Low Bitrate...

[Technician]

..ASS RAPE!

MINNEAPOLIS – A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry.

A federal jury ruled Thursday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs, and awarded recording companies $1.92 million, or $80,000 per song.

Thomas-Rasset's second trial actually turned out worse for her. When a different federal jury heard her case in 2007, it hit Thomas-Rasset with a $222,000 judgment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading

I'm a second rate musician myself. And because of this I'm at a point where I can't buy the music I like to call inspiration and reference from. Most of my music is no longer even in print. I download music but spend close to a grand last year just going to concerts. I buy music whenever I can at live shows because I know the money is going into the musician’s pocket. I try and buy compilation CDs for the majority of the bands I have downloaded to give a slice back.

If they are going to charge her, then charge her the same rate a song coasts to download. That is fair. She should not be made an example of. Besides. How can they tell the difference between the mp3 that I have downloaded from Amazon to an mp3 I got from a torrent?

[Kirby]

Heh, It's a brilliant example. They'd never think twice about who they prosecute. If it was a poor disaster struck woman from New Orleans, Louisiana, chances are they'd make the same move. It's unfortunately become a partition of a larger scheme as far as I can tell. I know they've prosecuted several people at my university to get the money they want out of them, but I wish these guy's had some sense about them. I mean, what sense does it make to extract pennies from people who cant get it all to you anyways?

Iiiieee--eeeyyaahhh :P

[Nomad]

It's a good thing I know they can't sue everyone.

[GreyGhost]

They can try, the law's on their side and with DMCA compliance being written into "Free Trade" agreements - that act is becoming a de-facto law outside the US.

An attorney for the recording industry, Tim Reynolds, said the "greater weight of the evidence" showed that Thomas-Rasset was responsible for the illegal file-sharing that took place on her computer. He urged jurors to hold her accountable to deter others from a practice he said has significantly harmed the people who bring music to everyone.

Sony, EMI, Warner and Universal - I feel their pain. ;-C

The recording industry's strategy of suing small fry is just a high-visibility way of saying they're serious about protecting their profit margins, whether or not they lay their sweaty little paws on any of that $1.92 million is irrelevant so long as the message gets through to the file sharers.

[Graf Zahl]

I don't think it will. The only message that will get through is that the big companies are run by crooks (which according to some musicians they claim to represent they actually are!)

This is precisely the one way how they will *not* convince anyone to do it their way. I'd rather suspect that the 'pirate party' incident in Sweden may become more widespread as a result.

[myk]

GreyGhost said:
They can try

Not really. In the US alone they'd have to sue over 30 million people.

The "lost sales" argument they use to sue people is bullshit because by no means is someone who downloads music for free necessarily willing to pay for such stuff, and you can't treat digital information as a unit of production.

Certain conditions allowed the industry to easily exploit copies of recorded music (or video) during the 20th century, but that period is over. Now they must convince customers to contribute to a model of producing and distributing popular media, instead of trying to force them to pay under any circumstances.

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Graf Zahl said:

I don't think it will. The only message that will get through is that the big companies are run by crooks (which according to some musicians they claim to represent they actually are!)

This is precisely the one way how they will *not* convince anyone to do it their way. I'd rather suspect that the 'pirate party' incident in Sweden may become more widespread as a result.

Well they are crooks, they've been peddling their stuff at cartel-style inflated prices for years. Not to mention rigging the Pirate Bay trial earlier this year and constantly pressuring governments/ISP's worldwide to use illegal methods to monitor and stop people accessing torrents etc.

(and succeeding more these days it has to be said, this country is next IMO following the recent Digital Britain report - which was compiled by someone with links to the industry)

The "lost sales" argument they use to sue people is bullshit because by no means is someone who downloads music for free necessarily willing to pay for such stuff, and you can't treat digital information as a unit of production.

It's an outdated business model that started dying when tape recorders were invented, and should have been finished off by the internet. But no, instead of modernising to some library/subscription/whatever based model that took advantage of technology (which would've kept on cultivating music) they instead spend loads of their precious money on DRM technologies, kickbacks to PC/soundcard manufacturers and various governments/ISP's/legal figures to restrict technology and keep the old model alive. (which will end up strangling both music and the internet to death)

The "protecting creator's rights" is just as bullshit...as they only look after the big stars cos they bring in more money.

[Graf Zahl]

The Ultimate DooMer said:

they instead spend loads of their precious money on DRM technologies,

And what did it get them? Absolutely nothing!

Copy protected CD's were a huge commercial failure - no surprise considering how much music these day is listened to by portable devices. Do I even need to mention the Sony rootkit disaster?

DRM protected downloads? Ridiculous. Not only was it made very clear that these hold no attraction to a vast number of customers - even more insane is that software like iTunes already has a circumvention device built in (just burn it on a CD and rip it back.)

No, these idiots will never learn. They'll make the same mistakes over and over again, losing more and more customers in the process until their obsolete business model can't hold up anymore.

(Note: All of this still doesn't negate the fact that downloading music off torrents etc. is in fact illegal - for good reasons!)

[The Lag]

if everyone would just start listening to independent music and forget about the major labels, we wouldn't have a problem.

[myk]

Graf Zahl said:
All of this still doesn't negate the fact that downloading music off torrents etc. is in fact illegal - for good reasons!

That depends on the legislation of the country you're in. In Spain it's not illegal if it's not done for profit, for example. On a similar vein, in other countries or areas the authorities do not take action against such file sharing, and only against commercial exploits.

[Maes]

And in some other countries they resort to subtler ways of demonizing/degrading "pirates".
Like calling them "losers" to their faces.

[Graf Zahl]

The Lag said:

if everyone would just start listening to independent music and forget about the major labels, we wouldn't have a problem.

I have stopped listening to that crap long ago.

[Technician]

I have to shake my head that everybody owns at least one gimmick or instrument that can store and play mp3s. It's the same as selling a bong but turning a blind eye to the contents it's used for.

They expect you to buy music files from Amazon or iTunes. But in reality little amount does.

[Nomad]

On the other hand, considering that I have a 80gb MP3 player, if I bought everything through iTunes for $1 a song, I don't really have ~$20,000 laying around for music.

[Reisal]

Did someone say free music?

Nearly everything of mine is independent and pretty good so I don't have to deal with this bullshit..did I mention I also buy independent artist CDs too?

[Nomad]

I surf that blog from time to time. Unfortunately probably around 75% of the stuff on there is crap. I did find a few gems, though. Pandemonium is one of my favorite groups now and I'm buying merch from them if they ever put it up on their site again. :)

[Torn]

They are never be able to stop piratency. It is worthless for them even trying...

[Nomad]

That's the funny part. They are probably wasting more money combating piracy than piracy is actually costing them.

[Sharessa]

The Lag said:

if everyone would just start listening to independent music and forget about the major labels, we wouldn't have a problem.

Problem is, there's still a lot of good music on major labels still. It's mostly stuff that's at least 20 years old and the musicians don't even own the rights to their songs, but it's there. But that's what used CD stores are for.

[Maes]

Nomad said:

That's the funny part. They are probably wasting more money combating piracy than piracy is actually costing them.

If this could be actually be backed up with facts, and they could also be fairly sure that it's not gonna get any worse in the long term, then you bet your ass they'd have given up on it long ago.

[SnowblindFatal]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/10/music-industry-exec-p2p-litigation-is-a-money-pit.ars

They are losing money because of their course of action.

[Ralphis]

I'm cool I only listen to internet music bands record labels suck

[Aliotroph?]

Graf Zahl said:

(Note: All of this still doesn't negate the fact that downloading music off torrents etc. is in fact illegal - for good reasons!)

Seems to be perfectly legal in Canada. They tax us on our blank CDs. Never mind that I haven't burned a music CD in years.

Only music I'll buy is independent stuff. Must work to destroy the evil companies! Bwahahahaha!

[The Lag]

plenty of good music is owned by corporate suits who have no identity and don't understand music at all.
i know this as a fact because i have a long history as a musician.
i'm not famous.
i've never been signed to a major label...thanks.
but i have lived and worked with many people who have.
i live in tampa.
gen and dave (genitorturers and morbid angel) live down the block from me, and i regularly record with rob from c. corpse.
not to mention anyone else.
been doing it for years.
from their stories, hell no, i don't want to ever get "signed" because for years now getting signed is a bad thing.
international distribution vs. freedom?

you can have international distribution if you are cool and have good friends...you don't need a fucking label.

and, again, this post is brought to you by jagermeister...eater of souls, german for amnesia, and devourer of my braincells.
thank you very much.

[Nomad]

You don't really need international distribution with the internet around. That blog that Chris linked to has hundreds of examples.

I predict labels for anything other than pop music are going the way of the dodo soon, and I'm sure even the big names are going to be passe soon enough.

[Sharessa]

The Lag said:

plenty of good music is owned by corporate suits who have no identity and don't understand music at all.
i know this as a fact because i have a long history as a musician.
i'm not famous.
i've never been signed to a major label...thanks.
but i have lived and worked with many people who have.
i live in tampa.
gen and dave (genitorturers and morbid angel) live down the block from me, and i regularly record with rob from c. corpse.
not to mention anyone else.
been doing it for years.
from their stories, hell no, i don't want to ever get "signed" because for years now getting signed is a bad thing.
international distribution vs. freedom?

you can have international distribution if you are cool and have good friends...you don't need a fucking label.

and, again, this post is brought to you by jagermeister...eater of souls, german for amnesia, and devourer of my braincells.
thank you very much.

Yeah, I'm never gonna sign to a label, no matter how good my music may get. I read about how their business models work. It's really sick. Very similar to a pyramid scheme. I'll just release all my music for free over the internet, kthx.

[Nomad]

I looove when artists do that. A few of my most favorite artists have totally free music.

I suggest JT Bruce to anyone who likes prog-rock :)

[Butts]

The Lag:

You know the dudes from Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel? That is awesome! Those were probably the first death metal bands I listened to.

[Bank]

Even as an independent musician myself, I say fuck it. If you get exposure you'll never have to sell another record in your life.

[Creaphis]

Though I'm not sure where to find merchants that accept theoretical internet dollars.