Any Lawsuits Yet To Speak Of?

[ConservativeMan55]

I honestly believe that the threat of lawsuits against individual downloaders was and is bogus. I have not seen one shred of evidence to the contrary. I've downloaded tons of songs beginning back with Napster. It never hurt the recording industry one ounce. What hurts them is when there is no interest. Luckily for them, Napster and Kazza kept the interest alive.

When Napster first came out everyone loved it and there was no talk of lawsuits. The recording industry was booming. Sales were up and I remember news pundits and other talking heads say that the reason sales of CD's were up was because of Napster. Napster had spawned a new interest in music and was keeping it alive.

How many of you downloaded every song off a CD, and then burned it onto another CD? Like many others I would download one song, listen to it, and if it was good enough, I would go out and buy the CD. I never found each song on a new CD, and downloaded each one. Now I have no way of listening or knowing anything about a new CD so my interest has waned considerably, and I won't be at the Music Store anytime soon.

Now the RIAA has successfully destroyed Napster and I might add about half of their profits. They are now going after Kazza. This won't be easy to do because Kazza is worldwide. Instead of going after Kazza, they are attempting to scare the downloaders into dropping Kazza in a scheme Jethro and the Beast would be proud of. If only those downloaders were elderly then the liberals could take away the ability to download and blame it on the Conservatives.

The RIAA should wake up and not do what Martha Stewart did. Martha attempted to make 200 thousand dollars illegally and ended up losing millions. This is what happens to the CEO's that are crooked. They work hard much like Martha did, and end up with more money than they know what to do with. Then once they get to the top, some decide they don't want to work for it anymore and become deceitful.

That brings them down as soon as they make that first choice. Now the RIAA is talking about how terrible their sales are, and they are blaming it on Kazza and other file sharing programs. Maybe they should take a look at when their sales started to tank. Its right when they started threatining their consumers with lawsuits!

Back to my question. Has anyone been sued yet? Any Senators sons or daughters been thrown in jail over this? Anybody been dragged into court? I didn't think so.

[ConservativeMan55]

KAZAA FIGHTS BACK.

[ConservativeMan55]

Ping.

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[ConservativeMan55]

"Forget about it, dude -- even genocidal litigation can't stop file sharers," said Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster, one of several systems that allow users to upload and download files -- many of which are unauthorized MP3 copies of songs published by the RIAA's member companies. Rosso said file-trading activity among Grokster users has increased by 10 percent in the past few days. Morpheus, another file-trading program, has seen similar growth.

[truth_seeker]

Intellectual property is one's own property. Copyright laws mean something.

If recording companies desire to "give away" tracks, as promos, the can do so.

For a third party to take your party, and distribute it for profit is theft.

[Froggie]

Can anyone explain to me how the record industry can identify those who download songs on servers such as Kaaza. My understanding is that they are downloading songs from another private parties computer, not some central computer....How do the recording industries "cops" know which IP address is downloading what songs without committing some internet snooping crime themselves?

[Sloth]

Copyright law indeed means something, but "intellectual property" is a complete fiction.

[ConservativeMan55]

Ping!

[ConservativeMan55]

In other words they have to committ the supposed "Crime" in order to catch the supposed "criminals"

[ConservativeMan55]

No profit is involved if I decide to take a song from a CD, turn it into an MP3 and give it to my friend on his computer. That isn't any different than making a cassette tape.

[Izzy Dunne]

Can anyone explain to me how the record industry can identify those who download songs on servers such as Kaaza.

Not sure I can totally answer your question, but the downloading is not the crime, it's the 'making available' for download that is the crime.
In other words, if you make a copyrighted work available for download from your machine, it is YOU who have committed the crime.
And those addresses are available without illegal snooping, that's how the sharing thing works.

I use 'crime' only in the way the allegations make it - I myself and not convinced one way or the other.

[Labyrinthos]

I hope you have a fire extinguisher handy because you are about to get flamed. Not by me, though, because I agree with you 100%. The file thiefs will have excuse after excuse as to why stealing someone else's work product is legally and/or morally justified, but the bottom line is that stealing the music is no different than going to the corner mini-mart and stealing a tank of gas. (The oil companies deserve it because they charge too much per gallon, manipulate the market to screw the consumer, and rip the consumer off.)

[Froggie]

OK, sorry I posted it for the 10th time !!
I'll do better research next time!

[Froggie]

OOPS that last post was posted in the wrong spot - I better give it up for the day!

[Jeff Gordon]

Copyright laws mean something.

They sure do. They have their foundation in the Golden Rule: He who has the Gold rules.

[ConservativeMan55]

Copyright absurdity: Happy Birthday to You!
Copyright Royalties for copying this post for use by other freepers has been paid in full.

[Izzy Dunne]

That isn't any different than making a cassette tape.

I don't know this for a fact, but I will bet you that it's not legal to record a copyrighted work onto a cassette and give to your friends, either.
The RIAA tried to get this enforced when cassettes first came out, but dropped it because everybody realized that cassette copies are not as good as the original, and that copies of copies just make it worse.
With the advent of CD copying, it's more feasible that a copy of a copy of a copy is just as good as the original. So they care more.

[ConservativeMan55]

Senator Hatch suggests destroying downloaders computers!

[ConservativeMan55]

Once I buy it they should have no say in what I do with it. Its now my property and if I want to go throw it into a lake so the fish can make copies that is my choice.