Download music and prepare to pay..Starting 25Jun03

[Dekatophil]

Originally posted by Captain Code
You might be OK if you're outside of the US. Depends on what laws your country has.

At least not in Germany, from this autumn (fall) onwards. That is, once the new copyright law is enacted.
Well, we'll see. Nothing is eaten as hot as it's cooked, as we say in Germany.

P.S. You're Korean ? (I'm asking because of the Korean 'think different' signature
P.S.2: I hope that applies only to Windows users, otherwise, I'd at least expect a '??????' . That should be haseyo. Sorry, I don't get any Korean up here. Uploading an image doesn't work either.

 

[gwynarion]

Originally posted by citizentony
If I were downloading 4,5,6k songs and were sued, I would laugh it off. That's $2970 to $5940 at .99c a song. Small claims court territory. Let's say I download/uploaded/shared 50k songs, that's $49500K worth of songs.

Actually the numbers would look more like this:
4k of songs = $600,000,000
5k of songs = $750,000,000
6k of songs = $900,000,000
50k of songs = $7,500,000,000

Of course these are maximum numbers, but that is where they could go to since the judgment can be up to $150,000 per copyrighted work. One college student who is being sued is looking at a possible $97.8 billion judgment being leveled against him. Now I don't think that there is very much chance that the maximums will be awarded by the courts, but the possibility exists and it is one hell of a big stick to shake at potential defendants.

 

[Giaguara]

when you buy a cd, the artist is given normally 1-2 % of the price. so when you pay 20 $, the artist gets a few cents and the record company and the store and marketing etc the rest.

i would rather buy the albums that i like online, simply download them (i don't like to own the cds), and then pay some $s to the artist directly. i wish the artists generally made their own pages etc, and then something like itunes-style pay and download the music you like, or even better, download and then pay as much as you like.

amazing but i found like last week the cheapest cd-single i've ever seen so i had to buy it: price was one euro cent (about 1,05 us-cent now). i wonder how much the artist gets of that ...

 

[citizentony]

Originally posted by gwynarion
Actually the numbers would look more like this:
4k of songs = $600,000,000
5k of songs = $750,000,000
6k of songs = $900,000,000
50k of songs = $7,500,000,000

Of course these are maximum numbers, but that is where they could go to since the judgment can be up to $150,000 per copyrighted work. One college student who is being sued is looking at a possible $97.8 billion judgment being leveled against him. Now I don't think that there is very much chance that the maximums will be awarded by the courts, but the possibility exists and it is one hell of a big stick to shake at potential defendants.

Since there is no way I could ever make a dent in that I would probably not worry about it too much. In fact that could constitute cruel and unusual punishment in the right judges eyes.
Reminds me of the guy with the potential to hijack the satelite companies broadcast, so they sue and win like $98 million at $500 a month. Do you really think he won't fight it? And win?

You could always wait till they sue you and get charged $900m. Go to the store under good faith to show you have changed your ways and buy a CD, brake the CD on accident and slice the heck out of your hand and Sue them for damages, and come even.

 

[bbos]

The eff () has posted a bit of a spanner - http://www.eff.org/share/ They are actively working against the RIAA.

My view on all this is that capitalism is killing the radio starrr. An interesting dilema is that we all want to make more money - including the record labels. So to quote Monty Python, "Society is to blame". The philisophical question is - why is the desire to make more money getting "faster"? Why do more and more people want to make more and more money - with the rich getting richer yada yada... Therein lies the problem, world over.

Just a few thoughts!

 

[paulie-mafia]

So, I guess all this means the moral of the story is....

We all should have goen to law school - man, there's some big bucks to be made in suing people! Think of all the CD's you could buy from the legal fees you'll get out of the RIAA... ;-)

 

[Dime5150]

Originally posted by Giaguara


i would rather buy the albums that i like online, simply download them (i don't like to own the cds), and then pay some $s to the artist directly. i wish the artists generally made their own pages etc, and then something like itunes-style pay and download the music you like, or even better, download and then pay as much as you like.

Artists do that. Check out www.mp3.com. But you can't get your music out to the world on your own. Thats why the record companies.

Its a fact of life. Record companies control music and its distribution and it won't be changing in this lifetime. An artist trying to sell his/her/their songs on a website on their own isn't going to pay the bills like signing with a record company. Bands want to make money doing what they love and that is music. They want to get paid like everybody else. The iTunes store is a step in the right direction. But you ain't getting on their without being on a record label. I do think its a logical w solution without hurting any party involved (well maybe cd manufacturer and printing press for the art but i'm sure their will ALWAYS be a market for music on media). Its obvious that the RIAA approves it otherwise we wouldn't see it.

 

[bbos]

Most people are exposed to music through the radio, and generally most people need to hear a song a number of times to like and buy it. There are a number of radio networks in australia (ie. a station or two per major cities). If they teamed up with a site like http://www.mp3.com or itunes music store, then they could push the music, get them popular and have people buy it. All done without a record label. This might be too extreme and I see a need for having a label, though I believe that they are far too greedy to be of a benefit to the bands or the listening/viewing public.

So I would like to see independant music sites start making a real impact in the market - but a promotions vehicle is needed.

To conclude my post, here are some interesting stats in the latest TIME mag:
* $174 Million - Average income of the 400 wealthiest US taxpayers in 2000, nearly four times what it was in 1992
* 22.3% - Percentage of their income paid in federal taxes, down nearly four percent from 1992. [That's 6.96 million 'saved' per rich person or 2.8 trillion for the whole lot].

Apologies for getting off-topic though I thought this is interesting in light of talking about super-rich people trying to get their way.