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POPSRIAA lawsuit campaign loses credibility Since September of 2003, the recording industry has leveled legal threats against close to 30,000 American music fans. In a report released today, "RIAA v. The People: Five Years Later," the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) presents a comprehensive overview of the RIAA's litigation campaign and concludes that it is hurting music fans and artists alike, without making a dent in unauthorized file-sharing. "If the RIAA wants to keep suing hundreds of people each month and collecting these huge settlements, it can't take shortcuts," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "It's not enough to say the law 'could have been' broken and demand thousands of dollars to make the accusation go away. The recording industry must prove its case and show that infringement actually occurred."
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POPSDoes Joe Biden hate techies? Barack's VP pick has a pretty rough record when it comes to the government's handling of copyright protection. But his tech savvy still trumps McCain, who by all appearances has only learned about electricity in recent briefings with his staff aides.
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POPSKill Switches in devices could lead to authorities having control over your gadgets. This is more of the erosion of property rights. Those in power would love it for no-one to own property. If you buy a device that can ultimately be deactivated by the manufacturer or other authorities, this means they can deprive you of the use of something you own. I've been monitoring the erosion of personal property and am still amazed at the myriad of ways industries come up with in depriving consumers of rights. First the RIAA decided you never own music, you license it, the same goes for software. Now it's moving to hardware.
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POPSRecording Industry Decries AM-FM Broadcasting as 'A Form of Piracy' I'm sick of this word "Piracy". It's connotations of "stealing" as the RIAA likes to marry to the former. If I steal something I have deprived you of something as in stealing a car deprives you of said car. Theft of the material and tangible. But taking something that can be infinitely copied; seems brazen to call that stealing. The idea that the loss of "potential" profits doesn't stand with me either. To me that's just a way of saying "We have plenty, but we want even more." I'm fortunate that many of my favorite musicians have left this model behind (NIN, Radiohead to name two) and have taken the stance that music is meant to be heard and not hoarded.
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POPSNew-Fangled Music Label Brought to my attention by http://twitter.com/wilw, this is a very cool idea. I plan to support it. Two words for RIAA - suck it.
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POPS AP Backs Down Intellectual property does exist and copyright law is similar practically everywhere. But mass media (music including) is special environment and an enforcement of that law is hard and unproductive.
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POPSWarner Confesses: Pirate Bay Cop Compromised Naw, you mean the extortionist mafia called he RIAA isn't playing fair? Since when do we expect criminal organizations to play fair? It should be assumed at all times these guys are crooked, the evidence against them is much greater than that showing they love puppies and children and buttercups.
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POPSHouse passes bill (HR 4279) that will let the RIAA take away your home for downloading music If this bill is passed in its present form by the Senate and signed, that means there's no more pro forma RIAA lawsuit payoffs, because if you wind up settling with the RIAA, you could still lose all your stuff in addition to any fee you paid them.The more the law is constructed to sweep in folks who are absolutely observant of it, the more we need broader protections. The voting scorecard, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll300.xml Only 11 Noes, to include Ron Paul. "It means they may take your home away if your KID is stealing music over the internet without even your knowledge. Cause it happened on property you had direct control over though you are clueless." Read the rest at the source, the comments are pretty good as well.
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POPSTravel with a Laptop or PDA? Read this! Christopher S. Penn gave me a heads up for this article outlining the law that allows border agents to copy the content of your hard drive, pda or other electronic device. If they copy my music library can we get the RIAA to sue the? *laugh*
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POPSMediaSentry: Oops! Gosh, it couldn't happen to a better crime indicate. Wonder how the RIAA's strong-arm tactics will come into play on this one.