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Record Industry Sues 754 for Internet Song Swaps

malebolgia   on 17 December 2004 - 15:45 · 35 comments & 4130 views

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A recording industry trade group said Thursday that it has filed another wave of lawsuits against 754 people it suspects of distributing songs over the Internet without permission. The Recording Industry Association of America has now sued more than 7,000 people for distributing its songs over "peer to peer" networks like eDonkey and Kazaa, in an effort to discourage the online song copying that it believes has cut into CD sales.

The RIAA typically settles copyright infringement suits for around $5,000 each. Despite more than a year of headline-grabbing lawsuits, peer-to-peer use has not declined. An average of 7.5 million users were logged on to peer-to-peer networks in November 2004, up from 4.4 million in November 2003, according to the research firm BigChampagne.

News source: Reuters


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Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 35 additional comments
#1 Djmutik1013 on 17 Dec 2004 - 15:58
The reason sales have gone down is because either the artists (I use the term loosely) are not very good or it is all this sueing of your customers that has made people defiant and not wanting to buy cds. I do believe that a decline in sales is truly a myth though
#2 Landlocked on 17 Dec 2004 - 15:59
Hmm. According to the RIAA's website, the amnesty program they launched (and now closed) was a success and file sharing is on the decline.
#3 Ramses on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:01
What about songs that can't be find (anymore) on commercial channels? Is it illegal to download them as well?
(4 replies) #4 Callaway on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:02
Anyone been sued? I'm curious how they contact you... by mail, phone, email?

Do they burn a cross in your front yard?
#4.1 krono6 on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:15
No, wern't you listening? They get Excorsists to chant "The power of Christ Compells you" several times until the evil of Piracy is lifted
#4.2 Ned on 18 Dec 2004 - 04:33
They deliver it themselves....a rock with a note attached...through your window
#4.3 EduardValencia on 18 Dec 2004 - 16:20
hahahaha burn in hell file swappersss
#4.4 lswinney on 18 Dec 2004 - 19:56
UPS. They take a member of your family hostage. Then send a severed ear back in a box.
(1 reply) #5 xploit1030 on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:03
I still download tons on mp3s and you know when I like an album I still go out and buy it on CD. The problem is most of these people release only one or two good songs and I ain't gonna waste $12 for 2 songs.
#5.1 Ambience on 18 Dec 2004 - 01:11
Thus iTunes was created.

I'm not advocating it however.
(1 reply) #6 kravex on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:26
QUOTE
copying that it believes has cut into CD sales.


Not DVD's, Xbox playstation 2 and PC games, mobile phones and their credit/contracts or PC's and the upgrades people do,

Yes, the only reason no one sells as many albums as Elvis or the Beatles nowdays is piracy, more competition has nothing to do with it...

#6.1 DELTA75329 on 17 Dec 2004 - 21:04
Excellent point.

The RIAA won't pay attention because that would make too much sense.
#7 BigCheese on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:34
Maybe CD sales are declining and p2p is increasing because CDs are priced too high.
#8 DrunkenMaster on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:37
People should simply start making karaoke versions of popular songs. When the RIAA trys to sue them, the court will have to bear our horrible, non-professional signing voices. Baring the humility and laughter, courts will throw the cases out.
(2 replies) #9 nic on 17 Dec 2004 - 16:45
Lets see umm...
754/7,500,000 = 0.000100533... or .01% got sued because of their activities in November. I still like those odds. Was there any kind of discriminating factor amongst the sharers that got sued?

I really haven't fired up any P2P application in awhile. Last time was BT and I downloaded Fedora Core 3 DVD iso. Mostly because I'm paranoid about getting sued. Still, I miss downloading random TV episodes, like ALF. I was really into that for awhile.
#9.1 ivand67 on 17 Dec 2004 - 23:31
Millions are downloading TV shows without any problems dude, you're just being chickened out by the RIAA, MPAA and the like.

Good thing most of us don't chicken out.
#9.2 Ned on 18 Dec 2004 - 04:40
I don't think anyone's going to be looking for people downloading Alf. I mean come on, it's ALF.
Just kidding I used to watch Alf.
(5 replies) #10 plan-9 on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:01
well with itunes and all the other online music stores..price has really been cut. most albums are $8.99-9.99. id say thats pretty fair. and you can always just buy the songs you want.and there is no question these stores are successful..especially itunes. i think the riaa should keep suing those who are caught pirating music. people who pirated music before all cried about how expensive it was and how most albums only have 1 or 2 songs on it they actualy wanted. now they can get those couple songs for a very cheap price. now hopefully the movie industry will look at distributing dvds this way too. 9.99 for a downloadable dvdr image would make tonnes of people happy.
#10.1 slimshady165000 on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:07
get lost.....it's still expensive and it's still going to the same greedy assholes
#10.2 krono6 on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:19
Well, I really think the RIAA should do what they do, they will never win anyway...
Btw, I just downloaded Evanescence - Fallen, in about 10 mins, do you really think I would PAY for that kind of service??? I dont think so!!
#10.3 nic on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:20
as much as I enjoy the entire something for nothing... i'm inclined to agree with you plan-9.

If everyone pirating music would stop and actually buy it, the prices may drop lower. But 9.99 for a CD's worth of music is a good price. If stupid DRM wasn't attatched to it, I would definitly be spending my money on it. But for now I have my home computer (Windows XP Pro), my work computer (Linu, my MP3 playing stereo (Phillips), and my Pocket PC (iPAQ WM2003) which I enjoy having all my digital music between all the devices and don't like DRM telling me "no you can't do that." So I'll still pay that extra bit to just buy a CD. Maybe when there is a standardized DRM that the RIAA can agree on, and is in effect across all online music providers, things would be better.

[edit]
QUOTE
Evanescence - Fallen

*GROAN*... sorry, I really can't stand that band. Horrible female vocals that just make me cringe when she tries to sing. A lot of my friends really like Evanescence... I guess I just don't "get it."
[/edit]
#10.4 slimshady165000 on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:31
at least it wasn't My Immortal
#10.5 8-n-1 on 18 Dec 2004 - 13:24
QUOTE
If everyone pirating music would stop and actually buy it, the prices may drop lower.



You're living in dreamland if you believe this. When CDs came out 20 YEARS ago, they cost the same price they do now. People weren't using P2P that whole time. In every other technology, as time progresses the price of the technology goes down, but not for CDs!
#11 Fritzly on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:16
I would have no problem buying downloaded music if it was easy to burn it on a CD to play in my car, move songs to a new computer when I buy a new system etc. Right now do all these tasks is at least a cumbersome procedure and a lot of people loose licenses etc.
Make things easy and simple and people will buy more music.
Fritzly
#12 Cyranthus on 17 Dec 2004 - 17:28
woopie woopie wow! aint stopping me!
#13 cork1958 on 17 Dec 2004 - 19:26
Hmm? Will the RIAA ever learn?







Not!!
#14 HydroPonic on 17 Dec 2004 - 19:29
I have already sent the RIAA an email telling them to kiss my ...

Gotta love Canada
#15 ThaCrip on 18 Dec 2004 - 03:26
the way i see the RIAA is in the end of the day those guys are VERY GREEDY people!!! ... they might be losing some profits but is it actually worth ruining some peoples lives over some BS piracy stuff?... cause in the end of the day there still gonna be rich! so i think it's bs for em to sue people especially when they sue 12 year olds with grandmas that dont know nothing about pc's!

also cd's prices rising aint helping matters at all! ... i would not mind paying 12-13 dollars for a cd but past this i think is a little bit bs.

also some artist cd's just aint worth buying... sometime they have only a couple of good songs on the entire cd and this is when downloading mp3's come in real handy ... helps avoid getting screw out of like 15 dollars for like 2-3 songs that are actually good on a cd.

personally everytime there RIAA gets screwed out of money i think it's REALLY GREAT! cause of the facts i stated above about how there still gonna be rich in the end of the day.

and then u got em trying to get rid of p2p type stuff and just about everything else that makes technology good in the courts! i mean WTF man... those guys are pretty low in the eyes of the general public!
#16 Krpano on 18 Dec 2004 - 12:32
money, money, money !!!
Thats it...they are not losing money with p2p..
They r just not winning that extra money from the small number of ppl who dl from p2p.
This craziness with the copyrights will end soon, i believe....its just like when the VHS and Betamax came out, after a while they forgot about and discovered that it wasnt a real trouble.
Buy online music, for what ?...as it was said, after u cant do anything with the file because u risk to transgress the copyrights laws.
Imo all this crap is going to far.
Btw, when was the last time u saw a good movie ?
I use to rent about 3-5 DVDs at the videoclub per week and ffs, there has been LONG time i dont see anything good....all i see is sh!t movies with terribles screenplays and histories.
This is sad.
#17 Hills420 on 18 Dec 2004 - 15:27
this is the stupidest idea...
#18 Snollygoster on 18 Dec 2004 - 21:04
I would pay for the $12 cd if the money would go mostly to the artist/band. $10 goes to record companies, $1.5 to the stores and 50 cents to the artist. No way I am paying them. If I like the artists I pay good money to see them live and cleanse myself from the sin that I downloaded their album.
(3 replies) #19 roxics on 18 Dec 2004 - 21:05
My ideas are a little more revolutionary and won't ever happen but hey here they are.

Record lables should be outlawed. Musicians should have to do it all on their own. Just like indie muscians do. They sell songs over the net or on CD themselves. Suddenly you'll find that only the truely good music is being bought. A system of survival of the fittest on a track by track basis. No more cookie cutter music just because it will make a lable money. No more million dollar artists buying million dollar homes and sport cars and $10,000 hand bags. Because really they may write a good song but does that really means they should get that kind of money versus some guy or girl that goes to work every day 40 hours a week just to make ends meet.

It's just like sports players that have million dollar deals. For what? To hit a ball around. The rest of us do that for fun. Give them $50,000 grand a year and if they aren't happy with that they can go be a plumber or something. Same with movies and movie stars. As an independent filmmaker I could go for that.

Sure it's not a very well thought out idea. But hey whatever.
#19.1 SquareSoft0 on 19 Dec 2004 - 04:02
Well said.
#19.2 T-Grey on 20 Dec 2004 - 03:59
and in a matter of weeks american society will collapse...

we need the huge idols, as much as I hate to admit it. We need the RIAA to maintain a feeling of community, music that's universally known. I can talk to anyone on the street about brittany spears, but not about belle & sebastian. that's b/c of the RIAA. No doubt we need major reforms, but to dissolve it completely is not as easy as you think.
#19.3 MyMaster on 20 Dec 2004 - 15:26
ahhh, wishful thinking

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