The RIAA and Movie Industry Think They Are Above The Law

This should be no surprise, but the RIAA and their cronies in the film industry believe that standard business laws should not apply to them. Both industries are lobbying politicians to receive a special exception to tough pretexting laws that were brought about in response to the HP case where employees were lying to journalists to get information. According to them, they need this right to pretext in order to catch pirates. The biggest problem with this is that the alterations they have for the laws leave such huge loopholes that they would be rendered useless. To some extent I can see why the RIAA could use these changes. At the same time part of me finds it very disturbing that the RIAA is trying to receive legislative support to more or less lie to average American citizens as they attempt to sue them for something that a majority of the population practices. If I was a lawyer for the RIAA I'd try to find a link between illegal downloading and Al-Quaeda. That's how you get legislation passed! Hell, that's how you get wars started!

Nine Inch Nails Works A Genius Marketing Ploy And The RIAA Says No

Nine Inch Nails has a new album coming out on April 17th by the name "Year Zero". Instead of the usual single released to MTV or two songs offered on the official website Reznor and his band have taken a far more interesting method of promotion. Ideas ranging from tour shirts with highlighted letters that revealed cryptic websites, to leaving flashdrives in bathrooms of their shows across Europe containing a single unreleased song from the album per country have created a huge amount of buzz within the community. The concept worked great with major fan sites hosted the songs and forums with hundreds upon hundreds of theories and stories coming up concerning the new album. It was interesting, it was effective, and it was too much for the RIAA. Apparently they are threatening to sue anyone who hosts the released songs despite the fact that it was the band's idea to release these songs. The amazing part is the only songs being circulated are the ones directly chosen by Reznor himself. The album hasn't been leaked in its entirety and it seems like most fans are content since they have enough new music to whet their appetite. I fail to see the difference between this and a band's website putting up a few songs off their new album but I guess the RIAA sees far deeper into the issue than I do... In my opinion, this is one of the most well executed promotions for an album I've ever seen. By coming on multiple fronts/formats and making the die-hard fans into a legion of little hype machines, you are able to get major word of mouth while at the same time stay credible. The RIAA is actually hurting the artist they are supposed to be helping by stopping this word of mouth effort. Let's just hope more bands use this style of promotion and that next time the RIAA doesn't mess everything up. For more information click here.

NEWS: Only One Fourth of Students Threatened By RIAA Pay

Apparently, of the 400 or so students sued only around 100 of them have responded to the RIAA's threats against them. As seen in the Merchant case, these letters have no legal weight and most students recognize this. It's still to be seen how the RIAA will respond to this non-reaction. If they can identify students to IP addresses and can confirm they are the ones sharing the music, the lawsuits they could create would be disastrous. Only time will tell if the RIAA's bite is as big as its bark.

NEWS: Lawyer Fights Back Against RIAA

In what seems to be the current trend of late, the RIAA is being met with resistance to their pleas for money from supposed perpetrators in the war against music piracy. Barry and Cathy Merchant were recently sent a letter from the RIAA claiming that they had infringed copyright law. They were given the option to settle for $3750 (they don't get the student discount). Instead of complying blindly, their lawyer Merl Ledford has written a counterpoint to the RIAA claiming that not only is the RIAA's threat letter unfounded, it is also illegal in a court of law. According to the RIAA, the Merchants had been downloading and uploading a lot of gangster rap, which according to Ledford is preposterous considering the Merchants are a middle aged, conservative couple with no possession of music anything like that. Beyond that, the letter has about as much validity as an insurance company attempting you to use their services. You can read Ledford's letter here. As expected, the RIAA has dropped their case against the couple.

NEWS: Two Schools Fight Back Against RIAA

There has been an interesting turn of events in the RIAA vs college students battle of late. Apparently two of the colleges with students being sued have decided to fight back in their own ways. The University of Wisconsin has said that it refuses to divulge the names of the students being sought. It will only comply if the RIAA gets a subpoena from a judge to divulge the information. Even more interesting is the University of Nebraska who cannot comply because their IP addresses are reset each month leaving no way of identifying the students in question. Apparently that answer isn't good enough for the RIAA considering a spokesperson criticized the university for not keeping this information. Obviously upset with the criticism and the nagging the University of Nebraska has demanded that the RIAA pay them for their wasted time in this case. Hopefully other universities will follow suit in defending their students from the clutches of the RIAA and their cronies.

Blanket Licenses as Music's Future

At a SXSW '07 panel Peter Jennings, the manager of The Clash, Pink Floyd, and others as well as Cambridge educated economist stated that the future of music should be a blanket license. If each music listener pays an annual fee of $50, the music industry as a whole would make more money than it currently does while ending the frustrations caused by old world vs new world complications with DRM, licensing, and pricing. Unfortunately, current models and conceptions within the RIAA will probably keep this from being a possibility in the near future. In my opinion the best method for this to happen would be at the hands of pirates. If they can make an illegal but easy option then major labels would have no choice but attempt to capitalize on its success and evetually we may eventually hit this utopian music ideal where everyone gets paid and music is easily heard by everybody. Only time will tell...

UPDATE: Ohio University Students Sued

As promised, the RIAA begun its string of university based lawsuits in the humble state of Ohio. Fifty Ohio University students were served lawsuits based on their university e-mail accounts. All of these can be settled for a "mere" $3,000. This might sound ridiculous but in fact it could be a generous offer when each copyright infringing song offered via p2p can be legally worth $750. For example, one Ohio University student had 787 music files shared illegally making their case worth over $600,000 if settled in court.

NEWS: RIAA steps up lawsuits against students

Business Week reports that the RIAA claims to be sending out around 400 letters to students at thirteen different universities in the next month. These letters offer the opportunity for students who have broken copyright laws to settle at a "discounted" rate. The trade group plans to continue this action every month increasing the number of letters until universities comply in stopping illegal file sharing within their own networks. The RIAA has sued three times as many students this year as they did last year.

NEWS: The RIAA is Dumb

Yes, it's true, the RIAA isn't the smartest group of people out there. In response to Steve Job's essay about record labels dropping their DRM types they issued this statement:

"Apple’s offer to license Fairplay to other technology companies is a welcome breakthrough and would be a real victory for fans, artists and labels. There have been many services seeking a license to the Apple DRM. This would enable the interoperability that we have been urging for a very long time."

The best part about this statement is that Jobs mentions absolutely nothing in his essay about opening up Fairplay. He merely wanted the music industry to be a little bit more mac friendly, Fairplay and all. Maybe we should all do as Bill Gates says and "just buy a cd and rip it."

NEWS: Woman successfully countersues RIAA

Debbie Foster has been successful in her counter suit against the RIAA for their actions taken against her last summer when it was decided that actions taken on her isp account are not necessarily her responsibility. She will receive $50,000 for legal fees along with time away from work. This case is extremely important since it sets precedent for future cases where the RIAA might be less likely to sue since they will be forced to pay all legal fees in case of a loss. More can be read here.

NEWS: Teenager Sues Record Industry

Sixteen year old Robert Santangelo is counter-suing the Record Companies that are currently in the process of suing him. His lawyer claims that the actions of the labels were "damaging the boy's reputation, distracting him from school and costing him legal fees." He might be able to pull it off considering his mother successfully challenged the lawsuit placed against her for his actions earlier on refusing to settle like most people attacked. More information can be found here.

NEWS: RIAA arrests mix-taper

According to the New York Times the RIAA raided the Atlanta office of famous hip-hop executive DJ Drama, whose real name is Tyree Simmons on accounts that he had been illegally distributing unlicensed materials. DJ Drama is famous in the hip-hop world for his "Gangsta Grillz" mix-tapes that have set the tone for the highly popular "Dirty South" rap movement which is the top selling of all hip-hop genres. These mix-tapes (actually on cd-r) were distributed featuring rare tracks, alternate versions, free-styles and other songs not easy to hear otherwise. The artists themselves love the opportunity to be featured and the labels that present them have taken a blind eye, if not even being supportive of the practice for the free publicity and credibility they provide. These mixes are sold for cheap at credible record stores, including online music stores like iTunes (who carry several of Drama's mixes.) Bail for him and his assistant has been set for $100,000 and while this isn't the first mix-tape arrest by the RIAA it is the most large profile one to date. Once again the RIAA has decided to play god "representing" artists and the labels they are on despite the true wishes of these groups. For more information you can read the Times article here.