Single mom overwhelmed by recording industry suit, via cleverhack.
The record companies follow the songs when they're downloaded onto computers, and they also note how many copyrighted songs are stored on that computer's hard drive memory, because those songs are often "uploaded" or shared with others through the file-sharing service.
….
[Stanley Pierre-Louis, senior vice president for legal affairs for the RIAA] said the RIAA isn't afraid of a consumer backlash. "We're facing a daunting challenge and we have to face it head-on," he said.
Where to begin.1. I don’t have a law degree, but I’d think that evidence found by sneaking onto someone’s hard drive would be inadmissible in court. And isn’t there that thing called a search warrant or is that just in the movies?
2. How is this any different from the historical method of file sharing: mix tapes? Buy an LP/tape/cd, copy it to tape, and share it with your friends. As many friends as you want. I don’t recall reading about massive legal efforts back when mix tapes were all the rage. (I still use them, RIAA be damned).
3. Suing your consumer base is no way to win its confidence. That’s just bad business.
4. Suing a subset of your consumer base that falls into the “single mom with a kid and $12/hr job” category is an even worse way to build that subset’s confidence.
5. There are many ways to face daunting challenges head-on. Let’s take fire fighting, for example. Putting out fires requires water and those special chemicals that only fire fighters and chemistry majors know about. Leveling the structure is another way to put out the fire. But that way sucks.
Cross posted on blogcritics.
Comments (2)
aaron - thanks for the comments... to my surprise, i was bombarded with similar comments on the blogcritics version of this post. it was a learning experience to say the least. click the web link below for details...
Posted by p-man | February 10, 2007 8:15 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:15
URL: http://onotob.org
The RIAA doesn't have to sneak onto anyone's computer to find out what music they're sharing. They are targeting users of a few select file sharing networks (Kazaa is one of them). The software used to connect to these networks allows for the display of a user's shared files to any other user on the network (you may be able to disable this). No sneaking is needed when it's a feature of the software. Also, digital copying is much different than using analog tapes to make copies because a) digital copies do not degrade and b) the cost of copying is extremely low, allowing a single person with a computer and an Internet connection to act like a factory, producing as many copies as they want. But you are correct in noting that the industry has raised a stink over every new copying technology since cassettes.
Posted by Aaron | February 10, 2007 8:15 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:15