I agree with LPFAN05, the internet is a tool I use to "pre-screen" albums, if you will. I'll download a portion of the songs, and if they're good, I buy the CD. I don't see why the RIAA can't handle us for not buying BAD albums. I mean, if the band's music is good, it will sell, simple enough. Look at Hybrid Theory, most selling of 2001 AND most downloaded. They obviously have good music, because it was downloaded AND purchased. It's not our fault if we don't want to go out and buy an album because it sucked. Album prices aren't cheap either, and making music expensive is not core, it's lame and irrelevant, because they will only lose more money in the long run (record companies, etc.). I'm just saying, I see the internet as a nice pre-screening tool. It's like renting a video game before buying. Why would I go buy the new "____" cd if i've never heard their music before. I'm not gonna waste 20 bucks on a peice of plastic that may not hold my attention for more than 10 minutes. The consumers aren't rich...for the most part.
I usually buy every CD that I download a few weeks after I download it. There's about 20-25 CDs that I'll be buying shortly.
How do you think that they picked those users, because they had hundreds of files or just because their using Kazaa?
They admitted to running certain scripts throughout the networks. I doubt they're randomly picked, but the scripts were probably programmed to do something like this: if file_count > 2,000; then report_username; So, they probably have some set amount. They say the person (avg.) getting sued is running at about 10,000-12,000 dollars. Geese. And a great percentage of these people are middle school - college kids.
I think once the RIAA realizes the court costs of suing thousands of people, they will either drop all cases they have, or they will sue everyone, paying the costs, but them driving themselves into bankruptacy. As for arresting people, jails are overcrowded. Murderers are being let out on parole after 10 years to free up some room, law enforcement will end up having 2 choices: Free murderers and arrest downloaders, or leave everything the way it is: The real criminals in jail and the innocent downloaders behind a computer downloading stuff. The plan to arrest pretty much everyone who's ever downloaded something, if they do, they will have more citizens in jail than not. And that won't happen. Personally, I'll continue to download music. I use Acquisition (Mac equivalent of Kazaa) to mainly preview CDs before I buy them. If I download a few songs from a CD and they suck, I don't buy the CD. But, if they're really good songs, I buy the CD. I've bought at least 15 CDs in the past year or 2 because I downloaded a few songs. If I couldn't download, I wouldn't buy. So, the RIAA would be screwing themselves if they shut down Kazaa. Additionally, there are many people out there, who right now, buy CDs. But if the RIAA does what they plan to, these many people, thousands of them, will boycott the RIAA. Either buy very few CDs, maybe 2 or 3 a year, or none at all. Think of all the CD sales they would loose from boycotters. Then, there will be artists who disagree with the RIAA and will pull their CDs off of shelves and only make them available for purchase, maybe free, in a digital, downloadable format like MP3. Pay 10 bucks and download and burn it yourself, and the RIAA won't get a damn penny. As long as the internet exists, free downloadable music will exist. Technically, they can't shut down Kazaa, the technology it uses makes it impossible. They can shut down the official website so no one can download it, but it will still get around. People will already have the program and will give it to friends and it will appear on other sites. The RIAA thought they won when Napster shut down. They didn't. They can't win.
I agree with almost everything you said Todd, but I doubt they're losing money by taking people to court. They sued a company (IIS is their name I beliebe), and got 1 million dollars, because the company didn't even try. They sued a 19 year old college student, and he forked over about $12,000. I doubt they'll be losing the battle if they take it to courts... But everything you said was on point. People will undoubtedly boycott if things stay at this extreme.
Yes, people will boycott, I'll be one of them. I'll buy CDs from the iTunes Music Store where I don't think the RIAA gets any profit at all. CDs in the store are only $9.99 and CD-Rs are a dime a dozen nowadays. Having the real CD, liner notes and everything is nice, but if it means giving most of the money to this evil empire, CDRs will work for me
Agreed, I'll be there with the handcuffs right next to you, chained to the uh... oh...wait, wrong thing. Seriously, I will also.
So what? Shutdown KaZaA, and then you'll have us going to the next best thing...WinMx... ...or something else. As another one shuts down, another one becomes popular; it's a non-stopping cycle. The RIAA can't stop us. There are too many P2P programs out there, and like you've all said, P2P programs are great for discovering new artists, getting hard-to-find songs, rare songs, and to preview albums before buying. The RIAA needs to realize that this is the future: the internet. Everything is done on the net and they won't stop music downloading ever.
Amen. I have 658 Megs worth of songs on WinMX and probably another 300 from AIM and other programs, as I've had people send me full length albums before. I'm guessing I have anywhere from 1,600 to 2,500MB of songs on my computer but the thing is I really dont give a f*ck about it. What are they gonna do, make a virus that scans people's computers, once they're finished with P2P Programs? If they did such a thing, they'd be breaking the law to get to people they claim are 'breaking the law' in the first place. I've already stopped sharing my files on KaZaA and Winmx and no longer run those programs. I believe what they are doing now constitutes invasion of privacy so basically summing it up the RIAA are a bunch of f*cking hypocrites for what they're doing and I'm more then sure they've scarred their reputation from all of this. I hope to god they rot in hell for doing this. In fact they will. Greed is a sin, one of the 7 Deadly Sins to be exact. Everyone involved in this will be going to hell. And thank god.
I was doing some research last night and I found something that I think sounds more logical. According to an article I read, there's an RIAA hitlist. They're going for only certain users at the moment. There's also concern on ages, and in the article, it said that the parent, or guardian would be the one getting the charge (something like that). A few have already been charged, and these guardians weren't very happy because they claimed that they didn't know it was illigal and thought it was just a way to 'sample' new music. One guardian even saying that he's tired of buying crappy albums. He uses P2P programs because he's tired of buying now days music because he feels it's all crap. Sadly I do believe he's still being charged. I had the RIAA hitlist earlier, but I don't remember where I put it. If I find it, I can post it. Supposedly a site is supposed to post it so that users can see if they're next to be sued. I think they're going after the ones that share the most first . edit: I found it, and I'm hoping it will all fit . Most likely I do believe these are the next people to be sued. Aab@Kazaa Aboggs2@Kazaa allstatetide@Kazaa Amissann2@Kazaa AngelaMikesell@Kazaa anon39023@Kazaa anthonybotz@Kazaa aoster1@Kazaa Ariel167@fileshare asheejojo@Kazaa Ashley@Grokster azn_bahamut@Kazaa B.B.C@Kazaa badandy@Kazaa Benchy987@Kazaa Bigeasssy24@Kazaa Bigpimpinitopey187@Kazaa bigjohnhc@Kazaa blazel@Kazaa bluemonkey13@Kazaa Boilermaker1214@Kazaa brentandjonna@Kazaa brich410@Kazaa budman5000@Kazaa Bush323@Kazaa cado@Kazaa Carolyn@fileshare Casal@Kazaa cbegalle@Kazaa cherriie@Kazaa CLOVER77@Kazaa Corky101@Kazaa Cortez1023@Kazaa CowgirlMDR@Kazaa crazyface@Kazaa d-dubb@Grokster dallass@Kazaa daredevil@Kazaa DEFAINCE357@Kazaa definitely_ditzy@Kazaa dimples0530@Kazaa dmadigan@Kazaa dotzbadger@Kazaa dubcha@Kazaa dulfingurl2@Kazaa Dyellagurl22@Kazaa Dziion@Kazaa eddieh@Kazaa emmi4@Kazaa enbbarnes@Kazaa ERIKA@Kazaa felicia_alvarado@Kazaa flowerpower0818@fileshare fox3j@Kazaa freckles72587@Kazaa fritzbuilding@Kazaa Generalby@Kazaa Ghettobootybabe8@Kazaa h2ochamp@kazaa harris@Kazaa heather_thee_amazing@Kazaa hoami316@Kazaa hooterzzz@Kazaa hottdude0587@Kazaa HyDang@Kazaa ilovemydez@Kazaa indepunk74@Kazaa inthisroom@Kazaa jamonie@Kazaa JE_WV@Kazaa Jeff@Kazaa Jessica@Kazaa jim@Kazaa joanjett@Kazaa joe@Kazaa jomada@Kazaa JustineRiot@Kazaa kelney12@Kazaa kenne007@Kazaa KrAyZiE@Kazaa ktgurl13@Grokster kunstrukter@Kazaa ladypimp8669@Kazaa laurelbean@Kazaa leahpate@Kazaa LiLHuNnIe1480@Kazaa Lisweet@Kazaa Lyssy348@Kazaa madkirk@fileshare Marge4131@Kazaa Marla262@Kazaa mgokey@Kazaa mike@Kazaa Motivator@Kazaa munkeyspanker21@Kazaa nikki@Kazaa Niltiak@Kazaa Nodopefor2@Kazaa paulina@Kazaa pdia@Kazaa PDJ1846@Kazaa Playgirlmama@Kazaa Prtythug23@Kazaa qjade512@Kazaa rebecca_m_122@Kazaa rips42@Kazaa rochelle@Kazaa RockOn182@Kazaa samlionofzino@Kazaa shakobe@Kazaa shonga84@Kazaa sk8boyben@Kazaa sneil@Kazaa soccerdog@Kazaa StolenSi@Kazaa sus@Kazaa Sweet3114@Kazaa sweetthang1421@Kazaa TheLastReal7@Kazaa TMONEYNDHIZOUSE@kazaa Tyler@Kazaa Unit984@Kazaa Westly_NoGood@Kazaa www.k_lite.tk_Kazaa_Lite@Kazaa
I don't know why these people are doing this. I mean, if they shut down Kazaa or any other similar programs there's always the internet. From certain sites you can download whole albums, singles and more. They might as well shut the internet down too... :argh: