....LMB: "Let the File-Sharer Beware"....

June 25, 2003

Just heard this news:

Music Industry to Sue File-Sharers

Music companies are poised to sue thousands of people who share songs on the Internet, escalating their attack on piracy with a strategy that many in the music industry have long hoped to avoid.

The Recording Industry Assn. of America today announced plans to spend the next month identifying targets among the estimated 80 million people using file-sharing networks, focusing on those offering a "significant" amount of songs for others to copy. Then, in August, the RIAA plans to file its first lawsuits on behalf of record companies, RIAA President Cary Sherman said...

Sherman said the RIAA will begin collecting the Internet addresses Thursday of those who offer copyrighted songs for others to copy though file-sharing networks. There's no minimum number of files that will trigger a lawsuit, he said, adding that "offering even one file without permission is one too many."

So there's your warning, folks. If you download mp3s off the internet, you should probably move most of your files to a folder that you do not allow other folks to download from. Granted, it looks like the RIAA will only go after you if you have a "significant" amount of songs that other people want, which probably means if you've got lots of top 40 artists, you should be cautious. But theoretically, they can go after anyone.

Just a heads up.

Posted by Jake at 01:30 PM | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The latest move by the RIAA is moronic and too late. There is no economically feasible way of using litigatation to stop people pirating music.

Any time it's been tried before it's failed. What are they going to do mail out a few thousand cease and desist orders. Or single out a few spotty teenagers for cruxificion.

a few points
1. most internet homeusers have only randomly assign IP address -- ie. It changes everytime they log on.
2. Even if the RIAA could get the address of the person filesharing (the Billpayers name) How can they prove it was the Bill payer downloading the songs and not someone else (like their 12 yearold Brittany fan daughter) file sharing.
3. Try and take a civil suit against a 12 year old ,,, go on I double dare ya!!!

Posted by: bob at June 29, 2003 12:40 AM

An excerpt of the below stated article url.

http://www.denounce.com/riaa.html

Our goal is to eliminate the threat these thieves represent to our industry," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "We don't care if the person is eight, eighteen, or eighty or unaware of the law. If we catch 'em sharing files, we're sending them to jail. Not just any jail. Our jail. We don't even care if they're legally sharing their own personal music files with a family member. We don't care if they're simply transferring their own peronal music from their desktop machine to their iPod. If we catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away. But let me be perfectly clear: even if we don't catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away if we so much as suspect they're sharing files, or might like to one day."

~Ribs

Posted by: Antony "Ribs-san" Ta at August 8, 2003 08:47 PM

An excerpt of the below stated article url.

http://www.denounce.com/riaa.html

Our goal is to eliminate the threat these thieves represent to our industry," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "We don't care if the person is eight, eighteen, or eighty or unaware of the law. If we catch 'em sharing files, we're sending them to jail. Not just any jail. Our jail. We don't even care if they're legally sharing their own personal music files with a family member. We don't care if they're simply transferring their own peronal music from their desktop machine to their iPod. If we catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away. But let me be perfectly clear: even if we don't catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away if we so much as suspect they're sharing files, or might like to one day."

~Ribs

Posted by: Antony "Ribs-san" Ta at August 8, 2003 08:47 PM

An excerpt of the below stated article url.

http://www.denounce.com/riaa.html

Our goal is to eliminate the threat these thieves represent to our industry," said RIAA President Cary Sherman. "We don't care if the person is eight, eighteen, or eighty or unaware of the law. If we catch 'em sharing files, we're sending them to jail. Not just any jail. Our jail. We don't even care if they're legally sharing their own personal music files with a family member. We don't care if they're simply transferring their own peronal music from their desktop machine to their iPod. If we catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away. But let me be perfectly clear: even if we don't catch 'em doing it, we'll be there to take them away if we so much as suspect they're sharing files, or might like to one day."

~Ribs

Posted by: Antony "Ribs-san" Ta at August 8, 2003 08:48 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?






Lying Media Bastards is both a radio show and website. The show airs Mondays 2-4pm PST on KillRadio.org, and couples excellent music with angry news commentary. And the website, well, you're looking at it.

Both projects focus on our media-marinated world, political lies, corporate tyranny, and the folks fighting the good fight against these monsters.

All brought to you by Jake Sexton, The Most Beloved Man in America ®.


contact: jake+at+lyingmediabastards.com

Media News

November 16, 2004

Tales of Media Woe

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill- one of the most depressing stories of the day that didn't involve death or bombs. It's the music and movie industries' wet dream. It criminalizes peer-to-peer software makers, allows the government to file civil lawsuits on behalf of these media industries, and eliminates fair use. Fair use is the idea that I can use a snippet of a copyrighted work for educational, political, or satirical purposes, without getting permission from the copyright-holder first.

And most tellingly, the bill legalizes technology that would automatically skip over "obejctionable content" (i.e. sex and violence) in a DVD, but bans devices that would automatically skip over commericals. This is a blatant, blatant, blatant gift to the movie industry. Fuck the movie industry, fuck the music industry, fuck the Senate.

Music industry aims to send in radio cops- the recording industry says that you're not allowed to record songs off the radio, be it real radio or internet radio. And now they're working on preventing you from recording songs off internet radio through a mixture of law and technological repression (although I imagine their techno-fixes will get hacked pretty quickly).

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few- blogger Jeff Jarvis discovers that the recent $1.2 million FCC fine against a sex scene in Fox's "Married By America" TV show was not levied because hundreds of people wrote the FCC and complained. It was not because 159 people wrote in and complained (which is the FCC's current rationale). No, thanks to Jarvis' FOIA request, we find that only 23 people (of the show's several million viewers) wrote in and complained. On top of that, he finds that 21 of those letters were just copy-and-paste email jobs that some people attached their names to. Jarvis then spins this a bit by saying that "only 3" people actually wrote letters to the FCC, which is misleading but technically true. So somewhere between 3 and 23 angry people can determine what you can't see on television. Good to know.

Reuters Union Considers Striking Over Layoffs- will a strike by such a major newswire service impact the rest of the world's media?

Pentagon Starts Work On War Internet- the US military is talking about the creation of a global, wireless, satellite-aided computer network for use in battle. I think I saw a movie about this once...

Conservative host returns to the air after week suspension for using racial slur- Houston radio talk show host (and somtime Rush Limbaugh substitute) Mark Belling referred to Mexican-Americans as "wetbacks" on his show. He was suspended for a couple of weeks, and then submitted a written apology for the racial slur to a local newspaper. But he seems to be using the slur and its surrounding controversy to boost his conservative cred with his listeners.

Stay Tuned for Nudes- Cleveland TV news anchor Sharon Reed aired a story about artist Spencer Tunick, who uses large numbers of naked volunteers in his installations and photographs. The news report will be unique in that it will not blur or black-out the usual naughty bits. The story will air late at night, when it's allegedly okay with the FCC if you broadcast "indecent" material. The author of this article doesn't seem to notice that Reed first claims that this report is a publicity stunt, but then claims it's a protest against FCC repression. I'd like to think it's the latter, but I'm not that much of a sucker.

Posted by Jake at 04:02 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
More Media News

Jake Jake Jake

 

Fake "Ha-Ha" News

News

 

Quotes

"Hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims went up over 1000% right after 9/11. Which still put us in fourth place behind blacks, gays and Jews."

- Ahmed Ahmed

More Quotes

Media News

 

Obligatory Blog Links

 

Snapshots

Several years of mild sleep deprivation and only one hallucination? That's pretty good.

More Snapshots

Columnists Of Note

 

References

Sonic Resistance

 

Dead Trees

 

Heavy Rotation

Archives

 

Squiggles of Insight

SubvertWare

Credits

Design and Layout by Mark McLaughlin and Quang Tang
LMB Logo by Quang Tang

Alt "One Hell of a Leader" logo largely stolen from Obey Giant.
All other material by Jake Sexton (unless otherwise cited)

hosted by nice dream