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.
Ten years or so ago they did go after stores that sold used music CDs.
newsgroups...
He's got about 300 songs for his ipod using it on his dad's computer. I think he's going to be in big trouble if they catch him. I sent the article to his folks so they could put a stop to it.
I agree. Hank Williams senior has been dead for over fifty years. Nobody associated with Williams creation of those songs is still alive. The people making money off of them now are suits who had nothing to do with the creation of the work.
After a period of time, artwork becomes part of the cultural fabric. Huckleberry Finn, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, The Jungle Books are all public domain, now, which is as it should be. The same thing should happen with music.
Now the Indians are dressing up like Cowboys
And the Cowboys are putting leather and turquoise on
And the music is sold by lawyers,
and the fools who fiddle in the middle of the station are gone.
"People who want to listen to music at home" is the target market of those who invest money to produce the CD. Let them pay for the product.
No, they are going after people for being thieves.
However, getting this lady to agree to delete the files in question off of the computer and issuing a warning not to let it happen again should have been sufficient unless they found she was doing a pirating business or something with the files, which apparently she was not.
Your two legal options are:
1) Don't buy the music;
B) Get a better job.
So everyone gets paid except for the songwriter, the singer, the sidemen and the producer.
There are ways to do whatever you want without these hatchetmen finding out. It takes a little research and self-education but those who get caught might as well hang a banner from their bedroom window.
I'm mostly interested in songs from the 60's and download the ones I can legally from the Music Match store. I still can't figure out why only some songs from that era are available. Wouldn't the labels make more money if they made them all available instead of only a small fraction? The RIAA business model makes no sense.
It comes from a television station, so that should come as no surprise.
Facts, accuracy and some sort of narrative all take a back seat to the gotcha! line that these airhead reporters love to record on a voiceover. The worst part is a 30-second story like this gets about 20 min of collective teasers during the day....I'm sure it was something like "why did a suburban housewife pay $3700 for a CD of music?" which in itself is misleading but that's what they're after.
Ahwaa no one buying your banjo solo's. Eddie Peabody had a heck of a time too.
It is perfectly legal to record music from the radio, and you know it. It is even legal to give a copy to a friend, it is not legal to sell it.
The RIAA has manipulated our paid legislators into giving their copyrights a permanent life, contrary to the Constitutional Authors intentions.
If I want to edit the filth out of a movie, I am taken to court, but you know I can buy a book and mark out passages, or even tear out pages and no one gives a hoot, why is that? The same laws apply to books as movies or music.
I tend to agree but look at the overwhelming number of re-packages and re-issues, 'greatest hits' etc. along with mix compilations that ensure one-hit wonders stay that way.
It's a chew-em-up-and-spit-em-out game and I'm in the same boat as you as it's nearly impossible to find a lot of late 70s/early 80s power pop - it's all out of print. I ask the RIAA and the copyright lovers what are my options? Please don't offer LPs or cassettes either.
On Limewire, the RIAA and other powers that be are now 'seeding' the message "Can You Afford $0.09 For Music?" - it appears during most keyword searches and obviously they have simply compiled a list of artists, songs, albums and/or keywords so this little nag shows up frequently posing as a music file. My response is, yes, I can afford 9 cents - do you want to sell me a song for that price? Deal!
"A business which could be "destroyed by Napster" wasn't much of a business."
I ran a regional music publication that was part of a network of similar publication nationwide.
Of the tpo 8 publications in our network, 7 failed in a roughtly 24 month period largely due to marketing cutbacks for new and developing artists. Our publication had a solid 5 year history... another had been in business 20 years.
However, when marketing dollars don't lead to sales because people are stealing your product, companies cut back.
Thankfully, this allowed me to explore other options, however lots of people lost jobs that they loved because people chose to steal music.
do they get people for just downloading it or do they get people for just sharing it to another person or do they get you for both?
As I mentioned originally, I DO have at least one other option, which is to copy songs being played on the radio onto mp3 files, and if the RIAA wants to stop me from doing that, they need to find a way to keep their damned radio waves out of my property.
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