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The RIAA and MPAA asked the California legislature for an exemption to the law that makes pretexting a crime.  In other words, "We know that pretending to be someone else is unethical and now illegal, but could we change that last part?"

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pretext7apr07,1,1936238.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

It is hard to make these guys look more evil than they already are.  Wow.  Just plain...wow.

 :hot: :hatred:The story you requested is available only to registered members. :hatred: :hot:

That was hard to read (red text on a red background).  Also strange, because I am not a registered member.  Here is a link to the Slashdot post about the story:

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/04/07/1917255.shtml

These jack-asses are unbelievable. I like what the University of Wisconsin and University of Nebraska are doing. They basically told the RIAA that it's not their responsibility to rat out their students.

The RIAA has been sending what basically amounts to blackmail letters for the colleges to deliver to their students who are file sharing.  Nebraska wants the RIAA to pay them for wasting their time.

The Article (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070320/171228.shtml).

The record and movie industries are shooting themselves in the foot with all this litigation and blackmail (give 'em $3000 and they'll go away).  Remember back in the late 90's when the studios got on a tear of taking down fan websites (unintentionally depriving themselves of all that free advertising). Idiots one and all.

Who are the RIAA?

They sound like a bunch of pushy jackasses with too much time on their hands...

They're the Recording Industry Association of America. They're the trade group that represents the major recording companies and music distributors in the US, basically 90% of commercially released music in this country, also does the recording industry's lobbying with the federal govt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA)
http://www.riaa.com/default.asp (http://www.riaa.com/default.asp)

Good description and very accurate, but I think that I like Dean's better.

 :hatred:

These buggers sound like our beloved Censor Board (1933 ~ 1994) ~ the people who banned "Black Beauty" because of its' title.  :hatred:

For anyone non-Americans or those Americans who don't know about the RIAA's legal shenanigans here's a link to blog that's all about it.  They've brought suit against four year olds, 80 year olds (they evidently like gangsta rap), and even dead people.  They typically try to get their victims to pay an amount lower than their legal fees would be in order to have the suit dropped (hence my reference to blackmail in my previous reply, check out the section on the pre lawsuit settlement phase).


http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/#How

Not to mention these guys are constantly getting Congress to up the time limit on copyrights.  :hatred:

All thanks to Sonny Bono and Mickey Mouse.
The death of Public Domain rights came about when Disney realized Mickey soon would enter into P.D., all shrilly spearheaded by Congressman Sonny Bono.

EPILOGUE: Bono later died when he skiied right smack into a tree.   

Actually it was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon SteamBoat Willie that was close to entering public domain, not the Mickey Mouse character. The Mickey Mouse character is a trademark and will never enter public domain as long as Disney exist.

True, but Disney probably fears how the "beloved" mouse's image in Steamboat Willie or any others that entered PD could be used by non-Disney entities. Just imagine all the YouTube videos that could be made from reediting it or mixing images in with other sources. Someone mixing Mickey with montages of stuff from say Refer Madness, Night of the Living Dead, Carnival of Souls, Victory at Sea, old stag reels, shady porn videos, old newsreels, etc. all set to death metal, or gangster rap, or rave music. Just an example off the top of my head: I'd like to see SW footage intercut with that old newsreel footage of cats boxing, Daffy Duck in Daffy the Commando,  the footage of the Crying Frenchman from WWII, and throw in the fat guy getting shot with a cannonball just for fun all set to Boots Randolph's "Yakkety Sax" 

They also fear the loss of control over how the Mick's image is used, most people don't know, understand, or care about the difference between trademark and copyright.  Copies of SW (which is probably talked about more that actually seen these days) turning up on cheapo compilation discs in the dollar rack, will appeal to parents in the checkout aisle wanting some cheap cartoons for the kiddos they think are safe to watch. The House of Mouse will see the lack of control over those old shorts as eroding the current value of their Mickey products, even if the actual trademark is in no real danger.

The University of Wisconsin has lost in court to the RIAA, but they may still be smiling. Seems that all the RIAA has is IP numbers, not the identities of the file sharers.

 I personally think the John Doe lawsuits should be illegal.


Read the article (http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=131102).

The problem is that today's pop music sucks and nobody buys it.  It's happened many times before but the record industry would let some new bands with new music breath new life into it.  But all through the '90s people were replacing their record collections with CD's so the record companies were still making good money even though their new stuff wasn't selling, and now everybody's got all their records replaced and so the catalog sales have plummeted.  But the record companies have been putting out the same old crap for so long that's they won't change, won't allow new stuff to hit the airwaves.   Instead of looking for the next great thing, they sue people for profits. 

Speaking of the MPAA, Jack Valenti is dead.

"Jack Valenti was a great American and a great Texan," President Bush said in a statement released by the White House.

You know, I read about this last week on IMDB.com Andrew and I forgot to post about it here. I've never even heard of the RIAA up until now and this whole "pretext exemption" is ridiculous. "We need to pretend we are someone else in order to catch bootleggers?" Definitely a lame excuse.

Oh and trekgeezer, apparently the RIAA was handed a verdict to halt massive "John Doe" lawsuits, but still persists in handing them out. Oddly enough, the RIAA has not been held in contempt. (Then again, the Supreme Court didn't issue this decision.) Here's a bit about this in the legal blog you posted about:


Since when have the RIAA become powerful enough to shrug off a court decision? I believe that both it and the MPAA are a bit too powerful for their own good....

I have no grief that Valenti is gone.

Also, here is another story about the RIAA that shows a shocking lack of ethics:

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/04/riaa-goes-into-court-ex-parte-in-denver.html

In general, they made a secret court request for a ruling that they did not require a court order to get ISP customer records.  They ask the ISP for the records, the ISP has to provide them.  This is BS and something expressly denied to the government by the Bill of Rights.  For a company to ask for it is unbearable.

The motion was denied, thankfully, but this is something they never should have had the gall to ask for.

Just my opinion, but I can't help but think that all these legal shenanigans and law suit crapola, and that's what it is, would disappear almost over night if we got rid of about 90% of the lawyers in this country. They're supposed to be officers of the court, concerned with what is right and true, the reality is that all they really care about is how much money they can steal legally, hence the pay us $3000.00 and we'll drop your name from the lawsuit stuff. I know that there are probably a couple honest lawyers  (hows that for an oxymoron) but most are just out for an easy way to make money.