You're correct. They didn't go after the average Joe making 3 copies for friends. They DID, however, go after people that were making 3,000 copies a week and selling them.

No, you're not selling it if it's shared by Kazaa, but you are making it super easy for anyone, anywhere with a pc and Kazaa to download it and share it too.

It's not really the fact that you're sharing it, it's that anyone with a computer and a net connection and easily download just about anything they want, for free. That's what they are going after.

Plus they have no way of knowing if John Smith in Scranton, PA is making a copy or not. You pay with cash and it's 100% annonymous. Kazaa, is not. You have a name. It's traceable.

 

Close, but not quite. That case of the RIAA sueing the 12 year old girl... her mother BOUGHT a copy of Kazaa from some ripoff website (yes, she was dumb enough to PAY for free software) and therefore they thought it was legal to download the songs.

They didn't know.

There have also been cases where a college kid comes home for the summer, put's Kazaa on the parents computer, downloads 500 songs and leaves to go back to college. Then the parents get sued and have no idea what for. It's their computer, they have no way of proving their son did it.

Most people know and those people should not bitch. But the record companies are also using this to draw attention away from why it's there in the first place. PRICE FIXING!

It does NOT cost them that much to make, produce, record and distribute a cd. Yes they are lowering prices a bit now... but I don't think it's enough. A new cd from ANYONE should not be more than $10. Double cd's and with bonus stuff excluded. Double cd's should be no more than $15.

 

:werd:

 

I am not advocating the theft of music at all...although I do have quite a few MP3s on my list.

What is happening is people are tired of getting ripped off by the industry.

Example:
I hear a song on the radio and go out to the store and shell out $20 - 25 an album, I get it to my car rip open the packaging then listen to it. Suddenly I relize that the album I just bought only has maybe 3 songs on it that are worth paying for....so the average album being 17 songs anymore I just paid $6.50 per song and I feel ripped off (based on a $20 album) now if I had been able to listen first to the whole album I may not have bought it.

I am not saying the RIAA is responsible for poor music talent at all but the pricing of albums is an issue they can and need to adress.

Music sales are down but I believe only a small portion of the drop can be attributed to MP3 file sharing as opposed to people just being fed up with being gouged an overinflated price when maybe .10 of each albums sale actually makes it to the artist...and thats a generous number I state.

 

Wow!! playing both sides of the fence today aren't we

 

then make a petition to address music prices, not a petition asking to be excused of infriging copyright laws.

and there are a lot of places that actually let you listen to the whole CD before buying them now. i know barnes and noble offer that.

 

select albums only.

They have been trying to get them to lower the prices for years now but they want the most money they can get. Gas stations and other companies get hit for price gouging all the time so why not the entertainment industry as well?

Oh thats right they have "artistic merit"

 

:gives: if its stealing.. thats not the point.. privacy is the point..

"criminals have rights too"

 

For some reason the debate team always tried to convince me to join them... but I always talked them out of it and told them to try again next week. h:

 

:lol:

But you do have valid points on both arguments.

I agree the artists should get the money from these suits...however, the artists are not getting the money from the suits, instead it all goes back into the RIAA legal fund and pays someones salary to "protect artists rights"

I think there are only about 800 artists actually involved in these cases at most.

do the math folks the ends do not always justify the means.