[SATLUG] OT: RIAA being sued/countersued

[John Champion]

Robert J Hewitt wrote:
> sounds to me like a witch hunt and they don't care who or how they get
> to court, just as long as they can get their pound of flesh and pint of
> blood. Sounds to me like the Democratic National Party.  On an off topic
> I tried http://tomslinux.homelinux.org and got an apache welcome screen.
> thougt you might like to know that.
>
> RObert
>     kc5jmr at grandecom.net
>
> On Sat, 2007-07-07 at 11:05 -0500, Thomas King wrote:
>   
>> I don't know what everyone thinks of the RIAA - I personally think they
>> border on gangster. http://tinyurl.com/224exk
>>
>> Take a look at the other cases listed here. There appears to be a trend
>> where the RIAA would like to quietly dismiss some cases and are being
>> dragged through the mud anyway. :)
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>     
>
>   
well i've read a lot about these cases. most of what the riaa does is 
borderline in terms of legality. they are basically trying to circumvent 
the judicial system and extort money from people who don't have it.

let's see...the riaa members were found guilty of price-fixing for 
artificially keeping the prices of cds artificially high. they were 
punished and we (the consumers) were supposed to have received a $2 
rebate. since i've purchased thousands of cd's in my lifetime, i found 
that to be a slap in the face.

but the riaa member organizations, like the mpaa organizations need to 
face a reality. they are close to being declared extinct. why? simple...

the one thing that the Internet has been very good at is removing 
middlemen. the riaa and mpaa members are just that...middlemen. they add 
little value and act as a marketing arm mostly. commercial artists like 
pat green and metallica had their audiences set before they ever signed 
with a label so they go primo deals but to unknown artists who have to 
build a career the hard way...the labels give them diddly and expect 
them to like it. each artist gets .17 cents from every cd sold. the 
pressing and the manufacture costs are around .83 cents per disc. the 
rest...goes to the label.

back in the late 70's and early 80's the labels went from being party 
outfits with cash aplenty to hard core businesses with failing business 
models and myopic leaders who want to put the kabosh on any new 
technology until they can figure out how to properly manipulate it.

as we've seen with their myriad of efforts in trying to garner support 
for digital rights management amongst the record buying public...their 
efforts have been greated with laughter. every drm solution that has 
been rolled out to date, has been circumvented. in short...they do not work.

so the only way these labels can put the "fear of God" into their 
remaining consumers is this extortion tactic.

at least that's the way this former touring musician sees things...i 
reserve the right to be wrong.