RIAA cracking down on file swappers

[PureEvil]

Originally Posted by knux

plus its "sharing" didn't they teach us that in kindergarten?

Yes, yes! Maybe kindergarten teachers everywhere will come rushing to the defense of P2P participants!

[Cyrax9]

One Word Guys: COUNTERSUIT!

Yes, coutnersuit, why? Because the RIAa does NOT have a Search warrent for every individual Computer Online as of now, if they are snooping through your ISP's logs, and searching your macine, they can be charged with "Invasion of Privacy" and a countersuit for that would hurt them more than anything, they just need to run the razor a little farther ina vertical position along thier arm before they corak.

Gekko is right though, this is only the start of what feels like the old "VCR Battle" but on a much larger scale. I would pay for downloads, if they offered the Discontinued Music I was looking for and were ONLY $0.99 cents a download, but alas, I don't have a Mac yet,a nd the service may be dropped thanks to none other than the RIAA.

Also as Gekko said the people they want first are the dealrs, the guys whoc an fill 20 20GB iPOds in an hour tapping the Phone Grid and the T1 lines, they'll be caught first, next are the distributors, they have files for sharing, and they send one or two, and then they go after the DL'ers like a cop with a speed-trap set up.

Now, the interesting thing is no lawsuit froma celebrity is EVER a good thing for them, these guys at the RIAA are playing Russian Roulette with their buisness. If they sue a fan, or multiple fans, then you can bet a group of angry fans are going to spite them by downloading MORE Music and boycoting the RIAA, only to be caught themseleves, however after so many suits, the RIAA is going to look bad to the guy who has never shared a fil in his life, anyone who is older or younger than the P2P general users. They won't support the RIAA and as CD sales plunge and fans countersue the RIAA is going to continue to dig a deeper grave. When you have to sue yur fans, because you didn't stop the distributor's, that means you're in deep. Also this is going to be the VCR Battle as far as the Lawsuits go again as well. Fans and companies will countersue, Police officers will be arrested for this themselves and that will REALLTY hurt the RIAA, eventually after the "war" two options will be left:

1. A legal filesharing program that you Pay for run almost the same way aP2p network is, which most fans will agree on.

Or,

2. The RIAA and the fans, now fed up with each other, go thier seprate ways, CD Sales decline as people already have enough "Stolen" music hidden away, and because of this, the RIAA "SurrenderS", the Fans and a group of angry artists, the ones making NOTHING off of their own CD's, band together and shut-down the RIAA.

Either way the fans win in the end, if the RIaA sues one too many people, they're going to be under the microscope even more, if they Win fans ill demand a legal P2P network, if they lose, the Fans and angry artists will dissolve them, Rap Artists get screwewd the most (no suprise) by the RIAA but so does eveyrone and right now Artists adn Fans alike despise them, a few Artists, who are pissed off at the RIAA are ENCOURAGING P2P Use for those who "belive theya re paying the artist" when inr eality they most likley are not, the few artis' who have spoken about this try to remainannonmous for obvious reasons, and if the RIAA sues fans,e xpect the Artists to drop the Annonimity and speak forward, either way, the RIAA is going to b in cntempt as much as P2P users for awhile now, this has become a war of sorts, and as a war, it's going to hurt people, not the way bombs do, but the way taxes adn poverty do, everyone will be effected and on that note, I will wait, to see if the RIAA can get their suit's to work, because I honestly belvie in the end, they willf ail, and moe loopholes willa ppear and the RIAA will become the next Microsoft with fans suing them, eventually nobody will win, or the Fans will win in the end, the VCR had this same test and look who won? The fans, simple as that.

What the RIAA doens't relize is theya re now out of the Seller's market and into the BUyer's Market and the buyer's they hurt will most likely nevr buy an RIAA-Related CD again, as a result of this, sales will drop artists will move to indepndant labels and the RIAA will dissolve, they are desperate fi theyr'e suing individuals now, and they should be desperate, they know this is a battle they can't win, not uless they arest every person wiht a computer and CDs, and you'd need a prison the size of the enitre country to do that.

[manasecret]

I think the worst any normal person might get is a warning letter. Perhaps some of the heavy dealers will get sued, but I doubt even heavy dealing college students will get nailed.

Practically a quarter of the people I know at university (including me) have gotten a scolding from the university because they received a letter from some Hotshot Movie or Game Producer saying Mr. SoandSo is sharing a bootleg movie or game. They got me because they thought I was sharing Half-Life, even though it was only an update to Half-Life . But all the university did was tell me to Stop Sharing!, and they turned my internet back on.

So no biggie. It will be the same for music sharing.

I doubt the RIAA will want to piss off all the universities across the nation by singling out a few students. Almost everyone I know who owns a computer uses Kazaa, and probably half of those people have a couple thousand songs. That's more than a third of the university of 20,000 or so that shares a ****load of files on a 24/7 basis. The RIAA ain't going to single out a few and start suing; I don't think the universties would stand for that.

Most likely the universities will receive a bunch of letters from the RIAA or whoever the **** does it, and start implementing their own policy to stop the sharing of music. Perhaps they'll do it technologically by blocking the sharing of music somehow (which is possible, they already have slowed down P2P dling and uploading to worse than 56k at my university); or they'll just issue fines or whatever. But no one will be sued... unless it's some low-rent college that sends scholarships to students in the backswamps of Louisiana and just doesn't give a ****.

[gekko]

The University doesn't have a choice. They are required to give out your name to the RIAA, and then the RIAA will sue. The RIAA has money, if you download a couple thousand songs, that's thousands of dollars in damages. Big bucks to them.

[manasecret]

Sure, but instead of sueing thousands of university students and going through all the hassle and money, I bet the RIAA and universities would rather just strike a deal. Universities tend to protect their students, or at least mine does. They have their own lawyers that we can call that is pretty much our get of jail free card.

Anyway, just like the movie or game producers I was talking about, music companies don't want to piss off universities by forcing names out of 'em. Universities sponsor all kinds of things all the time that make money for the industry, such as small theaters on campus or holding music concerts. I guarantee they're going to be diplomatic about it.

[gekko]

Again, it's not an university issue. If a student commits a crime that costs the record industry thousands of dollars, the RIAA will sue and get their money. The university is required by law to give out the names, too bad for them.

You have to remember that the university also recieved government funding, and they would lose that if they supported and aided in crime.

The RIAA already has people they plan to go after, which have cost the industry upwards of $150,000. Businesses don't allow their networks to be used for P2P file sharing, it's the students are Universities who have the high speed connection to make that stuff possible. College students are without a doubt, some of the biggest offenders in both music sharing, and many warez programs as well. Every private server I've ever been on is run from someone currently in college. If the record industry didn't due college kids, they might as well not do anything.

There are no get out of jail free cards. The record industry is losing billions to file sharing. The students are breaking a law, breaking school policy, and doing it on the school's dollar.

[PureEvil]

Originally Posted by gekko

Again, it's not an university issue. If a student commits a crime that costs the record industry thousands of dollars, the RIAA will sue and get their money. The university is required by law to give out the names, too bad for them.

Trueeeee. Looking at it in this context, the university is just like any other ISP. University students might be shielded in other aspects of life by their school, but in these soon-to-be instances, the universities are providing people (students in this case) with access to the internet, and if the RIAA comes after the students for illegal activity, the schools (who are acting like any other internet service provider) have no real choice but to fork over the info.

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by gekko

Again, it's not an university issue. If a student commits a crime that costs the record industry thousands of dollars, the RIAA will sue and get their money. The university is required by law to give out the names, too bad for them.

You have to remember that the university also recieved government funding, and they would lose that if they supported and aided in crime.

The RIAA already has people they plan to go after, which have cost the industry upwards of $150,000. Businesses don't allow their networks to be used for P2P file sharing, it's the students are Universities who have the high speed connection to make that stuff possible. College students are without a doubt, some of the biggest offenders in both music sharing, and many warez programs as well. Every private server I've ever been on is run from someone currently in college. If the record industry didn't due college kids, they might as well not do anything.

There are no get out of jail free cards. The record industry is losing billions to file sharing. The students are breaking a law, breaking school policy, and doing it on the school's dollar.

I know universities will dole out names if they're asked, I never said they wouldn't. But there's little point to suing a few college students for $150,000 who wouldn't be able to pay it in any substantial amount. To me it would work better and work without pissing anyone off to work with the universities to stop it wholly and all at once.

But hey, you may be right. This is just what I think.