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RIAA Gestapo

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I have not been following the various RIAA-versus-P2P-user legal cases very closely, but was profoundly shocked by the testimony in the following deposition:

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/deposition-of-riaas-expert-available.html

If this how their alleged experts think, then the RIAA has really gone off the deep end.

This makes me want to go out and rip a whole bunch of tracks just to spite the RIAA — and when it comes to Intellectual Propery law I’m about as law-abiding as they come! To the best of my knowledge and belief, every byte on the computers in my home and office is there legally. My wife and I have an extensive music and video collection FOR WHICH WE PAID. I have never used P2P software. My wife and I fully appreciate the value of IP: I’m in pharmaceutical research with my name on a US patent, my wife is a medical writer and editor. Neither of us would have a job without strong IP protections for our employers.

But despite all that, the RIAA’s Gestapo like approach is making me totally disgusted with them — and if they have turned me off I find it extremely difficult to imagine how they can possibly think for ten consecutive nanoseconds that they actually can have a long-term future if they continue their current attitude. For the moment the law is on their side, thanks to all the bribery^H^H^H^H^H^H^lobbyists. But in a democracy, being universally detested is NOT a recipe for long-term survival. I cannot imagine the DMCA lasting another five years in the current climate.

Topic

I gave up on RIAA years ago

In reply to RIAA Gestapo

When they started using CDs and DVDs and still charged the same, or higher prices than the older technology. The cost of making a CD is only a few percent of the cost of making an old vinyl record (45 or LP) yet they charged the same for them. The cost of making a DVD is only a few percent of the cost of making a VHS tape, yet they charged the same or more for the DVD. It just showed they were more interested in ripping people off than in customer care.

I know small time music professionals who record their own CDs, using professional studios etc, and they have a professional company run off the CDs in 5,000 cd lots. Because they are small time clients, they pay a lot more than the big companies do per unit. Yet they still sell the CDs for around $10 to $15 each and claim over half is profit.

One singer said it was funny. She did her own run on two CDs and made more from selling 4,500 CDs at A$10.00, than she got from one of the big companies that made and sold 180,000 copies of another CD of hers at A$25.00 each.

Makes you wonder where all that money goes, don’t it. No wonder mobs like RIAA can buy politicians.

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