RIAA - Labels aim big guns at small file swappers.

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: beyonddc
Does all of these RIAA things apply to private FTP server? Someone who has a 40gig worth of mp3 in his ftp, are they in risk also?

Ok, let me all tell you a little story.

The year is 1998. A 16-year old college freshman has his first high speed (10Mbit) connection to the internet at one of America's 10 most internet friendly schools (at the time anyway). The student also has a fresh new Debian install, and a copy of wu-ftpd.

The student begins to rip all of his CDs into MP3 format. It's convienent. The student also gets CDs from others, MP3s from others, and finally MP3s from various little FTPs at other colleges.

By early 1999 the MP3 collection is at a quite large 12GB. It's quite large for the time anyway. So what does the student do? Puts up an FTP server. Just 10 users. The music is free, he just asks that you upload something cool for his troubles. Many do. The student gets pre-release albums and some weird things he's never heard of before. Sometimes copies of programs or even the occasional porno movie out of nowhere.

The student's computer is pretty good, but has lots of hot components in it. It's fairly cramped up, and the hard drives are the oh-so-unreliable Maxtor brand.

The student leaves for a while and what happens? The computer heats up on an especially hot day. The hard drive fails, or atleast part of it. The MP3s are still intact, but the FTP configuration file is corrupt. Gone is the limitation of 10 users. In this period the new Lycos MP3 search picks up on the server. It's fast, has lots of content, and has no ratios.

So when the student comes back and the internet access is cut off, he is confused. He checks the logs. Eventually he finds out that 600-1200 people were connected/trying to connect to his FTP server.

Enter the dean. Apparently the student not only took down his dorm access, and not only campus, or city, or county, or regional access, but from the *entire* northern half of the state. Schools, businesses, residents, none of them could access the internet reliably for days.

Enter the FBI. So the student is threatened with confiscation of equipment, etc. Fourtunately this is before the RIAA was *too* angry about this stuff. The student appears before the network admin, dean, FBI, etc and appologizes. Luck comes into play and the whole thing is dropped. The student is only ordered not to run anymore servers of any kind. He got lucky.

So yes, running an MP3 FTP server can be dangerous. Trust me, I know from first hand experience!

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate
This is ironic in that people that use Kazaa for getting music are generally people who only want singles, not entire albums. The whole idea of engineering singles to sell garbage records was pioneered by these fuckheads in the first place. I mean, when I download music through an FTP or USENET I go for the full album because I want to know if it is worth buying or not. Then again, I don't listen to Missy Elliot, Eve, or any of those dipshits either.

Thank You. They fvcked themselves by introducing the single and selling the albulm on the strength of one or two songs. $15 for 1 or 2 songs just won't cut it. Hell $15 for 15 good songs is a stretch imo, but what is the likelihood of that happening?

 

[Occifer]

If they want to sue the sh!t out of people sharing music, then I think they should be required to prosecute shoplifters of CD's to the same extent.

 

[gameplayer18]

Originally posted by: psianime
$14 for a CD with only 1 or 2 good songs... give me a break.

-psianime

Good point

 

[SgtZulu]

Good luck sueing all 5million kazaa users at any given time, it's just scare tactics.
Nothing to see here folks move along

 

[AznMaverick]

i wish some recording artists would speak out in public about cutting costs of CDs, (to raise sales or thier albums since they make most of their money doing other things anyway). it is far from reality but it would be qutie funny.

 

[JetBlack69]

I'm I the only person that buys a CD and listens through the ENTIRE ALBUM and not just the single?

 

[austin316]

so both private ftps (like the ATOT waste dump and usenet) are not safe anymore either?

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: JetBlack69
I'm I the only person that buys a CD and listens through the ENTIRE ALBUM and not just the single?

No, I do the same. The problem is a good majority of the mainstream CD's put out these days only have one or two good songs on them. Sure we will listen to it all the way through, but on a secound listen I find myself pressing the skip button repeatedly. This is one of the main problems facing the RIAA, not mp3's. I should not have to keep pressing the skip button.

 

[n0cmonkey]

DC Music Net
DC Music News
DC bands (out of date)

I haven't explored these yet, but they came up after a quick google.com search for local dc bands. Screw the RIAA. If I want something for free, I'll find something free.

 

[CinderElmo]

Are my cassette recordings of mine and others' vinyl LP's also illegal?

"Made for radio" bands only need one or two good songs with a bunch of filler tacked on. Why would anyone buy the whole thing if they didn't have to? Musicians muling for the RIAA need some value-added material in their CD's like photos, small books, or even a lock of hair if they want people to feel the "need" to buy their product instead of downloading their one hit. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: CinderElmo
Are my cassette recordings of mine and others' vinyl LP's also illegal?

"Made for radio" bands only need one or two good songs with a bunch of filler tacked on. Why would anyone buy the whole thing if they didn't have to? Musicians muling for the RIAA need some value-added material in their CD's like photos, small books, or even a lock of hair if they want people to feel the "need" to buy their product instead of downloading their one hit. Seems pretty simple to me.

I still don't think that will cut it. I've noticed with the people I talk to that they seem to be getting sick of buying crappy CD's. My friend downloads mp3's like there was no tomorrow, but he still buys the really good cd's though. They should stop worrying about extras and start worrying about quality. That is the only way I can see the RIAA surviving this p2p fiasco.

 

[Thump553]

I personally don't do any illegal music filesharing. But I am fed up to here with the high handed tactics of the RIAA. They already have the laws in their favor (absurdly high statutory damages plus actual attorney fees available to them in their lawsuits, both extremely rare in US lawsuits) and already have Congress bought and paid for.

Now they are on a highly promoted campaign to terrorize the end users to force them back into the fold of CD buyers.

Remember that the RIAA represents all those music companies who, by their own admission, were involved in price-fixing and other monopolistic behaviors up to their eyebrows (your remedy-a $12 check sometime off in the future if you registered in the class action, no change whatsoever in marketing or prices).

Its time for music consumers to fight back against the RIAA. There should be a national boycott-no one buy ANY CDs (or music in any format) for one or two weeks. Personally, I will not buy any CDs, except those of taper friendly bands or from the artists directly at a show, until this situation is changed.

What the RIAA doesn't realize or discounts is that music is no longer as important a part of the average consumer's entertainment budget as it was 20-30 years ago. They keep up their terrorist stunts and they will drive more of the consumer money to video games, movies, etc. and away from music forever.

 

[Busie23]

Originally posted by: Thump553
I personally don't do any illegal music filesharing. But I am fed up to here with the high handed tactics of the RIAA. They already have the laws in their favor (absurdly high statutory damages plus actual attorney fees available to them in their lawsuits, both extremely rare in US lawsuits) and already have Congress bought and paid for.

Now they are on a highly promoted campaign to terrorize the end users to force them back into the fold of CD buyers.

Remember that the RIAA represents all those music companies who, by their own admission, were involved in price-fixing and other monopolistic behaviors up to their eyebrows (your remedy-a $12 check sometime off in the future if you registered in the class action, no change whatsoever in marketing or prices).

Its time for music consumers to fight back against the RIAA. There should be a national boycott-no one buy ANY CDs (or music in any format) for one or two weeks. Personally, I will not buy any CDs, except those of taper friendly bands or from the artists directly at a show, until this situation is changed.

What the RIAA doesn't realize or discounts is that music is no longer as important a part of the average consumer's entertainment budget as it was 20-30 years money to video games, movies, etc. and away from music forever.

Couldn't agree more.....We are getting a measley $12 for the price gouging and they get nothing done to them? WTF? Cd's shouldn't be more than $5 each, then maybe people wouldn't care if they bought them and it turned out to be crap.

I really think that there should be a boycott on buying cd's. Is boycottriaa.com taken? We should get that and set up a site that is informative and accepts donations to help out the people who are getting sued.

If i buy the CD for $12-15 then I own it and should be able to do what ever I want to do to it.

Second solution is to set up a music cd renting service like netflix and then we all trade amongst our selves. But then you have the netflix aholes who patented that business method, so once again it boils down to big business getting their way and squeezing every cent out of us!

 

[yukichigai]

To anyone who feels overly paranoid that the FBI are gonna come for your computer and take your brown eye while they're at it I suggest you get yourself a disused MRI magnet in a heavy lead-shielded case. Assuming you don't have any stuff on CD you can just open the box and rotate the magnet once, which from a distance of about 20 feet should heavily magnetize your hard drive and erase all the data. Ultimate in data security, though it kinda ruins the hard drive. It's pretty hard to get a conviction when there's no data to support it. You wouldn't even have to hire an attorney.

I personally don't down mp3s from Kazaa, or at least more than about 1 every 2 months. mIRC, DirectConnect and others are better suited to that if I was really in the need to do it. I'm also probably gonna download iTunes for Windows when it comes out next month supposedly. 99¢ per song is nice, not to mention that you can actually listen to samples from the tracks first. Personally I think it'd be cooler if they offered the whole song at really crap quality (22khz 32kbit/s mono) for free download, but a 30 second sample is okay as well. Better than the previous options. We rent movies in this country, so why not CDs?

Say, I wonder if there's any law that says you can't rent CDs....

 

[gistech1978]

you see what the RIAA fails to disclose is that the number of cds RELEASED has gone down during the time p2p emerged and now. you release fewer titles, guess what? your sales decline and how strange this occurred when they had a scapegoat to blame it on....p2p and it users.
buncha bull.
i wish i had gotten in on the class action suit in ME but i didnt know if it was legit when it was going on a few months back.
i want some money back from these greedy bastards.

 

[Kev]

If i share a connection with roomates who have a lot of files shared, are we all screwed if the riaa finds out?

 

[DainBramaged]

Everybody, lets buy some and decorate our cars. Then the cars of the RIAA execs.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/stickers/310a/

 

[Beller0ph1]

Why wouldn't a boycott of RIAA sponsored media work? Buy indie music!

 

[Freejack2]

Originally posted by: fuzzy bee

Originally posted by: Paulson

Originally posted by: Instan00dles
you know what they need to do in record stores? have a machine where you can select the song you want and it burns it to a cd and each song will cost you about 50-75 cents. If they did this I would go and buy that instead of going and buying a 20 dollar cd for one or two songs I want, F#@ them!

I thought about actually doing this...

It wouldn't be hard, just have a couple of computers connected to one main server... just charge so many cents for each song... It'd be one hell of a popular place haha

but then you'd be damaging the "artistic integrity" of the album

Simple solution to the "artistic integrity" Download individual songs $1 each. Download the whole album of 12 - 16 songs for $10. The savings will encourage users to download a whole album.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
To anyone who feels overly paranoid that the FBI are gonna come for your computer and take your brown eye while they're at it I suggest you get yourself a disused MRI magnet in a heavy lead-shielded case. Assuming you don't have any stuff on CD you can just open the box and rotate the magnet once, which from a distance of about 20 feet should heavily magnetize your hard drive and erase all the data. Ultimate in data security, though it kinda ruins the hard drive. It's pretty hard to get a conviction when there's no data to support it. You wouldn't even have to hire an attorney.

I personally don't down mp3s from Kazaa, or at least more than about 1 every 2 months. mIRC, DirectConnect and others are better suited to that if I was really in the need to do it. I'm also probably gonna download iTunes for Windows when it comes out next month supposedly. 99¢ per song is nice, not to mention that you can actually listen to samples from the tracks first. Personally I think it'd be cooler if they offered the whole song at really crap quality (22khz 32kbit/s mono) for free download, but a 30 second sample is okay as well. Better than the previous options. We rent movies in this country, so why not CDs?

Say, I wonder if there's any law that says you can't rent CDs....

CDs are easily copied. DVD's not so much. Well you can but the media is expensive. If you want to rip to DivX that takes a long time, the average user being too stupid to know how to rip a DVD but not stupid enough to know how to copy a CD.

 

[JediJorgie]

why isnt the RIAA going after companies for making portable mp3 players? i know you can buy songs for like $.99, but how many people actually do that? would you want to fill a 20gig mp3 player with songs purchased for a buck each? hell no, i wouldn't either. its not our fault we use file sharing programs, we are encouraged to do it by everyone except the RIAA.

 

[IndieSnob]

Man, I'm so glad I personally can't stand 'popular' music. I see all these arguements about only liking '1 song' on the album, and I can't think of anything to date that I've bought that I didn't like at least 80% of the album. But then again I listen to stuff put out on independent labels, where people actually play their own instruments, write their own songs, and things like that, very original, huh? But seriously, it is screwed up what the RIAA is doing, and I don't say that because I think giving away music is fair, but, their saying bullcrap things to support it. They are only concerned about their pockets, not the artist. Most big time artists only make upwards of $2 a disc, whereas the ceo's make a hell of alot more profit, and that's the bad thing about supporting major labels. Most cd's I buy are on Touch&Go,Matador, etc. etc. I will only buy a major label cd if it's a band I really happen to like, which is rare, Sonic Youth being one example. I say get some real music taste america, and then we won't be forced with this crap of having one hit wonders releasing a cd for $20 that you buy at the disgusting corporate world of tower and such, that has only one song that appeals to people with no taste. Snobbish I know, but, that's my view.

 

[gordy]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
To anyone who feels overly paranoid that the FBI are gonna come for your computer and take your brown eye while they're at it I suggest you get yourself a disused MRI magnet in a heavy lead-shielded case. Assuming you don't have any stuff on CD you can just open the box and rotate the magnet once, which from a distance of about 20 feet should heavily magnetize your hard drive and erase all the data. Ultimate in data security, though it kinda ruins the hard drive. It's pretty hard to get a conviction when there's no data to support it. You wouldn't even have to hire an attorney.

I personally don't down mp3s from Kazaa, or at least more than about 1 every 2 months. mIRC, DirectConnect and others are better suited to that if I was really in the need to do it. I'm also probably gonna download iTunes for Windows when it comes out next month supposedly. 99¢ per song is nice, not to mention that you can actually listen to samples from the tracks first. Personally I think it'd be cooler if they offered the whole song at really crap quality (22khz 32kbit/s mono) for free download, but a 30 second sample is okay as well. Better than the previous options. We rent movies in this country, so why not CDs?

Say, I wonder if there's any law that says you can't rent CDs....

hehe, good one...

BTW, one of the most powerful magnets in your house is already in your hardrive (there's two)