Download music and prepare to pay..Starting 25Jun03

There are over 2 million people sharing "substantial amounts" of MP3 on those networks. RIAA may sue you in 2060 at the actual international justice pace.
 
Well it seems obvious that they'll go after the "big boys" first, that and users offering pre-release versions of high profile albums. The odds are probably slim just because of the sheer number of people, but life will suck if you "win" the RIAA lottery.

This brings up an interesting point though. If anyone out there is "sharing" their internet account (e.g. using an access point to allow others to connect), THEY could be in big trouble if any individual who's sharing the account is also sharing copyrighted material. (e.g. say I'm sharing my cable modem account with others in my apt building. Bob upstairs is sharing 120GB of albums. RIAA tracks down the ip and it leads to MY account. They come knocking at my door, I say "dudes, it's not me", they say we have proof it's coming from YOUR account and unless you can prove it's NOT you (i.e. finger the person who is actually doing it), then you're busted).

Now whether this will hold up in court (esp if the ISP allows you to use a router/NAT), but you could be hurting while it drags out in court.

It'll be interesting to see how this falls out once this happens to the first person.
 
Well, I guess the whole idea is to take out the big servers and make an example of them. When this happens, people sharing will start saying "whos next?" and will no longer share. Mind you, they're only going after people who are sharing files, not downloading them. After a point, there will be millions of leeches sucking on only so many servers, that the whole file sharing thing will kill itself. The only way to continue getting files would be via servers outside of the U.S. This seems, to me, what the RIAA is trying to do, but it's only speculation...
 
The whole thing is ridiculous - so let's say the music industry is successful and manages to sue music fans for swapping tunes on the internet. Well, from one point of view those people that get sued won't be able to afford to buy real music anymore as they'll spend the rest of their lives paying off the lawyers. The other thing is that by acting in such an agressive manner the music industry will majorly p*ss off the very people it will then expect to buy its products. At the end of the day its us, the people buying CD's, that have the power and not the record companies. I, for one, only buy second hand music now - I refuse to put money in the pockets of an industry that has fleeced the market for so long and is now panicking because the market has the upper hand.

They could also look at it from the point of view that, before the internet, everybody was copying music - they just used cassettes. Maybe the fall in revenues is down to the fact they churn out so much pish these days and the market for old albums has bottomed because we've all finished updating our vinyl to CD?

And another thing - how come it takes a computer business like Apple to launch a successful online music shop? The technology to sell music on the internet has been around for years - why didn't the music industry wake up to the commercial opportunities sooner instead of complaining then deciding to sue people?! Duh!

Rant over.. :)
 
Lets say the RIAA does succeed in making file-swapping less useful in terms of music. Apple could benefit from this, right? If they release a PC version of ITMS, I think that many people will go that route. I love the Music Store, and like Leo on TechTV's "The Screen Savers" said, its where I get a lot of my music now.
 
The RIAA can bend over backwards for all I care. Paulie-Mafia is exactly right on how we, the consumers, are helping the RIAA stay alive by buying their products. I don't know how suing us is going to help sales! And maybe sales would be better if some better music was being produce (not that all the music out there currently isn't good).

Furthermore, I like downloading rather than paying $18.99 on some CD that costs 48 cents to make! I would MUCH rather pay the artist upfront, for they deserve it!
 
The RIAA is shooting itself in the foot, they are going out and are not doing it in style. There is no longer a need for them and they know it. By suing it's customers it will evantually run them away. I will no longer buy an album from the store, the new music is starting to get worse as time goes by. I use ITMS all the time, though the price would be better at 50c a song since they eliminate the cost of production. I figure it will go down once the idea catches on to the mainstream. There is no cost of printing the book, burnung the CD, shipping, storing. Just record onto a hard drive and transfer it to ITMS. No need for an RIAA, just artists and smaller label companies.

I do find it funny how it took a computer maker to come up with the best way to take care of music in the current society, not the all powerful, your songs are our concern and we will protect them for you, RIAA.
 
Why don't the damn labels just give users more options to download music legally? The apple music store is perfect here, but only for mac users. When iTunes for PC comes out I bet music downloading will drop significantly, but will still persist. The major record labels should just make it more worth it to buy a CD. It would be a lot easier to go to best buy, and drop $20 on two CD's then on one CD with a little change.
Because of all this RIAA shit I got a little worried and took my carracho server offline, but why would I spend all that money when I can just let other people upload the CD's I want to my computer? I also get much more variety in music then I would because people upload their favorites too, and I get to hear all kinds of music.
 
Try to justify it all you want, but it's still stealing. I'm glad they're not standing idly by anymore.
 
My opinion: I go to a state university, live in the dorms... the average college student. And, although there are many people who are like me... downlaod a little, and, if i like it, will buy the album... These "ethical downloaders" are greatly outnumbered by the average college student who downloads a whole album and burns it. There's plenty of CDRs sitting around dorm rooms that have bad handwriting of album names on them.

Record sales are down. And I don't think it's because there's less stuff worth buying. There's just as much good and bad music as there was ten years ago.

I think this strategy is going to work. The RIAA will scare the masses, and there will be very little in the way of music sharing.

Though, this is too little too late, anyway. The way of the future is through the iTunes music store, and the sites of small artists, themselves.
 
Exactly who's stealing from who here? You hear about people like Britney Spears making $15 million a year...but what did the record company make off her album sales? Hundreds and hundreds of millions. They absolutely rape the artists, and then cry because kids are downloading in their bedrooms, and they lose a few thousand sales. By the way...when it comes down to it, most of the time, if I don't download it, I probably won't buy it anyways. Thats why I believe in warez....do you REALLY believe that some 16 year old kid who decides to d/l Photoshop to mess around with would have paid $500 for it had it not been available online? Give me a freakin break. How many of you who have 4, 5, 6, thousand songs would have bought HALF of them had they not been available on Limewire? It's time for the record industry to take a reality pill. Downloading helps more than it hurts....it gets the artists name out there. I've bought plenty of albums BECAUSE I downloaded a song or 2. There's no way I'm gonna pay $20 for a CD that I've never heard a single track off
 
Originally posted by Dlatu1983
It's time for the record industry to take a reality pill. Downloading helps more than it hurts....it gets the artists name out there. I've bought plenty of albums BECAUSE I downloaded a song or 2. There's no way I'm gonna pay $20 for a CD that I've never heard a single track off
Click to expand...
And this is exactly why the iTunes Music Store was created.
 
the main drama is this:
record companies failed miserably to identify this incredible shift in markets in their industry. there are very few industries that have been impacted by technology - think about the major players (ebay, amazon). even though these services are out there, people still PREFER (sometimes) to buy books at a store, or trade through the paper with local people. obviously they're very good business models, and have a large market, but the important thing is that their's still room for a 'bricks and mortar' market to complement the internet alternative.

with music - the benefits of online music selling far far faaarr outweigh the negatives (no cd case, lesser quality - for some). the music industry have had their heads up their arses for so long and have failed to identify any potential. EVEN NOW, with the relative success of the iTMS in such a small segment (<1%), euro record companies are STILL squabbling over petty details with regards to a rollout of iTMS internationally. It's a sad and sorry state, and you can blame the kiddy pirates all you want, but the record industry has to take a long hard sober look at itself and get it's proverbial s**t together before they die out..

rant over :D
 
Record companies also complain they are selling less and less records every year. Ironically enough, they are also making less records. You can only sell what you make. If they sold the same number of albums in 1998 as they do now, where would sales be?

The entire record industry is a losing proposition for artists. Record companies can cry that they need someone like Britney Spears to sell lots of albums so they can afford to foster new talent. Only they don't foster new talent.

There has been more one-hit wonder bands in the last 5-7 years than in any time in rock music. The reason is that record companies no longer foster band development like they used to. They want an artist like Alanis Morissette or Britney to sell the shit out of one or two albums.

I really feel we are in a musical wasteland state right now worse than any era of candyass rock or bad disco because record companies are completely out of touch with reality. There is nothing new. There is nothing exciting and wouldn't you know it, record sales are flat. The record companies have no new products to sell. The same thing happens from time to time with Apple. We percieve that the product line is flat and then we are unwilling to buy something new. Look at the 15" Powerbook. We all know something better is coming and many of us are holding off. The same goes with the G5. Just try and order one and see when it will ship. Apple is being slammed with new orders of people who held off because they percived the G4 as being old and behind the times. Nobody blames the consumers, they blame Apple.

Well, I blame the record companies. As Apple has shown, people are willing to buy music. They don't have to be guilted into it. They don't want funky formats or overly-ridged controls on usage. They just want good music.
 
I'm in college and don't have any money by the time i pay my tuition. So i rely on the 2000 cd wallet we own. Otherwise, my brother picks up a cd at Second Spin.

Last year when I was in a dorm people downloaded games, software, music. Somehow, i didn't see the incentive in stealing.
Maybe i am crazy but when i own the game, software, music i don't have to worry about the RIAA or police in my home.

E.T. : Beeeeee Gooooood
 
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