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RIAA Gestapo

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by mdhealy

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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.

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by deadly ernest

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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