OT: RIAA and Their Law Suits

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Yes, and it could be used to remain completely anonymous...

There are open discussions in Slashdot stories covering the current RIAA legal maneuavers about completely "blacked-out" P2P networks that trade a constant flow of encrypted fake data so you can't even tell how much traffic any one site is carrying let alone what files are being moved. And also discussions of preventing any one site from having to serve all of a given file, further obfuscating the actual data being traded and creating some difficult issues of 'legal liability' for the copyright hounds. If this is already being discussed in the open, there's a lot of work already underway in the quiet corners of the 'hacker' community. There will be a new generation of P2P applications coming out, probably within months, that will give RIAA nightmares. They really cannot win.

[ September 14, 2003, 04:13: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Suicide Junkie]

I do believe that the poster had a point when he said music is played for FREE on the radio and any one can copy it. YEs that is true, but it is also illegal.

You can tape TV shows with that handy-dandy VCR, no prob. You can record the radio station with your cassette tape.

The only difference is the format you've saved it to. Everything is fine with analog recordings, but "digital" is the boogeyman.

Without the internet, it would be a non-issue I'm sure.

[Fyron]

Yeah, cause those digital bits are just EVIL!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well, people are just going to have to learn self-control.

either that, or with technology quickly outstripping common sense, where going to destoy ourselves.

[Atrocities]

Look at all of the artist that got nothing for their work in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and yes even into the 90's because of crooked record companies. They claim they are doing this for the artists. Bull ****!. They are doing this because there is a market on the internet and the first step to controlling a market is to surpress it, regulate it, and then manage it. Its all about the all might golden dollar.

If artists were the issue I'd say hell ya, pay to download, but its not. The artist get next to nil for each record they sell. Something on the order of 11 cents per disk if they are lucky.

"Music is broadcast for free. Books, and software are not. Movies are not. Although TV does air movies, we all know that thay are hacked to crap and full of commericals."

"New music should be free from P2P for a period of a year or so. Then open the gates. Embrace the P2P market and allow the industry to grow. Stop trying to scare everyone strait and use the system to make the system work."

These are true enough statements, but we all know that sooner or later we are going to be seeing P2P clients on America's Most Wanted.

[Cyrien]

Court cases trying to show P2P networks as illegal, based on the availability of illegal copyrighted material, have already been heard. The court rulings all pretty much stated that the P2P networks themselves are not illegal as their is a great deal of legal material that can be obtained, thus giving P2P networks a legal footing.

In fact the current crop of law suits is arising as a direct result of the failure of the record industry to get P2P applications made illegal. Tactic A fails try tactic B. So they have two options... they can try and get a law passed that will likely be found unconstitutional as so many recent internet restricting laws have been. Next they could try and get a constitutional amendmant passed. The public outcry against anything like that would kill any attempt almost instantly. The Senate and Congress members do need to get reelected after all.

So as for P2P on Americas most wanted... I doubt it. Even so that would only solve a fraction of the problem. Look up server locations on your local P2P networks. I bet a large fraction of them are not even in the US. The other countries would have to be just as rabid about it as the US based recording industry is trying to make the US.

Quite simply I don't think it is going to work.

I think this Quote can sum up the position of the Current Record Industry quite well.

We will not go quietly into the night,
We will not vanish without a fight.

I would add the Last part... but I don't think it applies, because they won't survive or live on. Not as they are anyways.

And here is an interesting article that shows how internet downloads are very likely not at the heart of decreased music CD sales. But rather the industry itself is at fault with its bad business practices and attempts to control the industry and kill off the free internet competition, illegal or otherwise.

http://www.bricklin.com/recordsales.htm

Course those are just my opinions.

[Unknown_Enemy]

I own all the music on my computer and have the CD's to prove it.

You're lucky.
I don't.

And there is no way I am about to keep my long dead tape of Pink Floyd Drak side of the wall just to prove that I did buy it years ago.