Songs Are Worth $22,500 Each

[Eyeron]

That's right, if you download songs they are now worth $22,600 for a single song.

Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University student from Providence, R.I., was ordered Monday to refrain from future copyright violations and to destroy copies of recordings he downloaded without authorization.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20091207/D9CEOE9O2.html

And ordered to pay $675,000 for the thirty songs he downloaded illegally.

Just like everywhere else in the world, it's those who have the money that makes the rules.

 

[popscythe]

Indeed.

 

[WildCat]

It's the sharing that gets you in trouble, not the downloading.

 

[gumboot]

Only the USA has such ridiculous fines. Here you wouldn't get anything like that. Destruction of copies and fine for retail cost of copies is about normal.

 

[Nosi]

The RIAA & the MPAA are crashing about like wounded buffalo. They are used to ing the fans and the musicians, but now are feeling some of the and don't like it. Their public relations with the fans is going flush. They are loosing artists too such as 9 Inch Nails who started doing their own creative distribution via the Internet.

For every 'pirate' or innocent they drag to court and fine, millions more slip free with billions if not trillions of files.

 

[TragicMonkey]

For every 'pirate' or innocent they drag to court and fine, millions more slip free with billions if not trillions of files.

Many Bothans died to bring you that information.

 

[Darat]

That's right, if you download songs they are now worth $22,600 for a single song.



http://apnews.myway.com//article/20091207/D9CEOE9O2.html

And ordered to pay $675,000 for the thirty songs he downloaded illegally.

Just like everywhere else in the world, it's those who have the money that makes the rules.

That would be cheap to gain unlimited usage rights / buy out to even a moderately successful/well known song.

 

[popscythe]

Poor bothans.

 

[funk de fino]

The RIAA & the MPAA are crashing about like wounded buffalo. They are used to ing the fans and the musicians, but now are feeling some of the and don't like it. Their public relations with the fans is going flush. They are loosing artists too such as 9 Inch Nails who started doing their own creative distribution via the Internet.

For every 'pirate' or innocent they drag to court and fine, millions more slip free with billions if not trillions of files.

Innocent? Stealing is not a crime?

 

[Matthew Best]

Many of you have probably already seen this:

http://www.toomuchjoy.com/?p=1397

but for those of you who haven't it's a blog post detailing the efforts that major labels will go to avoid paying out royalties to bands. Or, rather, the efforts they refuse to go to pay out royalties. Either way, it's kind of interesting.

 

[KarlG]

Innocent? Stealing is not a crime?

Stealing is a crime, but is music piracy stealing? I know there have been a few threads before on this issue but i can't remember the outcome.

 

[geni]

Only the USA has such ridiculous fines. Here you wouldn't get anything like that. Destruction of copies and fine for retail cost of copies is about normal.

Not fines. Damages. Canada has them too as certian large music companies appear to be finding out:

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Chet Baker was a leading jazz musician in the 1950s, playing trumpet and providing vocals. Baker died in 1988, yet he is about to add a new claim to fame as the lead plaintiff in possibly the largest copyright infringement case in Canadian history. His estate, which still owns the copyright in more than 50 of his works, is part of a massive class-action lawsuit that has been underway for the past year.

The infringer has effectively already admitted owing at least $50 million and the full claim could exceed $60 billion. If the dollars don't shock, the target of the lawsuit undoubtedly will: The defendants in the case are Warner Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada, the four primary members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

http://www.thestar.com/business/art...rd-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement

 

[geni]

Stealing is a crime, but is music piracy stealing? I know there have been a few threads before on this issue but i can't remember the outcome.

It's copyright infringement which is normaly a civil issue under a common law but can become criminal in certian situations.

 

[geni]

The RIAA & the MPAA are crashing about like wounded buffalo. They are used to ing the fans and the musicians, but now are feeling some of the and don't like it. Their public relations with the fans is going flush. They are loosing artists too such as 9 Inch Nails who started doing their own creative distribution via the Internet.

Artists who have already benifited from the music companies publicity machines have been going independent for decades. Prince did it for a while for example.

For every 'pirate' or innocent they drag to court and fine, millions more slip free with billions if not trillions of files.

Not fined. It's a civil matter. You can't get fined for a civil matter.

 

[Cayvmann]

Smell the fascism... ahhhhhhh

 

[geni]

Smell the fascism... ahhhhhhh

It's not fascism. The payment system of music companies and their general struture is not consistent with the way and idiologicaly fascist company would operate.

 

[Careyp74]

Artists who have already benifited from the music companies publicity machines have been going independent for decades. Prince did it for a while for example.




Not fined. It's a civil matter. You can't get fined for a civil matter.

In the US, It isn't a civil case if you are not using the material that is copywritten for personal gain. The illegal downloading and possession of the material is what the fines are for, breaking federal laws.

 

[Ethan Thane Athen]

I always find this subject interesting...

The news in Britain always gets it wrong for a start as they always state it being illegal to download whereas the UK law is actually phrased such that downloading is fine (though you could be done for copyright infringement) but uploading (or sharing) is what is actually illegal ie 'leechers' are fine.

Furthermore, and this is obviously by its nature anecdotal evidence, I know several downloaders and they also happen to be the biggest spenders on CDs and DVDs of all my social group - and we're talking by orders of magnitude here. Not sure how widespread this is but it suggests that the music industry is not losing out anywhere near as much as is often suggested. It is fairly typical of them to pay to go to the cinema to see a film, download it later 'cos they want to see it again and don't want to wait for the DVD release, then buy the super-deluxe 2 disk version when that's released on DVD. They download music on a try before they buy basis, often discovering new bands they wouldn't have risked money on before and then going out and buying more of their CDs.

As I say, may not be typical or may just be typical of my age group (middle-aged)...

I currently have a personal quandry in that I'm after a particular album but can't find it to buy, or to legally download (have tried Play and Amazon) but have seen it listed in a number of torrents whilst searching for it...The industry really doesn't help itself sometimes.

 

[shawmutt]

Wait until the record companies take on someone with a good lawyer and it blows up in their face.

 

[Nosi]

Innocent? Stealing is not a crime?

Um, generally one has to have a PC to do the dirty deed. This person didn't. The RIAA has also gone after the dead and other obviously guiltless people. Instead of an apology after realizing their error that their songlifter's sticky fingers had gone stiff, they go after his family.

We have a fellow lacking a PC, a dead man, and a dead man's family. Charming.