[Mister Magoo]

Talk about an exercise in futility. The RIAA is fighting a war that has been decided before it was even fought. Even if a specific statute was enacted criminalizing file-swapping, it would be unenforceable. The music industry will simply have to adopt new economic models.

[Paleo Conservative]

I bet they approve of wife swappers.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Is it just me or does the RIAA look like they are trying to squeeze water from a rock and like look like a bad guys as they are doing it.

[Poohbah]

Talk about an exercise in futility. The RIAA is fighting a war that has been decided before it was even fought. Even if a specific statute was enacted criminalizing file-swapping, it would be unenforceable. The music industry will simply have to adopt new economic models.

If owned an RIAA affiliate company, I'd leave that organization...after a while, no one would be swapping any of the songs in my catalog.

After the word gets around that pirating Poohbah Records material is a great way to get yourself arrested and convicted for swapping kiddie porn, the world would understand the high cost of "free."

[dennisw]

The RIAA will lose this battle and it's lackies will have to go out and get real jobs.

[martin_fierro]

The record industry opened a new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song swappers with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and face "legal penalties."

I wonder if that act constitutes some sort of actionable trespass.

[canuck_conservative]

After this action, I assume the RIAA is preparing to have its website hacked relentlessly from here on.

[k2blader]

Bump.

[unixfox]

This message will be considered SPAM and most likely dumped before it is even read.

The genie is out of the bottle and refuses to go back in.

[battousai]

So RIAA in their eternal wisdom has decided to use... SPAM in their battle against "piracy".

They still don't get it....

STOP gouging your customers RIAA et al!

[LurkedLongEnough]

Warning to Song Swappers: "We are the RIAA. Ozzie bit the head off a dove for us. We have been ripping you off for years and will use every legal means necessary to continue to do so.

"Never mind that we only make CDs of artists that our friends love, and we lowball even them until they sue us for breach of contract. Never mind that we undercut the number of songs that you can buy on a legitimate CD so we can sell more CD's, and we bleed you dry on their price. Never mind that we split up popular songs across multiple CD's until they stop selling; then we issue 'Best Of' CD's that might be similar to ones you would make yourself.

"Never mind that we've been approached by several companies wanting to help migrate us to the online music paradigm. There is nothing to see here. Move along."

In short, the RIAA is kinda like, well, a pompous idiot.

[El Conservador]

I just have some words for them:

F*** RIAA!!!

Swapper of the world, unite!!!

[Alberta's Child]

Dear RIAA:

If duplicating copyrighted material is illegal, then why do some of your members (Sony Records, for example) have sister companies with consumer products divisions that manufacture and market MP3 players specifically intended for use with said duplicated, copyrighted material?

Sincerely,

A Confused Customer

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers"

I'm NOT listening (covering ears with both hands) -- "I can't hear you -- na, na, na." No pun intended.

[blondatheart]

I wonder if WIN-MX is next on their list???

[aruanan]

The RIAA is fighting a war that has been decided before it was even fought. Even if a specific statute was enacted criminalizing file-swapping, it would be unenforceable. The music industry will simply have to adopt new economic models.

Their new economic model will be to get asset forfeiture added as a penalty for swapping songs and then move in to seize the homes and bank accounts of the parents of all the teens who are swapping songs. Since under current asset forfeiture laws one doesn't even have to be convicted to have assets seized and because even if acquitted one doesn't automatically get one's property returned, this will prove to be a bonanza for both the RIAA and all the local police departments that will share the loot.

[aruanan]

"It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. ...When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to copy or downloading it on a 'file-sharing' system like this. When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified."

Now, if the RIAA is able to monitor exchanges between these file-sharing services and the users, doesn't this fall into the category of intercepting electronic communications, an action for which, if you employ a honey pot on your computer to monitor and catch hackers, you can be arrested? Unless the RIAA has an arrangement with the file-sharing services to receive names and addresses of users, doesn't this constitute massive computer crime on the RIAA's part?

[KevinB]

Even if a specific statute was enacted criminalizing file-swapping, it would be unenforceable

Huh? One already exists. It's called the United States Copyright Act.

[KevinB]

I am a lawyer with twenty years practice experience. Anyone who thinks downloading copyrighted materials is legal is just plain wrong. You may not like the business model the owners of the copyrights have chosen, but that's too bad. The owners of the copyrights have the right to choose the model under which they will make their property available. If you don't like the terms, don't buy the products.

Those too dense to understand the legal niceties should put themselves in the shoes of the artists. Would you feel like someone was stealing from you if after you spent your whole life learning your trade, struggling to make a living, and giving up other opportunities, people began taking the fruit of your efforts for free and passing it around? You bet you would!

Yes, the artists recieve an obscenely small piece of the profit from their music; however, that's the deal they made and doesn't give others the right to steal that obscenely small piece from them.

[rwfromkansas]

an educational activity......man the RIAA is good at putting "threat" in new, walking through the garden terminology.

[supercat]

One point someone brought up on another thread: there is no law requiring people to tip waitstaff, and yet most people do. People pay waitstaff because they respect them, and because they perceive that paying them is the right thing to do.

To what extent have the RIAA or major record companies worked to earn respect?

It used to be, and often still is, commonplace that when a respected citizen gets mugged, neighbors will come to his aid and try to catch the mugger, but when a bully gets mugged, he gets neither help nor sympathy.