"Let dem hear dose things for once."
Posted on 07/04/2006 7:00:49 AM PDT by Fawn
Louise: "No these are not my songs." They are however downloaded right onto her computer.
Louise:"I was embarrassed when they gave me a print out of these songs."
She got this printout because of lawyers. She also got this letter telling her she was being sued for copyright infringement.
Parents, there are other popular file sharing programs you need to know about:
Morpheus: morpheus.com
Kazaa: www.kazaa.com
Bearshare: www.bearshare.com
Limewire: www.limewire.com
Louise: "I was in shock..I was stunned."
The letter is part of a music industry crackdown.Singers, songwriters and music companies tired of people downloading and burning copies of music without paying.
The letter to Louise says: "Copyright theft is not a victimless crime. Not just recording artists and songwriters but session players, sound engineers, cd plant workers, wharehouse personnel, record store clerks...that depend on sale of recordings to earn a living."
Louise: "I didn't intentionally try to take money from these people...I didn't know what was going on!"
Louise says it was her 16 year old doing the downloading. But that doesn't matter--these lawyers are offering to settle for a price.
Louise: "3700....I dont have 3700."
But Louise has to pay even though she had no idea, this music has been hanging around on her harddrive. Louise says her son didn't know that downloading the songs was illegal either but because she didn't take the music industry's first settlement offer the price has now gone up: 4500 or they will take her to court.
Interestingly enough, during our investigating today, we found the country of Austrailia has banned the use of Kazaa. And guess where Kazaa's parent company is located?
You guessed it! Sydney, Australia.
There is a real point. I got a collection of "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boing" which is simply not available at all, anywhere, except maybe second hand on album if you can find even one of them. There is no other option except file sharing to get them. However, I doubt that the industry is looking for people who have out of print and unavailable music.
That's what I thought.
They should implement a locker system, so that music you bought can be redownloaded. But they'll probably say you should have made a back-up, which you are legally entitled to do even with CD's you buy.
One article I read online stated that they are going after the companies with the servers. Example, a legal battle to shut down a website that provides a torrent search and maintains torrent files. As part of the legal maneuverings, they force the company to turn over the IP addresses of anyone who visits the website and downloads a torrent. Now they can identify individuals who are downloading, and come after them. I guess that's one way they are doing it.
I know a few recording artist, and they would all be a LOT wealthier if the recording companies did not constantly short them on their royalties.
They spend several thousand dollars every few years to audit the industry, studios, radio station plays, recordings sold, etc.
Every time they find that they have been shorted, up to several hundred thousand dollars.
So they sue, the industry drags it's feet (apparently hoping the artist will die before they can collect), they win, the industry only pays a portion of what is owed, the attorney's take half, and on it goes to the next round.
The entire industry is crooked, most of the artist are only successful for a short time but deserve their contracted royalties.
The whole downloading issue is moot to me, I have not heard any new "music" I would want to hear a second time for many years.
Uh, no, if they are colluding industry wide, as they appear to be, then you don't have a choice. No competition, no choice. Bands have to have a 'number' from the RIAA to play on the radio? Smells of monopoly. Smells of restraint of trade. Secondly, FWIW, I have more than a passing interest in trying to pay for two kids in college. Yeah man, that algebra changes yearly, thats why we have to pay for a new set of books every semester. So lazy professors don't have to change their tests.....? And no, I don't download and I don't shoplift. have a lovely FOJ!
Yup that is exactly what I am saying, unless the bar pays off the suits no copyrighted songs may be sung by the band.
Incorrect. Copying copyrighted music without permission from the copyright holder is against the law.
The RIAA could have easily embrased Napster six years ago and worked to develop new business models. They didn't. Instead they took a luddite approach and tried to shut everything down. It didn't work and never will. Illegal or not, file sharing is here to stay.
"Let dem hear dose things for once."
I thought it was 'sharing'.
Have you ever recorded a movie on your VCR?
What happened to them? Did they pay?
Stealing is wrong. It is a sad commentary on our culture that I am afraid of getting flamed for saying this.
BitTorrent doesn't have a shared folder. Once you begin downloading a torrent, even at the 1% complete point, the partial file that you have is available for others to download. If you look at the files being downloaded, it will tell you the IP address of the other computers you are downloading from, and what percentage of the complete file is available from that IP address.
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.