Comments on: Ripped your Adams CDs to your computer? The RIAA says pay up.

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:45:24 +0000

Funny you should mention that, Gary (or, should I mention this is funny?):

http://www.newstarget.com/022437.html

By: Gary Harmon

Gary Harmon — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:40:00 +0000

What about the complete copy in the wetware in my head?

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:09:33 +0000

*Very* slightly, Kyle. Notice the part where the Sony/BMG attorney in their testimony in a case this past fall tried to make the same claim. Beyond the lawsuits, these are the guys lobbying in D.C., and one reason the copyright/royalty laws keep getting more and more out-of-whack for anyone other than Big Music.

By: Kyle Gann

Kyle Gann — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:17:21 +0000

Some – slightly – reassuring clarification here:

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/01/02/riaa_suit/index.html

By: Dennis Bathory-Kitsz

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:10:54 +0000

Yeah, Steve, I’m so sick of the whole RIAA barn-door litigation thing. It seems to me that all the licensing agencies and copyright litigators have destroyed what they intended to preserve: respect and reward for the effort of creation. I thought copyright was a pretty reasonable concept until it became a corporate weapon. Once the DMCA arrived, all reasonableness was done with pretty much for good. Don’t, as they say, get me started.

Dennis

By: Tom Myron

Tom Myron — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:34:20 +0000

Hey, don’t get me wrong, the term “fishing expedition” implies that fish are gonna die. Shaking down the customer base is what lawyers (& gangsters for that matter) call “an attention getter”. My hunch is that the RIAA, in unleashing a particularly virulent form of litigator on Apple’s customers, is angling to ultimately shake Apple itself down for a big settlement. These are guys who have no illusions about seeing a big pay day inside of a courtroom.

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:21:50 +0000

Gee Dennis, I guess if I put my CDs on a table outside my front door with a “FREE, TAKE ONE” sign on it, they’ll be slapping an infringement suit on me in no time!

By: Dennis Bathory-Kitsz

Dennis Bathory-Kitsz — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:46:16 +0000

There’s been a follow-up to this story, which is that the files were in a public sharing folder. RIAA hooks their typically pitiful case on that.

Dennis

By: Anthony Cornicello

Anthony Cornicello — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:30:47 +0000

Somehow, I wonder when Apple will step up to the plate on this one. Basically, their current empire rests on the whole iPod/iTunes/iPhone technology, which the RIAA is calling into question. Wouldn’t it be a matter of time before Apple feels that the RIAA is infringing on their business operations?

By: Steve Layton

Steve Layton — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 18:26:32 +0000

Though they may just end up fishing for any one of us, no matter if we’ve ever file-shared or not. Innocent, so no worries, right? Except that if you don’t want to pay them a few thousand dollars they demand in a letter you receive out of the blue, you only need to spend a few tens of thousands of dollars to defend yourself in a civil suit. A suit that could be dropped by them at any moment, if their claim starts looking bad, but which will still end up costing you your own thousands to pay off your own defense. For the Kafka-esque extent of their “fishing expedition”, pockets, and tactics, this link is provides a good overview:

http://info.riaalawsuits.us/