Is the record industry getting out of hand?

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Single mom overwhelmed by recording industry suit

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Of course they have gone too far, they say and I quote :

Quote:

telling Lafky she could owe up to $540,000, but the companies would settle for $4,000.

To me this is akin to a shakedown.

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Things like this make me want to completely boycott the entire music industry.

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It seems they always go after the little guy.

My advice would be to just not pay it, as the old saying goes in my part of country, "can't get blood out of a turnip."

But then they would probably take the poor woman's house away. And now that they have new backruptcy laws she won't be able to file backruptcy either. She will probably end up on welfare but then soon there won't be any money for welfare because we are spending it all on Iraq and she and daughter will starve to death. I guess next they are going to reintroduce the debtors prisons like they used to have in England a long time ago.

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Wow. I really didn't think that this thread would even mention Iraq... I had hoped it wouldn't anyways.

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Ok, first of all I certainly sympathize with this woman and her daughter. I think the RIAA could cut a little slack here, but that leads to another question.

What would you have the RIAA do? Trading music online is a copyright violation. Music companies have an obligation to their shareholders to return a profit, which is harder to do when millions of people are stealing their product. So what should they do? Close their eyes and hope it goes away, or prosecute people for violating their copyright?

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CoastalRat wrote:

So what should they do? Close their eyes and hope it goes away, or prosecute people for violating their copyright?

They are just now (3-4 years too late) doing what they should do:

1) Quit peeing their pants about digital media. Realize that it's the future and quit fighting it, monetize it.

2) Repeat: "Digital media doesn't steal, people do."

3) Once the fears subside, sell music online at more palatable prices.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

CoastalRat wrote:
So what should they do? Close their eyes and hope it goes away, or prosecute people for violating their copyright?

They are just now (3-4 years too late) doing what they should do:

1) Quit peeing their pants about digital media. Realize that it's the future and quit fighting it, monetize it.

2) Repeat: "Digital media doesn't steal, people do."

3) Once the fears subside, sell music online at more palatable prices.

Actually I agree with you. They were definately late in getting into digital media. And I think that given time, the illegal downloading with decrease as more music is made available to buy online at competitive prices. That decrease will be hastened however by their continuing to prosecute copyright violations. When people realize they are serious about protecting their rights, then people will move from downloading illegally to downloading and paying. But unless they are perceived as being serious about violators, why would most people pay for what they are getting for free now?

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If I tape a song from the radio, am I still guilty of pirating it? I know that I have tapes from as far back 1977 with songs on from the radio.

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McGentrix wrote:

If I tape a song from the radio, am I still guilty of pirating it? I know that I have tapes from as far back 1977 with songs on from the radio.

Technically, yes. Although the RIAA has never had much interest in going after that type of violation because 1) the quality of the recording was not good and did not lend itself to being mass duplicated and 2) there was no cheap, easy, non-time consuming way for an individual to share/sell copies of that recording.

Digital media gives the ability to make a high quality copy and the internet makes distributing/sharing the copy quick and easy.

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Is the record industry getting out of hand?

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