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Music

Submission + - RIAA victim's father on RIAA 'extortion' (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Randy Kruger's 18-year-old daughter, Brittany, a junior at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, is an RIAA victim. Yesterday, "the RIAA's extortionate demand to settle a file-sharing threat for $7500.00 + or be sued in Federal Court in the Western District of Michigan," ran out, he writes in p2pnet. "I've heard that if you put a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will jump out immediately, but if you put the frog in and turn up the heat a little at a time, the frog will cook," he says. "I guess our politicians must like frog soup, because we are being served up (30,000 + servings at last count, and counting). Big Brother now has a role model.""
Music

Submission + - Will new RIAA tactic boost P2P file sharing? (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "The RIAA claim that it'll stop suing people may have serious consequences. For the RIAA. When it dropped its attack on seven University of Michigan students, Recording Industry vs The People wondered if the move was linked to three investigations, with MediaSentry as the target, before Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth. Now, "LSA sophomore Erin Breisacher said she stopped downloading music illegally after hearing about the possibility of receiving a lawsuit, but now that the RIAA has stopped pursuing lawsuits she 'might start downloading again'," says the Michigan Daily, going on to quote LSA senior Chad Nihranz, as saying,"I figure, if there aren't as many lawsuits they will come out with more software to allow students to download more.""
Music

Submission + - W Street Journal confirms RIAA fired MediaSentry (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "The Wall Street Journal has confirmed p2pnet's report that the RIAA has fired MediaSentry. MediaSentry has been, "invading the privacy of people," says Recording Industry vs The People's Ray Beckerman in the WSJ, and, "They've been doing very sloppy work". He cites MediaSentry's practice of, "looking for available songs in people's filesharing folders, uploading them, and using those uploads in court as evidence of copyright violations." MediaSentry, "couldn't prove defendants had shared their files with anyone other than MediaSentry investigators.""
Music

Submission + - P2P music downloads exceed paid ones by 10 to 1 (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: ""The recession is not driving music lovers to piracy. Just away from their CD players," says Silicon Alley Insider, quoting the NPD Group. "The volume of legal music downloaded in Q3 increased 29% over the same period a year ago," it says, going on, "That beats the growth in illegal music downloads over peer-to-peer networks, which rose 23% y/y." However, "The <I>rate</I> of growth paid downloads is down dramatically from previous years, as one would expect," Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, told p2pnet, continuing, "Because the rate of growth is not really an instructive measure here. When paid downloads increase from ten songs sold to fifty, that's a 500% increase, but only 40 songs sold. Yet an increase from selling ten million songs to fifteen million songs is only a 50% increase — but five MILLION in new sales. Put another way, it is the volume of activity that makes for a real comparison, and in our estimation the volume of P2P music downloads exceeds the paid downloads more than ten to one. On the other hand, though, NPD's assessment of the growth rate in P2P far outpaces our own. We do not observe a 23% increase in P2P music downloads y-o-y. On the contrary, while there is significant growth in film, TV and elsewhere, music is relatively flat. Note the the growth rate of iTunes et al has slowed considerably and is expected to continue to do so.""

Comment Re:Euphemisms (Score 1) 222

by newtley (#22349980) Attached to: RIAA's Attack On NewYorkCountryLawyer Fails
I'm originally from London and that said, Ida fort OI, MATE! YOUR F***IN' FLIES ARE OPEN! woodabin even betah. Wish oida fort ov it. On second thoughts, though, it wouldn't have worked. Only one of the RIAA minions is male. So maybe you're correct ;p Cheers! Jon - p2pnet
Music

Submission + - RIAA victim Jammie Thomas needs a new lawyer 1

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Minnesota mother Jammie Thomas, the first RIAA victim to actually appear in court, is now urgently looking for a new lawyer to represent her in her appeal. She was ordered to pay close to $250,000 in damages after the RIAA alleged she'd infringed copyrighted music files. Now, "Sad news!" — says her blog. "Brian Toder and his law firm are only representing her for the remitter motion currently before the court and not for the appeal due to lack of funds. She confirmed that the donations collected here are still going into her legal defense fund and will be used to finance her appeal. She is now in search of a capable attorney ready to take the appeal either pro bono or for what is raised through fundraising efforts. If you can help, please contact Jammie by email: jammie [at] freejammie [dot] com." In the Bush administration's most blatant support of the commercial music industry yet, the US Department of Justice filed a brief defending the constitutionality of the $9,250-per-song-file jury verdict."
User Journal

Journal Journal: U. of Maine legal clinic fights RIAA; first in country

Journal by NewYorkCountryLawyer
"A student law clinic is about to cause a revolution" says p2pnet. For the first time in the history of the RIAA's ex parte litigation campaign against college students, a university law school's legal aid clinic has taken up the fight against the RIAA in defense of the university's college students. Student attorneys at the University of Maine School of Law's Cumberland Legal Aid Clin
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA "expert" Jacobson makes new accusatio

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Not content with his prior testimony and his previous reports, the RIAA's "expert", Dr. Doug Jacobson, has submitted a new, "supplemental" report, making new accusations against Ms. Lindor's son, in UMG v. Lindor. He makes no mention of what new development occurred to make him change his mind. The RIAA appears to have become emboldened in Brooklyn by recent rulings there in which the District Judge David G. Trager held that (a) Ms. Lindor's lawyers are not allowed to see MediaSentry's compensation and retainer agreements even though MediaSentry is plaintiffs' primary trial witness; (b) Dr. Jacobson can testify as an 'expert witness' at the trial even though he satisfied none of the Daubert reliability factors, and (c) he will continue to personally control all RIAA cases in the Eastern District of New York, rather than allow random judicial assignment by lot, which is the general rule in federal court. Upon learning of the ruling, one commentator stated that the RIAA has "been foisting supposed tech expert Doug Jacobson on courts hearing specious RIAA sue 'em all cases even though the voracity of Jacobson's evidence has been proven to be highly questionable"."
Music

Submission + - File sharing, stealing and Levi jeans (p2pnet.net)

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Using Levi jeans as his example, pro musician and RIAA devotee 'Sam I Am' attempts to explain how file sharing equals stealing. Downloading doesn't "actually share anything at all", he asserts. In fact, "Not only does the original file remain in full possession of the original possessor, but an infinite number of copies — perfect, indistinguishable replicas of the original, are created and distributed at no payment to anyone. This isn't sharing, in fact it's a crime." And more ....."
Privacy

Submission + - Sonic advertising - like it or not (p2pnet.net) 1

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Advertisers are determined to get into your head by one means or another, and Holosonic Research Labs has found yet another way of invading your privacy in the name of forcing you pay attention. You're walking down a street in New York when all of a sudden, 'Who's that?' — whispers a woman's voice. 'Who's There?' No. You weren't having a schizoid episode. You were being subjected to 'sound in a narrow beam, just like light' without your permission. It was coming at you from a rooftop speaker 7 stories up. Don't want to be bombarded by sonic ads? Tough. Wear ear-plugs."
Music

Submission + - Is Shawn Fanning's Snocap melting? 1

Submitted by newtley
newtley writes: Rumors are swirling about the pending demise of Napster creator Shawn Fanning's Snocap, says Michael Robertson, former MP3.com CEO who's now CEO of MP3tunes and founder and chairman of Linspire. "Articles mention a 'sale', but more likely it will be a shuttering and quiet bankruptcy," he believes. "Snocap represents a commonplace occurrence in the music business — an unprofitable retailer which withers and eventually dies."
Music

Submission + - Vanderbilt U spends $500K 'playing nice' with RIAA 1

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Vanderbilt University is great with robots, but not so good with the RIAA. Its Cindy Franks admits the school has so far spent half-a-million-dollars of taxpayer money trying to keep on the good side of the corporate music industry and its adherents. It's even touting Napster as part of the attempt. But all that money and effort notwithstanding, "Last year we had 20 students (sued) for the whole year," InsideVandy has her saying. ""This year we have had 32 students in October alone.""
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA targets 7 out of 8 Ivies, but avoids Harvard

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "According to this report on p2pnet.net, the RIAA's latest anti-college round of "early settlement" letters targets 7 out of 8 Ivy League schools, but continues to give Harvard University a wide berth. This is perhaps the most astonishing display of cowardice exhibited to date by the multinational cartel of SONY BMG, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, and Vivendi/Universal (the "Big Four" record companies, which are rapidly become less "big"). The lesson which other colleges and universities should draw from this latest of many acts of cowardice: "All bullies are cowards. Appeasement of bullies doesn't work. Standing up to bullies and fighting back has a much higher success rate.""

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