Demonoid Aftermath: An Open Letter to the CRIA
Written by Ernesto on October 04, 2007In the aftermath of the recent demonoid turmoil, “A former music buyer” posted an open letter to the CRIA - an impressive summary of what’s wrong with the music industry and how they alienate their customers. The RIAA and the CRIA have to rethink their business models, closing down p2p sites does not solve the problem.
To Whom It May Concern at the CRIA:
I have been an avid music collector for many years, and have approximately 1000 CD’s in my collection, not counting albums that I have purchased over the internet and own only digital copies of. I purchase approximately 30-40 new CDs per year. However, thanks to your recent decision to block Canadian users from accessing Demonoid, I have decided that I cannot continue to support this backwards, dysfunctional industry with my money any longer, and as such, I do not plan on purchasing music ever again if it means that one penny goes to your organization.
I listen to heavy metal music, a form of music that “the industry” stopped supporting many years ago, so I have a hard time feeling any sympathy. Sites such as Demonoid have done far more to promote the music I love than your organization or the industry in general has ever done. I can find out about new artists and new releases from artists that are never promoted. I can listen to music from artists that have never been played on the radio, will never be shown on MuchMusic or MTV, and never have a review or even mention of their new album written about in the local newspaper. From listening to this music, I can make an informed decision if I wish to purchase the album or not, as I am not going to gamble $15-20 on something that I haven’t heard anything off of before.
25 years ago, I primarily learned about music from friends who dubbed a copy onto a cassette tape, where I could listen to it and make a decision if I wanted to buy the tape for myself. Now, many years removed from school, my “gang” of friends to share music with has shifted from cassette tapes and the school cafeteria to sharing mp3’s online. I listen to some things that I don’t like, and consequently, I don’t buy those albums. What I do like, I buy, or at least I used to, before your decision intended to stop me from hearing new music.
The industry cries that record sales are down, and blames this all on internet downloading. I won’t be so naïve as to say that internet downloading has no impact on the sales. Downloading has certainly stopped me from making the stupid purchases where I heard one single that I liked and bought an entire album only to find out that the rest of the songs are crap, and the CD sits collecting dust on my shelf. But for every CD that I didn’t buy based on those premises, there are 2 or 3 other CDs that I did buy because I heard of them for the first time on a site like Demonoid.
In the meantime, the music industry itself needs to recognize that they are to blame for sagging record sales. For years, they have been marketing recycled crap, and people are getting tired of it. On the odd occasion that something fresh and new accidentally slips through and gets radio play, the music industry immediately signs a seemingly infinite number of clone bands that makes the “new, fresh” sound boring almost instantly. It seems the music industry doesn’t even care about making or promoting good music any more. Instead, they market a young, pretty face that can dance provocatively and lip-synch well, and push this on the radio stations to play while getting the tabloids to print large pictures of their breasts. If bands like AC/DC or Motorhead were to emerge today, they would never be successful; not because of poor record sales due to downloading, but due to the fact that they’re ugly so the record company wouldn’t promote them, if they picked them up at all. In the meantime, they’re falling all over themselves to promote Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or any teenage tramp that can be airbrushed to look sexy.
The record labels cry about downloading cutting into the profits of the sales of albums. They put out “greatest hits” albums by 20-year olds with 2 or 3 albums under their belts, released with one new track to try and sucker the fans that already have both albums into spending another $20 for one new song, or re-releasing a 3-month old album with a “previously unreleased bonus track”. Then they can’t understand why people aren’t buying them, and cry foul that people are downloading the one new song instead.
I know not only the record companies are crying. Artists that have been around long enough to have enough clout to get a cut of the record sales are concerned about their cut, like Metallica that also clamor that “downloading is evil”, and then go on to sell over 9 million copies of their last album instead of 9.1 million. Boo hoo. Meanwhile, many younger, smaller artists favor downloading, because they know it’s the only way that people will get to hear the music and in turn come out to see their shows, because the record label sure as hell isn’t promoting them. But they can’t say that out loud, can they? If they do, guess which band is going to get dropped by the label?
So tell me, what does the CRIA do to promote metal? Oh, right, you’ve got a link to the top 50 “metal” albums in Canada, which after a quick glance at the top ten this week includes punk acts like Dropkick Murphys, Finger Eleven, and Billy Talent, and rock acts like Nickelback and Queen, but very little that resembles heavy metal. (Perhaps you should ask the Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys, what they think of being labeled as “metal”.)
And also tell me, without Demonoid, where would I have found out about bands like Evile or Dublin Death Patrol and made a decision to purchase their album online (because no record store that I have found in Canada carries either one). And god forbid the CRIA would care about the promotion of Canadian talent, such as longtime recording artist Annihilator, which released one of the better albums of 2007. However, I have yet to see their new album sold in any store in Canada, including HMV’s flagship store on Yonge Street in Toronto, and I ultimately had to buy a copy from a UK website. Considering the only place I had heard about this album was having downloaded it from Demonoid, do you really expect anyone to make this kind of effort to buy an album without ever having heard it?
The record labels and CRIA have gone to great lengths to tell us that downloading and sharing music is killing the music industry. Open your eyes and you will see that the music industry dinosaur has already been killing itself for years, and by resisting technology rather than embracing it and using it to their advantage. “Oh, but they have,” you try to insist, pointing to the sites devoted to selling music in mp3 format online. I notice that most of the metal bands I am interested in are still not available through these services. I also notice that buying an entire album ends up costing as much, if not more, than if I went to buy it in the store, even though there are no longer costs of materials or shipping that have to be paid for, and once again, I fail to come up with any sympathy for the music industry. I hope the music industry does die, because I know that music itself will not die so with the corrupt aspects of the industry gone, only then might music once again flourish.
Sincerely,
A former music buyer
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365 Responses
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root@your.server, Post 219. You said you were gone, never to come back. Here you are, popping your head out of your ass, again. So that makes you a liar too, Mr. petulance. Here, I quote you, Post 205; “I will not read here anymore. This site seems to be for kids, mostly. Ciao!”
You dilly-dally over the location of some obscure town in eastern Europe, while avoiding the situation created by your alleged friend, Deimos. If, and that is a really big if, you are a friend of deimos, then the advice to give him is produce the letter, apologise and fuck off out of here.
You have said that deimos is very secretive. Well, some friend you are. You have given us a lot of information about this international criminal. Have you ever heard of a Prosser File, root? I’m sure he appreciates it. With friends like you, who needs enemies.
regarding post 219. Nice job root, IF that is you again, you’re quoting yourself. Quoting oneself does not give any credence to any point that you might be trying to make, IF there is a real point. Your petulence (nice word there Alex) is most childish.
The guys who own the trucks used to run the music business. What should we expect from these truck drivers when we can get our music without them? A hideous death rattle much like that of the Luddite weavers who couldn’t bear to see their way of life outmoded.
Another point supporting my theory that maybe Canadian traffic on Demonoid is the real reason behind Demonoid NEEDING to shut down easy access to their website is if anyone was paying attention to the timing of the daily maintenance the website had during the week (for me on the west coast is was about 1900 to 2000 every day). The popularity might have be stressing out the servers too much and locals/Canadians (many of us on Broadband for that matter) would get easier access to Demonoid than foreign traffic would to the site. Under those circumstances it would not be surprising if bandwidth restrictions/costs are behind a website deciding it would be better to restrict access and what better way to do it than to make a MFBS excuse as to why Canadians can’t have access to the site at this time?! On the other hand, if Deimos doesn’t have the money/infrastructure to support the sites current local demands then why not just say so and go on some form of fundraising drive to support the site and still make a profit (the sites not a mfn charity!) Anyhow… just a theory and it will remain one until we get official news from either Deimos and/or the CRIA.
Like I said before… Proxy for now.
(n hell if this keeps up, I’ll look into starting a tracking site myself and btw to the guy who said something about torrent trackers; your torrent client makes the trackers. The site on serves as a place to download the trackers from).
Another note: download peerguardian. Especially you AMERICANS. It’ll save your ass.
Anyone who knows anything can get around demonoids little re-directing act. What a joke though…get too much traffic, then lie about why their cutting you off. Sure 75% of Canadians/Americans are obise & retarded, but there still is the other 25%. Show some class and man up!
Post #221 I suppose you know what you are talking about?
Oh yeah really smart have Deimos post the letter public and have a press conference… shed more light on a situation that should be kept out of the spotlight as much as possible… real genius.
Pirate Bay is on a whole different level than Demonoid. Technically and geographically speaking. Laughing at the people who are trying to take you down is a real efficient path to victory. ( If my instincts are correct you are probably 15 or 16 years old mentally so I will add the note that the last sentence was completely sarcastic )
I have seen the actual the cease and desist there are no what ifs in my story.
I just read all these posts and …”MY EYES HURT” I was wondering if I’d get some answers here. I didn’t get any answers about what happened or why with demonoid but at least I have something to chew on for awhile. I know very little about proxy servers, but will look into it. On the other hand do I really want to jump through hoops when there are so many other torrent sites ? The Demonoid attachment seems to keep showing up in files I download…I adjust my download to omit downloading the file attachment. It doesn’t do anything other than giving me a little satisfaction, but If I can’t get into demonoid then the attachment will dissapear from my files, and will never been seen. Through all this I learned about some really good sites. To all the Sites I can play in. Thanks
TO imp-poster 227 :I have seen the actual the cease and desist…
Then produce it dickwad. IF it exists. IF it is the real mccoy. You must have the mentality you acuse me of having. A cease and desist is a pack of codswallop. As for keeping it out of the light - WHY? What good does secrecy do except keep the suspicion up. And yes, PIRATEBAY is in a totally different league. They get many, many times the usage than Demonoid. (demonoid is not the biggest or second biggest tracker. If usage is the marker, then they are down around number 6.) Piratebay also has a brain and know how to laugh at a joke. Again, about keeping it out of the spotlight, DUMB-ASS shone the light on it when he pulled this infantile stunt. The only path dumbass is taking you down, is down the garden path. So, imp-poster 227, Crawl back into deimos’ orifice. The oxygen out here must be corroding what you laughingly call a brain. YOU, an insignificant pissant has seen THE alleged document? HAHAHAHAHA…… HOHOHOHOHo….
Further to post 229. If deimos had gone public right away with this alleged letter, the entire P2P community would have been behind him. Deimos is doing dark things in dark places and has divided the P2P community. And now his little imps keep crawling out to try and convince us of how great and right and all-knowing and wise dumb-ass is. And how he is working in our best interests. Dumb-ass never consulted me, or anyone else about what we need, let alone what our interests are. The egomanical nut-bar has delusions of grandeur. That head-case needs a straight-jacket, a rubber room and a thorazine drip run wide open. I repeat, this stunt has divided the P2P community and if he can’t stand the heat he created, then he should get the hell out of the kitchen. It’s going to get a lot hotter from directions he isn’t expecting.
Shit yeah. That’s a kick as letter. Free our CANADIAN Brothers goddamnit!!!!
Amen. I applaud you sir, well said and God bless to you.
[quote comment="181665"]Anonymous at post 167. You demonoid jerk. I’m not a newbie you fricking moron. It’s something at your end and it’s another asshole. As for the Enquirer, I’ll bet you’re one of the genetically distorted monkeys on the cover who can’t even read.[/quote]
if your not a newbie you’re just lazy whiner because using a proxy, well a 12year old can do. Judging by your post you have clearly not reached that ripe age lol…!
Clearly you’ve said nothing about Demonoid in your response because you’d only repeat conjecture at best. You have no facts just whiny complaining. I don’t blindly defend Deimos he could have handled thing better but saying more is just rant!
Calling him names serves no constructive purpose and only informs us about your short commings! thanks for the lols…
TO imp-poster 223 You have never said anything positive or constructive. What you say about me is more applicable to you. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black. So, one more insult back at you. Crawl away, imp. Come back when your IQ exceeds your shoe size.
[quote comment="181669"]oh dear. It looks as if the demonoid imps are crawling from their holes again. Get out the bug swatters people. Anonymous, and Pal, get a brain guys. Get an education. Grow up. Get a job. Get a life. Or get laid for shit’s sake. Do something other than showing off to the world that you are to dumb to think for yourselves. Stop kissing Dumb-ass’ rosey red ring.[/quote]
Well if you just happen to know something we don’t, then please be so kind as to share. So we too can work up a good sweat but please just keep the non factual diatribes for a post on fiction. I think that there was a slight discomfort when I first heard that being Canadian I’d have to proxy in. Once I got my proxy installed and setup (a few minutes) then I got over it. I don’t chat on Demonoid I don’t use it all that much anymore and I see no need to kiss Deimos ass. I also see no need to tear a chunk out of a guy very few if any of us know. It’s totally apparent nobody really knows the whys and the whats at this stage. Those that claim they do are clearly making it up as they go along. Until Deimios decides to to talk its mostly fiction…. on your personal attack… you know nothing about me so it’s just more of the same stuff make it up as you go along. Do you really think nobody notices you fiction… You may or may not have reason to stir the waters you could even be working for the CRIA but I wouldn’t know about that. One thing for certain you would fit right in. You could put on your resume… “Have Bullshit will use” Then again I could just be talking to a child…
lol @ ya…
[quote comment="181669"]oh dear. It looks as if the demonoid imps are crawling from their holes again. Get out the bug swatters people. Anonymous, and Pal, get a brain guys. Get an education. Grow up. Get a job. Get a life. Or get laid for shit’s sake. Do something other than showing off to the world that you are to dumb to think for yourselves. Stop kissing Dumb-ass’ rosey red ring.[/quote]
Well if you just happen to know something we don’t, then please be so kind as to share. So we too can work up a good sweat but please just keep the non factual diatribes for a post on fiction. I think that there was a slight discomfort when I first heard that being Canadian I’d have to proxy in. Once I got my proxy installed and setup (a few minutes) then I got over it. I don’t chat on Demonoid I don’t use it all that much anymore and I see no need to kiss Deimos ass. I also see no need to tear a chunk out of a guy very few if any of us know. It’s totally apparent nobody really knows the whys and the whats at this stage. Those that claim they do are clearly making it up as they go along. Until Deimios decides to to talk its mostly fiction…. on your personal attack… you know nothing about me so it’s just more of the same stuff make it up as you go along. Do you really think nobody notices you fiction… You may or may not have reason to stir the waters you could even be working for the CRIA but I wouldn’t know about that. One thing for certain you would fit right in. You could put on your resume… “Have Bullshit will use” Then again I could just be talking to a child…
lol @ ya…
Good God, man grow up. You’re dragging out a post from yesterday or 2 days ago. Again you say nothing to clarify the situation. You just do the demonoid thing and do an AD Hominem attack. That writer had some good advice, get away from the keyboard, get a life, education and/or laid. But that could be in a few years when you finally hit puberty. In the mean time, you could always grab that little joystick of yours and give it a whirl. When mommy and daddy aren’t around, of course. Ad Hominem back at ya. - Gil
Isn’t it interesting. When PAL shows up, Anonymous shows up right after. They do the same type of bullshit attack. Same grammer, same sentence structure. Same type of language with the same incoherent type of rambling. All sorts of non-sequiturs too. There is the same lol@ya at the bottom too. Hmmm, is this the same person?
poster 223, 181(root@your.server) and a few others use the same format, too. It is quite possible that it is the same demonic person. -Gil
Who cares if demonoid did get a letter? Who cares if it is legit? Who cares if there are legal grounds? The site is shut down to us Canadian users, without a fight, thats all that matters. Cowards. But I notice demonoid is still seeding torrents uploaded by our Canadian accounts, they don’t mind showing our numbers in their stats for bragging rights. I have sent an email to demonoid requesting the removal of all my torrents, and I strongly urge my fellow Canadians to do the same. We don’t even have access to our own torrents!!
I don’t agree to that sure many people buy albums after they listen to it . HOwever, the cria don’t care about those people they care more aout the people who just want free music i personally buy albums to avoid this mess
to: 240 Oct 08, 2007 at 06:48 by TwentyChunk
Not everyone is a coward. There is a bunch of us who are fighting. As you can see by some of the posts, people are trying to keep the public record straight. Trying to correct the dis-information of deimos’ imp toadies. There are a group of people who are pursuing things through their Members of Parliament. There are people working with the media. There are people contacting government agencies. As Canadians we don’t fight with guns. We use our brains and fight with the Law and legal entities. It’s going to take time and we may never get to the truth of the matter, but Deimos is going to get more bruised than he already is. His reputation in the P2P world is already shot to hell. So rather than calling people cowards, join the fray and contact your MP. Contact the Quebec Provincial Government, (Demonoid’s ISP is in Laval, Quebec) ask questions of their finance department. Contact the city administration of Laval. See if demonoid has/needs a business licence. Government agencies get pissed off when they get inundated with a lot of requests. They then go out and investigate the root cause, which is demonoid. By the way, none of us has any contact, in any way, shape or form, with CRIA. We are former demonoid users ourselves and we are pissed off. This is not stalking or harassing deimos and demonoid. This is trying to get to the bottom of a situation that didn’t have to happen. Deimos opened a can of worms. Let’s stuff him back in it.
If you want to support the artist directly, buy it from them at their shows…
one thing to keep in mind, is all of this illegal downloading ruins the record labels in which these un-promoted bands are from. The independent record labels suffer the biggest loss, your just making the music industry more shallow and less diverse. The reason why record labels exist is to buffer any cost that the band cant personally finance. Such as recording fee’s loans for tours, Production fees, manufacturing fees.. All kinds of things… Just stop supporting companies like clear channel and we will be better off.
Addendum to post 242. Contact members of The Quebec Provincial Parliament. This is on their turf. Complain to them. They don’t like to see this type of stuff either. They just love a good fight with the devil.
WOO! amen brother
I just received an e-mail from a friend. He says that I’m giving away the game plan. That Deimos can see what we’re doing.
I reply Good. He can see us coming. To be seen to be doing something will also draw more pissed-off people, who will contact their representatives. Maybe deimos will get smart and shut down and get out of Canada. I do nothing behind anyone’s back. Everything I do is out in the open. I have nothing to hide. Can you say the same of Deimos?
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