RIAA and MPAA Litigation

[RoadClosed]

Maybe I am missing something.... but I have tried on several occasions to get a complete CD off of Kazza. It's actually time consuming unless you get lucky and someone has all the songs you desire on their PC and the connection doesn't take 1500 hours to download. It's a pain in the ass and only really good to get a sampling of some music to test it out. Usually it's time intensive and it's easier to just go out and buy the CD. I spent weeks trying to put together Marilyn Manson's new CD. I finally got all the songs with decent recordings and liked it so I went out and bought the damn CD. Mp3s are great but they just don't have the same level of fidelity. It's close but not quite there.

The people using Kazaa extensively are (in my opinion) kids and students who have no money and take the time to get downloads they want.

Whatever one's argument is: for or against P2P - I just can't see how someone can justify letting a corporation into a private PC to spy or cause damage. How can you justify that? You all are saying it's ok to judge someone "guilty" of a crime and pass "sentence" from a console in a computer room and that freely distributing any data over P2P is a criminal offense. That is the way we are going and people who have limited capacity to think beyond an initial emotional response are taking us all there. And sadly, not even comprehending the full effect of what they are advocating.

[nihil]

I do not believe that any legislation will work, because people will merely set up sites in countries where there are no copyright laws. There is a lack of international accord, that was clearly demonstrated in the recent activity in Iraq, when we were talking about a regime that has actually used chemical and biological weapons for real. A bit more serious than copyright infringement in my opinion.

To try to pursue private individuals into their homes would be political suicide in my country...and we don't even have a written constitution!

Anyway, I could have all the stuff I wanted on my computer and the CIA, FBI and any other outfit you like could spend their entire annual budget and not be able to find that it was there, or at least what it was. It would be a bit of a pain, but it can be done....just a removable HDD would be enough. Where are the others?...are there any others?....how many?....good encryption, etc. Particularly as we are talking about audio/video files. The theory of decryption belongs in the textbook here as simple economics tells me they would never get a conviction, because they would not get the time and resources.

If I have pirate music (I do not; as I neither know how, nor approve of the activity) I can only be prosecuted if it can be established WHOSE copyright I have infringed? And who is going to pay for the investigation?.....me....the taxpayer......to promote private corporate profit?..I think not.

I am a cynical type, and suspect that these "legislative manoeuvres" are a simple ploy to force piracy back into the minority land of the tekkies, and joe public back into the record store?

There is an obvious moral issue in that nothing can be expected for free beyond God's good air. If an industry is starved of funds it WILL die. Those who extol the freedom of swapping other people's intellectual property free of charge are, in fact, condemning them to death.

This is not a new problem, as I was made redundant years ago because of a decline in the music industry due to copying onto cassettes (anyone remember them?)

I have no time for those who whinge about top entertainment industry executives pay...that is just jealousy...which has never been a justification for illegal activity.

cheers!

[Tedob1]

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

To try to pursue private individuals into their homes would be political suicide in my country...

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

it seems, not to long ago on this site, thats what people were saying but their doing it. And it looks like their going to get away with it.

[KorpDeath]

Hanging tackes allot longer to kill then say, lethal injection... but the outcome is the same. Politics can sneak up on you at any time, just ask Clinton. He had been fooling around forever and never got "caught", next thing you know Jennifer Flowers, and then Monica comes along (no pun intended) and WHAMO!(also no pun intended.)

[nihil]

We have the "luxury" of democracy?.................if "they" won't listen.......vote them out.
BUT FIRST...let them know what you think, and what you will do if you don't get the right answer.

cheers

[superspork002]

Listen, About all of this RIAA and piracy talk. I do not condone the actions of the RIAA and them hacking in our computers. However, I don't like the idea of music piracy either. The situation is far worse than most people give it credit for.
Recent news reports have shown that the recording industry is taking a major hit from it (I'm not sure of the percentage but I think it's 60%). Think in these terms: If every year your business lost 60% of the money it was supposed to have, within a few years your company would be bankrupt. That means fewer recording labels. That means fewer bands. Also, since there is no money in it anymore, we would see fewer and fewer music videos (although MTV only plays 1 hour of videos anyways), because they want to make money off of there music and they can't do so anymore by those means. You'll have to pay $20 to see them in concert instead.
Do you think that itunes and Rhapsody are a good choice for getting music? think again. If the only music that gets made is only put on the web, we wont get all the extras that we do now. No more hidden tracks. We would only get songs that they were absolutely sure would sell and the others won't be worth making. Take Evanesance for example: 2 song made it big, but the entire album is wonderful. However, if we had to go online in order to buy it we would only get those 2 songs and the others would never have been made. Do you see how this will destroy the variety that we have now?
Don't blame the recording industry for this either. The high cd prices are because of the record stores. If the cd costs you $15, the cd only cost the store $7. Even though I am one fish swimming against the tidal wave of piracy I hope that I may have chaged some pirates views on what they are causing. I myself am a digital audio and video production student so I know exactly what this is doing to my industries.
Please help put an end to all of this.