“Obama Sides With RIAA, Supports $150,000 Fine per Music Track”.
I’m not going to rub it in your face that I told you so — that Joe Biden is the antichrist and that his RIAA/MPAA buddies paid for much of that campaign — because all you’re going to say is, “It was better than voting for the alternative.” I’m not even going to point out how retarded that logic is. Instead I will offer you HOPE:
Pirate Bay Announces IPREDATOR Global Anonymity Service.
Posted In: news
It’s a small price to pay. Both literally and figuratively. Quit whining. OBAMA!
Obama is just another in a long list of liars……he’s already raised taxes on indiviuals earning less than $250,000….just check out the funding for SCHIPS
Eh, I don’t give a shit about taxes. Broke is broke as far as I’m concerned — they’re not going to get much more out of me. It’s the corporate whoring that is inexcusable and this will be the administration that destroys net neutrality to make their corporate friends rich. It’s the same “we’ll create this problem and then you’ll make millions fixing it” trick as Haliburton but without the war…so less people are going to notice.
Obama isn’t anti-business enough for you?? I guess I don’t get how, in your world, artists, filmakers, etc, get reimbursed for their investments, if we should all be able to copy/download/use their work for free?
things are valued at what people are willing to pay for them.
i’m definitely not willing to pay for music. PROXIES 4EVAH
Gendarmes,
In your world, downloading one song is a crime that warrants a $150,000 fine? What is that, like 1.8 million per album? Shouldn’t there be a more reasonable punishment to fit the crime?
Regardless, this is more about corporate America being able to watch, track and log your internet activity and then decide how much money you owe them. Be afraid.
I imagine the $150k is used as a deterrent against stealing the fruits of someone else’s labor, not the fair market value for a song - that has already been established to be around $0.99 or so.
“Greedy” corporations helped make this country great and gave you and your folks jobs and cars and ‘things,’ but, admittedly, they can overstep just like our fucked-up government (90% taxation, anyone?). So I am afraid.
What is an appropriate fine? How should record companies (or musicians, or whatever) make the money they need to record their music? How should things work in your world, comrade?
I’m fine with paying twice the market value for anything I get caught stealing, as long as 100% of that fine goes directly to the artists who created the content.
But again, this is not the point. Focus on the real issue. This is a privacy invasion disguised as a copyright issue. Artists are being used as victims so ISPs can be given more power to monitor your activity. The days of all-you-can-eat unmonitored internet for one low monthly fee are coming to an end. The buffet is closing.
They could start by repealing the Telecommunications Reform Act and dismantling Clear Channel. Going back to regional radio stations would do a fair bit towards making it easier for smaller, independent artists to get played on the regular radio and not just special programs that run at odd hours of the day or on stations that don’t normally get “channel surfers”. That would increase their audience and, possibly, merchandise sales (both music and non-music items) locally, which would then give the artists more of an ability to expand out.
And that fine won’t stop people from violating copyrights. It may stop a few people who aren’t tech savvy, but the tech to share media will get better and easier for people to use. That dam has burst. There will never be a way to sufficiently stop people from ripping albums and there’ll never be a way to keep that music from being distributed. The technology to do so will always be a step ahead of those that want to stop it.
Obama is a Marxist. Whatever benefits a bigger government he will be for. The Democrats knew about these A.I.G. bonuses long ago and are only know acting like they care because people are pissed. And of course who is going to save us from this disaster that the Government helped create? THE GOVERNMENT! As far as his support to punish illegal downloads goes, I’m sure his Socialist Government vision will benefit from it somehow.
Ugh. Really?
Okay, J-bag, you know I love you but allow me to lay this out reeeeeeeal simple-like.
1. Music is not a right. It’s a luxury. If you can’t afford it, you don’t get to have it. If the person who makes it wants to charge you $2,000,000 per track they can if they want. That is the end of the story. Some labels feel that giving it away is a good idea, and that is also their right. It’s theirs. It’s not yours. It’s not food, water or shelter. You do not have a right to it.
2. you said: ” Focus on the real issue. This is a privacy invasion disguised as a copyright issue. ”
The basis of our freedoms is in the famous quote, “my right to swing my fist ends at another man’s nose.” Essentially you were given a freedom, the Internet and anonymity, and you abused it. You used it to steal shit that wasn’t yours, and now it’s being restricted. So honestly, fuck you. You ruined the party for the rest of us who didn’t abuse our freedom. Do you remember that kid in school that would always take things a step to far and get recess taken away? You’re that guy, and you’re blaming the teacher because you took the wiffel-ball bat and beat the shit out of the ear-wax kid. It’s not the teacher’s fault. It’s yours.
Some people rape children in vans. By your rationale, they’ve ruined the party for everyone with a van and all vans should be taken away or all van owners should be monitored. (they should)
Listen, I only try to put political stuff like this into terms people can understand and relate to. Most of the time it fails miserably, but whatever. I’m bored and at work and your comments are entertaining. I figure most people reading this have at least one music track they did not pay for, so maybe someone will care.
Am I worried and outraged? Yes, but not about this. Technology is something like five years ahead of legislature. If I’m dumb enough to get caught downloading something, I deserve to be locked up based on my stupidity alone.
It’s the whole government/corporations monitoring the flow of information that people should be aware of. Remember when they took a bunch of your rights away so they could make sure you weren’t a terrorist? It looks like they’re going to do it again to make sure you’re not a terrorist downloader, all in the name of the poor struggling artists who may or may not give a shit. It’s the people who aren’t doing anything wrong that should be up in arms. Me? I should have been put down years ago.
Also, I was never the kid hitting another student with the wiffel-ball bat. I was the kid hitting the teacher with it and then blaming the ear-wax kid. I’ve been told I have serious issues with authority.
no one liked the earwax kid anyway, should have beat him with something other than a wiffel-ball bat. i blame the kids and the teachers.
You can’t go backwards to go forwards.
PLURAL!
I believe stealing music is wrong. But that is not a notion I abide by.
Conscience meter:
Would you have a problem with going up to x band and telling them, while they’re sitting at their merch booth, “hey great record, stole it from teh internets! But I’m sure you guys will will do alright, look at all these people here!”
I think that would make me feel a little embarrassed.
oh shit, nevermind. my scenario is invalid because i referenced having a lot of people at a show! SHI-
“Some people rape children in vans. By your rationale, they’ve ruined the party for everyone with a van and all vans should be taken away or all van owners should be monitored. (they should)”
Ahhhhh but Vans do have to be registered, paid a license fee for every year, have a license to operate, have a VIN number….
We can argue.
You will lose.
note: by capitalizing Vans, I’m of course speaking of the shoes.
I would have no problem doing that.
I do buy merch and records and even downloads all the time — sometimes I do this to “support” the artist, sometimes it’s easier to buy the damn thing because it’s in front of your face — this is lazy route consumerism. I’ve almost entirely given up on cds, but not quite.
I also go to shows all the time for bands I would never had heard of without getting their music from the web or from a friend on cdr. This is also good, because I’ve found it difficult to financially support things I don’t know about or can’t find.
Recorded music has value, on this we agree, but perhaps not so much as to support grand corporate endeavors and bands as multi-national brands.
An album for $15.99 on cd is over. Tower Records is over. Multi-national corporations based solely on distributing pre-recorded music is over.
Stop trying to sell me the things you think I should buy because I used to buy them and start trying to sell me things I want to buy them.
The money I paid for a cd in harmony house in 1992 was for on demand access to a song — not for the song. Stop trying to make an economic issue a moral one and start trying to address the real moral issue, how we can support artists when the corporations that use to leach off them are gone.
I want people to be able to make a living creating content, art and entertainment. I will not accept that the way that was done for a little over half the twentieth century is the only way it can ever be done.
c007km,
The fact that you’re the only one arguing makes it so you will lose. You are the one who is doing the losing. Not me. It’s not me. It is you who is the wrong one and the losing one.
gorrilla has cool mind powers
fuck all this….like there is any possibility to acutally police the pirating of music. think of how many people actually commit this “crime.” i cant wait for obamalamadingdong to go door to door handing out fines.
-jr
remember, there was an uproar when people were recording tunes off the radio onto cassette, i think 1 or 2 examples were made judicially, but it really never dented the scheme.
The cassette issue had to do with reselling the music and not for personal use.
My View:
-Giving music away should be at the discretion of the artist not the consumer
-If music has no value to you than you shouldn’t have the pleasure of listening at your convenience. You should have to wait till it’s played on the radio/tv
-Sure MP3s sound bad but, they are convenient to store and replay in those funny little devices. So buy the CDs you like, download them and put them on your Ipod. But listen to the CDs in your cars or home stereos and enjoy a much truer fidelity
-Better yet – no more CD releases – vinyl only
-Down loading kills the sales for mid level bands – start up bands, sure, they should get their music out there for free if it’s their choice
-1 CD = $10 – this is what you spent on beer at the bar on Friday in the first hour. Can’t the average guy afford 10 buck a month for new music?
-I would like to hear from more musicians who are sick of being ripped off
-Bottom line – downloading without the consent of the artist is stealing - period
$10 a month for new music? By your calculations, I’d spend about $40 a day, or $1200 a month.
And no, I don’t listen to all of that over and over. Some of it is shit, but how am I supposed to find the good stuff? Radio? Blogs? MySpace? I need to steal everything first, then pay for it when I decide I like it.
Notice I didn’t say “this is how it should be done,” so settle the fuck down before you start typing.
Easy Jasper – this isn’t a personal attack. I love what you do with this site but you have to give the other side of this issue a chance.
I think you should be able to “listen” to all the music you want for free on my space, blogs etc. But I don’t think you should be able to download anything you want, for free, and listen to it anytime you want without the consent of the artist. Why is that such a difficult concept to understand?
I have no idea what you do for a living but bear with me on this example. Why don’t you tell your boss he only has to pay you for the work you do that he likes? So you start a new project and after you spend hours and hours creating the work, your boss says he hates your work and won’t pay you but, you find out later he used it anyway and will never pay you. Is that fair?
The better you look, the more you see.
Haha, that wasn’t intended as a personal attack either. It’s all done for the lulz but maybe I swear to much.
Never have I said my way is correct, all I’ve said is this is how I do it and it works for me — and since I am the boss of this site, I get to say it over and over. The “other side” can have all the chances it wants. I’ve never even said I don’t understand the other side’s point of view. Things cost money. I understand that. One day I hope to have enough money to pay for things but right now — if I could download a car or a house or a hooker without paying for it, I would.
I need music like a crackhead needs crack, but I can’t afford to maintain my habit. Be grateful I can easily download albums, otherwise I’d be breaking into your house and stealing shit to pawn.
And once again, this debate (that always fucking happens) was not the purpose of my post.
(Also, you pretty accurately described the business I work in.)
That’s cool, I understand your perspective. Your point is clear but you can’t download any of the items you list so you have to pay – even the crack addict has to pay. My point is if you couldn’t download you’d have to pay – your point is you can downloan for free, so you will. Enough said.
Sorry about taking this off target.
Don’t be sorry. It was never on target.
EARMARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
music will inevitably be free. artists will make money on shows. the legalities will become inconsequential.
[...] was just reading on of the many blog debates (this one on ETC) centered around pirating music. Nothing new, just restating the, “How am I supposed to find [...]
I stole the TV
download that shit pick it up eat repeat commodore 64
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