Home taping downloading is killing music authorship. The Society of Authors warns that authors will simply stop writing if they aren't compensated for piracy of their work (as unlikely as that seems). Perhaps they should follow the example of Jim Griffin, newly hired at Warner Music to persuade broadband providers to attach a $5 per month surcharge for the benefit of the major labels, in exchange for halting the lawsuits that have thus far been their mainstay weapon against piracy.
posted on Apr 2, 2008 - View this thread

Anti-Piracy agents MediaDefender have 700MiB of juicy internal emails leaked on BitTorrent; are in trouble.
posted on Sep 16, 2007 - View this thread

Tube Wars: A new front opens as the IFPI [think global RIAA] threatens imminent legal war with ISP's.
posted on Jan 17, 2007 - View this thread

P2P is a sin [bugmenot]
posted on Oct 10, 2006 - View this thread

Now that they're being sued on racketeering grounds, the RIAA says "to hell with appearances" and files suit against a 14-year-old girl. Candy Chan might have succeeded in getting charges against her dismissed, but in claiming victory, she probably didn't have much of an idea that the music cartel would proceed to file suit against her 14-year-old daughter specifically requesting that the court appoint a "legal guardian" for her. Whatever happens in this case, it'll probably be less embarassing than some of their previous cock-ups.
posted on Oct 6, 2005 - View this thread

Peer to Peer Politics Here's an idea the RIAA can get behind: Thad Anderson, a second-year student at St. John's School of Law, has launched a peer-to-peer network that allows users to access and share government documents. More than 600 court and government documents, including memos, communications and reports, are available on his OutragedModerates.org site, and can be accessed through the Kazaa, LimeWire and Soulseek P2P networks. Among those documents available are the Abu Ghraib prison scandal memos and the Senate Intelligence Committee report on government intelligence leading up to the Iraq War. The concept of using a P2P network to share embarrassing documents is interesting ... considering some in Congress have proposed an outright ban on the P2P file sharing systems that are widely used to trade music, movies and porn. via Politics1.com
posted on Jul 23, 2004 - View this thread

Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales.
posted on Mar 30, 2004 - View this thread

The DC Appeals court has overturned the previous decision that allowed the RIAA to subpoena user's names from internet providers. Could this mark the end of the recording industry's lawsuit assault?
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - View this thread

U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. Privacy & Piracy: The Paradox of Illegal File Sharing on Peer-to-Peer Networks and the Impact of Technology on the Entertainment Industry. View the hearing of September 29. [Real Media].
posted on Oct 1, 2003 - View this thread

Why the RIAA's lawsuits aren't worth moose droppings. Tech Central Station columnist Jay Currie explains how Canada's copyright law, which instills the right to copy music in exchange for levies on blank media, renders the RIAA's legal precedent against file-sharers useless up north.
posted on Sep 13, 2003 - View this thread

A friendly PSA from the RIAA (9mb mpg) or 5mb quicktime
posted on Aug 22, 2003 - View this thread

RIAA: Stop, or we will sue fresh from its victory against Verizon, the RIAA gears up to go head to head with individual users of P2P. Run and hide!
posted on Jun 25, 2003 - View this thread

Sheer Nuttiness... According to the Washington Post, the RIAA is following up on the successful suit to force Verizon to identify four file traders, with a series of mass-lawsuits targeting potentially hundreds of file traders. With 57 million active file traders in the P2P networks alone, this is the beginning of an ugly new future.
posted on Jun 25, 2003 - View this thread

Senator Orrin Hatch [R-Utah] , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, favors legislation allowing copyright holders to remotely destroy the computers of illegal file traders. Hatch, an accompished songwriter in his own right, is quoted as saying that damaging someone's computer "...may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." Apparently the good Senator is forgetting that our legal system is based on the presumption of innocence.
posted on Jun 17, 2003 - View this thread

Federal judge rules Morpheus, Grokster not liable for Internet piracy. Well that is until the big pocketed music industry finds a favorable judge and wins the appeal.
posted on Apr 25, 2003 - View this thread

In a reversal of fortunes for the RIAA et al, a judge rules against them saying that p2p technology is "not significantly different from"..."home video recorders or copy machines, both of which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."
Of course this isn't the end of it, and appeals are being made, but for once things are going the way of the P2P software makers, it seems.
posted on Apr 25, 2003 - View this thread

Verizon Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper In a recent discussion of the Supreme Court's decision to protect the rights of the individual from the greed and sloth of the many I warned that the RIAA and MPAA, comically inept though the media paints them, would soon have things their way. This link is to a news report about an important step in their fight for individual rights.
posted on Jan 21, 2003 - View this thread

"I poisoned P2P networks for the RIAA" , a whistleblower from the IFPI (the global version of the RIAA) has said. Someone else actually claimed this a few days ago but it was admitted to be a hoax. Now, a fellow by the name of Matt Warne comes forward with a new claim.

While I'm sure many MeFi'ers disagree about the ethics of music piracy (which it is, whether or not you think it should be okay) - I think we can all agree that two wrongs don't make a right, can we not? Can the RIAA be sued for this, or will it be an invincible body, impervious to injury just like a certain other huge body that has problems getting hacked all the time, and simply has to repeatedly settle in court rather than admitting true wrongdoing?
posted on Jan 17, 2003 - View this thread

Kazaa to RIAA; "Catch us if you can!" Although I was initially skeptical, it seems as though Kazaa's decentralized system is proving to be a problem for the RIAA. With Napster, it seemed like they caved almost immediately. What I'm wondering is, does Kazaa actually have a change at establishing some sort of favourable ruling concerning file-trading / P2P? I know it's probably too early to tell, but speculation makes for great conversation some times.
posted on Sep 25, 2002 - View this thread

Finally, a Fair Fight with Big Music From a Business Week Online column..."Telecom giant Verizon is battling the industry's bid to make it name a file-sharing subscriber. It's also defending your right to privacy. On July 24, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) made an unprecedented request of Verizon Communications (VZ). The music industry's trade association served the telecom with a subpoena, seeking the identity of a Verizon subscriber who had allegedly illegally traded digital songs by artists including Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and "boy band" N'Sync. The RIAA didn't specify why it wanted to know who the user was or what it would do with the information."
posted on Sep 12, 2002 - View this thread

Hosting Provider Bans RIAA - According to this press release, Information Wave Technologies will actively block all RIAA IP space because RIAA is intentionally seeking to invade customer networks / hosts to check for copyright violations. Additionally, they are going to deploy a "honeypot" system (simulates a GNUtella client sharing copyrighted material) in order to log requests for the files and correlate them with attempts to invade the host -- RIAA's stated plan to combate music piracy.
posted on Aug 19, 2002 - View this thread

D-O-S attack disables RIAA site. Do you think someone's trying to make a point about one group lobbying for the power to shut down individual's computers if they SUSPECT them of doing something they don't like, and another group ALREADY having that power?
posted on Jul 30, 2002 - View this thread

DoS attacks on P2P networks by copyright holders is a go... Well not yet, but Rep. Howard Berman (D- Calif.) has submitted a bill for review that would in effect provide the RIAA with a legal path to "hack" file sharing networks via DoS attacks.
posted on Jun 26, 2002 - View this thread

RIAA sues Audiogalaxy. "After targeting decentralized popular file-sharing services such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, and Madster, the Recording Industry Association of America took aim at Audiogalaxy in court last Friday..." [via pfm]
posted on May 28, 2002 - View this thread

Morpheus is broken. The Netherlands-based provider of the technology used by Kazaa and Grokster upgrades their system, but leaves out Streamcast Networks' (formerly Music City) Morpheus network, and suddenly, everyone is locked out. Kinda punches a giant hole in their EFF-backed battle with the RIAA, which hinges on the assertion that their network is 'decentralized' and impossible to stop.
posted on Feb 28, 2002 - View this thread

Did you hear Michael Greene's speech at the Grammys? At first it seemed like it was going to be just yet another recording industry weasel with an obligatory goatee congratulating himself on stage. But it quickly turned into a lesson on the harms of the illegal Internet downloads. "This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business. Ripping is stealing their livelihood one digital file at a time, leaving their musical dreams haplessly snared in this World Wide Web of theft and indifference," says Greene. Was this appeal-cum-address effective or appropriate? Were you more sympathetic to the RIAA or artists afterwards?
posted on Feb 27, 2002 - View this thread

The RIAA is at it again, this time there are supposedly plans to DDoS people who are sharing "illegal" files. Via The Register and ZDnet.
posted on Oct 18, 2001 - View this thread

The War Against MP3? Hilary Rosen, everyone's favourite defender of record company hegemony, outlines her new strategy ("Help me help you.") in an email leaked to FuckedCompany. Interestingly, it's aimed at beating the dastardly hackers at their own game, with tactics such as "Spoofing and/or interdiction methods for existing peer to peers". Signs of desparation on the part of the RIAA, or should people be making the most of the second-generation Napster clones while they have a chance?
posted on Oct 3, 2001 - View this thread

Best RIAA-vs-mp3 quote so far? Here's my candidate. I think it'll take five aces to beat it but don't hesitate to try!

As Eben Moglen, professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, puts it, "Is the RIAA and its friends doing some kind of technology surveillance? Yes. Is it going to work? No. It's really dumb. It's another serious mistake by an industry going out of business in the stupidest way, bumping its head on the steps on the way down, because the record industry was always a bunch of thugs and that's what they still are."
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

If you are downloading from Napster or some other service, the RIAA is tracking you. Here's a screenshot of the Recording Industry's secret weapon.
posted on Mar 23, 2001 - View this thread

The ninth circuit court will be releasing their verdict on the linked page by 10am PST (noon CST). Is this the end for poor old Napster, or will other options be made available?
posted on Feb 12, 2001 - View this thread

DivX + filenavigator = headaches for MPAA. Of course the SPA and RIAA can't be too pleased about filenavigator either. I've checked and the DivX of Castaway is on the net already.
posted on Jan 17, 2001 - View this thread

If you haven't already read "The Heavenly Jukebox", you should really check it out. The Atlantic Monthly recently posted this great article subtitled "Rampant music piracy may hurt musicians less than they fear. The real threat -- to listeners and, conceivably, democracy itself -- is the music industry's reaction to it". While somewhat long, it's a very interesting read, going into the original copyright lawsuits in England over a hundred years ago to today's ordeal pitting the RIAA against the millions of people downloading Metallica mp3s off of Napster. Well worth reading.
posted on Aug 18, 2000 - View this thread

Shut it down! Napster ordered to shut down immediately. Backlash anyone?
posted on Jul 26, 2000 - View this thread

Say you want a revolution? Well you know, we all want to change the world..
posted on Jul 25, 2000 - View this thread

An interview with the lawyers from Napster and Metellica. Good points, both.
posted on May 22, 2000 - View this thread

Download an Mp3... ...and goto jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Of course, you can always DoS attack the Motion Pictures Association of America's website, (which was down as I was writing this.) but that would most likely only land you in even deeper water than downloading the Mp3.
posted on Apr 17, 2000 - View this thread

WTF!?! Everyone's favorite band (back in high school) Metallica is suing Napster and a handful of universities for unlawful trading of their music. This is ridiculous, and I hope it doesn't set a precedence. If anyone would just slap a revenue model on napster so artists could get paid for their work, none of this piracy crap would happen. And Metallica, what about the other apps that do the same thing, are you going to sue them too? And what about every other band on earth? What do you expect to get out of universities, tighter controls over bandwidth, or student monitoring of internet usage? What about every cable modem and DSL provider that lets people use Napster, are you going after them too? Why don't you sue everyone on earth that's heard your songs but didn't pay for them? Side question: Is it better to burn out or fade away?
posted on Apr 13, 2000 - View this thread

ABC reports on Napsters usage on University Campuses.
posted on Feb 27, 2000 - View this thread

how to get around the recent napster embargo
posted on Feb 27, 2000 - View this thread