Topic: Think the recording industry has been idle lately? Think again.

[scottws]

I came across the following article when I was going to run an online speed test.  It's some scary shit.  Basically, the recording industry is trying to strong-arm ISPs globally into installing various anti-piracy filters on their networks and in some cases even inside the CSUs in customers homes.

As an ISP, what's the price for not doing this?  Well, then the recording industry will sue you for apathy.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Music-Industry-Starts-Suing-ISPs-For-Apathy-92522

This is getting fucking ridiculous.

Edit:  Found some more:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-to-Target-Pirated-Content-84796

It looks like AT&T is going to attack copyright piracy on its networks.  Here's the rub though... how is this possible?  You can't assume that every single MP3, M4A, and MP4 traversing the network are pirated.  There are plenty of free MP3s on the Internet, whether they are podcasts, free releases by a band that is relatively unknown, or free downloads from someplace like EMI Music.

Likewise I don't think it's right to block all bittorret traffic, even if much of it is piracy.  There are plenty of non-infringing uses of bittorrent and I use it all the time to download huge new patches for my games.

So how exactly do they plan on determining if something traversing the network is true piracy?

Edit:  The fun continues.  And this time they are going after people who rip legally purchased CDs to their computer.

[Antares]

That is some seriously fucked up stuff.

[scottws]

Proof that our government is horribly broken.  How can they legitimately even consider something like this?  $1.5 million for pirating a CD?

[Pugnate]

Well why 1.5 million? What is the cost of say a CD, and then legal fees for both parties, etc? How would that equate to 1.5 mil?

[scottws]

I think the point is they are trying to make it a deterrent.  I don't think it would deter anything.  I mean it's plainly ridiculous.

"You pirated 20 CDs!  You are fined one hundred kabillion bajillion dollars!"

I mean that's basically what it sounds like.

[Quemaqua]

Maybe browsing from my PS3 isn't such a bad thing right now.  It will prevent me from going on endlessly about this.  Suffice it to say that this is bullshit.  What a world.

[nickclone]

I take everything the RIAA says with a grain of salt. They remind me of that one teacher at school that would ask everyone to sit down and be quiet, but no one would ever listen and nothing ever happened.

I think the RIAA is now suing a single mother of two who makes 35k a year for 300k. Worst part is that a jury sided with the RIAA...idiots.

[Cobra951]

You know how the life of a bully usually goes, though.  In school, he gets away with pushing the little kids around.  Eventually, he makes himself too conspicuous, makes too many enemies, and becomes too threatening.  He then becomes a target himself.  He ends up dead or in jail.

As scary as this shit is, it is not universally accepted at official levels.  The RIAA are pissing off an increasing number of local governments and powerful legal organizations.  I guarantee you that most countries outside of the US are going to fight any strongarm measures against their enterprises.  I know I mentioned once before that in Germany, it is illegal for German companies to abide by the US IP laws.  (Source: my brother, a lawyer with Lexis-Nexis, who compile and publish law and all constant changes to it.)  That's how pissed the German lawmakers got with the bullshit going on here.

I'm not dismissing the threat.  But I think it will only go so far, and then effective backlash is inevitable.

[Xessive]

Fook man. I think I'm just gonna back to recording shit from the radio on my tape deck.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Bah... we hates it

that is all

[MysterD]

You can't assume that every single MP3, M4A, and MP4 traversing the network are pirated.  There are plenty of free MP3s on the Internet, whether they are podcasts, free releases by a band that is relatively unknown, or free downloads from someplace like EMI Music.

Some artists -- yes, even some of the big names like say Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross -- have released on their very own MySpace pages and/or official website some unreleased tracks that just don't happen to appear on their latest album on their website; whether it's due to the song not fitting the album, couldn't get a certain sample cleared, song was done after their new album dropped. Usually they do this so they get it out there and b/c it helps promote their other products. I always think it's very cool when an artist just releases stuff to the public for free -- it makes me even more so want to go out and buy their other product that are in stores.

Some artists like say Bishop Lamont and Custom Made release Internet MixTapes for FREE quite often online, too -- whether on their own website and/or their official MySpace page.

It does make me happy to see NIN do what they did and say "Forget the labels, I'll just sell things my own way" like they did w/ the Ghosts albums. Same goes for what Radiohead did w/ In Rainbows.

Likewise I don't think it's right to block all bittorret traffic, even if much of it is piracy.  There are plenty of non-infringing uses of bittorrent and I use it all the time to download huge new patches for my games.

So how exactly do they plan on determining if something traversing the network is true piracy?

Edit:  The fun continues.  And this time they are going after people who rip legally purchased CDs to their computer.

That's a joke.

I could understand them going after people that are illegally sharing their legit CD-ripped music to others and whatnot online, but if they are going after people ripping it to the hard drive so the person just don't have to play the damn disc in their drive and wear the disc and drive out, doesn't that constitute under the idea and clause about "legal fair usage?"

[Pugnate]

In the end, just don't download music.

[scottws]

Supposedly ripping CDs to hdds is a legal grey area.  Yeah, there is the fair use precedent, but many courts and certainly the legislative branch of government seem to be siding with the intellectual property holders.

But fair use was defined in an era when not great analog broadcasts were put on analog tapes.  It was by no means a perfect replica of the original.  Now we have digital CDs which are being saved either with no loss of digital data at all, or with loss of data but mostly in the non-aural range and with it sounding (almost) identical in many cases.

I would contend that the spirit of the courts decisions during the VCR and audio cassette era would include ripping a CD to your hard driver for personal use, but this stuff all has to be fought out in court again before the grey area is eliminated.

I'm considering writing some letters to Ohio members of the U.S. Congress about this.  Basically saying that there are more pressing issues than deciding whether or not to listen to record companies whether or not to fine someone $1.5 million for pirating a CD.

[Cobra951]

The fair-use doctrine was not about the copying methods.  It was about preventing the absurdity of labeling some 8-year-old a criminal for taping "Puff the Magic Dragon" on his Fisher-Price cassette recorder off the radio.  That is exactly what these bastards are pushing through now--labeling kids and their guardians criminals for copying the music they listen to, now it seems even when they buy it.

Edit:  This is old news, Scott.  We discussed this very case before.  Given the RIAA's hardline activity, I'm not surprised that they're trying this tack.  May as well try to call a spade a club, and see if they can get away with it.  They have a lot of established precedent to cut through with this one.  I understand the paranoia that their continued onslaught and lack of unified opposition causes.  I feel it too.  But we can't squeal like little girls, run for the hills, and let them rape and pillage at will.  Fuck them.

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."

I.e.,