Long Arm of the RIAA

The Recording Industry Association of America spammed 200,000 users of the Grokster and Kazaa file-swapping nets with a threatening IM, Reuters reports.

Swappers were told, "When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC." Subtle, real subtle.

Comments

[Anonymous]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030429/ap_on_go_co/sensenbrenner_travel

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030427/music_nm/music_madonna_dc_2

[Tim Stich]

Well now that Apple seems to have cut a deal with some major record companies to market single songs from any artist for 99 cents, the hassle of stealing might deter would be theives from doing that and just simply downloading the files. Apple apparantly is offering the cover art from the original CDs with each song sale. Pretty cool for people like me who don't need to futz with the damn file sharing software and digging around other people's hard drives for what I want.

[Warren]

Deliberately antagonizing music file swapping hackers might not be a such a good idea
http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2003/20030420_madonna.html

[Xrlq]

RIAA doesn't do subtle. Neither does anyone else associated with the entertainment-industrial complex.

[hmm]

Wait, so, I can avoid legal penalties simply by not stealing music? Embezzlement, here I come!

[Mike Liveright]

I wonder if this is a true spam, e.g. must it be labeled ADV, and blocked, if the laws being proposed now were passed.

If so, then how does the RIAA show that it informed the violators if these are regularly blocked?

[esmith]

Thanks for posting this article! It was really informative and I enjoyed reading the subsequent posts!

Good luck with your thing!

[Evilcor]

Previous release:
"When you invade Normandy, you risk military penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T BREACH OUR DEFENSES."
Now is the time to pile it on; when the other side starts to TELL you you're doing wrong instead of doing something substantial.
Of course, sooner or later, they'll be able to fix you good for STEALING LIKE A FILTHY IRAQI SCUMBAG; maybe by starting to italicize instead of capitalizing.
Next we 56k losers will be in league with freedom-hating terrorists.

[Tuning Spork]

That's quite a stream of consciousness, Evilcor. Whatever it is yer drinkin', pass me a snort, eh?!

[Jim]

That just motivated me to NEVER pay for music again, unless I buy it directly from the guy that played or wrote it. What a bunch of shit.

There ARE costs to getting stuff for free, BTW. Like the time it takes you to find it and download it. And all copies are not created equal. Ever downloaded a song you thought was the radio version only to find out it was a crappy bootleg recorded by someone with one of those little tape recorders in their pocket (sounds like it was still in their pocket while recording most of the time)? Just to save on the hassle it might be worth it to pay the .99 per song fee. The RIAA however does not want to deal with the fact that technology has lowered their expected return on their investment. Sorry, but your expected return is not a right. It's a gamble like any other investment and fortunes can change overnight when technology changes. Just ask IBM how many typewriters they sell anymore. Downloading music for free is the best way to tell the big music companies to evolve or die (I don't think we'll miss them much anyway).

[Lonewacko]

Per the command-post.org, Hillary Rosen is helping Iraq write their (c) laws. Maybe you could look into that.