$80,000 a song, what a deal!!

[LIBuffettFan]

I'm guessing everyone has seen this story about the woman who decided to fight the RIAA lawsuit for music piracy. I'm thinking if I were her I would have taken the settlement!!

She now owes the RIAA 1.92 million in penalties. it appears the moral of the story is if you download, be sure not to share as thats how they caught her.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading

[The Lost Manatee]

I'm waiting for her countersuit since RIAA illegally hacked into her computer in order to gather their evidence that she had illegally downloaded copyrighted material. RIAA uses private investigators to do this and they do not have the legal authority to hack into anyone's computer.

[he came from london]

piratebay have been found guilty in the European courts but are appealing. They have just won a seat in the European elections

[LIBuffettFan]

I'm waiting for her countersuit since RIAA illegally hacked into her computer in order to gather their evidence that she had illegally downloaded copyrighted material. RIAA uses private investigators to do this and they do not have the legal authority to hack into anyone's computer.

I hadn't heard about the hacking, I heard they hired an internet investigation company that recovered her ip from the ISP and they used peer to peer software to acces her shared files and downloaded a sample as evidence. She apparently was sharing 1700 songs. I didnt hear that they illegally hacked her computer to get this stuff, now thats interesting.

[Spider Johnson]

RIAA and their lawsuits are a very bad joke. RIAA does not give any of the cash to the artists involved. At least I have as of yet to see where they did. Only RIAA and the lawyers are collecting the big $$$.

RIAA and it's lawyers are so rabid they went after a little girl and her lunch money. After being called on such conduct they decided to back off.

Good luck with RIAA on collecting the $$$. You can't get blood from a rock. When RIAA starts paying the artist involved and stops picking on/terrorizing little kids and individuals,the artist and people might take them seriously.
Why hasn't RIAA or ASCAP went after those that mega bootleg, instead of the "little people"?

Maybe one day RIAA and ASCAP will be honest in paying off the artists that make the $$$ for them.

Meanwhile RIAA and ASCAP's reputation of being a bunch of selfish greedy organized thugs and rip-offs, remains unchanged. Ask Don Henley for example.

[Skibo]

Interesting that a jury would come up with that figure. I think there is more to this than a nice person just sharing 24 songs. Evidence illegally obtained? that may overturn everything but still if you are guilty I really don't care how the evidence is obtained. blah blah rights I know.

[Glorfindel7]

wSs

I was thinking the exact same thing... For example she could have been sharing songs that were NOT yet released on an album (like studio tracks).... This is what inflamed Metallica a few years back... The damage from distribution of one of THOSE songs that had not yet been "cleaned up" is far more serious.

Also download companies like Apple and Amazon pay a FEW MILLION to the artists for the rights to a few songs, even though they only charge 1.99 a song because they expect to make it back in download volume...

It wasn't like she was sharing a song online with friends, she pretty much put the song out on the internet for ANYONE to grab... We all know how many "hits" a POPULAR video on YouTube gets... Song downloads are NOT tracked.

She had 1700 songs in her "network", but only 24 of the songs had enough to merit punishment...Unfortunately when you take EVERYTHING into consideration, I think 80,000 might be a reasonable number.

[TropicalTroubador]

RIAA and their lawsuits are a very bad joke. RIAA does not give any of the cash to the artists involved. At least I have as of yet to see where they did. Only RIAA and the lawyers are collecting the big $$$.

RIAA and it's lawyers are so rabid they went after a little girl and her lunch money. After being called on such conduct they decided to back off.

Good luck with RIAA on collecting the $$$. You can't get blood from a rock. When RIAA starts paying the artist involved and stops picking on/terrorizing little kids and individuals,the artist and people might take them seriously.
Why hasn't RIAA or ASCAP went after those that mega bootleg, instead of the "little people"?

Maybe one day RIAA and ASCAP will be honest in paying off the artists that make the $$$ for them.

Meanwhile RIAA and ASCAP's reputation of being a bunch of selfish greedy organized thugs and rip-offs, remains unchanged. Ask Don Henley for example.

Amen.

When the average label artist makes less than a dollar out of the $12-18 for every CD sold, if we're gonna start punishing the people most responsible for "stealing from the artists," it's not gonna be this woman. It's gonna be the labels.

I would *love* to discover that one of my songs was on her playlist, so that I could send a lawyer letter to the RIAA for $80K. B@stards.

[JustDucky]

Ah, Metallica.

There's always this bit, from http://everything2.com/title/Garage%252C%2520Inc.

"Lars Ulrich's collection of vinyl and bootlegged NWOBHM is what inspired himself and James Hetfield to form Metallica..."

I recall reading that on the Garage, Inc. album Lars said something about trading tapes with friends.

Isn't that essentially the same thing as what Napster etc. were all about?

The biggest mindfuuck is that people refuse to spend $15 on a CD but they'll spend $120 for a concert ticket. That is just so bizarre.

[Spider Johnson]

RIAA and their lawsuits are a very bad joke. RIAA does not give any of the cash to the artists involved. At least I have as of yet to see where they did. Only RIAA and the lawyers are collecting the big $$$.

RIAA and it's lawyers are so rabid they went after a little girl and her lunch money. After being called on such conduct they decided to back off.

Good luck with RIAA on collecting the $$$. You can't get blood from a rock. When RIAA starts paying the artist involved and stops picking on/terrorizing little kids and individuals,the artist and people might take them seriously.
Why hasn't RIAA or ASCAP went after those that mega bootleg, instead of the "little people"?

Maybe one day RIAA and ASCAP will be honest in paying off the artists that make the $$$ for them.

Meanwhile RIAA and ASCAP's reputation of being a bunch of selfish greedy organized thugs and rip-offs, remains unchanged. Ask Don Henley for example.

Amen.

When the average label artist makes less than a dollar out of the $12-18 for every CD sold, if we're gonna start punishing the people most responsible for "stealing from the artists," it's not gonna be this woman. It's gonna be the labels.

I would *love* to discover that one of my songs was on her playlist, so that I could send a lawyer letter to the RIAA for $80K. B@stards.

NONE of the RIAA/ASCAP victims have went to trial until this one. At least I have not heard of any that actually. They were all settled out of court.

Perhaps if everyone had said let's go to court. What are you going to get? Then again they went after a litle girl that lived in subsidized housing lunch money.

I have seen supposed ASCAP representives in bars and restaurants wanting fees for the songs being played on he radio. This also cost some local players some gigs because the greedy leeches told the owner they were owed a fee for anyone playing the songs. At least one owner stood up them and said "Sue me. I will see you in court." They never came back and the owner never heard from them again.
When RIAA and ASCAP actually stand up and protect the artist, instead of the real pirates, they MIGHT gain some respectability.

Meanwhile, I wish you all the best of luck with the legalized rip-off gangs. I have one or two friends that are players, singers, entertainers, and writers. As a song from a few years ago said...."...the music is sold by lawyers..."

If you haven't yet, take a look at what Don Henley had to say about the recording industry infront of Congress. Just google/search for it.
It is not hard to find.

[TropicalTroubador]

RIAA and their lawsuits are a very bad joke. RIAA does not give any of the cash to the artists involved. At least I have as of yet to see where they did. Only RIAA and the lawyers are collecting the big $$$.

RIAA and it's lawyers are so rabid they went after a little girl and her lunch money. After being called on such conduct they decided to back off.

Good luck with RIAA on collecting the $$$. You can't get blood from a rock. When RIAA starts paying the artist involved and stops picking on/terrorizing little kids and individuals,the artist and people might take them seriously.
Why hasn't RIAA or ASCAP went after those that mega bootleg, instead of the "little people"?

Maybe one day RIAA and ASCAP will be honest in paying off the artists that make the $$$ for them.

Meanwhile RIAA and ASCAP's reputation of being a bunch of selfish greedy organized thugs and rip-offs, remains unchanged. Ask Don Henley for example.

Amen.

When the average label artist makes less than a dollar out of the $12-18 for every CD sold, if we're gonna start punishing the people most responsible for "stealing from the artists," it's not gonna be this woman. It's gonna be the labels.

I would *love* to discover that one of my songs was on her playlist, so that I could send a lawyer letter to the RIAA for $80K. B@stards.

NONE of the RIAA/ASCAP victims have went to trial until this one. At least I have not heard of any that actually. They were all settled out of court.

Perhaps if everyone had said let's go to court. What are you going to get? Then again they went after a litle girl that lived in subsidized housing lunch money.

I have seen supposed ASCAP representives in bars and restaurants wanting fees for the songs being played on he radio. This also cost some local players some gigs because the greedy leeches told the owner they were owed a fee for anyone playing the songs. At least one owner stood up them and said "Sue me. I will see you in court." They never came back and the owner never heard from them again.
When RIAA and ASCAP actually stand up and protect the artist, instead of the real pirates, they MIGHT gain some respectability.

Meanwhile, I wish you all the best of luck with the legalized rip-off gangs. I have one or two friends that are players, singers, entertainers, and writers. As a song from a few years ago said...."...the music is sold by lawyers..."

If you haven't yet, take a look at what Don Henley had to say about the recording industry infront of Congress. Just google/search for it.
It is not hard to find.

Let me preface this by saying that I am an ASCAP member.

In this case, I don't think it's ASCAP half so much as the RIAA and the big labels. Different people doing different jobs.

That said...as an independent artist, ASCAP makes it d@mn hard for me to get gigs sometimes. Because a lot of the local bars won't have live music or *anything* that might bring one of the PROs' (Performance Rights Organizations, aka ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) commission-fed enforcers down on them looking for money. On average, it apparently costs $1000 or more to license all three PROs per year. For a lot of places, that's the difference between making it and not, especially these days.

And do I see any of that money, when I play gigs with my music in these places? Not yet. It's buried in a string of zeros to the right of the decimal point, compared with the Big Artists. And their lawyers.

On the gripping hand, I do appreciate that the PROs are there, to help collect sync monies when my stuff gets used in movies and TV, and if someone ever covers my stuff, to get me the 9.5 cents per copy I'm entitled to as the writer/publisher.