Re: [microsound] RIAA & copyright..

[macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I'm just glad I already downloaded all my favorite Britney Spears from
Kazaa and switched to soulseek *:->

m mouth wrote:
>
>
> http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2653695
>
>
>
> Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers
> Tue April 29, 2003 04:54 PM ET
> By Sue Zeidler
>
> LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The record industry opened a
> new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday
> by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song
> swappers with an instant message warning that they
> could be "easily" identified and face "legal
> penalties."
>
> About 200,000 users of the Grokster and Kazaa
> file-sharing services initially received the warning
> notice on Tuesday and millions more will get notices
> in coming weeks.
>
> "We're expecting to send at least a million messages
> or more per week because these users are offering to
> distribute music on Kazaa or Grokster," said Cary
> Sherman, president of the Recording Industry
> Association of America.
>
> The move comes days after a federal judge delivered a
> stunning setback to its efforts to shut down
> song-swapping services, and a day after Apple Computer
> Inc. unveiled the latest industry-endorsed commercial
> service aimed at wooing users from the free networks.
>
> U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson on Friday
> ruled that the Grokster and Morpheus services should
> not be shut down because they cannot control what is
> traded over their systems.
>
> While recording and movie officials said they will
> appeal the ruling, they at least found solace in the
> judge's opinion that the users themselves are
> violating copyrights.
>
> Sherman said the messaging effort was planned long
> ago, but that the timing was fortunate because users
> may misinterpret Wilson's ruling to think copyright
> infringement is legal.
>
> Others agreed. "The industry needed to step up their
> campaign after the unfavorable ruling last week, but
> at the same time its a natural extension of their
> efforts to educate consumers on copyright violations,"
> said Lee Black, analyst with Jupiter Research.
>
> Its not the first time the industry has targeted
> individual users. In April, the RIAA sued four
> students who were operating networks on three college
> campuses where it claims the networks were being used
> to illegally trade copies of music files.
>
> The warning on Tuesday was sent by the RIAA on behalf
> of the world's big record labels owned by AOL Time
> Warner Inc. , EMI Group Plc, Bertelsmann AG,Vivendi
> Universal . and Sony Corp.
>
> DON'T STEAL MUSIC
>
> The message said in part: "It appears that you are
> offering copyrighted music to others from your
> computer. ...When you break the law, you risk legal
> penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk:
> DON'T STEAL MUSIC, either by offering it to others to
> copy or downloading it on a 'file-sharing' system like
> this. When you offer music on these systems, you are
> not anonymous and you can easily be identified."
>
> Sherman described the move as educational, aimed at
> informing users that offering copyrighted music on
> peer-to-peer networks is illegal and that they face
> consequences when they participate in this illegal
> activity.
>
> The message was designed by a third party who utilized
> the existing capability of the peer-to-peer networks'
> instant message systems. The RIAA said by using song
> titles, it was identifying users who were posting
> songs for others to download as targets for the
> message.
>
> "We have a designated list of major copyrighted works
> and we're sending (them) to designated users to let
> them know that we know they are offering these songs
> on these networks and that they are not anonymous," he
> said.
>
> Sherman said there was no plan to take further action
> against these users for now. "There is no next step.
> We are just letting them know it's illegal and they
> are not anonymous," said Sherman.
>
> "The (our) computers will maintain a list of who it
> went to, but it's unrelated to any other program," he
> said.
>
> "We're not going to change behavior overnight. The
> only way we can measure this is to see if fewer people
> are offering files on Grokster and Kazaa," he said.
>
> Some experts doubted its effectiveness. "I think a
> small number of users will be deterred by this effort.
> It's not going to come as a surprise to them the RIAA
> finds it unlawful," said Jonathan Band, a copyright
> lawyer for Morrison & Foerster.
>
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