Recording Industry ASSoc. of America...buncha bastards? or do you support the artist?

[Lux]

i didnt want a poll for this, im sure ppl have mixed feelings.
basically, if you use Kazaa and share a ton of files, you might get sued because they are forbidding you to do so. if they find you, you will be charged with up to $150,000 per song shared.

RIAA wins battle to ID Kazaa user


Music body presses antipiracy case

i'm all for supporting the artist but at the same time i still download alot of files, or i used to. now, i just download tatu remixes that i can't find anywhere else as well as video clips. but before...i always used napster or audiogalaxy or kazaa. i would buy a cd if i liked the songs or music videos i downloaded...but often i'd just download a few.


in case some of you are scared, here's some info thanks to Onewinged

P2P Security - What do I do

[Disengage]

That's seriously rediculous. I usually only use Kazaa for videos. I get my mp3s elsewhere, but I guess they would come up as being shared. My question is, what about all the artists that want their music to be shared? There are plenty that have spoken out in support of file-sharing because music is more than just a business. It's only old hags like Dre and Lars(who don't need anymore money!) that are against it. Bah I guess I just won't use Kazaa anymore. But where else am I gonna get Morrissey videos, Family Guy episodes, and old wrestling matches from the 80's???

[EeZeReal]

Blah I hate RIAA....Audiogalaxy was the best sharing site/program ever...

Normally I use these programs to download an album from someone I like, as a backup or just to hear how good it is...Because even if one of my fav artists releases a bad album im not just gonna buy it when it has like 3 highlight tracks and the other 15 tracks are just garbage filler... **Has bad memories of the Copywrite album <Shudders>** Although everyone burns CD's

Luckily I don't use Kazaa and that seems to be the program thats being heavily targeted at the moment.

[Charles]

Originally posted by Lux
...they are forbidding you to do so...

Not to be too pedantic, but the RIAA isn't forbidding it. They are trying to enforce their rights under copyright law. Making a duplicate of a copyrighted work without permission is illegal (with a few exceptions, such as making a backup of something you already own). Using Kazaa (or similiar P2P programs) is technically illegal.

Whether the RIAA is behaving morally, or ethically is a very different issue. The RIAA is trying to perpetuate a marketing and business model that MP3 and the Internet has rendered obsolete. Never mind the fact the the whole recording industry is setup to screw the artists.

[0newinged]

I fully understand the artist's right to have their music distributed in a legal fasion, but I also disagree on the way the RIAA is approaching this issue. How legal is this large scale invasion of privacy? snooping on your connections and whatnot is what scares me more. The idea of big brother breathing down your neck doesn't set right with me..

A lot of the reasons I use P2P are becasue you CAN'T find the music anywhere else. If you're looking for a specific song that you can't find in a record store it is a LOT more practical to find that one song on P2P rather then hunt down a whole album on somewhere like eBay when all you want is that one track. I know a lot of the song I download are remixes or underground which are usually not available in stores and sometimes P2P the only places to find them.. or if I hear a song on the radio I'll go and search for other songs by the artist just to see if I really like them enough to buy the album.

My prediction is that their bark is a lot worse then their bite.. Just think about what the RIAA really wants. They want to shut down P2P networks, they want to protect their copyrights and they want to scare the living hell out of file traders. So far, they're accomplishing the last one beautifully. They'll sue a couple of the larger traders to set an example for the rest of us, everyone (at least in the U.S. for now..) will stop using Kazaa and the RIAA will have what they wanted all along and that'll be that.

This is not going to stop P2P sharing but rather is going to hurt the music industry... upcoming artists who want to get their name out will have it harder, and the mega pirates (who would not buy the music anyways...) will just go deeper underground into other filesharing forms..

[Charles]

In response to Onewinged:

How legal is it? A judge just ruled that it is 100% legal for now.

Having a private organization being able to snoop your connection with little or no due process should scare you.

Just because you can't find a song/cd/album doesn't mean you have any right to have it. What if someone wanted a rare beanie baby? Just because you can't find it doesn't mean you can start making copies. Its very common now to create intentional shortages in products to raise the value (beanie babies, star wars collectibles, particular color tamaguchi, etc.) How many versions of Tatu's album are there? All you need now is NVNB. Do you buy another version with NVNB, or a single, or just download it? Special edition with a DVD? Download or buy? Its too easy to get into a slippery slope argument about how hard must it be to find something before you can justify downloading a copy.

I completely agree the RIAA's bark is worse than their bite. For one thing, it sounds like they are targeting those who are hosting large collections for download, not those who are just downloading.

I also agree that they won't stop file trading. That genie is out of the bottle for good.

[Disengage]

The worst part about this whole thing is that Lars Ulrich of Metallica is basically responsible for starting this whole uproar of how artists are being "ripped off". This is kind of ironic since the Metallica song Enter Sandman(one of their most successful songs) is a blantant ripoff of a riff in a song called "Tapping Into the Emotional Void" by an old metal/hardcore crossover band from Cali called Excel. Excel released the song on their album "The Jokes On You" in 1989 and openned some gigs for Metallica the same year. When Metallica's next album came out in 1991 the openning riff was very similar to the openning riff in "Tapping Into the Emotional Void". I mean it's way too similiar to be coincidence. To my knowledge no one from Excel was ever credited in any way for writing the riff. Anyway I guess I'm getting off-topic but the point is the person responsible for this whole file-sharing controversy (most likely because his band hasn't realeased a good record in over 10 years) is a total dickhead because he's partially responsible for blantantly ripping off another artist as it is. I'd love to see the guys from Excel take Metallica to court and take a large sum of the money that seems to be oh so important to those scumbags. On a side note, anyone who's into fast 80's metal/thrash should definitely check out Excel. "The Joke's On You" record totally smokes and is way better than anything Metallica ever did post-1986.