Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Is music piracy worse than bank robbery? (songwriters want FBI focused on internet piracy)
Telegraph UK ^ | May 4th, 2010 | Shane Richmond

Posted on 05/04/2010 12:00:55 PM PDT by a fool in paradise

Music piracy is a more serious crime, at least in economic terms, than bank robbery, according to the Songwriters Guild of America [PDF]. The Guild has written to Victoria Espinel, Barack Obama’s Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, who has asked for public comment on tackling piracy. The Guild writes:

“There are numerous economic crimes of much lesser magnitude (such as bank robbery) that are routinely and fully investigated, for which law enforcement agencies such as the FBI have significant resources. By contrast, online copyright piracy dwarfs bank robbery in causing economic losses, yet the FBI has limited criminal investigative interest and no civil mandate whatsoever to pursue this devastating economic harm. This inequity must change.”


(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bigmedia; fbi; internet; lobbyists; mp3s; nationalsecurity; piracy; waronterror
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

1 posted on 05/04/2010 12:00:55 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
By contrast, online copyright piracy dwarfs bank robbery in causing economic losses, yet the FBI has limited criminal investigative interest and no civil mandate whatsoever to pursue this devastating economic harm. This inequity must change.”

The Feds interest in addressing problems is inversely proportional to the harm caused. The economic harm of open borders dwarfs copyright piracy.

2 posted on 05/04/2010 12:06:53 PM PDT by Spirochete (Texas is an anagram for Taxes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

Hey, dude! Like-share the wealth, man! You’re starting to sound like a money-grubbin Capitalist pig!


3 posted on 05/04/2010 12:07:39 PM PDT by FrdmLvr ( 0bama: Our first AINO president)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

Anyone who can churn out the baleful noise of the last 70 years and have the audacity to call themselves “songwriters” would make more money as clowns anyway.


4 posted on 05/04/2010 12:09:39 PM PDT by Anti-Utopian ("Come, let's away to prison; We two alone will sing like birds I' th' cage." -King Lear [V,iii,6-8])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Spirochete

Well they did just find that Nissan SUV filled with pirated records in the middle of Times Square, so this is obvioulsy what law enforcement needs to be focused on right now.


5 posted on 05/04/2010 12:10:18 PM PDT by Thurston_Howell_III (Ahoy polloi... where did you come from, a scotch ad?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
Yeah...we need to focus on songwriters...right in the middle of the takedown attempt of America.

Worrying about a thimble full of water in Noah's flood is not something that is a priority right now.

Get a job, if you can find one. The rest of America can't buy your music because they don't have jobs.

Priorities, priorities, priorities. There's a reason that parents are told to put their oxygen masks on first in the event of cabin pressure malfunction...they have to be alert enough to take care of the children....
6 posted on 05/04/2010 12:11:44 PM PDT by FrankR (Standing up against tyranny must start somewhere, or the future will belong to the tyrants.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
While I do not like the idea that people can download unlawful copies of music (I can get whole CDs on Amazon for just a couple of bucks) I love the irony of these singing leftists, who disparage companies and people for making money, whining about their pockets not getting filled enough for their tastes.
7 posted on 05/04/2010 12:15:20 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Thurston_Howell_III

Several months ago Janet Napolitano was AT an Obama Administration hearing on internet piracy. Yep, this is an issue of “homeland security”.

Then again, the 101% support from Big Media doesn’t come cheap.


8 posted on 05/04/2010 12:17:01 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The hysteria of Matthewsism and Andersonism has led to a Tea Party Scare that is unAmerican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: 537cant be wrong; Aeronaut; bassmaner; Bella_Bru; Big Guy and Rusty 99; Brian Allen; cgk; ...

“At some point, you’ve made enough money” - President Obama, april 2010.


9 posted on 05/04/2010 12:18:22 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The hysteria of Matthewsism and Andersonism has led to a Tea Party Scare that is unAmerican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

These are the same people that would whine and moan if the Feds came in and busted them while they were snorting coke, smoking rock, or shooting smack....Now they want the Feds to arrest little Suzie because she downloaded her favorite Disney Channel artist’s song.

Whiny Liberal Hypocrites.

The system of distributing royalties from music is obviously not compatible to today’s business environment and technology. It just may be that these songwriters system of payment is not going to work anymore


10 posted on 05/04/2010 12:28:39 PM PDT by UCFRoadWarrior (JD Hayworth for Senate ..... jdforsenate.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FrankR

I’ve downloaded quite a few songs. I’ve only downloaded a few that I would actually purchase. Funny thing is that I DID purchase them.

The whole thing is a game. And it is not about downloading anyway. If you look at all the cases brought against people for “illegal downloading” you will find zero cases. They were all for illegally making the songs available for upload.

Think of it as an odd drug law. It would be as though it is legal to buy crack off a guy on the street, but it is illegal for him to sell it to you.

And the really funny thing is that I use the downloading primarily to get songs to practice for my band, and more and more it is faster to just get them off youtube.

Our laws are more and more like a game of monopoly. It’s just a game and they have little to do with the moral law.


11 posted on 05/04/2010 12:29:52 PM PDT by RobRoy (The US Today: Revelation 18:4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: RobRoy

I admit, I use to download a lot of music but now most of what I download are free mixtapes. The albums I do download, I actually buy them. It’s a sad fact that it’s easier and quicker to buy a cd then download the album then to buy it, open it, then rip it. And yes I know I can buy and dl albums online but two things I avoid like the plague are Apple and DRM.


12 posted on 05/04/2010 1:11:24 PM PDT by Raymann
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Raymann

>>two things I avoid like the plague are Apple and DRM.<<

Me too. :)


13 posted on 05/04/2010 1:27:12 PM PDT by RobRoy (The US Today: Revelation 18:4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Raymann
but two things I avoid like the plague are Apple and DRM.

Me too--which is why I like Amazon MP3. DRM-free with very reasonable licensing.

14 posted on 05/04/2010 2:10:21 PM PDT by SeƱor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Raymann

Apple has removed DRM from their tracks.

Amazon sells normal MP3 files.


15 posted on 05/04/2010 2:13:22 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You ever thought about being weird for a living?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
The RECREATION INDUSTRY
a gamut of businesses
including
music, movies, theater, fictional books, hobbies, games, tourism, pro sports, recreational sports, cruises, conventions, conferences, dining out and gambling
And excepting only gambling

the RECREATION INDUSTRY is
the LEAST regulated of all INDUSTRY GROUPS.

In today's bureaucratic government micro-regulatory, baroque million-line tax inscrutability
environment the RECREATION INDUSTRY has the most
FREE MONEY.

That is money free of regulatory risk, and harsh tax accounting scrutiny.

---

And of all businesses in RECREATIONAL INDUSTRY
MUSIC has the least overhead and capital costs

Esepcially today in the age of the Web 2.0

RAW MONEY AND POWER

---

It is the nature of the Human Condition

That such conditions create not wealth

But rather

GREED and JEALOUSY


16 posted on 05/04/2010 2:28:59 PM PDT by bvw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raymann

3 of the last LPs I bought came with download codes for digital copies of the music

The fourth LP came with the music on a CD.


17 posted on 05/04/2010 2:32:05 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The hysteria of Matthewsism and Andersonism has led to a Tea Party Scare that is unAmerican.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Mr. Blonde

Ha, Apple and Amazon still includes tags that indentify you in every song you download.


18 posted on 05/04/2010 3:24:44 PM PDT by Raymann
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise
music piracy is theft just like bank robbery.

what a mealthy mouthed non-sequitir headline that is.

19 posted on 05/04/2010 5:13:24 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand ("gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Raymann
Ha, Apple and Amazon still includes tags that indentify you in every song you download.

Wow. I must have had quite a profilic career!

20 posted on 05/04/2010 5:13:58 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand ("gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson