Subscribe by EmailAccused music pirate turns the tables on the RIAA
April 28, 2008 by Mark O'Neill |By Mark O’Neill
I think I have just found my new hero. A 45 year-old single mother accused of stealing music on the internet (subsequently sued by the RIAA and vindicated) has now decided to turn the tables against her former accusers—by suing THEM for $5 million, citing conspiracy and illegal investigative practices.
Tanya Andersen alleges the way the RIAA goes pursuing people is illegal, that the way they pressurize and threaten people to pay huge out-of-court settlements without first having to prove any wrongdoing is also illegal and investigative companies hired by record companies routinely violate people’s privacy by snooping through computers and private files without legal permission. Andersen herself alleges that she was threatened with “financial ruin” unless she immediately paid $5000.
The RIAA (of course) says that Andersen’s claims are false, that all they are doing is aggressively taking steps to protect their intellectual property. So who cares if a few innocent victims get caught in the crossfire, right? They’ve got all those billions of dollars to protect.
[Via BusinessWeek]
You Might Also Like:
- The Truth Behind File Trading Traps
- StumbleAudio lets you find new music - but for how long?
- RIAA Gobbles settlement fines, kills infants
- UK police being sued for playing radio too loud
heheh oh yeah superman as a super hero ? Nevermind that! I love that women ! lol hahahahaha sweeet !
ABOUT TIME !!!
[...] Accused music pirate turns the tables on the RIAA You go, girl! (tags: ip riaa) [...]
With the amount of piracy out there, what is the RIAA doing going after some lady that may have downloaded 2-3 ABBA songs? Looks like they have no idea who to go after so they throw all their money behind attacking defenseless people.
No, they don’t go after defenseless people because they don’t know who to target - they go after them because they’ll capitulate and provide the momentum of another civil-suit victory to the RIAA’s inquisition.
Comment by Koka Sexton
“after some lady that may have downloaded 2-3 ABBA songs?”
You show your ignorance sir, by presuming the lady doesn’t know anything about music because she is 45 years old. I think your nappy is needing changed.
[...] victims get caught in the crossfire, right? Theyve got all those billions of dollars to protect. Accused music pirate turns the tables on the RIAAWhile I support the RIAA in protecting copyright, the actual actions are often well beyond rational [...]
your an idiot and no, the actions do not go beyond rational, it is like power (energy) we should not pay for it… it is easily produced freely with little infrastructure, but regulation by cooperate interest prevent poeple from installing it. Artist do not need millions and millions, while teachers make 28k. FUCK YOU DUMB ASS, SUPPORT A REAL ISSUE LIKE KILLING THE PRIVATELY OWNED FED.
Has anyone ever looked into who gets that money once they do “aggressively protect their property”. The artists certainly don’t. Of course the news outlets never report this…Why? Because they are owned by the record labels.
I’ll tell you what, if Mick Jagger ever shows up at my door in order to aggressively protect his property he is getting his arse beat.
Major thumbs up to this lady!!! I hope that she gets her 5 million!!!
Online piracy had generated the most self-deluding, byzantine reasons to try to rationalize taking something everyone knows perfectly well is intended properly for sale. You don’t help an artist by stealing their stuff, either. The way you put any industry “in it’s place” is to stop buying their stuff, but to ransack a 50 year artists catalog and take it all just because you can is far worse than anything the labels have ever done. Pirates have no courage and do this under cloak of the network. At least the labels show the balls to take it publicly to the courts. The labels have gotten a handful of lawsuits wrong of the tens of thousand they’ve filed, but their choice was to watch their IP being stolen or to try to stop it. There is ample opportunity to DL legally now at a myriad of sites, but piracy continues because the so-called “fans’ have even less ethics than the industry. I’m no fan of the labels, but people who illegally download are just rubbish, and get what they deserve. I’m a digital artist, and I’m on the side of the industry until pirates show some morals.
IT IS NOT HURTING THE ARTISTS!! THEIR CONTRACTS DICTATE WHAT THEY ARE PAID!!!! IT HURTS THE FUCKERS THAT DRIVE UP THE COST ON THE CONSUMER END. READ YOUR STATS! WE PAY IN THE END ANYWAY.
I can fully understand where you are coming from Sam, however, most of the sites you mention are rediculously expensive, especially for what I am getting. That iTunes, 70p (about$0.99) for a single track is extortionate to say that very little of this money actually goes to the artist. I would be quite willing to play a smaller amount of money directly to the band or singer. Not to mention the lack of artists such services provide — but maybe I have strange tastes — or the lack of album art or physical CD.
Maybe we are in the wrong but we are the majority and we are anonymous. We like our Blue Man Group Discograhpies and we like them affordable.
“Maybe we are in the wrong but we are the majority and we are anonymous.”
Precisely, Jimmy. And wrong eventually doesn’t prevail. Anyone who thinks the world’s governments are going to let a group of wrongdoer’s compromise the future of online sale and distribution needs to wake-up. When the network is bogged down with law enforcement, filters, penalties and fines, you’ll have no one to point to but yourselves. My work has been ripped off, reused, traded around and essentially unpaid for years and I’m sick of it. If this were YOUR paycheck you’d likely feel the same but its not so you don’t. By your ethics, Jimmy, a Ferrari costs too much and not enough goes to the designer, so you are entitled to steal it.
Such bullshit, just like all the rest. We’ll see how this turns out. You are likely to nearly ruin this once very-cool, once very-free network. And all because you won’t pay for what you take. A buck a song is nothing, so Thanks, Jimmy. Thanks a lot.
I get your point, Sam. Because the most moral thing to do, if someone objects to the way record companies do business, is to boycott the music industry by not buying or downloading anything. Music, after all, is entertainment and not a necessity, and there are plenty of free radio stations to listen to. There really isn’t much, besides anarchist arguments but most people aren’t anarchists, that can justify stealing music.
However, in your haste to slam the pirates, you’re overlooking the fact that RIAA isn’t exactly playing legal and moral either. If someone steals something from me, you wouldn’t expect that to give me the right to bully, intimidate, and invade the privacy of the thief. And the same holds true of companies, ideally. Though they often bully individuals because they can. They hold more power. This happens very often, unfortunately. Aren’t you horrified at the ease, and the illegality, with which big companies invade privacy and step over people’s lives? What’s moral about that? This woman’s counter lawsuit is perfectly justified, and I hope she wins.
To Sam I am;
Jimmy is wrong, but you are not right. Law Enforcement does care one whit about you. They are only interested in Jimmy having a jacket and RIAA is only interested in their profits.
I do not steal music and I make sure that the music my kids have on their electronics is paid for. Here is my beef - Sam I am, When I get into my Ford/Lincoln/Chevy and start the engine I don’t have to send the company that made it another buck just so that I can drive up the street to get a loaf of bread, and if I want to take my kids along for the ride I don’t have to pay extra because I only bought one instance of the Ford/Lincoln/Chevy.
If I buy a song that copy will go onto every music box I own with a backup copy stashed away for good measure.
I think you ought to be paid for your work and guys like Jimmy should if proved a thief should have to pay up and face charges like any other common thief does. But you or the RIAA are not going to tell me that once I buy a copy of your song that I cannot copy that song and take it along for the ride in my Ford/Lincoln/Chevy.
vaago is right, but doesn’t go far enough. If I buy a car at a dealer and the paint is nice, and the tires are nice but the engine and transmission and air conditioner are junk, I can take that car back and get one where everything is satisfactory. I buy a $12.95 CD for two good songs and eight junk songs - I’m stuck with that CD, can’t trade it in for a CD with 10 good songs, and can’t get a refund for the difference. So, instead of .99 per song, I’m paying $6.44 per song, plus tax, plus gas to and from the store. All because I was lured in by the two good songs that play continuously on the radio.
That analogy doesn’t hold at all. You can return the CD if those eight songs did not play due to some kind of defect, but you can’t return it just because you don’t like the songs, just like you’d probably have a tough time returning a car just because you decided you didn’t like it after all. There’s a difference between not liking something, and that something being broken.
First off, the worlds governments have no choice but to let piracy continue.
“When the network is bogged down with law enforcement, filters, penalties and fines, you’ll have no one to point to but yourselves.”
Do you honestly think that there is no way around filters, and no way past law enforcement? The best pirates in the world do not work in law enforcement, they are on our side. As security gets tougher on this sort of thing, the techniques for bypassing that security evolve. There will never be a way to completely secure media, because doing in doing so you also remove the access to it.
Also, as for the whole paycheck thing. If you were any good at what you do, you would be working for a label who paid you regardless of who was stealing your productions off some server.
Furthermore, you say that $0.99 per song is nothing. Would you mind sending me a mil so I can rightfully pay for the terabyte of media I have? How about sending me a hundred mil so I can rightfully pay for all the media my friends and I own? I didn’t think so. the fact of the matter is, $1 a song is rediculous, and no one in their right mind would be willing to pay that for anything over a few songs. When you want a library collection with over 100k songs, you simply can’t afford to pay for it all.
Also this makes me question the argument of what actually constitutes piracy. If I were to hear a song on the radio and record it onto a cassette, am I pirating that song? Furthermore, the methods used by RIAA for finding those who have illegally downloaded media are questionable at best. You promote the legal system (which in itself is a complete mockery of justice), and at the same time are promoting the violation of our right to privacy.
My suggestion would be to either get good at what you do so that you may work without fear of hunger, or to find a different career.
“when you want a library collection with over 100K songs, you simply can’t afford to pay for it all”
What a stupid statement. Just because you can’t afford something, it’s ok to steal it? I want a car that costs €80K. I can’t afford that right now, can I just go and take it? Exactly the same thing. (yes, the car is overpriced imo but that’s market forces)
Thanks god, someone with a brain. People have been recording music since recording existed. Everyone has been using VCRs and Tapes to record media for decades. It has done nothing but promote the artists that made the media. The people that are mad are the non-artist companies that want to be the only ones recording, so they can profit from the artists work. Not ONE artist has gone hungry when their music is in demand -NOT ONE. The only time an artist suffers is when a company, or person in a company, steals the rights to their work (happens all the time) and then the artist gets nothing!!!
Times are a changing and artist are starting to get wise and promote their own work online via my space and other outlets. They are refusing to sign and doing direct deal contracts for royalties and flat rates with tv shows, movies , and other entities that will pay them to use their songs. The money is not in the song, or work itself, but in the attention it draws towards some other product, or place that has products, as well as the artists face on products. Sure selling a million CDs for $20 is a nice 20 mil, but the artist is not making that after road show cost for promotion and all the rest of the over head. Before concerts, tv and radio were the mainstay for promotion (hi cost). now the artist can get that exposure with out the big media companies help, reducing costs and increasing direct artist profits. Instead of paying a record company to sell their products and get them on TV, etc… they just don’t need them… and less everyday, so KEEP DOWNLOADING AND WATCH THE ARTIST GET RICHER!!! Also, the increase ability for mass artist exposure will increase the quality of music available to us with out manufactured Britney’s and new kids… REAL ART!
If I did this, and won… I would personally mail the settlement amounts back to every person the RIAA fucked over.
Imagine the “Ha Ha Fuckers” message that would send
[...] Tanya! Go, Tanya! From here: Accused music pirate turns the tables on the RIAA I think I have just found my new hero. A 45 year-old single mother accused of stealing music on the [...]
“And wrong eventually doesn’t prevail.”
What planet do you live on? I’d love to move there.
“My work has been ripped off, reused, traded around and essentially unpaid for years and I’m sick of it. ”
Boo Hoo. Get a real job. I give my work away because art is about self expression. Making a dime from doing what you love is a privilege not a right. Accept donations and quit your whining.
You can’t own data, you didn’t invent a shred of your work. At best all art is a remix of prior art.
You’ll deserve cash when you invent something of value like a functional synthetic heart or a way to turn plutonium into wheat.
Until then, grow some perspective. 30,000 people died of malnutrition today you spoiled western child.
“Making a dime from doing what you love is a privilege not a right.”
… and the Darwin Award goes too …
To Brandon Sergent; I wonder, could you step down off of your lofty steed so the rest of us could get a look at you shining countenance?
I am truly sorry for the evil in this world but please, point your gun at Monsanto, I believe if you could find an honest magistrate you could get a conviction for the hunger in the world; besides, in western do you mean Occidental versus oriental? I’ll wager you didn’t go to bed hungry.
It takes as much practice and effort to be a truly good artist as it does any other endeavor. You need to believe in yourself and put that same effort that is required to invent an artificial heart into your art and you too will one day say “This is my property, please do not steal it.”
Music may be a remix of the same notes in different ways but there are voices that when time finally robs us of them… its all a question of balance my friend.
well 30,000 people died of malnutrition. Where is this, where have they not learned if they can’t take care of their children that they shouldn’t reproduce. That if they can’t feed themselves learn to, there are plenty of wild animals in the world even for homeless people of major cities. Learn to build traps, learn to hunt, if you die from not having anything to eat then you are being eliminated due to natural selection, or your parents should have known better then to reproduce.
So stop supporting the ignorant masses, and unlike you I don’t make any assumptions of your origins, I only assume you are not as intelligent as you try to sound, that you do not look at a situation from all sides.
Maybe people should learn to take care of themselves and not rely on others.
There are proto-fascists everywhere, arent’ there? What a moron! You are proof of the randomness of the survival of one sperm out of billions. Too bad yer pa didn’t use a condom, eh?
He is advocating social Darwinism, which is basically survival of the fittest applied to society. And ideally, that’s how society should work, why the fuck should I, a well standing citizen, have to pay for food for some poor bastard who can’t keep a job and spends all the money he has on booze? If you can’t support yourself you should not expect anyone else to support you after you grow up. If you do you are nothing but a leech on society and completely worthless.
And there’s no need to stoop to personal attacks. And I’d say he’s a prime example of how society should be, everyone looking out for themselves and others second.
Yeah, right on… I assume you’re a troll, or just very dumb, but here’s a wee counter-troll:
I guess the easiest way to feed one’s kids if one is poor - because, say, one’s family were poor, or displaced, or murdered by fascists - would be… to nip ’round your place (or similar) and do what your government does the world over - just take stuff.
Survival of the fittest, see? ‘Cos folk like you, who don’t know much outside your cosy fantasy world, you’re soft, and don’t deserve the stuff you have. You probably talk hard, keep guns in your bedroom and speak of wasting low-lives, but your idea of hardship is likely something like having to wait a month before you can make the down payment on a new car, or mebbe your hamster died or something.
So one day, you’ll be out and your hard-earned stuff will go walkies and I guess, by your standards, that’s just fine and dandy - clearly if you haven’t got what it takes to hang on to it, you don’t deserve it. ‘Sides, you’ll be insured, anyway, folk like you always are, so you already subscribe to a kind of economic socialism (albeit one designed to make the insurance companies very rich , because they know you’re scared enough to go the extra few bucks) which counterbalances, to an extent, your basic lack of social or political awareness.
All of which is somewhat off-topic. Of course, stealing folks’ art is wrong. So is stealing their car, or their country (sorry, “your” country). The world is brimming with rampant greed and injustice. The RIAA are a bunch of self-appointed rapacious bastards, however, and I’ve ot met many musicians who think otherwise. Record producers are a different matter. If you want to stick one to the RIAA, just don’t buy, pirate or otherwise acquire the products of RIAA-friendly record labels. Download music from musicians, send them what you think their music is worth directly. If you do this with any mainstream bands, you’re pretty much shafted because the likelihood is their record labels have them locked into a contract which forbids them to sell directly, though with up-and-coming bands they may be permitted to sell at gigs and so on. To support musicians, go to gigs. And visit your conscience once in a while.
Mr Social Darwinist up their would never pay for a track because, well, he got it for free, clearly the musicians are suckers, fuck them, they should get a job stacking shelves. (They probably have, in many cases).
The collector of hundreds of thousands of tracks - why collect that many? I love music, and I tend to hang on to what I acquire unless it’s really awful, but if I listen to stuff, one way or another I’ll buy it or support the band by going to their gigs. I’ve bought thousands of CDs over the years, and I’ve never sold any, though I’ve given plenty away (am I *stealing* from the poor starving RIAA if I give someone a CD I don’t listen to any more? Probably, by their standards.) I’ve mixed feelings about folk who “trade” downloaded tracks (for other tracks - I’ve very clear feelings about those who sell them). The tracks aren’t theirs to trade.
By and large I think MP3s were a better thing when bandwidth was more limited, since the quality was pretty marginal, so swapping MP3s pretty much functioned like radio, only for free. People who liked what they heard enough would go and buy the albums, or attend gigs, or both. These days, people are routinely consuming music in the form of MP3s, the quality is “good enough” for iPods etc, and y’can (and people do) download whole albums in “good enough”.
If a band is good, well-managed and active, then the extra attention could be worth it. If they’re relying on a few thousands sales to a not terribly committed fanbase, then they’re gonna lose out, which sucks ‘cos even if they’re of limited appeal, they deserve to get paid for entertaining those they entertain. On the other hand, they’re probably going to get shafted by the industry anyway.
I wish the bands had got more of the money from the CDs I’ve bought, rather than the labels and the self-appointed likes of the RIAA, but c’est la vie. Some of my favourite musicians have had to pirate their own music just to get it out there - the label having de-listed it, refusing to sell, promote, or relinquish their rights over it. I’m not saying the labels are always evil, just that they’re not always exactly operating in anyone’s interest but their own.
The RIAA pursues individual downloaders, rather than, say, large-scale counterfeiters, because the RIAA are racketeers. Racketeers usually seek to acquire some veneer of legality, often by using their ill-gotten gains to lobby enthusiastically for laws which favour them. Political Darwinism.
In payment for entertainment, I would give money first to artists, film-makers, next to those record labels and production companies who actually do something for artists, next to radio & TV people, publicists, etc, then down through all the peripheral associated professions through to the needier fans. When I’d run out of disadvantaged muggers seeking free alcohol, if I had any dosh left over then I might consider paying someone to piss on the RIAA, were they on fire.
That woman deserves a medal! She is a total hero and we all ought to support her efforts by contributing to a legal fund for her. This is a case the ACLU ought to take on (a bit more important than defending skinheads’ right to paint swastikas on synagogues, don’t you think?
Here’s my breakdown…
Music is created by an artist, usually with the aim to have people listen, and enjoy their art (the music). Making money from your art, should not be your top priority, then you are not really an artist anymore, you are just a greedy bastard!
Art is meant to be appreciated, and in the recording industry, is the music itself not considered art? It’s the same principal, as a gallery telling people “you can’t look at these pieces, because you haven’t paid enough to see them” that would be ludicrous!
I do not mean to flame anyone, nor start an argument, however, I believe this woman is truly justified in her argument, and hopefully will win her case. It’s time the true artists begin to speak out, and let the world know, that they want their art to be appreciated, no matter what it is.
Those are my 2 cents
Oh, and as for the person who was unable to find where 30,000 people died from malnutrition, take a look all around here, United States, Canada, England, China, Russia, everywhere, there is malnutrition all over the world, it’s happening everywhere!
Also, one final thing, if you believe that people who are malnourished should learn to hunt, and should stop reproducing, then you are truly blinded by popular media. You need to do some research, and understand the global situation around you. With global warming on the rise (there’s an argument waiting to happen) and many other factors coming into play (politics, war, etc) there is simply not the same opportunity to hunt, or grow crops. Take a trip one day in your life to somewhere such a Malawi or Somalia, where the GDP Per Captia is only $600!
Anyway, back to the issue at hand… You Go Girl! Teach the RIAA a lesson they need to learn!
The birds don’t get paid when they sing, evertone that hears it gets too for free. Just because someone wants to sing or play in a band, or even a sporting event WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO PAY TO WATCH THEM. IF THEY DON’T LIKE IT QUIT AND GET A REAL JOB WHERE YOU EARN YOUR MONEY.
Get a real job? Only is America… Can’t even get affordable healthcare there so why should you care about piracy?
So the same goes for books and paintings and movies? These can all be considered artistic expression, but you did not create that. As such, you have no right to tell the artist what they can do with it. Without the artist’s valuable input, these creations never would have come into being. So, ultimately, the responsibility of these is in the artist’s hands or they passed ownership to.
The only solid difference between something like a movie or album, and a physical item such as a CPU or MP3 Player is that one is easily reproducable and the other is not. I’m sure people would pirate CPU’s and MP3 Players if they really could. You might argue it’s not the same, but really how is that? All of these people are trying to create a product to be sold for a living. Even though these items are so easily replicated it does not mean it’s right to distribute them without the author’s permission. The author didn’t tell you you could. This is what we call “intellectual property”. It’s something immaterial and easily reproducable, yet it still represents the product of one’s skill, accrued knowledge, and man hours. Therefore it is still their PROPERTY. You don’t know how to make it, you don’t have the skills to make it, you didn’t put in the man hours to make it, and more importantly YOU DID NOT PRODUCE THE WORK. So you have no right to that property, other than what the artist/copyright holder has given you.
Taking that without payment or permission is stealing. Stealing is wrong. At least most pirates admit that by saying “If you enjoy this CD/movie/game, please purchase it to support the artist/developer.”
Invasion of people’s privacy to exercise their right to this intellectual property is also wrong by the RIAA. Bullying and threats on the street goes the same for a corporation or association. Just because they have more muscle does not mean they have the right to bully and threaten their consumers. And also offering tiny amounts of money to the people responsible for this artwork is shameful. Artists deserve full credit and royalties for their work. Without the artists there would be no record companies, and there would be no music. And not the other way around. The industry is too big for its boots. It needs to adapt to the artist’s needs and consumer’s needs.
I know a few artists personally who upload their music on Bit Torrent, with a text file giving contact information for downloaders to send them a cheque if they like their music. It’s really showing who we’re not happy with in this equation.
The airways are still public, no matter what the big media try to make you think (they are still trying to change that) AGAIN NOT ONE ARTIST HAS GONE HUNGRY WHEN THERE IS A DEMAND FOR THEIR WORK. IF I HAVE A SONG THAT GETS DOWNLOADED A MILLION TIMES I WOULD BE SOOOOOO HAPPY!!! As, I would soon be making appearances and selling t shirts with my name on it, and sleeping with Paris…ah..maybe not her, but you get my point. I would be selling ads on my web blog and talking about how normal I am and that everyone real should not idolize me the way they are and KILL THE FED!
Of course stealing is wrong. It just matters who you’re stealing from, and whether the money that you’re “stealing” from them is really theirs. If I could pay the artists directly for their music, I would.
possession is 9/10 of the law.
“Was she going out looting, or accessing information that is readily available in her house?”
Neither. She was noticed, tracked, evidenced and accused “with cause” of looting copyrighted material that is readily available in her house. You can do lot’s of things “in your house” and it’s still a crime, people. For Christ’s sake, grow up. Take all you want. Pay the price they ask for all you take, or pass on it, that’s your choice.
You get the same deal at YOUR job. You get paid for what YOU do for a living, right? These so-called arguments that “support” illegal downloading and copyright infringement are getting old.
You are illegally tax on you labor buy the government at your job. The government has the company you work for act as a tax collector (Their representative -illegal). They technically are suppose to send an IRS agent to the place of employment and ask you if you would like (volentary) to pay taxes. You are not suppose to be taxes on your labor(The IRS code is not LAW, nor is it a government agency).
Now, music, movies and songs are not media… A CD is a Medium, as is paper, airwaves, and electrons. If you do not want poeple to read you diary, do not leave it in the public street. If you do not want poeple to “Steal” your song, do not put it in the air! It is like speaking to my and telling me not to hear you… or listen. And, again… the artist are not losing, EVER, when their music is in demand…. real they have no need for the record companies now, and it is scaring the record companies. The record companies can not make the artist need them useless they make us need the record companies. Get it! If you are an artist and you are claiming that people are stealing you music and not paying you, then you either do not have music that has a demand and are bitching because five people stole you shit, or you have no clue how to profit from a million poeple wanting to hear you music. The art is art for art sake, the ability to use that to drive ad-rev and product lines is a different thing… Also, you do not see me downloading a wu tang T-shirt!
it’s not just music movies and bookz. games are moving from the pc to the proprietary consoles becuase so many of the game developers are being royally shafted by the very gamers who call themsleves Fans. P2P is destroying the gaming industry. What Pirates are doing is disgusting. PAY FOR THE GAMES OR SOON THERE BE LESS GAMES BEING MADE.
No No the developers will begin to market their own work without the Media companies. You see the thing was that before only the Media companies control the media and there fore developers had to work for them as they were the only outlet… no that the media companies are losing control of the main media outlet (online) the developers will not need them. (unless we all fail to keep big media companies from gaining control of the online medium and then we are back to 11 channels of internet. Does anyone still spend $80 to have a plumber come and unscrew the drain stop under the sink to unclog it? No of course not. Things change and services change as knowledge grows. Music is content, and content is an attraction for a product.
The intellectual property of all people is free game.
If you are are not savvy enough to secure it before releasing it to the entire populace of the world, then you must endure pirates who are savvy to intercept and procure it for their own use. If it is popular artistic content then the artist will benefit in many ways because of POPULARITY!
Like when a catch phrase comes into vogue.
Example: “Where’s the beef?” That’s not much of an intellectual property although Wendy’s might argue otherwise.
Next Example: “a most popular song or written story”
Gnarls Barkley or Led Zeppelin or Doctor Who.
If it is truly worthy of reckoning, then it will propagate and make much income for it’s authors and players.
Even dead popular artists are still making money: Elvis, Curt Cobain, Tupac Shakur.
If your product is popular you will make money according to it’s popularity, that’s how it always has been and always will be as long as people adapt to new art and technology.
GET GNU-LINUX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!
To Vaago:
“But you or the RIAA are not going to tell me that once I buy a copy of your song that I cannot copy that song and take it along for the ride in my Ford/Lincoln/Chevy.”
In fact, Vaago, you are entitled to multiple copies according to the drm agreement in your purchase document, (as from iTUNES, for instance) but only for you. You cannot give them away, you cannot sell them, you cannot perform them, you cannot distribute them in any way. That remains MY right as the creator and the artist, and you don’t purchase the music itself, you purchase the right to listen to it. Period. Maybe read up on your copyright law before you post.
Besides, the industry and the artists couldn’t give a damn is you make a copy here and there. That’s small change and fair publicity. But what they can and will stop with the courts assistance is one properly purchased copy uploaded to P2P and then 40 fucking million copies taken for free in the first weekend. THAT bullshit will end. Anybody who thinks they can’t filter THAT out is dreaming, but the courts take time and they should. You can speed on the highways, too, but eventually you are going to be fined and then lose your license. This is just getting started and technology is out ahead of the courts and law enforcement, but only for the moment. Every court case narrows down the angles. Taking without paying is inevitably going to be discredited. To those of us being stolen from for years, it’s been bullshit all along.
Robert said:
“The intellectual property of all people is free game.
If you are are not savvy enough to secure it before releasing it to the entire populace of the world, then you must endure pirate”
Robert, buddy, you sound like a moron, tonight. That’s like saying if your car or your house is burgled and all your stuff you’ve worked hard for is lost to burglary, it’s your fault.
It’s no wonder the courts are maginalizing doofs like you, y’know?
If you leave your car running in the parking lot, you are a dumb ass. And the song It is like saying that I can not say a bunch of words in a certain order because you put them in that order first…. I copy right “FUCK YOU”, and anyone caught righting, or copying my words must pay me or I will put a virus on their PC. It is not like these people are using the downloaded song for profit… putting it on their web site to drive ad rev… get over it. The ones ripping poeple off are the companies that steal song rights and use our tax money to kill poeple so they can sell us oil… I do not give a fuck about music downloads as it is not a real issue, notice that I normally put a plug for a real issue in my comments…. like KILL THE FED they are stealing you money. Why are we the only 1st world country without good heath care, ( I have lived in three countries and all had way better heather care with way less wait) and guess what our taxes are more!) Why, do we have the highest infant mortality rate, the highest drug costs, no public transit, shitty cars, shitty food, Our country is set up to give all profits and power to the few and you all are bitching about downloading, fucking idiots… OUR TEACHERS MAKE 28K to start, and 30% goes to the FED!!!!! You all wounder why our kids (and I) cannot write, or read? Our schools are literally the shittiest!!! My Spanish Brother-in-law had Difference calculus at age 14 and speaks 3 languages!!!! Our Dollar is worth 4 cents and is crashing with nothing backing it!! Everyone is bitching about our jobs going south because of cheap labor, but wounder why prices of the products are not going down? IDIOTS WAKE UP!!!!
The Department of eduction is part of our government and our government is controlled by the cooperation’s that have what is called corporate person-hood, which means they have the same rights as you and I, but with unlimited resources to flex them and they never die… so they want everyone just dumb enough not to figure it out, but smart enough to do some bone head job to make money to by shit.
The utilities companies want you to by power and gas, not find a way to make it cheaper (unless it cheapens their cost to make it, but not the prise you pay, the food companies want you to have to buy their food not locally grow yours. the textile industry wants you to buy their textiles but pay less to make it and make more profit, not create jobs for you, the hospitals are privately owned and what you sick but not dead to profit.
You think I am exaggerating…. LOOK AT THE RESULTS AROUND YOU!!!!
LIVE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY FOR 1 YEAR and you will see far more uncensored and less controlled MEDIA. AND YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT THINGS LIKE EAST TIMOR (20 years later does not count), OR TRUTH ABOUT OR GOVERNMENTS ACTIONS!!!
MY FRIEND WAS FORCED TO FIGHT and DIE IN A FOREIGN WAR AGAINST HIS WILL AND THE PLEDGE HE TOOK TO JOIN THE MILITARY (Because they Lie).
Those people just want to raise their goats and provide a better future for their kids, they do not give a rats ass about our “freedom”. It is a battle between powerful governments that are made of a small percent of powerful poeple that want to maintain power, and they do it by convincing their poeple and our people that we should hate each other and then start a war with our support and guess what they get rich and maintain power and we get poor and our kids die. IDIOT WAKE UP.
WAKE THE FUCK UP!!
Look at the members list of the “Console of foreign relations” and then ask yourself, why are all these poeple getting together behind closed doors? People like the owner of chase Manhattan, ALL the BANKS, the presidents (including Obama, Clinton, Bush, Most of the key members of Congress and Senate and all Editors and owners of BIG Media) It is CRAZY!!!! They get together and decide what we hear which controls our beliefs and intern our behaviors….WAKE THE FUCK UP!
Why are our government officials meeting in private with corporate interests? To conspire to maintain power.
Fuck, but do not download a song…. WTF?!
Put shit in perspective! We are going top hell in a hand basket and our kids are coming out of school drolling and waring helmets, (1 in 152 autism now..hmmm drug companies and food additives? Anyone?)
Seriously, why don’t you all just believe that everything I just said is somehow mistaken and that I am crazy, it will make it so much easier for you all to do nothing and continue the original unimportant conversation.
Everything is easily verifiable as long as you do not use any main stream media out let as your souse as, by nature, they will either not cover it or lie and twist things in a way that your already controlled beliefs systems can easily turn into nonsense.
Or just discount it because you do not like being call stupid… A stupid person would rather be mad at the person pointing out that they are stupid, than to do something about their own stupidity.
Sorry for the spelling errors…I wrote that super fast…I am a product of the US system…My school district went bankrupt the year after I graduated (mal investing, and one reason why districts are no longer allowed to invest funds)
Crooked bastard, we do not even have music in schools anymore! We pay more for less! IDIOTS.
SAM I AM,
Get a new job.
If my house is burgled tonight, I will most likely kill the intruder.
Everything I have worked hard for is secure, including my intellectual property.
If I find something new on my PC and my www tonight you may be out of a job.
I am a native American.
And I know in my heart that land can not be owned unless it is bullied away from the surrounding inhabitants, and “INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY” is only as good as it’s popularity!
robbie, you “opine” about ownership of land, and your “knowledge” about intellectual property is blatantly incorrect. you should do more knowing with your _mind_ and less with other body parts
OK. Here is the deal… if you produce something for sale… art, music, a product, food, etc. Then it is for sale… The argument that a painting hangs so that everyone can see it is ludicrous. Just because a painting hangs in a gallery where you can see it, doesn’t mean that you can grab it and take it home. It belongs to someone, and to own it, you have to buy it.
I tell you what… next time you are at work and you have an idea that a co-worker steals, remember this thread… too bad for you! You make too much money already! Think of the starving people in other countries! Be glad you have a job!… etc. The point is, if it doesn’t belong to you, then you have to compensate someone for receiving it.
Believe me, I think that the recording industry makes too much money and at the same time admire what they built… I think that if you don’t, then you are simply jealous. Is it greedy? Yes. I have learned that most people that fight against greed are simply members of the “Have Not” crowd. I was there once too and felt the same way.
Get a job.
Get a life.
Pay for what you did not make and was not gifted to you.
Wake up.
Feel free to email me directly for a debate hedgieb@yahoo.com.
If you walk up to it and take it, that’s analogous to stealing a CD — not the music itself.
Pirating music is more like taking a photograph of the painting.
[...] Single mom flips the script and sues RIAA… Accused music pirate turns the tables on the RIAA–Geeks Are [...]
No matter how you put it, pirating music is wrong. It is stealing and there is no excuse for it. One of the comments listed above stated this same thing, but then states that one or two copies to friends is okay but 40 million is wrong. Please don’t contradict yourself - is is always wrong and is theft.
On the other hand, I do agree that $1 charged by Itunes is ridiculous. If I pay for that song, I should be able to put it on every device in my house. The problem is that I cannot. In our house we have a Sansa MP3 player, a Memorex MP3 Player, an IPod, and a Zune. If I pay for the song through ITunes, I cannot load it on any of my other player. If I pay for the song through Zune I can’t load on any other player.
I also don’t have a MP3 player in my car and I want to download a song and burn to a CD to listen in my car, but cannot because of “rights”.
The problem here is on both sides of the table, pirates who are freely distributing millions of copies of music without paying and the music industry raping its customers by making it impossible to utilize the music they have paid for legitimately. The music industry is perpetuating their own problem.
I say this woman is a hero for finally bringing to light that the pirates are not the only criminals.
Concubahr,
I agree with you 100%. It does frustrate me that I have paid for an item and cannot then use it on my iPod, or burn a CD… Even to the point that if I have bought a movie or even rented a movie, I should be able to watch it on whatever device I like. The problem is, dishonest folks (Pirates) have prevented us from having that latitude… one bad apple…
I blogged on this about a month ago. My conclusion:
The claim about illegal entry into hard drives won’t hold water. If dumbass P2P users share out their hard drives to the world, then the RIAA has just as much right to inventory your shared directory as anonymous users.
But if Anderson’s attorneys stick to the part about threats through the mail, they have a good chance to set a precedent. The RIAA has every right to pursue legal action against users that violate the copyright laws. But you are not allowed to intimidate and threaten anyone.
Has begun.
What the hell are you guys talking about. Who gives a fuck about internet piracy. Its fucking music. Its ment to be listened to. Quite being a bunch of captain America pussies and lighten up. Oh yeah music pirateers are real “evildoers”. You sound like George Bush. Go eat shit.
Love the shirt.
Jesus
the RIAA remind me the combine from hl2
their intentions seems to be great but the means are any thing but that
It doesn’t matter who this woman sues. The RIAA has paid enough money in campaign contributions and graft to get the government in its pocket, so she can never win her lawsuit. The government will make sure of that.
I have noticed something in almost all of the above comments. Many of you are copying statements made by other people, and using them to either support their own ideas or detract from the views of others.
I ask you all, Is it wrong for people to do this? By following the logic of some of the afore said statements isn’t this the same as stealing intelectual property and redistributing it without permission and without payment? Should we all start suing each other for stealing our intelectual property?
This is begining to head into an area that borders on infringement of basic freedoms that everyone should enjoy without it being taken away for lack of payment.
I agree that it is wrong to steal any type of media, that goes without question.
But to say that when you purchase music, that you are only purchasing the right to listen to it is a scarey idea.
I say this because if that is the true spirit of the law, then what is to stop the government from putting forth a law that says you not only have to purchase the right to listen, but that now you have to purchase the right to speak?
I know this right is guaranteed under the constitution, But aren’t we supposed to be protected from illeagal search and seizure also?.
The Riaa seems to be getting around this somehow. Unless, and I admit I do not know how they go about this, do they indeed go to a judge and are granted a warrant to search the suspected pirates media. Thats a lot of judges being asked to grant warrants to search the millions of suspected illeagal downloaders.
Where does Riaa get it’s info on who is being suspected of illeagal downloading?
Is it by way of the same p2p sites? Doesn’t that mean they are illeagally inspecting peoples media without their permission?
Has the country, meaning the U.S., begun selling away the rights of the people it is sworn to protect.
Is it true that we have the freedom of speech, but not the freedom to listen?
Sounds naive I know, But think about the consequences here.
In essence could you not construe the playing/reproduction of any media,for no matter what use, to be a freedom of expression/speech?
An example would be the playing of the national anthem, or the viewing of the country’s flag. Who owns the rights to these two particular pieces of media? Why are they significantly better than others?
Being a citizen, I know what they stand for and I respect them.
Will the day come when I cannot listen to my country’s national anthem because someone else owns the rights to it? Or is it that way already and I have just not been informed?
Think about the morals of being either pro or con to the problem here. Don’t be so quick to condemn each other over this. If this continues to escalate then one day soon we may no longer have the ability to argue about it, let alone listen to each other.
You can speak out all you want. But if people can’t afford to listen to you, then you are for all intents and purposes, Mute.
They’re artists aren’t they? They’re producing their art for art’s sake, not money correct? What happened to the starving artists? All the members of U2 are worth over $100 million each and still charge $400 for a concert ticket. Paul McCartney can afford a $50 million divorce settlement.
Haha, yeah, like I’m going to “buy” their albums, I’m poor enough and am not going to get any poorer