To a certain extent, I’m afraid to write this. Though they’ve already seized my computer and copied my hard drive, I have no guarantee they won’t do it again. For the past four years, they’ve been threatening me, making demands for trial, deposing my parents, sisters, friends, and myself twice – the first time for nine hours, the second for seven. I face up to $4.5m in fines and the last case like mine that went to trial had a jury verdict of $1.92m.
When I contemplate this, I have to remind myself what I’m being charged with. Investment fraud? Robbing a casino? A cyber-attack against the federal government? No. I shared music. And refused to cave.
No matter how many people I explain this to, the reaction is always the same: dumbfounded surprise and visceral indignance, both of which are a result of the amazing secrecy the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has operated under. “How did they get you?” I’m asked. I explain that there are 40,000 people like me, being sued for the same thing, and we were picked from a pool of millions who shared music. And that’s when a look appears on the face of whoever I’m talking to, the horrified “it could have been me!” look.
The reason this has remained so silent despite passionate opposition is that nearly all people settle. My story of becoming an exception started four years ago.
RTFA. And you can follow Joel Tenebaum’s trial in the cyberworld.
The trial starts today, 27 Monday July. Regrettably, it won’t be webcast as we requested due to the RIAA’s successful opposition, but we will tweet (with the hashtag #jfb) and blog as much as possible, and there is a website where you can follow us and learn more.
I can’t remember the last time I bought any music, nor the last time I pirated any. It’s become irrelevant to me. It’s kind of sad, but I’ll be damned if I’ll support the RIAA in any way.
Feels almost like they are profiling their victims to find the ones that are most likely to cave. And they have millions to choose from.
How many successful defenses from RIAA have we heard about in the past ten years? 5? 6? How many do you think there are that RIAA won?
someday soon the RIAA is gonna sue the wrong person , that person will be as nasty and mean as the RIAA…. that will be funny… 😛
RIAA Flowchart:
http://tinyurl.com/ld2b8e
I tend to blame a screwed up legal system that favors corporate entities because they throw millions at law makers, because their only true agenda is keeping their jobs. The voters keep the sons of bitches in office because they deliver pork, damn what’s good for the nation. Meanwhile the god damn lawyers are bleeding everyone dry. I wonder how much China will charge for making guillotines?
#5,
You’d need an awful LOT of guillotines — but I’m game!
Years ago, I made cassette tapes for friends. I wonder if I should turn myself in?
Anyone who thinks the RIAA is looking out for the artist is sadly mistaken.
Lesson learned : Only buy music from local artists who are not involved with the RIAA. Their music is better, and I am helping the arts in my local community.
I don’t download from torrents. No antivirius is that good. By the way a guy I know claims that if you have file sharing turned on by the torrents he can look at the songs on your hard drive and pick the ones he wants. He might be lying but file sharing does seem to present problems.
I just bought a Jeff Foxworthy CD for five dollars a few weeks back. I did download a CD from Amazon.com once just to say I did it.
What I don’t like is that the DRM crap makes it a pain to move my music around on the machines I own or use them in non professional presentations. There are a few sources of some free sound tracts so I can get by but it does mean that buying music is less attractive to me.
I think the same thing is the reason that blue ray hasn’t took off. It isn’t plug and play. You old high def monitor won’t work with it nor older high def tvs. Even a new computer isn’t likely to work with it unless it comes with built in player. Jobs called it a can of worms and Apple hasn’t touched it.
Result: most people are finding other ways to view high def.
The money men in the music industry and crappy wood are so smart they forgot something. Their product is optional. People buy it to have fun and if they start to not have fun because of price, complexity, or cost they’re going to do something else.
#5 & 6
Finally!!! Outsourcing I can support.
BTW – Just listen to Internet Radio and get Stream Ripper and get all the free music you could ever listen to. It puts it out into nice little MP3 files and you can put them in iTunes.
@ #9
If you buy from amazon.com – not only do you get the content DRM free but you also get it at 256kbs quality. You can get DRM free from apple but it costs more and is the lower 128kbs quality, I believe. I’ve bought quite a few albums on the service – and it works well.
I’m not sure I agree on you blue ray bit. Bluray player will work on anything that DVD will. Additionally a player will play regular DVDs and make them look better with up-scaling.
Sure you can only use a bluray dvd on a bluray equipped computer, but that’s a somewhat niche thing to do.
The major problem with blu-ray seems to me is the price difference for the content is unwarranted for the quality difference. That and if I want to watch a movie, most of which I’ll only watch once – I can download direct to Tivo, on demand from amazon for 4 bucks.
The blue ray licensing fees are an issue. And looking a bit down the road – silver plastic disks don’t have much of a future vs downloading/streaming IMHO.
No, I don’t work for amazon.
#11
thanks for the tip.
#2 danijel
From what I hear the RIAA has only won one case at court, and that is now on retrial as the judge himself confessed to making a misruling (letting the RIAA claim that making the files available causes a breach, when in fact it requires actual distribution). Most people don’t have the resources, information and will to fight the RIAA and so cave to their extortion letters threatening court cases.
#12 Apple DRM free music is also 256k but uses aac that is supposed to be better then mp3. I also believe that most song coast the same as amazon.
Amendment 8 – Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed;
END OF STORY
Where is the counterattack against the RIAA? How is it that this organization can even conduct business on a daily basis considering the numbers of people they have pissed off?
Isn’t it time for Anonymous to declare war against these people???
#16.
That only works in criminal cases. The RIAA is claiming civil damages, they are being paid back for their loss.
We is saying exactly what the RIAA wants.
…the horrified “it could have been me!” look.
They want all illegal down-loaders to think
they could be next.
Maybe he works for the RIAA now.
In the days of wooden ships the only time
that piracy dropped is when a few pirates were
strung up.