
Leaked RIAA Report: SOPA/PIPA “Ineffective Tool” Against Music Piracy - evo_9
http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-riaa-report-sopapipa-ineffective-tool-against-music-piracy-120727/
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younata
Basically, instead of implementing a carrot for not pirating music, the RIAA
wants a bigger stick.

It would be far easier for them to just implement a carrot. Make it fucking
easy for me to pay for music that I can enjoy whenever I want to, on whatever
device I like.

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skymt
What's the problem with iTunes, or Amazon MP3? Instant downloads, DRM-free,
reasonably high bitrate, standard formats. Seems to meet your requirements.

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lukev
And, it's worth noting, it has largely worked. Used to be that just about
everyone I knew pirated music. Now, in my circle of acquaintances, its only a
couple techno-anarchists and some kids who couldn't afford it otherwise. I
doubt they hurt the RIAA's bottom line much.

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tokenizer
We'd do it anyway. I'd be bootlegging and sharing bootlegged music if it was
the 80s. Why? Because I'm dirt poor and can't justify paying for such high
level things. I still want it though. You can definitely make the argument
that I'm stealing from them, I'll give you that, but I'd never buy it in the
first place so I don't see how my copying something disrupts their bottom line
so much.

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vecinu
You've raised an interesting issue.

If you never intend to buy said item in the first place because you can't
afford it or whatever, how are you hurting the business in question? As long
as you are not sharing the product and consuming it solely for yourself, then
nothing in the world is changing, you are just using a product.

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alan_cx
Hang on, this is not an interesting issue, is the core point of the whole
debate. Have people missed it?

Its been the same since all the bleating went on about fake designer labels in
the 80's. You are not likely to buy a fake Le Whatever t-shirt if you can
afford the real thing. Who buys fake Rolexes? Its not the millionaires who buy
the originals is it? If you are a rich person with fake designer labels, you
look like a prat. There for, mostly, no loss. The whole thing is basically a
lie. There is very little actual loss due to piracy.

Look, most people spend all their money each month. If not spend, then
allocate. Which means they have a finite amount to spend. So, if they have to
buy that which they down load for free, that means they don't buy something
else. Maybe the would just do with out. Often with music it ends up not
mattering. I mean, out of 100 CD's how many would you listen to regularly? How
many never? What about those who have "illegal" downloads? Most of it you
never listen too, right? I could go on.

So, the assumption that these industry Muppets make that all the recordings
they see downloaded represents lost money is utterly ridiculous. And they must
know that.

And here is why: Music faces massive competition for our finite funds. We
spend less in percentage terms because now there is so much more to spend our
money on than there was back in the 90's, 80', 70's, and so on. As the decades
went by, the competition increased and the music industry got squeezed out,
and that is a huge problem. They see there isn't really much they can really
do about it, so what we have now is the final desperate tactic of blaming
their former customers who chose to spend more of their money else where.

Ooooo, bit of a rant? Sorry... I think I stand by all that. Makes sense to me
any way.

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Herring
I guess part of the problem with fake rolexes is they affect the real brand.
Much of the appeal of luxury items comes from their uniqueness & rarity.

The music industry's problem with itunes etc is that they're giving up a lot
of control (pricing, customer info, etc) & aren't getting much money out of
digital downloads. And Amazon could start signing artists tomorrow.

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bediger4000
If SOPA/PIPA would have been ineffective, why did they push it so hard?

I can think of a couple of things:

1\. They didn't really push it all that hard, the RIAA thought they could just
slip it through with a little help from their "friends" in Congress. They were
genuiely surprised by the upwelling of opposition.

2\. They've got some ulterior motive than just externalizing the costs of
copyright enforcement. A "feint within a feint", maybe, or maybe the RIAA is a
tool of some other, greater, force.

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sp332
I'm not clear on why, but the *AAs seem intent on controlling distribution,
not just making money from it. SOPA and PIPA would have given them a way to
control things even if it wouldn't really make them more money.

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bediger4000
Focusing on controlling distribution is interesting, and indeed, the *AAs do
seem intent on control. But that just moves the question one level down: why
focus on control? Isn't micro-control of stuff like distribution usually
externalized by corporations? Why try to control something that any thought at
all leads you to say "why bother?"

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ktizo
_Question: Who really gave that order?_

 _Answer: Control._

 _Question: If Control’s control is absolute, why does Control need to
control?_

 _Answer: Control… needs time._

 _Question: Is Control controlled by its need to control?_

 _Answer: Yes._

\- William Burroughs - Ah Pook is here

He may have been onto something with this one.

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engtech
> “These illicit sites are among the culprits behind the music industry’s more
> than 50 percent decline in revenues during the last decade, resulting in
> 15,000 layoffs and fewer resources to invest in new bands,” wrote RIAA CEO
> Cary Sherman in a New York Times piece last year.

If we assume that the average salary of the 15,000 laid off employees was
$67k-100k, so that means they saved $1-1.5 billion a year with these lay-offs?

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tokenizer
If it's true, it's still only a fraction of what they'e claiming they're
losing in 'potential' revenue.

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unimpressive
Which is apparently more wealth than the entire output of humanity.[0]

[0]:
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/223431/riaa_thinks_limewire_o...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/223431/riaa_thinks_limewire_owes_75_trillion_in_damages.html)

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danielweber
Those are statutory damages, not actual damages.

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unimpressive
Note that the grandparent used the word "Claiming".

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jrockway
Is music piracy still a thing? I don't even know how to do it anymore...

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wmf
It's impressive how TorrentFreak can create such a long article out of a
single sentence from a slide. Does anyone know _why_ the RIAA believes that
SOPA wouldn't be effective for music?

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alan_cx
"It's impressive how TorrentFreak can create such a long article out of a
single sentence from a slide."

Not familiar with "journalism"?

Maybe a British trash tabloid thing, but here our "journalists" don't even
need a whole sentence, let alone from "source" as "reliable" as a slide.

