The RIAA is going down and it starts RIGHT HERE !~!

[llbbl]

Corporations are cool until they start infringing upon civil liberties. Rights that every citzen should have. It is certainly not right that they can pressure Congress into killing Internet Radio with CARP. It is certainly not right that they can kill sharing services by taking them to court or threatening to take them to court. I for one am sick of it ! I do not know about the rest of you. RIAA abuses our court system, abuses other small companies, abuses countless individuals way of life and we do nothing about it.

Well you can do something about it. Write everyone you can who you think will make a difference. Join the http://action.eff.org/ site. Donate money to the eff if you can spare it (not living pay check to pay check [ assuming you are responsible with the money you earn ] )

I think the biggest difference that we can make as consumers is to stop buying CD's completely. It is more important that I stand up for issue's that matter to me than buying overpriced pieces of plastic that get can become damaged beyond repair even with judicious care of them. Ever heard of Macrovision? They make it so you can't record movies you check out at blockbuster. I am pretty sure they have a hand in the anti-copy CD's that are on the market.

Don't get me wrong, they are good business men and women, but something about the fact that I am not even supposed to make a backup copy of the music I buy at a store really gets to me. There are lots of reasons that people give, but this is what bothers me the most. I am suppposed to pay twice for the same music if I even accidently scratch my only original copy of the store bought CD. Bogus man !!

Tell your friends, Tell your Famliy
STOP BUYING CD'S
BOYCOTT THE RIAA

;)

[Ioman]

Didn't you do this in the old forums? LOL I am with ya man. I will donate my share to the EFF. So if we don't buy the CDs then the artists don't get paid. Why don't the artists stand up and demand more money on their end?

[llbbl]

Originally posted by Ioman
Didn't you do this in the old forums? LOL I am with ya man. I will donate my share to the EFF. So if we don't buy the CDs then the artists don't get paid. Why don't the artists stand up and demand more money on their end?

Go and see the artist perform live if they are in your area. Email the artist to ask them where you can send them some money because you think they are talented artists who deserve not to be taken advantage of by evil corporations.

[llbbl]

Here is a list of them. It's going to make it tough on everyone, but it is worth it. RIAA sucks !!!

http://www.riaa.com/About-Members-1.cfm

Of course you can always buy it used. You don't really need that new Avril Leviene CD

Here is who is on the board.

http://www.riaa.com/About-Lead-2.cfm

They are the biggest supporters and who we should really go after. They are the ones who we will face in court.

[ruri]

I haven't bought a CD in over two years, primarily because modern music generally sucked and partly because I don't care much for the music industry.

Besides, with internet radio and streamripper, I have all the music I will ever need in any genre I want, which is more than what one could say for most music stores and all radio stations in my area.

Besides, I'm leaning toward techno/trance, eurodance and world music. Try finding them at Sam Goody!

And yes, I have donated to the EFF. Probably will do so again for Christmas.

[ECA]

PEOPLE dont understand how they can impact a company so easily. STOP all purchases for 1 week, and watch the prices DROP.

Copy protection only works on NEWER players, ALOT of the old ones will let you copy anything. My deck is 15 years old.. But I never have a problem.

[dang]

Most of the music I buy (i rarely buy anyways though..) is from small labels. I generally listen to punk so it's much easier direct from the label and getting cd's for what they are actually worth, $8 to $10 bucks.

[llbbl]

I found this on the net. It kinda sums up how I feel about the whole fiasco.

If you're not pissed, you should be. The RIAA is taking away your right to hear music, by TRAINING YOU TO THINK YOU'RE NOT ENTITLED TO IT. Music is vital to life. Music is the oldest known art form. Nobody doesn't listen to music. It fills up your entire sense of hearing and stimulates your mind. It is food for your brain. You *need* music, and THEY are holding from you, for ransom. Music is your birthright. It is not mere entertainment, or a pure luxury. It is the foundation of communication and we NEED IT, thank you very much.

http://monkeyradio.org/

[llbbl]

If you want to send in your story of how the DMCA has infringed upon your personal liberties than the person you should email is at the bottom of this article.


* Tell Us Your DMCA Horror Stories!

EFF and the U.S. Copyright Office would like to hear from people who
are unable to use their digital media because of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Section 1201(a)(1)(A) of the DMCA provides that "No person shall
circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access
to a work protected under this title." Subparagraph (B) limits this
prohibition. It provides that anticircumvention "shall not apply to
persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular
class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be in the
succeeding 3-year period, adversely affected by virtue of such
prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses of that
particular class of works under this title." The Copyright Office is
tasked with determining which classes of works should be exempted
from the anticircumvention provisions.

From now until December 18, 2002, the Copyright Office is accepting
comments on the effects of the DMCA on access to specific types of
digital media. If you have difficulty making lawful use of your
digital media because of technological access controls, it is very
important to let the Copyright Office know by sending it comments
that specifically explain these problems. Also, please contact EFF
and let us know about your difficulties and we will try to
incorporate your concerns into the comments EFF is submitting to the
Copyright Office. It is vital that we provide the Copyright Office
with numerous concrete examples of individuals whose lawful use of
copyrighted works is impaired by access controls. Without concrete
examples, it will be very dfficult to craft these provisions in a
less restrictive way. For more information on the Copyright Office
Rulemaking proceeding under the DMCA, please see:

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/1201/

Contact Robin Gross with your stories:

robin@eff.org

[llbbl]

* ALERT UPDATE: Urge Your Representative to Co-Sponsor the DMCRA!

As the legislative season ends, it is vitally important to gather
support for legislation that will be center-stage in the next session.
This is an opportunity to ask your representative to take a stand for
your rights. Ask her/him to co-sponsor the DMCRA today!

Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle recently introduced
the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, H.R. 5544), which
would require labelling on usage-impaired "copy-protected" compact
discs and would make several several amendments to 1998's infamous
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Take action here:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2224

Join EFF! For membership information see:
http://www.eff.org/support/

[ECA]

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4889636.htm


http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57048,00.html

Have fun...

[llbbl]

Every Music CDR since the AHRA was enacted has a hidden tax built into the price! (2% of the manufacturers sales) This is supposedly to pay the artists for home recording. Who Collects the Tax? The RIAA under the auspices of the AARC. Who shares office space with the RIAA and has many of the RIAA employees working for it. I haven't been able to find one artist that was paid a cent of the money. 4% is set aside for non-featured artists, of the remainder 40% for the featured artist and 60% for the labels. To date I have not found one artist who has received one cent of this money. (Source: RIAA website) In addition every CD recorder has a $2.00 surcharge built into the price that goes directly to the RIAA

The artists received not one cent of the money from the MP3.Com settlements of approx $158 Million to the labels. Who did??? The label themselves.

"SoundExchange" the new digital rights collective for collecting royalties from internet play is a division of the RIAA. They did not distribute royalties in July 2001 as they were supposed to do, but instead decided to wait until next year.

85% of all music is released by 5 major labels (Sony, EMI, UMG, Time Warner, & BMG)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC Statement)

At any given point about 20% of the music every recorded is available legally. The rest is locked away by the labels depriving the creators of a potential source of income, the fans of the music they want, while creating a false market for the band "d'jour."

The RIAA on their website say the cost of CD's haven't risen as much as they could have read our take it.

Read the settlement statement of the FTC findings against the Big 5
concerning charges that all five companies illegally modified their existing cooperative advertising programs to induce retailers into charging consumers higher prices for CDs


In 1999 music sales were up 11% not down
Testimony of Hank Barry quoting a RIAA survey
Chief Executive Officer
Napster, Inc.
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

In the first quarter of 2000 music sales are up 8% over last year
Testimony of Hank Barry
Chief Executive Officer
Napster, Inc.
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Only companies can join the RIAA, they do nothing for the independent musician.
RIAA website guidelines for membership

Companies such as Napster and MP3.Com can't join RIAA due to the lawsuits brought by RIAA.

We can control the distribution of music, by not buying any and boycotting the labels other businesses as well.

See where the money really goes Steve Albini (producer of Nirvana's "In Utero)

Interesting comment from Fox Entertainment Group (FOX) Chief Executive Peter Chernin, who has about as much of a clue as Jack Valenti:
"Film makers can offer their audience a choice of ways to see movies -- they can view them in the theater, rent them, or buy them" "Music companies are much less flexible." "It's hard to buy one song. You're forced to buy the CD," he said.

"I'd like to introduce the recording industry to something called bottled water," Jonathan Potter, executive director of Digital Media Association, said in a recent interview commenting on Free vs Fee online music. His lobbying group represents music sites that are trying to promote and sell music over the Internet.

It is not correct to assume that every time a copy is made, a sale is lost, said Gary Shapiro, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association. And, he also pointed out that many of the companies he represents, which make computers and other gadgets that enable people to copy music or download MP3s, have seen their sales fall much more sharply.


http://www.boycott-riaa.com/facts/facts.php

Donate to the site !
http://www.usmerchant.com/leflaw/cat/6616.asp

[dang]

BTW, isn't the oldest art form most likely painting/drawing, not music? :)

[llbbl]

I am sure that is debateable. I am thinking that the ancient tribes in africa did a little singing and dancing around the camp fire. Its like that saying, what came first the chicken or the ...

[Archon]

I thought the art of war was the oldest? ;)

[ECA]

If ya REALLY want to know, the Art of the Hickey, is the first. Ask Adam.

[dang]

LOL i think that could be a form of painting...hehe