How do we fix the RIAA's newest Tactic

The RIAA's newest tactic is not to prosecute those who are downloading pirated music, but to go after people who are illegally sharing ANY copyrighted music. Even if it is music from a CD you own, you aren't allowed to share it electronically.

That means if you take a CD you own, copy it into any format (aac, aiff, mp3) and you allow others access to copy that file illegally, the RIAA can sue you. All they have to do to prove it is get a file sharing app like Limewire or Acq and when they download the file from you, record the IP it came from. Then they go to Verizon or AOL and get the name of the person who has that IP and you get a letter from the lawyers a few weeks later.

Which means the moment you turn on ACQ or Limewire if you have any copyrighted music accesible for others to download, the RIAA can sue you. With all that in mind, I haven't turned on my Acq in days because I have about 12GBs of legal music that I don't want to accidentally share illegally.

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Now of course I know there are ways to block access to the files I don't want to share. The sad thing is I could block sharing, continue downloading and not get in trouble for at least awhile longer.

But is there a way we can block that info going to the RIAA? Maybe a way we can hide our IP or give off a false one? Maybe someone get the RIAAs web server IP and use it so that whenever someone looks up my IP it gives out theirs?

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Well, their stated intention is to go after those sharing TONS of music. AND I'm guessing that they will principally go after KaZaa and pretty much leave Gnutella alone.. reason? TONS more stuff on KaZaa than Gnut.

Understand this is OPINION, not at all fact. But it sure is logical they'd go after the big boys before wasting time with folks sharing 50-100 tunes.

 

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I know they aren't going after just Kazaa because I read somewhere online (one of the Mac news services) that some Mac users with Limewire had also gotten the notices.

The point is, if I turned on Acq I would be sharing approximately 1,600 (11.54GB) of the songs I legally own. I don't know what the standard is but that might make my one of the "big guys" they are going after. Once again I could block those files but I was hoping to find a way to block the RIAA. Until then my Acq stays off.

 

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It would be hard, because Acq needs to be able to know the IPs.

There is a possibility, though, that Gnutella will become encrypted and will only use push-routes, so it would only be possible to know your IP if they had all computers in the push-route (and that would mean heavily supporting Gnutella, because they would have to donate lots of bandwidth to us.

PS: I still read the forum now and then, despite the goodbye, just can't help it.

 

What I don't understand is how any of this holds up in court. There is absolutely nothing stopping these people from forging or modifying these documents to make them look worse. There is no concept of somebody else opening the application. Usually, don't you have to prove that somebody committed a crime? This has less credibility than an audio tape. Also, any idiot knows that a filename has nothing to do with the content of a file.

 

Re: Re: How do we fix the RIAA's newest Tactic

Yes you have to prove they commited a crime if you are in criminal court.

It was my understanding that the RIAA is taking up these matters in civil court. Civil cases require a much lower burden of proof. They don't have to prove criminal intent, just liability or negligence. Depending on what exactly they sue you for, they may only have to prove that they lost money because people downloaded music from you instead of buying their CD. Which is why they are going after the big guys first.

Once they have set a precedent for this sort of thing with the people who are easier to sue for that loss of profit, they can go after the everyday users.

1602 songs and the ACQ stays off.

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Nervous

Maybe I'm alone here, but I'm getting nervous. I don't care about sharing files and all that jazz, I just want to be able to download and experience new artists, and use peer-to-peer in a way that suits my needs. I, like I'm sure 99% of us who use this service, don't want to be slapped with a $150,000 lawsuit because I downloaded some Damien Rice or something.

I'm looking for some facts. I really would like to get the discussion ball rolling in this topic - because I think its important. I have friends who tell me these lawsuits, these civil trials, are nothing but jokes, that we have a one-in-a-million chance of being written a letter. But I'm a little doubtful.

Friends who are lawyers have stated that the RIAA does not have the resources to carry out a massive investigation - that is to say that the amount of individuals using peer-to-peer as a means of "illegally" obtaining copyrighted material is so voluminous that its damn near impossible to focus on anything but the guys sharing an upwards of 25 million songs or something.

But I'm in need of proof - as I said before, facts. What is "legal" here...


I haven't started Acq or Limewire in about 2 weeks since I have heard of the latest actions by the RIAA. I would love to use the service, but it ain't happenin' folks.


A reply would be great.

 

Well, what can I say?

The RIAA is the watch dog for the major 5 music labels. It is their hope that you won't hate them but rather the RIAA. Understand, the RIAA is nothing but a front for the major 5.

For a long time the major 5 have ripped off both the consumer and the artist. Quite willing to lay out tons of money for promotions, new instruments, anything needed to get the artist exposure. But it is not for free. Those artists must pay back that money spent to the major labels before getting any money back. Often it is 10% or less.

At the same time they have loaded mostly filler in their cds. One or two good songs and the rest is trash. Then they slap a $20 dollar price tag on it and expect you to scarf it up. Not only this but those old songs etc, have never went down in price.

Nor has the music industry kept up with the times. While most major business in the entertainment industry, like sports, have long ago realized that the money is not in the sales of the ticket but in the commercial rebroadcasts etc. The music industry missed the boat on that one thinking that the cd's would be the ticket for the bucks. They do not collect from the artist when the artist does live performances.

Now who is the thief?

Want to get their attention? Quit buying new music. Buy used stuff. It is the quickest way to get the major labels attention.

Starting at the beginning of August several groups are intending to start a grass roots campaigne to flood the congress with letters protesting the actions of the RIAA. Along with that will be cd burnings ect. A good source for info is at this link:

here

While I still go to p2p places, I no longer share or d/l. Simply 16,000+ files are a bit steep to pay for.

A short while ago, WASTE was released. WASTE is a small community file sharing program that was encrypted. It also consumed far more bandwidth to hide just what size file you were d/ling, giving file sizes far larger than what you actually d/led to the isp. However, the parent company had a fit when they found out it had been released on the internet and had it pulled the next day. That parent company is Time Warner.

Amoung other things, I use an isp blocker. One that has a huge libarary of known isp's that are used by various watchdog groups to check your files. Good luck on staying hidden as I no longer share but am content to wait and see what happens.

 

can RIAA sue me if I live outside the US?

anyways, I don't think they're into dc++ , well at least not outside the states
what is considered a sharer worth visiting, btw? in GB

 

I don't think that the RIAA slavers will sue people from outside the US. But then again, copyrights are protected by international treaties, so the RIAA slavers probably could if they wanted to invest the money and the time.

 

a method that those who want can use if not too lazy

download some linux distros, put them in your download dir (you can make about 50gb with these I think) and dive into kazaa.
linux is open source, so you can show your finger to the RIAA and still be able to download songs

 

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10452 was posted on slashdot. It actually makes some sense but would take a lot of planning to do.

 

I wonder if they would get you if you made it a regular, daily practice to empty your shared folder (and move them to another nonsharing folder).

 

all you need is to make a program that automatically transfers all your files with certain extensions from your download folder to another one

I'm not a programmer , but I guess that it is not so hard

 

There are also encrypted peer-to-peer networks witch will hide your indentity.

 

I used DC++ mostly now (for anime) I don't worry.

 

I also use DC++ , but as I heard in the states they check also dc++ hubs. Ask Bebelina for details

 

Does anybody know where I can get an ISP Blocker? I'm a noob... and I don't download very many songs at all, (currently, I have 127), but one of my close friends got an email about five minutes ago, and it was a sort of warning that you had to immediately reply to about music downloading, or you get in major doodoo. It checked out, its legitimate. I'm really quite frightened, as I'm only 14... And I'm nearly peeing myself because this is scaring me so much... I don't want to get in trouble for checking out a couple of songs! Anyway, if anybody could please recommend a site where I could download an ISP Blocker. Thanks a freaking ton dudes!

 

Ai! And did he reply? I hope not!
Just share some free songs, which the artists gave free themselves (check creativecommons.org ). They can't simply get you for downloading (they would have to prove you really wanted exactly that sog and wanted to break the law with it), but only for sharing (which they can prove by downloading some of their copy-protected material fro your computer).

So your're safe off, when you simply share free stuff. I offer my self-produced music for free and explicitely allow sharing in p2p-networks, and I would be glad if you decided to share them (which I deem not as "robbing my files", but as making them more avaible). Just be certain, that you don't share commercially sold songs, and they can't have you nothing.

You can get my songs here:
http://draketo.de/inhalt/lieder.html
a link to the directory containing only the mp3s: http://dlaikar.de/arnebab/musik/

best wishes

 

dont mean shit imo,
I would just take the letter and chuck it in the garbage,
for someone to sue you they need to hand deliver the letter of intent directly to you,
so if someone you dont know comes asking for you by name then you might have to do some evading

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