Posted on 11/20/2008 6:42:40 PM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner
There was fear and trembling on the Internets earlier this month when the word went out that storied Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson - "Billion Dollar Charlie" - had decided to go mano a mano with the most-hated institution in America. The Bush White House? No, the Recording Industry Association of America.
(snip)
Now 69, Nesson has become something of a legend, not necessarily for the right reasons. A few years ago he spoke openly about his occasional marijuana use, and of late he has been haunting the onanistic underworld of Second Life, a computer-generated, "virtual reality" universe. But it can't be good news for the RIAA that Nesson and his student sharpies at Harvard Law have thrown their weight behind America's youth, who have been illegally downloading Internet music, like, forever.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
This has been bandied about for awhile...
All those rock stars are going to have to go out and get a REAL job;)
I would classify some of RIAA’s tactics as barratry. They sue based on nothing but an IP address, collect from everyone they can intimidate into settling, and just drop the cases that are challenged.
The laws that were created for this special group make them the only entity in America that can investigate, indict and prosecute “criminal” law. The laws allow them to not only seek compensation from their victims, but also impose “penalties” without a jury to determine how much that penalty should be!
This was the US Government once again giving a group special rights over those of the American public as a whole, i.e., American Disabilities Act, Civil Rights, etc...).
Um... Sorry but what law is that? I believe everyone they are sending these demand letters to has a right to go to court if they want to. The point I was trying to make is that RIAA is gaming the system by counting on most people being intimidated and settling, even though the cases against them were weak.
Having said that, this is what I call the "goes around" part of "what comes around".
Over the past 25 years, I have spent thousands of dollars on garbage. Labels package junk with a good song and you end up paying 15 bucks for one good song. I have albums I have bought on 8 track, then again on cassette, then again on CD. Where do my rights to ownership begin? If labels refuse to let me own what I buy, why would I pay for it anymore?
I know the downsides; the artists suffer, etc... But mp3 downloading has now been rampant for 15 years (yes, it's been that long), and we don't see any shortage of new artists, we don't see any shortage of artists making good money, none have quit because it didn't pay well enough. All we have heard is how album sales have plummeted and labels are hurting because of it.
You can come up with a million reasons to justify theft of music/movies. I tend to think it's actually somewhere in the middle from the perspective of most people.
Oh, and to Sony .. if you are reading: I haven't bought a single album, television, video camera or anything with your label on it since you rooted my PC with your spyware and went on your campaign of suing your customers. I have a few Sony devices left in my house, but they will die off soon enough and be replaced with an offering from someone besides you. Hope you enjoyed the money you got from me in the past, don't expect any more.
Actually, I’m getting the sense from some of these Harvard-RIAA articles (there are several out there) that judges (the good ones at least) are waking up to what this thing really is and are working behind the scenes (like at Harvard) to get some cases moving in which they can declare this law unconstitutional. That looks like the direction this particular case is going.
Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act Becomes Public Law 110-403
ping
Yes there is. It is properly called copyright infringement, unless you walked out of a store with a CD you didn't pay for.
I'd go so far as to say Assault and Barratry! ;-)
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