Therefore, if one wished to purchase Britney Spears' latest hit single, for example, one would also have to buy the other twelve to sixteen recordings of unlistenable pap that went along with it, at a price exceeding that of the old 12-inch LP "album." This is the reason the RIAA is falling upon hard times, in a nutshell.

[toopers]

12. I don't know what you listened to when you were young,

but I listened to records. You almost took the fun out of nostalgia. Great explanation though. Even I understand how records work now.

[trogdor]

15. Well, when teenagers give me blank looks...

...when I mention this antiquated thing called a "record," it makes me feel old. You almost have to explain what this thing is as if it were something the ancient Sumerians used.

[Hawkeye-X]

18. LOL.

I'm only 27 years old, and I see my mom's old vinyl collections. Hell, when I was a kid, I had a 45!

Hawkeye-X

[Il_Coniglietto]

29. Pssh!

We're not all that dumb! My dad still listens to all his old records on his turntable and even taught me how to use it (yes, I am proud of that). Though there is some confusion since people still say things like "so-and-so's new record" even if it's a CD. Just another way of saying it.

And the RIAA? If anything, people are probably downloading more now. Nothing like getting away with something that thoroughly pisses off all the big companies. Especially big companies that make us pay way more than we should. Revenge, I believe it's called. I don't download more than I normally do, no reason to. I simply can't afford CDs regularly. I buy maybe one or two a year, but download four or five's worth.

Boo hoo hoo and a bottle of rum.

[teknomanzer]

30. A cd is a record... its just not vinyl.

Record as in recording. Record as in stored data.

[kysrsoze]

35. You had to learn how to use the turntable?

Must be an old one. My dad gave me his NICE turntable, but you had so many adjustments to do. Nothing like turning down the anti-skating and watching the need screech across the record to the middle.

[Retrograde]

22. $0.88 for a single in my day

and albums ran $3-$5 in the early 70s IIRC. Cheap enough even so high school and college students making not much more than minimum wage could afford to take a chance on new artists.

I can actually think of a legitimate use for file swapping. It's long been established that it is permissable to make an archive copy of copyrighted material for private use, e.g., taping records. Well, I have all this old vinyl - legitimately purchased by me, I might add - that I'd like to transfer to MP3 so I can listen to it again. I certainly don't want to spend $$$$$ rebuying it on CD. Darn! I forgot: that's exactly what the recording industry wants.

Linda, whose household music purchases have gone from an album a week in the 70s to maybe 3 or 4 a year now - and not from major labels, either

[Sick of Bullshit]

23. I remember getting the Beatles' first US single for about 35 cents

I Wanna Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There, on the Capitol label. That was the first-- and last-- pop single I ever bought.

[kysrsoze]

36. Well, it's $.99 for a song at apple.com

so they host this stuff at apple.com w/o having to produce any wax and still charge $.99? What a ripoff. Everything's gone down in production cost.

[Forkboy]

13. The even bigger concern for me

is the seeming total disregard for any right of privacy.What internet providers are turning over names?

[TheYellowDog]

14. Thank you

John Conyers and Howard Berman for taking the side of the RIAA almost every chance you get. You guys really made me sick on this issue, and you call yourself progressives. I'm especially disgusted at you, Conyers. You know you are on the wrong side of history when Norm Coleman is the one sticking up for file sharers! :puke: :puke:

[Selwynn]

16. I can't believe

Conyers is on the wrong side of this... it boggles my mind.

[TheYellowDog]

20. I know

It makes me sick. Someone like Conyers who is right on almost every other issue has to go and suck up to Hollywood "big business". :mad:

[htuttle]

17. Wonder how many were college kids with no assets?

I bet the RIAA is going to end up with nothing but a big pile of forfeited, beat up Gateway computers out of this.

Lots of things are more illegal than sharing copyrighted MP3's, and people still do those things. Let the RIAA waste it's money, time, and any remaining goodwill on this. It's a hopeless effort.

[TheYellowDog]

21. The 4 original kids they sue

had their saving accounts wiped out. Those kids probably needed that money for expenses and grad school, and the RIAA fucked them over.

[bluestateguy]

24. I would love to be on a jury in one of these cases

I would hang the jury and make it impossible for the RIAA to prevail. Of course, they are only going to want little old ladies and computer ignoramuses who can be easily swayed; or rich people who will have no sympathy for people who can't afford high-priced CD's.

[Zhade]

43. Even better: give jury nullification a try.

NT

[teknomanzer]

27. The RIAA is wasting its time with this and their desperation shows.

The RIAA is just a god damn bunch of dinosaurs hopelessly trying to avoid extinction. The don't want to admit that the genie is out of the bottle, and now they will have to change thier business model. The money is all in merchandising and special events not the recordings.

Not to mention that the execs are nothing but a bunch of old guys who believe that image is more important than talent. Thats why mainstream music sucks so much ass right now.

And as far as electronica goes, I really feel that the music industry is deliberately trying to supress the music phenomenon. And its not just because ravers will dance all night and not watch TV. It has more to do with how the music is produced. Music producers no longer need the industries expensive shit studios to make hits that people can groove to. People can create tunes on their home PC studios that sound a shitload better than the drivel produced by the major labels at a fraction of the cost.

Also the genre is very mutable. DJ's and and producers are constantly remixing tunes so that a song can be recongizable only in portions, giving an old tune new life - new groove. This totally goes against the tight fisted control that the record execs like to exercize.

The RIAA needs to shut down free internet distrubution. The more these homespun tunes are distrubuted over the internet, and heard in clubs, at underground parties, and on home PC's the more artists will begin to realize they don't need these old fossils to steal their work and toss them crumbs in return. A producer in Miami could have his work heard in Bristol without a great amount of capital or promotion thanks to peer to peer communications. Word of mouth can be a powerful thing. This is the major reason why peer to peer has to be shut down. Unfortunately for the RIAA, peer to peer is here to stay. Suing a couple hundred people out of millions will not change shit.

BTW the single is back and so is vinyl thanks to raves, DJ's, and electronica. Two decks and a crossfader is all you need, baby.

[sendero]

31. Good post....

.... and lots of other good posts here.

It is amazing that these fools cannot see the real reason for the decline in the music biz, namely themselves.

Memo to RIAA and their friends:

Keep *wasting* millions upon millions of dollars trying to make 'stars' out of no-talent hacks and this is what you get. No sales, no profits.

Keep *gouging* consumers by charging $20 for something you can manufacture for $1 and wonder why sales are down.

Keep *bitching* about the high cost of promotions that are what is making it necessary to charge $20 for a CD, then see my first point above.

The greatest recording artists in history did not need a ton of promotion, they promoted themselves and their talent carried them. Take your Brittneys and your boy toys and shove them, we want real music.

[demon67]

28. Where are our candidates?

Why aren't Dean or Kerry or anyone else talking about this? This is total bullshit and I am pissed off that our candidates are doing nothing. Are they really that easily bought off by the media conglomerates? Are we really going to have to look to Norm Coleman of all people to defend our interests? It makes me sick, really.

[The Zanti Regent]

32. Maybe Steve Jobs should be our candidate...

...After all, Steve sells singles for 99 cents with the I Tunes Music Store and he's crying all the way to Apple's Stockholders!

they should have let Napster do it when they had the chance...

[teknomanzer]

33. Good point here...

If the major labels provided a reliable point of electronic distribution then not as many people would use peer to peer to download copywritten material. Many Mp3s online are incomplete and, not very decent recordings or the peer you download from disconnects leaving you with shite. If there was a reliable place where I could download songs I wanted, songs with full data integrity I would be a customer, and so would millions of others. RIAA does not want that though. This does not comply with thier current business model.

[Fatima]

34. This is sick. This is no way to win over customers.

I used to file share. I got tired of the poor quality files floating around. I took enough responsibility to delete incompletes from my shared folder, but since others would not, I said to hell with it. I now use a couple of subscription services. The choices are limited but my tastes are not mainstream anyway, and I like being able to download all or part of an album each day...or as many as I can get...for one monthly price. This is what the RIAA still doesn't get- catch flies with honey or vinegar??? Looks like they still insist on vinegar, which will continue to drive off customers. No matter how much they lower CD prices. The good will is gone.

ps- used to copy tapes back in the day. Had a dual deck boom box and that was the thing to do on long deployments! Dub tapes! Before that, it was tape stuff with the ol Panasonic recorder off the phonograph. Young'uns have no clue how good they have it now...

[fizzana]

38. There is no industry that treats its customers like shit the way

the record industry does, and this is not just with respect to file sharing.

The sales slump in the music industry was long overdue. The advent of CD's prolonged its growth by 10-15 years.

[TroubleMan]

39. I've had no problem with Kazaa

If you've got DSL or cable, then Kazaa (specifically Kazaa Lite, the one without the spyware) is great. I get tons of music really quick with no problem, yeah you have to wade through some bs, but it only takes a minute or two to get a 5mb file.

The funny thing is 90% of the mp3's I've downloaded, I now own or used to own on record, cd, or tape. I know personally I've bought "Bam Bam, It's Murder" by Chaka Demus and Pliers at least twice on tape and three times on cd. However, due to loss or theft, I don't have it anymore. There's no way they could say I don't deserve the right to here the songs on that cd.

[evildoer]

40. In my lifetime...

wages for CEOs have gone up 3000% so what makes anyone think the music industry operates differently. One problem is consolidation. If a parent company can have a parent company, that's too many board of directors and CEOs we have to satisfy.

Oh and all the real artists are dying because they're getting old. When will someone really be new and creative these days?

[Julien Sorel]

44. I'm curious at this point.

Given the attitude of most of the folks who posted in this thread, how many of you will stop file sharing as a result of these law suits? I have downloaded my share of music from the net, so I'm not throwing stones, but I can't afford the risk of a lawsuit, so the threat is enough in my case. I'm curious about how many of you guys, who seem to be avid fileswappers, will be affected by this stance of the RIAA.

[Merlin]

45. There's a simple solution. But the music industry is too greedy for it.

The solution is for them to make available TO EVERYBODY downloads of single songs at reasonable prices, just like they're doing now for IPOD users.

That will be the defense offered, I'm sure. In other words, since the industry already has this deal with Apple, they've effectively defined the measure of their damages. So if they win these suits, all they're entitled to will be roughly $1 times the number of songs downloaded. Can't be that much.

That, I predict will be the outcome. If defendant John Doe has downloaded 1,200 songs over the past 2 years, he owes the industry $1,200. Hardly worth the lawsuit. Hardly a disincentive for downloading when you factor in the odds against any one individual being sued.

The lesson from the outcomes of these suits will be that continued downloading will subject you to the remote possibility of paying a relatively minor amount for the music you've downloaded. The industry will have shot itself in the foot once again.

IMO, 85% of the people who download over Kazaa, including me, would be more than willing to pay a reasonable price for the individual cuts downloaded. But the industry has stonewalled because they want you to pay an inflated price for the entire cd. Their greed has blinded them to reality. Too bad for them. The more the merrier for the rest of us. Kazaa (Lite) forever!

[Karenina]

46. Don't mind my

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

But this inanity registers as the first major shot across the bow to monitor and interfere with "file-swapping" in a more generic sense...

:shrug:

[Nottingham]

48. I wonder what the music industry is proving!

How to get money from Teenagers! :bounce: