Record labels seek OK for P2P sabotage

cnn ^

[chance33_98]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Frustrated by the continuing presence of free music on the Internet, the recording industry asked for Congress' blessing on Thursday to gum up the online networks they blame for slowing their sales.

Congress is considering expanded legal protection for record labels who resort to sabotage in their ongoing battle with "peer to peer" networks that allow users to freely trade music, movies and other copyrighted material.

[Tench_Coxe]

Whatever the arguments about the morality or legality of file sharing, this is a declaration of war in a sense. Perhaps the folks in the RIAA wish to have every hacker and scrip kiddie at their door step in retaliation. A challenge like this, from what I have gathered, does not go unanswered.

[agitator]

my guess is that they've never heard of DDOS attacks. Wanna bet they hear about it soon?

[struwwelpeter]

The record companies will have to depend on computer geeks to help them do this. I'm sure each and every p2p system will soon include the appropriate filters to block RIAA fakes, provided by the very same geeks the RIAA is paying.

The genie's out of the bottle, get used to it.

[Djarum]

Maybe Congress will be consistent and allow vigilante prosecution of legislators who propose or vote for unconstitutional legislation.

[templar]

You know .... I sort of feel sorry for the recording companies when they institute this. Wonder how long it'll be before any of them have a working website or server again?

[Jonathon Spectre]

This is the single worst idea the recording industry has ever, ever come up with.

They could make a mint selling authorized mp3s off secure servers for .10-.30 a song. How much does it cost to make a CD? The packaging, the booklet, etc? Know how much it costs to make an mp3? A couple megabytes on a hard drive. Total production cost: .000000001 cents. Total cost to distribute: $0. But that wouldn't allow them to retain total control over the wretched garbage that goes out onto the airwaves of this country.

So instead, they are going to declare war on the world's hackers and technological geniuses. Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but whenever you RIAA f**ks decide to mess with "Lord Viper-Scorpion" and his uber-leet P2P program, "Lord Viper-Scorpion" is going to make it his personal mission in life to destroy anything you put out on the Internet.

And he will succeed. You know why? Because to the RIAA, this is business. But to "Lord Viper-Scorpion", this is personal. And hell hath no fury like a computer geek scorned. This will at least be interesting to watch.

[AdA$tra]

Record companies have to admit that at least half of the lost sales come from the fact that music has lost its soul. Even two or three years ago it was much better. Not like I went through some sudden change, I have been listening for 40 years now. Todays commercial music just sux, to be blunt. Many of the best independant stations gone corporate (sux) radio now too.

[hoosierham]

I agree.

The present copyright laws are asinine, the old rules were more rational; matter of fact the old rules for just about EVERYTHING were more rational than what we have now.

[upchuck]

This is so sad. Society has moved on and the RIAA is stuck with a business model from the 60's that's just flat busted. So rather than do something about it they whine to Congress and want special diapensation. BS!! Change, grow or die, RIAA.

16+ bucks for a CD is OUTRAGEOUS!!

[TommyDale]

"Record companies have to admit that at least half of the lost sales come from the fact that music has lost its soul. Even two or three years ago it was much better. Not like I went through some sudden change, I have been listening for 40 years now. Todays commercial music just sux, to be blunt."

My sentiments exactly. The music is REALLY bad when we prefer to listen to talk radio!

[philo]

Instead of bludgeoning it to death the RIAA should have bought Napster and imposed a small fee. They would have had the user base and technology already in place for them to become part of the 21st century.

Now they're reduced to play some sort of "titty twister" with the public.

[LibKill]

Instead of bludgeoning it to death the RIAA should have bought Napster and imposed a small fee. They would have had the user base and technology already in place for them to become part of the 21st century.

Indeed. There was gold in that there Napster.

The RIAA killed the goose that could have laid golden eggs on a daily basis.

Now there are other P2P services that the RIAA cannot control.

While the RIAA plots to kill P2P, some bright teenager is writing code to defeat them.

BTW: If the RIAA had bought Napster, I would have paid as much as $20 a month (I live just above the poverty level) to get access.

RIAA killed Napster. They are getting nothing from me. I have not bought a CD in years except for presents for my neices and nephews.

[SamAdams76]

I have been listening to music for over 30 years and have a huge music collection - as big as many radio station, I am sure. But I never remember a time when the quality of pop music was so poor. This includes even the disco-plagued mid-to-late 1970s.

And I'm not an "out-of-touch" old fart either who yearns for the days of Lawrence Welk and the Andrew Sisters. Nor am I stuck in my musical past. For while I cut my teeth on older "dinosaur" acts such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young, my musical tastes today include such modern acts as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Pearl Jam and Beastie Boys. I am more than willing to discover new cutting edge music today but it just doesn't exist - on commercial radio. So I discover it at college radio (thank God for streaming audio on the web) and on MP3 sharing sites such as WinMx.

It may be convenient for the music industry to blame their woes on file-sharing, but when it comes down to it, their current stable of recording artists...suck!

[greasepaint]

Please dont give your money to Hollywood and the Democrats.
Boycott CDs and movies.
g.

[Tench_Coxe]

Could you imagine the potential if they had essentially opened up their music libraries and had offered all the songs on CD quality mp3? Heck, they could have even put a time window on what they offered, something like songs older than 5 years would be offered at something like $.30 to $.50 a song. They would make a mint solely off of those folks looking to download some old 'out of print' song, or folks wanting to surprise a loved one with a song they haven't heard for years.

As someone else on this thread put it, they have indeed killed the golden goose.

[RonPaulLives]

16+ bucks for a CD is OUTRAGEOUS!!

First, I probably download less music than 99% of society at large. However, I definitely won't make a habit of buying $16 CD's. In fact, I don't think I have ever given over $12 for one, and don't plan to. You know, there are too many used music stores here in Louisville to shop before paying that much for a compact disc, plus there's ebay, amazon, et al.

[Benson_Carter]

NINETY-NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION ON CONTENTS OF MUSIC AND THE LYRICS OF RECORDS
SEPTEMBER 19, 1985

STATEMENT OF FRANK ZAPPA

if you don't read Mr. Zappa's testimony in front of the Congress, please scroll to the bottom of that page to read his prepared statement, where he accuses Al & Tipper Gore in perticular, and other Senators and Congressmen in general, of taking bribes and kickbacks from the RIAA and introducing illegal taxes and backdoor legislation for the RIAA and their cronies.

WORTH THE SHORT READ