Posted on 04/29/2003 1:09:02 PM PDT by Mister Magoo
Wednesday April 30, 3:06 AM Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The record industry opened a new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song swappers with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and face "legal penalties."
About 200,000 users of the Grokster and Kazaa file-sharing services received the warning notice on Tuesday and at least one million will be getting the message within a week, according to music industry officials.
The copyright infringement warnings, which were sent by the Recording Industry Association of America, on behalf of the major record labels, said in part:
"It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. ...When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to copy or downloading it on a 'file-sharing' system like this. When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified."
The music industry's campaign for the hearts and minds of Internet song swappers comes four days after a federal judge threw an unexpected roadblock to its efforts to shut down song-swapping services in court.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson on Friday ruled that the Grokster and Morpheus services should not be shut down because they cannot control what is traded over their systems. Like a videocassette recorder, the software in question could be used for legitimate purposes as well as illicit ones, he said.
"We're expecting to send at least a million messages or more per week because these users are offering to distribute music on Kazaa or Grokster," said Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA.
Sherman described the move as an educational effort to inform users that offering copyrighted music on peer-to-peer networks is illegal and that they face consequences when they participate in this illegal activity.
Are you saying that the only immorality is not getting caught?
You're using logic and common sense...
Oops, sorry.
The arguments for song-swapping are always the same and read like a Letterman Top 10:
10. It's free, so it's not stealing.
9. Even if it is stealing, it's only stealing from the rich record companies - the artists never see the money.
8. The technology to do it exists, therefore I can.
7. CD's are too expensive.
6. Everybody does it.
5. Copyright law sucks.
4. Record companies suck.
3. Capitalism sucks.
2. I already own the CD.
1. Just try and stop me.
...making RIAA greedy double-dipping bastards. If I used a cassette to copy an LP to play in my car when I'm not at home, I was forced to pay them twice.
And when it fails, what then?
Whining about file swappers and threatening to send kiddie porn instead of Metallica's "Master of Puppetts" is just childish and solves nada.
Bella, m'dear...the solution would require a return to the ideas of self-discipline that used to be taught in the America of my late father's youth.
It's a societal problem. We've convinced enough people that they are "owed" something for nothing.
And, sadly, the only way this matter will be resolved is through extralegal means.
That's why KazaaLite is out there; and even then, primarily for those of us who know exactly what is on our machines at any given point in time...
What's wrong with this one? What if I bought the CD but track 3 won't play because of a scratch? Can I download track 3?
I'm 37. Most of my generation wouldn't understand words like "honor," "discipline," and "responsibility," even if those were to bite members of my birth cohort on the fundament.
You're saying that's the case with the file-swappers...
Beware what happens when the RIAA adopts your attidude, eh?
Care to point that out for me?
P, I can tell you've never used these services. Even though we could afford any CD we want, my wife was goofing around with Morpheus a few weeks ago on one of our home computers just for the heck of it. Guess what? Even though we have a high-speed connection, the other side is usually dial-up. After screwing around one Sat morning to get a few songs, she finally grew bored and hasn't been back since. There is a market for micro-payments that assure a decent connection and without a bunch of spy-ware. Hell, I'm still running ad-aware every few days to get rid of the registry entries.
You're projecting. I've said no such thing.
That's abusive, even as a metaphor. Has anyone started SHOOTING Hilary Rosen?
What if I bought the CD but track 3 won't play because of a scratch? Can I download track 3?
As long as its fair across the board. If I have a flat tire, I expect a free replacement. /sarcasm
If the CD was scratched when you bought it, you can return defective merchandise for replacement or refund. If you (or your cat, etc.) scratched it, so sorry; you own the license to one scratched CD.
Unless you purchase a new liscense, you are pirating intellectual property under the law, not my opinion; the law. If you are cool with that, download away, but why do you feel the need to justify what you are doing? Go change the law or come to terms with breaking it, but stop all the specious arguments and red herrings to justify your actions.
Those too dense to understand the legal niceties should put themselves in the shoes of the artists. Would you feel like someone was stealing from you if after you spent your whole life learning your trade, struggling to make a living, and giving up other opportunities, people began taking the fruit of your efforts for free and passing it around? You bet you would!
Yes, the artists recieve an obscenely small piece of the profit from their music; however, that's the deal they made and doesn't give others the right to steal that obscenely small piece from them.
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