Riaa - Idolator

Posts Tagged “Riaa”

Despite efforts from the MPAA, the RIAA, the CIA, and the KKK, P2P networks were responsible for 44 percent of total Internet bandwidth last month, a 3 percent increase from last year. The networking equipment company Sandvine credits this rise to interest in video content (you can fit a lot of "Viva La Vida"'s in an Iron Man), but one can assume Paul McGuinness and others in the music industry will use this information to further shame to ISP providers who refuse to regulate these hooligans. Maybe those FBI warning labels just aren't big enough. [Digital Music News]

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all my promo thugs, say yeah!

Selling Promo CDs Is Not Copyright Infringement! Woo Hoo!

A federal district court has thrown out Universal Music Group's lawsuit against Troy Augusto, who had the gall to sell pre-release CDs on eBay. More and more promos are copy-protected, or released sans artwork, and soon labels may just issue MP3s (if anything) to critics and other industry hangers-on with entitlement issues, but it's good to know people are allowed to get rid of the crappy promotional CDs they already have. Plus, by stipulation this decision means that people are even allowed to throw them away. More »

2:30 PM on Thu Jun 12 2008
By Anthony Miccio
598 views, 7 comments

Latest by Rob Murphy: Although this decision sounds like good news for music critics and bloggers, I fear it will result in a myriad of unintended consequences, possibly including unemployment for Dicey. more »

and the single parents of america are free to kazaa another day

RIAA Takes Its Suit And Goes Home

The RIAA has voluntarily dropped the case of Warner Vs. Cassin, one of several suits that revolved around the question of whether making MP3s available for download qualified as copyright infringement. It's noteworthy that the RIAA dismissed the case itself, rather than waiting for the court to follow recent predecent, as it will be pretty much impossible for the trade group to attempt to make another similar suit again. Say it again: "Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution." [Record Industry Vs. The People]

2:45 PM on Wed Jun 11 2008
By Anthony Miccio
184 views, 1 comment

Latest by Tenno: In the end, everyone knows how ridiculous their position is. Man I despise these guys. more »

the biz

Radio, RIAA Fight While Their Industry Burns

The battle over royalties continues between everyone's favorite lobbying groups, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA, not surprisingly, would like radio stations to cough up more cash to major labels in exchange for the joy of broadcasting the new Puddle of Mudd single. The broadcasters contend that they provide a valuable service to the labels by playing their lousy music. So, who's right? Thankfully, they commissioned a study to find out. More »

12:45 PM on Tue Jun 10 2008
By Dan Gibson
443 views, 2 comments

Latest by okiedoke: "17 artists covering all genres and varying levels of success," you say? That sure sounds statistically significant! I have a better survey. I must have heard on the radio last year 10,000 songs representing all genres and varying levels of success. more »

riaa

Courts Don't Tell RIAA Anything They Want To Hear

Hey, RIAA! You know how you've got MediaSentry pulling files from people's hard drives? That doesn't really prove they're sharing information. And that "making available" precedent you like to use in cases? That was in regards to the "actual dissemination of copies and phonorecords," so it may not apply. And those big money lawsuits you wantonly hurled at housewives and single parents? Judges would love to see you pay their legal fees. The labels that fund you have gradually realized that learning to harness new technology might be wiser than trying to curb its use, and with the endless crap being flung your way by the legal system, it might be a good idea to drop the old method of fighting illegal downloads entirely. More »

12:30 PM on Fri May 16 2008
By Anthony Miccio
505 views, 2 comments

Latest by westendgirl: This is the judicial branch's best week ever. I'm going to hop a plane to L.A., marry another woman, and then we're going to download some songs. more »

Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota woman ordered to pay $222,000 to the majors for engaging in the sharing of many crummy songs, may get a second chance with a jury. Thomas has moved for a new trial on the grounds that her punishment was excessive and therefore unconstitutional; meanwhile, the presiding judge is calling for a hearing on whether or not simply making a song available to other filesharers because he found a 1993 ruling from the 8th Circuit that defines infringement as "an actual dissemination of either copies or phonorecords"—which may make last year's verdict null and void. Both sides will make oral arguments July 1 in Duluth, Minn. [Bit Player]

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gold records and diamond tears

Newsflash: Staff Of R.I.A.A. Sensitive, Misunderstood

I can't pretend to speak for the entire staff of Idolator... contributors, editors, etc. At the end of the day, I'm just a guy who for some mysterious reason is given the occasional chance to comment on whatever comes up on Google News. However, I would like to take this opportunity on Monday, March 3, to apologize to the staff of the RIAA. Nearly anyone who has seen a computer in the last few years views your organization as a ridiculous enterprise working tirelessly to prosecute and harass music fans across the country. They're all wrong, my lovely lawsuit-lovin' friends; you've just been hurt, like we all have. Thank you, RIAA director of communications, Cara Duckworth. You've made me see the vulnerable hearts full of goodness hidden underneath those undoubtedly very expensive lawyer clothes. More »

12:20 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Dan Gibson
708 views, 2 comments

Latest by SuperUnison: I'm really glad that by 2010, the RIAA will have ceaseed to put out anything you'd want in the first place. more »

from the vaults

RIAA: Murderers, Terrorists, And Other Criminal Minds May Be Graduating To Pirating Music

Yesterday the RIAA-produced video In Trial, which covers the societal dangers of music piracy, made its way out to torrent sites, and among its contents are instructions on how to get RIAA investigators qualified as expert witnesses, a guide to identifying pirated CDs, and the above bit, about the links between people who profit from pirated music and people who deal weapons, populate terror cells, and murder their fellow man for sport. Surely I'm not the only person who thinks that this particular bit on the "kill 'em all" impulses of miscreants dealing in fifth-generation copies of Graduation would hit home a little more effectively if it were accompanied by a bangin' soundtrack? [Listening Post / Gizmodo]

12:40 PM on Thu Feb 21 2008
By Maura Johnston
828 views, 7 comments

Latest by n/a: So essentially what their saying is this: When you go to a black market area that sells guns and drugs and is plagued by violence, they also sell pirated CDs sometimes. Who would have suspected that violent career criminals don't respect copyright? more »

LOL OMG @ script kiddies taking down the RIAA's site over the weekend and installing links to the Pirate Bay and error messages that read "FTW"! Surely these pranks will make people around the world take your "all music should be free for me and my friends right now" argument really, really seriously. [TorrentFreak]

4 comments

Some behind-the-gold-and-platinum numbers from Ken Barnes' RIAA reality check: The Jonas Brothers, despite seeming damn nigh inescapable, have only just gone platinum with their latest full-length—and they haven't even hit the million-sold mark yet; Kelly Clarkson's My December also got a platinum plaque despite being about 250,000 copies short of the million-sold mark; and someone greased enough palms to get James Blunt a gold record for his latest album, even though it's sold 352,000 copies. (Although that number seems very, very high to me, given the loud thud of indifference that greeted the album's release a few months back.) [Listen Up]

6 comments

EMI has tendered a conditional resignation from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global trade lobbying group for the music business. The label apparently wants to have its interests represented in a more cost-efficient and effective way, and it's calling for the merger of the IFPI and the RIAA. [Billboard

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adventures in legalese

RIAA May Not Be As Painfully Dense As "Washington Post" Story Indicates

Over the weekend, the Washington Post ran a big blowout story on how the RIAA was planning on going after music fans who ripped their CDs for personal use, a story that had been floated by the tech press a few weeks ago. But the nerd blog TechDirt is arguing that it's not the act of ripping that the RIAA is going after; it's where those files wind up on your hard drive, specifically if they're in a shared folder, that will raise the red flag. (For now, anyway!) More »

5:30 PM on Wed Jan 2 2008
By mjohnston
574 views, 2 comments

Latest by entropybitch: Do I have this right? RIAA definitions by extension imply to me: unauthorized: making a mix tape (on a prehistoric cassette tape) for a friend illegal: leaving copies at the bus stop or in the library more »

holiday propaganda

The RIAA Would Like To Remind You That You Can Still Buy Staind Records (Even If You May Not Want To)

If you're stuck with nothing to do but watch local news during this Christmas-to-New-Year's purgatory—and if that's the case, I am so sorry—you may see an item on the crackdown on bootleg CDs. Alas, your local "Shame On You" squad isn't getting into the thorny illegal-CD market; the piece is actually a video news release produced and paid for by the Recording Industry Association Of America, who apparently had just enough money left over from their lawsuit fund to make a low-quality bit of propaganda. It's pretty boilerplate—and full of bad graphic design, which is kinda funny given that one of the ways you're supposed to look out for bad CDs is low-quality cover art—but two things stuck out to me: a) the piece's main talking head looks like he's about to be eaten by Frank Sinatra; and b) when the voiceover says that there are many ways to legally buy albums for your loved ones this holiday season, they cut to a store's stock of CDs by Staind. Because nothing says "happy holidays" like a forced trip back to the nu-metal bowels of the late '90s. More »

10:30 AM on Mon Dec 24 2007
By mjohnston
278 views, 4 comments

Latest by drjayphd: @KinetiQ: Its irrepressible shittiness might also be the reason it hasn't been used on any news programs... more »

Recording industry takes to the courts to once again claim that the act of ripping files from CDs to hard drives does, in fact, result in illegal copies of said CDs being made; consumers roll their eyes, say "If this is your way of convincing us to start giving you money again, it's really not going to work," go back to hunting for American Gangster on BitTorrent. [Ars Technica]

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The Department of Justice is siding with the RIAA in the matter of whether or not people who engage in filesharing should be forced to pay up—and that includes Jammie Thomas, the woman who has to pay the major labels $220,000 for swapping songs on Kazaa. "The federal copyright statute...has consistently included special provisions to ensure significant monetary awards in copyright infringement suits that will make copyright owners whole and deter further infringement," the DOJ said in documents filed in Federal court earlier this week. Is it wrong that I still think the fact that "Bills, Bills, Bills" was one of the songs named in the suit is kind of funny? [news.com]

2 comments

A judge has ordered the Recording Industry Association of America to itemize its expenses per download, which should provide a ton of fun to those of us who have wondered how a lost 99-cent purchase can mushroom into thousands of dollars' worth of court costs. [Recording Industry Vs. The People]

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lawsuits

RIAA Discovers The Wild World Of Usenet(.com)

The latest RIAA lawsuit target: Usenet.com, a North Dakota-based company that allows users paid access to Usenet newsgroup feeds and touts a privacy package called Secure-Tunnel, which allows people to surf newsgroups anonymously (for an extra fee, of course). Since Usenet by nature is a decentralized network, I'm guessing that the RIAA suits must have decided to target the site that actually had the forethought to brand itself as Usenet.com first, as a sort of warning shot. And I'm also going to posit that RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth hasn't figured out all the other newsgroups out there that people might be interested in surfing anonymously: More »

9:45 AM on Wed Oct 17 2007
By mjohnston
620 views, 5 comments

Latest by Dickdogfood: It's clear that the entity being sued is a service allowing a particular kind of anonymized access to USENET, not USENET itself, but still: who the heck uses USENET to get files these days? more »

spin cycles

RIAA President To BitTerrorists: Get Ready For Our "Tough Love" (And Our Lawyers)

Cary Sherman's op-ed defending the Recording Industry Association of America's litigation-happy tactics as far as dealing with piracy not only claims that the RIAA's strategy recalls people's end-of-their-rope tactics when dealing with family members/loved ones who are out of control, it also somewhat gleefully notes that scaring the bejeezus out of consumers has, in fact, worked ... to keep record sales a good 14% off their pace from last year: More »

1:00 PM on Tue Oct 16 2007
By mjohnston
663 views, 5 comments

A Long Listmaking Exercise For A Long Weekend

Posts Tagged “Riaa”