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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to nizbit, poster #290
Make that smegheads. plural. Not wishing to be divisive, but we don’t care about some outmoded monarchical system. Even if it is better than a republic. Respect is something that is earned, not given. She has done nothing to earn our respect. Does she Torrent? Does she use, or used to use Demonoid? Does she live here? Does she have citizenship? Does she even know or care that you and we exist?
Do we care about her? The answer is: NO.
to nizbit post #293.
A very good question, sir. I also wonder how much they paid for it. I am currently unable to find a torrent for it. I also believe that this is payware. There might be a trial version, but…
So Deimos is using donations from his supporters to purchase software to arbitrarally block other users, donors and supporters.(an abuse of trust if i ever saw one). By being able to sniff out canadian users in this fashion seems to lend some credence to other concerns about what deimos is doing here. See post 282
can anyone tell me how i can make a donation to demonoid?
about post 296
Dear noob.
Don’t even think about it. There are too many unanswered questions about demonoid. There is no mailimg address, so sending cash, cheque, money order is not an option. That leaves operations like PayPal, which have a history of theft. I don’t know what mechanism demonoid has, but any on-line banking with them could leave tracks right back to your account. Are you willing to trust a stranger with your bank balance? There are many serious questions about this person called Deimos. For your information I’ll repeat some things already said. He is supposedly a Yugoslavian, his business(and demonoid is a business) is based in Russia and he lives, or owns a house in Brazil. Does that not raise questions in your mind? Didn’t your mother tell you to never talk to strangers? That advice goes doubly for your finances. Don’t allow anyone access to your information. It is the only way to protect yourself. Deimos’ silence on matters has saved him from jail time on many occasions. So, do you want to finance a criminal? Especially one with access to your bank account? A poster, Mr. Nizbit in post 293, asked a very serious question. With the reputation Deimos has, and with the computer savvy he supposedly has, it would be very easy for him or his minions to hack your computer and steal vital information. Like banking data. Identity theft is another pssibility. Or botting your computer for other nefarious deeds.
No, Mr. Noob, do yourself a favour and run like hell.
Signed.
Dear Abby
P.S. There are many people out there who would have jumped all over you for asking such a question. Many people are irate over this whole affair. These people just love to imp-bash. Consider yourself lucky that no one played whack-a-mole on your head.
FUCK THE POLICCE
me too
XGM said
“i was able to find new bands and CD’s trough Pandora.com, but ever since they closed access to Canada”
I use pandora, they said they are allowed to stream to US only so I joined using the zip code from a maglite pack.
As far as they are concerned I live next door.
[quote comment="180615"]Would you like an invite to OiNK?[/quote]
Hi Chris…
I’m having really bad trouble getting into Demonoid and would love an invite to OiNk…
Can you pleaseeee send an invite to medic@ottpclan.com
Thanks heaps in advance.
Why does a certain element feel the need to slag off demios ??? How many of the nay sayers have set up there own Trackers and P2P sites ??? not too many I am sure.
I read dozens of posts but didn’t feel like going through 300 instances of name calling. That’s why I believe I’m not the first one to add this : people are raging against both Demonoid and the CRIAA yet they seem to forget Google.
Recently, while looking for info about a product manufactured in Taiwan, I was told by Google that some of the results could not be displayed because the said product contrevened the provisions of the DMCA, according to an australian company. I don’t get it : why sould that DMCA crap apply to a canadian citizen living in his home town ?
@ bert. post 302 It is obvious that you are unaware of the situation. Where have you been for the last month? Your comment is a total non-seqituer. Why don’t you just fuck off? Deimos is a dumb-ass jerk-off.
to Andrew, post 303. It is very simple. Google is based in the US. They have to obey US law. That way the mega-corps get to fuck the whole world. Simple, eh? Nice? No. But that is the way things are, until the US pulls their head out of their ass, or until Google moves to a safe haven. Google is also censoring a lot of images on their maps. Nice? No, but they do suck up to their government and the governments of other countries who claim that the images can be used by terrorists. This is patent bullshit, when a terrorist can usually walk by and take all the pictures they want. Street maps are easily gotten as well. Try getting a good arial view of an area south-east of Dimona, Israel, where they build their nuclear weapons. Everything on either side is fairly good imagery, but the strip showing the site looks like a pepperoni pizza. Mind you, being within 10 miles of that place will get you shot. They’ve even shot down their own air force plnes that got too close. So, what’s going on? The freedom of informatiom flow is being seriously eroded and controlled by governments who, apparently, have nothing better to do than fuck you around. Does that answer your question?
When the question of where to find obscure music comes up, how come no one ever mentions IRC? If you can’t find it on torrent sites, it’s usually somewhere on IRC.
are you retarted…
your hole argument is so selfish
all you care about and go on about is yourself and how they’ve killed your likeing of the music industry.
have you thought about anyone else in this…no you haven’t!
and now because of you demonoid is shut down…
That letter %!#¤” the music-industry over pretty good. As it should.
Deimos isnt lieing. I hate the anti-piracy shit. Fucking great letter. FUCK CRIA!!! I am lost without Demonoid =[
-iCurse
To Whom It May Concern at the CRIA:
Hi I am am a computer tech. I have been using Demonoid for the past 2 years now and have supported it for 2 years. I disagree with the actions that you are taking with demonoid. If people decide to post a torrent up on the net for others to download, how is that stealing? Really if you think about it how did that torrent begin? It began with somebody going to a store wasting money on a music CD that had only one or two songs they liked on it because the artist sucks at puting great songs on his or her album for the consumers money. Now that sounds alot like the artist is stealing from the consumers pocket. I mean the consumer pays good money for a music cd to hear lots of great songs, not crap. So how does the consumer fix this problem? They start by ripping there cd’s and DVD’s and post them online as torrents so others wouldn’t have to waste there money on an artist crappy music (Makes Sence). So why take from the consumer and the p2p sites and companys like napster who are trying to help people save there money from a bunch of rip offs like your company portrays itself. Your company thoroughly disgusses me and I stand as 1 of the millions of people who dislike you and artist and anybody who bitches about this matter. So I thank you and Companys out there who think there fighting this matter but are really making an ass of there self’s.
Sincerely,
A pissed off P2P user
P.S. There are tons and tons of P2P sites out there, so you can try to close them down but more and more appear.
Amazing how there are over 300 posts so fat and there is absolutely no mention of the SPP (spp.gov) or the North American Union. The globalist power grab to take away -all- of the rights you people have lazily allowed profiteering collectivists to do with your governments.
See a pattern yet?
Reality spike - if you had half the passion to understand the information at these site (globalresearch.ca & radioliberty.com) you would actually do something about the events that transpire rather than sitting on your ass to wait for the next download.
This is nothing less than the idea that many puppets in government think that they are the gods to decide how you live and in what way.
It’s really no surprise that no one is aware of this stuff as much of the music you listen to -is- designed to erase your ability to use what’s known as critical thinking.
Next big event - all of you will be so broke from not holding the perpetrators accountable (the planned dollar bust acknowledged by Greenspan in 1967), you’ll actually forget all about downloading anyway.
Have a nice day.
Just because something isn’t against the law doesn’t mean people won’t try to sue. Just because some pencil pusher who asked CRIA if this was true and they said no, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t lie, if they said yes they did there would be problems. The letter was obviously made to rally the people, but CRIA saying they aren’t responsible causes confusion and controversy, if they said yes, that they were responsible they would only rally more people against them, who has more to gain by lying? Demonoid? Or CRIA? Demonoid only gains support by people, CRIA gains controversy and a potential stopper to the rally. File sharing may not be “illegal” but companies have been trying to sue people for many years nonetheless. So the issue has become, who are you going to believe. And industry which is choking the life out of non-mainstream music, or a website that is non-profit and is looking out for all those music lovers? You decide and do it quick.
I fuck all Canadian STUPIDSHITHEADS…..Can you stop brathin` or something …..you can stop us …..please seed more from canada….fuck off again and die in hell…you stupid fuck
hnvkjbfvlkbvlfkhbvnhhnnhgn jyjtyujrtjl ;lahariotp8euyt50
Its time to wake up the industry isnt what it was NO MORE FLAKEY CONTRACTS,DON KING LIKE AGENTS AND no need for recording giants contracts to bind…the self produced product is of the quality if not SUPERIOR to anything the has been record producers put out!sorry but watch as the DIGITAL AGE SWALLOWS cria and its under skilled lames! DEMANOID HANG TIGHT move to calif.theres many servers that will comp you….We dont rattle from the bark of cria…were the rattlers!Sunnyvale,Ca. where it all started be looking out Demanoid for friendly servers to get you back where you were and work so hard to build…CRIA FIND SOMTHING TO DO! CEO…….SJC
100% FACT >>>>SO TRUE !!!
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