Ha! I hope they get so pissed that they leave town (in a manner of speaking). Here's what's going down in layman's terms. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a big bad bully. They are the ones that have been slapping lawsuits on the individual's that own the IP addresses that file sharing has been discovered on. I say it like that because the lawsuit is for the owner of the IP address, say the father, not the son's weird computer geek friend that actually partook in the downloading on their computer... get it? That's the flaw in their combat strategy. Colleges, where most downloading takes place, are hardly touched. How can you sue a college for something like that? Instead, soccer moms get the bill for their twelve-year-old's download of Modest Mouse. And a bill it is, sometimes as high as $19k. I have a friend that has a friend that got slapped with a lawsuit... so it can happen to you. (I'll give you a hint of how to avoid getting caught later.)
This brings us to the next problem. Everybody, including the RIAA, thought pay-per-download services like iTunes were the answer. 99 cents gets you a song. Not bad. However, the RIAA is playing the name blaming game again. See, they just can't cope with the fact that record sales are never going to be where they used to be. They blame everybody, but have the prices dropped on them? Not enough to make it worth the while. Now, they are blaming Apple. The RIAA wants Apple to up the prices on their iTune downloads. Apple's Steve Jobs called them "the greedy record labels."
I am all for supporting an artist you like. Buying a CD of theirs is just not the way to do it. They make close to NOTHING on the album sale. The record label gets the most. If you want to support an artist, go to their concert, give them free advertising by tattooing their name on your forehead, or start a blog in their honor.
Now, since I am not a forum for the advocating of illegal activities, even those as controversial (read: stupid) as peer to peer file transfer (file downloading) I can not tell you how to avoid getting caught. I can not tell you that if you use a program such as LimeWire or KaZaA that you should not share music (uploading). I can tell you that the only way the RIAA can 'catch' you is when you are downloading or uploading, but I shouldn't tell you that you should download sporadically to avoid being caught. Also, if you have a question regarding this subject, post it in the comment section, and I won't get back to you.
6 comments:
Very interesting loo loo. this is what makes no sense to me. cd's cost, what, roughly 15 to 20 bucks? At least you get some sort of product- money has to go into printing and designing covers, cd's etc. So for itunes, 99 cents a song seems high to me- you aren't paying for anything tangible. i guess they would argue that you could put it in several different places once downloaded. hhmmm, someone explain this to me. It's amazing how they could want Apple to raise the prices per song download even higher!
Why is Ben called "loo loo" I think we all need to be filled in on this
It's just a nickname. we have all sorts of weird nicknames for one another. i also call him loo lee
what happened to pants? where did pants go? not that it needs to come back.
who really pays for songs anyway?
I know I'm no lawyer, but I think copyright law only applies to people distributing the music. So as long as you don't upload, I think you can get away with it. I think, don't quote me on that.
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