Record Labels Face $6 Billion Damages for Pirating Artists
Written by Ernesto on December 07, 2009While the major record labels were dragging file-sharers and BitTorrent sites to court for copyright infringement, they were themselves being sued by a conglomerate of artists for exactly the same offenses. Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal face up to $6 billion in damages for pirating a massive 300,000 tracks.
It is no secret that the major record labels have a double standard when it comes to copyright. On the one hand they try to put operators of BitTorrent sites in jail and ruin the lives of single mothers and students by demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, and on the other they sell CDs containing music for which they haven’t obtained copyright permission.
In the past we’ve covered many disputes between artists and labels, where the latter is being accused or even sued for using songs without permission. Just a few months ago Latin America’s biggest artist, Alejandro Fernández, sent the police to a Sony Music office to confiscate over 6,000 CDs that the label refused to return, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or copyright infringements) has grown to 300,000.
Growing tired of the labels’ piracy, a group of artists have filed a class-action lawsuit in Canada against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local equivalent of the RIAA. In October last year Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music were sued for illegal use of thousands of tracks and at present the case is still underway.
How and why this blatant copyright infringement could go on for years is a mystery, but the labels’ double standard has been picked up by the plaintiffs as well. “The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers,” the artists argue in their claim for damages.
The suit is still ongoing but already the labels have admitted to owing at least $50 million for infringing the rights of artists, and this figure could grow as high as 6 billion. So who are the real pirates here?
Update: The correct figure is 6 instead of 60 billion.
Previously: IFPI Use IPRED To Demand File-Sharer Info For The First Time
Next: Chinese Authorities Shut Down BitTorrent Sites
191 Responses
LOL, owned.
WOW, now that will be a huge fine, good for them
Now lets hope that they are found guilty…and levied fines based on the same formula they used against Thomas!
LOL, the irony. =D
POT, KETTLE, BLACK, ;)
Hell yeah!
First demonoid and piratebay then zamumda then sct then mininova !
These record labels are winning this war !
All the rest of the trakers will also be shutdown in near future !
Then we left on choice but to buy dvds and fund those labels !
So that they can pay fine easily ! Mark my words !
yet another good reason to boycott the big labels and seed some more.
One word: Headshot!
Who is the pirate now?
#8 is a doom saying idiot that probably walks around wearing an “end is nigh” sandwich board.
Piracy will never end
Right back at ‘cha babe.
So Jammie Thomas-Rasset was fined $1.92 million for 24 songs. so (300,000 / 24) x 1,920,000. The record labels should be forced to pay 23,040,000,000 using their own scale of how much copyright infringement per song costs.
Remember every time that CD is played or shared it’s actually the RIAA committing copyright infringement.
#1 Agreed.
lol :) yeah that’s a really big fine.
Now let’s just hope the artists will send them a letter from some debt collection agency ;)
lol at the filters, they moderated my post, I bet it’s because I said I hope now the artists will send the CRIA a letter coming from some “d.eb.t collection agency”.
Hey, your filters do not like what I say? They should! :)
Hey we’re not pirates, pirates are who download songs and movies for their own personal fun and amusement, and without to show us the money!
Ours is just creative management. The producers would have gotten paid their 60 billion dollars. We just have to sue more people around the world and collect them.
Right now we don’t have that much money, we spent them all for lawsuits… but for the pirate bay it worked! Errn, no, not really, but we’ll get there! (We hope…)
@#15
You are a retard.
Now that’s Karma!
@13:
Dude read the article one more time.
Because the article say’s that the cindustry can face up to $60 billin, this is 60.000.000.000 bucks.
So 23,040,000,000 is not a huge fine, like Jammie Thomas-Rasset was fined whit $1,92 mill.
They should get $60 billion per track.
Read more here:
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096–geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement
The companies may have promoted or used the artist music on their web pages, so…. are the companies gonna have their internet connection cut off? ;)
Splendid news!
Sounds like “OWNED!” all right. :)
Even if they only get slapped with the minimum of $750 per infringement, thats still a healthy $225 million.. However since this is clearly willful infringement, and on a massive scale, they could easily get a $60 billion bill!
Good to see copyright law finally being used for its intended purpose :)
F U BIG MUSIC
have you also taken into account that they are selling these cds in your formula?
the amount you figured is based solely on someone downloading these tracks (AKA PIRATING). lets figure out the cost for distributing.
would this also be considered a “R.I.C.O” offense?
i sincerely hope the artists win this. not just for the money but to show the courts and judges throughout the world what a hypocritical bunch of thieving, lying bastards the industries are. if those artists then use their brains to make legal, sensibly priced, drm free music available to the general public for download, what a real kick in the arse that would be for those industries!
@24
Haha, if you believe that, I have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. They’ll cry “cruel and unusual punishment” and manage to get the courts/politicians on their side, even though they exact similarly unfair punishment against their impoverished opponents (downloaders).
yes 60 billion per track please. take the filthy stolen money from them! looks like your out of the job maffia/reason/neo/beakz/etc seeing as your paycheck is in peril :)
This is outrageous! Perhaps their money greed comes to an end.
#8 Dooms day you are a dummkopf! Piratebay working just fine, Demonoid reopening soon, and plenty of 0day private trackers to cover the loss of ScT. The record labels are the ones losing this battle and they even admit it.
#17: Being your comment coming from a self proclaming faggot, I’ll just ignore it. Thanks anyway for the high contribute you gave to the community.
Don’t forget that they have a list of 300,000 tracks that have been sold many times each. When it came to determining how many times a track had been downloaded it is impossible to tell. They have figures for how many times each track has been sold. I would figure it being very high indeed which I believe would really total maybe more than $60,000,000,000.
If we used the $1.92M fine against Thomas for 24 tracks that’s $80,000 per track. Even if we half that to $40,000 per track and times it by the number of tracks 300,000 it = 12,000,000,000. The tracks will have been sold a good few times. Lets say 800 sales for each track. So we times 12,000,000,000 by 800 and we come out with $9,600,000,000,000.
Does [b]anyone[/b] still believe that that industry associations are interested in the the rights of artists at all? These f*cks only care about protecting the profits made from the distribution of other peoples work. With the ease and cheapness of disto these days, are such middle men even necessary anymore?
Their role in the indusry will naturally be reduced over time, until they eventually go the way of all middle men. However, as long as these companies still own copyright on huge libraries of other peoples sh*t, they’ll be kicking and screaming all the way to obscurity.
There will always be a place in the market for labels/studios, but the age of huge entertainment companies (like those ‘defended’ against the big bad file-sharers) can’t end soon enough for me.
Owned. How does it feel to prove from your own medicine? Not too fond of copyright laws now?
Those cases of labels ripping off the artists surely would give any file sharer a good defense argument as they do buy the content and the downloaded stuff do not serve for any profiting purposes.
As for the trackers, they should be pretty much safe under unbiased trials as their traffic comes from torrent indexing and tracking services which include legal content.
I can see a bright future for both the file sharing community and the artists if the major labels go down. Not to mention culture will flourish without those ‘advertisement supported artists’ like Ms Lilly and the likes – people with no talent that get their sales up because of aggressive marketing strategies. (pardon me fans of Lilly, it’s just an example)
Good.
Finally the artists starts to realise who is the real bad guys, it’s not the customers who get labeled as thieves and pirates, it’s the labels.
This news brings tears of happiness into my eye, it’s beautiful.
I would be willing to even donate for this court case if needed, hell, i would even be willing to buy the music from these artists if they sell it to me directly to support this court case.
Well i personally see no need for record companies at all. If artists wants profits ITUNES. If artists wants to share… torrent. Personally i personally think that in the future there will be legal torrent sites, asking for something like 50 dollars a month. Then the profits are given to the artists or producers according to downloads.
It’s all me. All me.
Brilliant, I hope they have to pay every penny and see how retarded the 100k per song law is.
At least us pirates don’t actually profit from the whole thing.
So are we equating the average pirate with a record label? In terms of self sacrafice, they are completely different. The pirate pays nothing, whereas the record label pays literally thousands of dollars to handle things like traval expenses, touring logistics, etc. The record label also coordinates the LEGAL distrobution of the artists songs. In contrast, the pirate just hands things out freely with zero regard for the artists hard work.
Coincidentally, the record label also probably spends millions of dollars fighting piracy. No artists could be without the record label. Since an artist, hardly depends on piracy (in fact is quite the opposite), I dont think the usage rights should be the same. Are we implying that a record label should pay for the very same songs, that without itself, the artist could not create, distribute, or promote?
Well, let’s see. The record label used 300,000 songs without permission. In contrast, there are around half a billion pirates (If I remember correctly, it was around 350,000.) Now, even if each pirate only downloaded a single song, that would still outweigh whatever damages the record label did, assuming of course that a company that enables an artist to create music is morally equivalent to someone who just doesn’t want to pay for anything (and thinks they are entitled to everything.) In reality, I think the average pirate downloads atleast half a dozen albums (in which they played no role creating), making them literally dozens of times worse than the record label. Also, considering how a record is responsible for so much of the artists needs (distribution, promotion, etc.) doesn’t that give them at least some right to the artists work? Essentially, when a record label signs a band, they are committing to a business agreement. Obviously, they would gain things from that agreement, like in any business agreement.
@F U BIG MUSIC-
So that guy paid $80,000 per song.. Here is just one CD and how much the labels would owe..
From Wiki-
“The most successful has been 1999′s Now That’s What I Call Music! 44, which has sold 2.3 million copies and is the 46th best selling album in UK chart history, and the biggest selling compilation album ever. 2008′s Now That’s What I Call Music! 69 sold 382,759 units in the first week of sales, the biggest ever first week sale of any Now album beating the previous record of Now 57 in 2004″
So, on 1999′s NTWICM-44 there are 42 tracks. With 2.3mil copies sold, that is 96,600,000 separate infractions(not including per-played) on that collection alone.
96.6mil infractions * $80,000 per infraction…
$7,728,000,000,000($7.728 Trillion)
So if the labels want to sue a filesharer for $80,000 per infraction, the courts should use the same cost against them.. Just that one CD of copyright infringement would be enough to bankrupt all of the major labels involved…
Yeah who’s the real pirate indeed? When you download tracks do you burn 300000 copies and sell them for profit?
didn’t think so
Copyright FAIL
@#42 spot the industry shill folks.
Internet pirates download for free, record labels SELL AND MAKE BILLIONS.
apples and oranges indeed, cept your argument is backwards jackass
These company’s can afford it, I’m sure they’ll just pay the fine and never mention it again. They wont learn a lesson and I doubt this will have any positive effects on the filesharing community.
but still, OWNED!!!
Payback is a bitch!
I can’t wait until Microsoft gets sued for scamming people into buying Windows Vista
If you looked up the definition of Con Artist in the dictionary, it would show you a picture of Steve Balmer.
Oh come on neo.styles|sSG, is that the best you can say? Standard industry propaganda? I was expecting more from you … oh well.
Also I am even suprised you even had the guts to show up and say something, you usually stay away from these kind of news but I guess your boss payd you some extra for this.
Final note about this news: I really hope this goes thrue and the artists win this battle, it will shake the whole world and the copyright law as it is in the current form.
and that “conglomerate of artists”, if anyone were to check, would find that they break copyright laws too ,, so there u have it ,, we are all thepiratebay ;)
inb4 bribing the judges…
As pogo once said-
“We have met the enemy and he is us”
Sad.
I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it over and over again; the media corporations need to be monitored by a publically operated and independant watchdog group to stop them from lying to artists, stealing from them, keeping monies from them that they alleg are collected to compenate them (blank media/CD levies) and to make sure that the corporations are not prioritizing courtroom imposed profits in ways that causes real-world serious harm and damage to our children and families.
The artists also need to wake up and challenge the corporations, and if this story is true then at least this is a first step in the right direction.
if this gets done entertainment industry in usa is finished
If there were 3 separate infringements per label, shouldn’t all the major labels be disconnected from the internet? ;]
Sounds like a case of “Do as I say, not as I do”
The CRIA is nothing more than the Canadian arm of the RIAA. An intrusive lobby group that has annoyed all the Canadian indie labels and went after the server provider of Demonoid when they came to roost in Canada. They have been told by various agencies to remove the word Canadian from their name, they have refused to do so.
Unfortunately the corporate suits are arrogant enough about it because they have the governments in their back pockets. I figure they will talk to their politicians and senior bureaucrats in government and this will either disappear without comment in the media or you’ll see one heck of a show trial.
300.000 tracks?
they got 8wned and will get pwned as soon as the case has been deceided.
still… if consumers are fined say 500.000 for having some silley 20+ pirated tracks on their pc, is 60 billion a correct amount for 300.000 pirated tracks? o:)
It will be another envelope to the judge on appeal
priceless… about time someone took them down a peg.
#8
Troll harder.
1: it’s called Doomsday it isn’t two words.
2: Hydra affect
3: if .torrents are no longer used, another program will replace it in the p2p game.
Jackass.
-So are we equating the average pirate with a record label?
No, record labels are far worse.
-The pirate pays nothing, whereas the record label pays literally thousands of dollars to handle things like traval expenses, touring logistics, etc. The record label also coordinates the LEGAL distrobution of the artists songs.
Irrelevant.
-In contrast, the pirate just hands things out freely
Yes.
-with zero regard for the artists hard work.
That depends. Most people I know download only what they want (as opposed to LOL DOWNLOAD EVERYTHING JUST TO HAVE) and are very appreciative of it. I could never have found some of my favorite bands if it weren’t for piracy, or had access to foreign films, etc. Regardless of whether this is morally right in your eyes, I definitely regard the artists and their hard work. You assume that pirates do not buy things, which is untrue.
-Coincidentally, the record label also probably spends millions of dollars fighting piracy.
Yes.
-No artists could be without the record label.
Haha, what? Are you trolling? Look up a list of indie music sometime.
-Since an artist, hardly depends on piracy (in fact is quite the opposite), I dont think the usage rights should be the same.
Whether they depend on piracy is a point of contention and probably depends on the artist. Why shouldn’t the usage rights be the same? That’s not very fair of you.
-Are we implying that a record label should pay for the very same songs, that without itself, the artist could not create, distribute, or promote?
Yes! Again, artists CAN create, distribute, and promote their material without the help of record labels if they choose.
The rest of your post is too stupid to waste more time responding to.
This will be settled out of court and forgotten. Hate to say it, but it’s the truth.
“Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin.”
Still, this story made me grin :D
Serves them right, the bastards.
ahoy!
Epic fail for them. Making money off other people’s work is probably the worst kind of copyright infringement!
@42 are you really so illogical to make an argument with circumstantial scenarios? It shouldn’t matter who is committing the crime, nobody is exempt from law. The bias from your behalf is unbelievable.
reason #52 why never to buy another cd or track from these money grubbing leeches!
it would be great if the judge would give them the same fine per song that dude got a while back. can’t remember how much it was but it was millions stupid for a handful of songs.
THAT would be justice!!
Skipping all comentaries, to get my voice.
THEY GOT OWNED. and nothing else…
I just hope they really pay to those people (and those who can’t be paid go to charity).
Well done, artists..
Ahaha so owned. Anytime reasoned idiot posts a comment and just post this article as a reply.. Owned.
So why aren’t these commercial thieves not in jail? Hmmm?
We win. Game over.
LOL. Funniest thing I’ve heard in ages.
Made of WIN!!
Props to freedom loving Canadian Artists :D
‘RIAA/CRIA/MPAA products are of course made entirely out of an element known as FAIL’
@42…
Ah, another “neo.style” over substance comment… but lacking either.
Y’know, I really wanted to oppose your arguments… only there are none to oppose; just excuses and word-vomit.
Anyway, THE TIDE HAS TURNED!!! At least for the time being. I’m glad that artists finally got the balls to stand up to labels. I’m pretty sure they knew the truth all along, and either played it safe, or outright sucked off the label fatcats (literally, in Madonna’s case) instead of defending their own fans.
New torrent-sites springing up almost every week, The Pirate Bay reaching nigh-invincibility, and now this! I think it’s gonna be a very fun Christmas season.
As usual neo.styles is completely out of his mind — unlike Reasoned Mind who at least makes some sense.
Let’s see this here: Pirates share out of good will, they don’t make a penny and actually lose some bandwidth.
The labels, out of their generosity and support for their artists, SELL AND PROFIT FROM IT WITHOUT GIVING THEM A PENNY.
That’s not even piracy, it’s downright fraud.
How can you POSSIBLY compare the two and still be on the MAFIAA’s side? Are you really, in fact, doing this for jokes, or what? I can’t imagine how anyone here can post crap like you do.
we own the public damnit, everything belongs to us, you think you filthy internet geeks have something called human rights. you’re all finished, ive got politicians on the leash waiting to savage you, the judges belong to me, and tpb is da satan
They got bitchlapped by their own hand.
As entitled as Neo is to his/her opinion it is misinformed and actually “incorrect” when he attempts to propose fact.
There is a very big legal difference between pirating a file for self use and pirating a file for profit. The courts will. not. stand. for. it.
Unfortunately if $60,000,000,000 bankrupts these companies the average joe has to pay for it. Innocent people will lose jobs for the criminal business practice of a small minority. As much as we hate big labels they do prop up the industry and many artists would be unheard of if they didn’t promote their music. In *the current way of things* (Not the emphasis, I’d like to see it change but no major shift is instant) we need major labels to facilitate the promotion and distribution of many popular artists.
I would love to see them fined a *realistic* amount. The $60,000,000,000 is just a low blow showing them how unrealistic their terms of settling are as the $20,000/track is what is typically sought by CRIA/RIAA on Piracy cases. The fine should go back to the artists and not the lawyers. And finally those responsible for the unethical practices should be charged criminally.
Collapsing corporations that employ thousands of people with families, and friends with you or I is not how we strive for change and neither is a slap on the wrist.
I’d love to rant more but this is far from the appropriate medium. I’ll leave you with a message that is the goal of all my posts: Crying bloody murder to Copyright and corporations is not what you want. You want reform and the only way to do that is like civilized humans. If you expect respect then give it out first, not the other way around.
This is the kind of story that needs to be sent to all news channels and newspapers around the world.The non filesharers of this world need to see that corporate crime is very much alive and kicking and sharing with someone even though they are on the other side of the world is not wrong.
It’s amusing that this story isn’t being carried by any major news outlets. I hope that these artists take them for everything the labels are worth.
only 60 billions for 300 000 tracks? w00t!
SPIT in the AIR and it will fall back IN YOUR FACE Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal!!!!!!
This is what happens for trying to control the earth!
Seriously I would be happy to pay the artists, but not the scum bag corporates that pillage both their artists but also their customers. Then cry poor after bleeding both parties dry. Sounds like a white collar criminal outfit too me.
@74 Capn…
These are all valid points, Capn, but there are two things to consider:
First, a lot of the jobs created by the industries are already falling into “candlemaker” territory – diminishing CD&DVD sales, for example, in contrast to the growing rate of downloads (“official” and otherwise). The old ways have become somewhat obsolete, and the best we can hope for is finding a way to soften the blow.
Promotion, on the other hand, has become significantly cheaper, as the Net provides virtually free advertising (labelled “piracy” more often than not) on sites like YouTube etc. Even more artists would actually be unheard of if not for the Net.
Moreover, music sharing gives a proper gauge of an artist’s popularity and skill, rather than relying on promotion tricks and/or bribing/sleeping their way to the top. It’s a win-win for both the fans and the actually GOOD performers.
Great news and about time.I urge all artists who made the mistake of singing with any greedbag studio to check out their stuff with a fine comb.
I am 54 and an artist who has played in rock bands since 1972.I personally know many over the yeras who were fucked by the large labels.
my website with a ton of free stuff all at high bitrates.go ahead and come on over and pirate me with my permission.I got around 6 albulms of stuff there.
http://www.bigmeathammer.com
and remember to stop buying any new stuff from greedbag music or fim studios.
feeding the troll neo.styles:
Just read your own post again and think real hard. ‘The artists couldn’t exist without us.’ Give me a f’n break. Get over yourself you pathetic corporate shill.
Labels do provide a service to artists, but they can no longer demand the same draconian contract terms with artists as they always have. The company gets all the rights to everything and the artist gets a single lump sum, plus some royalties.
Your industry of middlemen has enjoyed massive profits from others work for years. Technological advances have made the services that your companies provide less valuable, and you have responded by becoming even less reasonable. If entertainment companies do not change the way they do business soon they are going to price themselves right out of a job.
Maybe there is not enough bottom end industry to smoothly take up the slack if these giants fall, but fall they must. Only then will a new more meritocratic industry take it’s place. An industry where middle men like yourself take their rightful place.. a less profitable one.
So are we equating the average pirate with a record label? In terms of self sacrafice, they are completely different. The pirate pays nothing, whereas the record label pays literally thousands of dollars to handle things like traval expenses, touring logistics, etc. The record label also coordinates the LEGAL distrobution of the artists songs. In contrast, the pirate just hands things out freely with zero regard for the artists hard work.
–
Did you read the article? The record label hasn’t paid for any of these songs.. The points you bring up have nothing to do with the article..In this case the record label also coordinates the ILLEGAL distribution of the artists songs. get your facts straight..
–
Coincidentally, the record label also probably spends millions of dollars fighting piracy. No artists could be without the record label.
–
Absolutely the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard..
–
Since an artist, hardly depends on piracy (in fact is quite the opposite), I dont think the usage rights should be the same. Are we implying that a record label should pay for the very same songs, that without itself, the artist could not create, distribute, or promote?
–
Once again pure BS.. You must still be living in the 50s.. CRIA had a responsibility which they negated in this case.. They should pay maximum damages..
BIASEd
@all Canadians who have ever produced a song etc..
You may want to consider joining this lawsuit even if you suspect CRIA hasn’t stolen from you.. We wont know the full extent of the damage otherwise etc..
@42
You think pirates have zero regard for the artists’ work? Apart from the fact that that is pure bullshit a lot of the time, the record companies in general mostly care only about the profit they make. So there goes that part of your argument.
And you claim that the artists could not create, distribute, or promote their work without large record companies? I call bullshit on that one too. Artists can easily create their own songs (unless they’re the commercial-pop spewed out by many record companies now-a-days, but that’s going into something different). They write them, then record them. That’s the creation part done. What’s next? Distribute? Piss easy also with the uncountable number of pay-to-download sites around such as itunes and 7digital. And as for promotion? I’ve found that releasing a song or two on a couple of torrent sites etc will get you a boost in fans and sales. (I am an “artist” (You know, one of those little ones) by the way, so this is not just made up shit to defend my argument, but my past experience.
And as for that last paragraph, I’m not even going to allow it to get an answer.
One point which will probably come up in the comment between yours and mine will be that almost every pirate (except those that sell DVDs out of the back of their cars, organised crime gangs, etc) will not make profit, or as much profit, as the big labels with their compilations that are bought by thousands of people.
If the ARTISTS themselves would be paid more for it, I would surely buy my CDs.
I will NOT spend $15 or $20 for a CD which the artist will recieve $1 or less out of it.
Aren’t they going to put these recording industry goons in jail? They are madley running around busting these counterfit dvd and cd rings, Meanwhile they are doing the exact same thine 10,000 times worse. What a bunch of hypocrites… Yarrrrr
Figures that most of the mainstream Canadian media are ignoring this story. Wouldn’t want to expose the emperor without his clothes on.
Let’s just say for the sake of argument you’re right and the labels, having provided valuable services to artists, are entitled to exploit those artists above & beyond what has been agreed to, without paying royalties, absurd as that may be. Just how long do they get to do this? In perpetuity? And why?
the $60 billion needs correcting to $6 billion. as the original source of this news cant count :)
This isn’t the greatest thing in the world. It is going to prove how fucked up our world is. Nobody from these record companies is ever going to see the inside of a jail cell for this. But a citizen having a birthday party at a theater and accidentally capturing 4 minutes of the gayest movie ever, New Moon, spent 2 days in jail already (let me remind you, she has not had a trial or been proven guilty yet) and is facing a maximum of 3 years in prison. For 4(FOUR)(QUATRO) minutes of a film that was captured during a birthday party. The owners of TPB are facing prison time, hell they’ve already been sentenced to it, for running a website that has links, lemme say that again, LINKS to copy written material. These companies have been SELLING music that is not theirs, and are going to get away with a slap on the wrist, albeit a 60 billion dollar slap on the wrist but this is a company we are talking about not an individual so it will be nothing for them. THIS IS FUCKING BULL-SHIT! All of their high up executives should at least have to spend one month in jail for being so hypocritical…
does anyone reading this actually believe they will be fined anything at all? if u believe they will, i got a bridge in NYC to sell to you.
think about it, seriously, just think about it. have they ever been fined? will they ever be fined? they will come up with some bs story about how they are working out the payment details, and need some time to straighten it out, the (**paid**) judge will agree, and you will never hear of this again. fine paid = $0 …
A fine(pun intended) day it is indeed my file sharing brothers. I am completely amazed that no.styles actually posted anything. I would not thought he had the b@lls too, but it does not surprise me that, once again, absolute gibberish comes out of his mouth! Reasoned Mind, I know your lurking out there, come on and give us your side of the story. I’m sure you have some reasonable explanation for this. Just a little misunderstanding. We forgot to pay them or something like that.
It happened to Enron. It happened to Bear Stearns. It happened to the Auto industry. It happened to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. It happened to American International Group (A.I.G.). And now its time for it to happen to the four whoresman of the media industry!
“A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.”
- Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Oh yeah and someone needs to send a copy of this story to Leslie Stahls at 60 Minutes, since its about real piracy!
One Word: KARMA
What goes around, comes around.
As someone above so astutely pointed out, payback’s a bitch!
this is epic !!
to me its just a proof that when the label have money they dont give a shit of the law …. do as we say not as we do approach is soooooooo silly
Not surprised at all. About time these record labels got a taste of their own medicine.
Good, if we are lucky other artists will follow their lead and drive the companies out of business
It’s actually 6 billion from the Michael Geist blog, not 6 billion.
However, this is a severe blow to the anti-p2p/pirate crowd as well as the already failing music industry.
Whoops edit:
It’s actually 6 billion from the Michael Geist blog, not 60 billion.
$6 billion ($20,000 per infringement X 300,000 songs)
This is the type of info I would love to see get major coverage, in publications like Billboard and Rolling Stone, but I doubt that either have the balls to bite the hand that feeds them advertising dollars.
If the big companies sue torrents for sharing their material when they themselves don’t own the material; that sounds like perjury and fraud doesn’t it?
Proof that one person can make a difference, especially with some talent and a little thing called YouTube!
A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured custom Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded: “Good luck with that one, pal”.
So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube. It has since received over 6.3 million hits. United Airlines contacted Dave and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally, his response was: “Good luck with that one, pal”.
Taylor Guitars sent Dave 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders.
!!CAUTION!! Country music ahead.
Not made by the big four whoresmen!
United Breaks Guitars
He then posted this statement.
United Breaks Guitars Song 2
He was interviewed by ABC.
When are the big industries gonna learn? Don’t fruck the little man over, he just might kick you in the b@lls!
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, He is a Canadian as well!
I hope they only get fined 50 cents per infractions.
That *could* set a precedent that an infringing track is only worth 50 cents.
then we would never fear an RIAA collection notice again =)
dude.. neo is like totally out of his mind..
does he not know how anything ‘really’ works or is he like just going by what everything APPEARS..
talk about blind..
112th YES I WANTED THIS POST
LOL..
wait and see..
CRIA = Canadian Racketeers Industry Association
Some companies have a couple skeletons in their closets and others have demons. Perhaps things may have been a little different had they themselves shown mercy to the little guys but now…
It is time to face the music.
From the Michael Geist post…
Admission of guilt, case closed, pay the clerk on your way out, next case please bailiff!
Sorry, I wan’t sure by the article…they admitted to Copyright infrigment for the purposes of distribution and have settled for a couple million of dollars?
Something is fishy here…why are not criminal charges brought because that infrigment definatly is covered with the existing copyright law…
not sawing bad or good, but if someone profited from someone elses work that is clear violation…the excusese of we will get to it are like…oh yea we will compensate you in 30 years time when you forget about us….they should be baned or investigated as Organized Crime and shut down…the CRIA and SOCAN I mean…
Call me childish, but:
SUCKED IN.
Now, *that* is ironic. I have to laugh. :)
btw, it’s not $60 billion…it’s $6 billion.
@Author,
Have you ever heard the terms “Compulsory License” or “Statutory Rate”? I suggest you go look those up and learn more about copyright as it pertains to printing hard copies and selling them before you run your mouth. You can put someone’s copyrighted material on a CD without their permission as long as you pay them what is written into copyright law.
BITCHES GOT PWNED!
what else can you expect from people having degraded art to an industrial product ???
These morons are getting screwed now.
Nice!
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096–geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement
@115
“as long as you pay them” being the operative term here. The record companies have not paid anything since the 80ies! How long can a payment be “pending” until you just gonna have to realize that there will not be any money coming in. Ever.
@ 115 Dec 08, 2009 at 09:45 by __C3__
Too bad that’s not the law in the countries in question (for the corporations that is). This is clearly Criminal Copyright infringement. Something most file sharers have never been guilty of.
This is why you should support indie labels. I know, a lot of people might say indie labels suck and that the artists aren’t good enough for a major label and that listening to them is like listening to the mating call of the blue whale, but they don’t all suck. There’s actually some out there that might be worth listening to, if even just to pass the time until you can listen to a decent artist from a real label.
@__C3__
I suggest you pull your head out of your a$$ and read the article again. They have not paid any money by their own admission since the 80′s! “Compulsory License” or “Statutory Rate”, more like “Compulsory Lying” or “Statutory Rape”! What an absolute moron!
FUCK THE MAJOR LABELS!
Go indie, everyone. =D
Hope they’re convicted and run to the ground.
in my opinion, this should be a criminal case!
In law, filesharing is and remains a civil copyright infringement whilst a downloader has it as a digital file and if burning to CD they don’t sell the infringing material, not criminal but civil infractions.
When somebody burns to disk and sells a movie or music album whatever, it is then a criminal offence.
These companies are in effect just as bad as the “You wan DVD, DVD for sale, all new movie, good copy, i give 3 for £10!” guys going around selling what is actually pirated material, burnt to disk for profit.
The same as people jailed for burning music material to disk and selling in dodgy short lease shops, the bootleg sellers in the markets and boot sales, all hunted down by police and customs & excise officers and nicked under criminal offences covering bootleg copyrighted material sold for profit.
So where’s the difference here, with these companies constantly making compilation CD’s and selling them whilst breaching copyright, there is no difference
Criminal, not civil!
Perhaps, knowing they will be found guilty and required to compensate artists, knowing how much they will have to pay, is a prime motivational factor for fecking up filesharers lives, those who haven’t profited from copyright infringement and Not Broken Criminal Laws, by bringing masses of civil actions against those only downloading watching/listen to material they cannot afford because the cost of living is so high for middle to low income and unemployed people.
They know they will have to pay billions back from what criminal breeches of copyright they have profited from and so making filesharers pay through civil actions for the entertainments corporate criminal activities.
So in essence, they will not lose anything theoretically when courts order them to compensate artists who are the victims of their criminality, because filesharers who aren’t acting criminally will be paying them because these criminal companies have no understanding of the hardship and destructive consequences of their harassment and victimisation of filesharers from every walk of life.
end of he day, all society ever does is suffer more and more because corporations are sociopathic and don’t care about anything except profit, doesn’t matter who they harm.
What this is, is criminal behaviours committed by these companies, those who profit directly from selling bootleg, copyright infringing material end up in criminal courts in society so why not these companies?
or does it mean that if a gang of criminals are big enough they can’t be tried for crimes they commit, only smaller groups of a few dodgy gits or an individual is suitable for criminal prosecution for selling copyright infringing material.
After 30 years to a decade, 5 years, one can safely assume these companies had no intention of paying royalties to artists they have criminally earned from, their victims, about “Pending”, bloody nonsense, no intentions of doing e correct thing, that’s patently obvious.
Peace.
Pax-Delta-Pan
Enlightened Evolution.
Tempered From The Chaotic Forge Of Life
What should happen is all of those CEO’s to jail and a huge bill to criple or destroy the industry.
What will happen most likely:
1. None of them go to jail
2. It will take 10+ years in court.
3. All sales information will be misplaced all of a sudden.
4. They will have to pay about 45 million.
5. Which in 10 years would be actually the same as 22,5 million which is less than the mentioned 30 million.
5. They will say that they will change their ways in future.
6. They continue as nothing has happened because it is still profitable.
7. They will make ACTA protect them in future.
8. Neo and Mindless keep their jobs.
PS: Like Lily Allen didn’t end her career, if they say that they will change their ways in future it will be a lie.
WTF TF? You delete my posts now?
Right. Talking about double standards. I thought everything should be FREE of copyright laws. How’s that now? Why should they face any consequences? Why should I face any consequences for pirating anything?
Sue them, and I hope they sue you too. Leave them alone and they will hopefully leave you alone too. Or at least that how it SHOULD go, right?
I remember about 15 years ago, something similar happened to a family friend, he’d written a few no 1 songs and in one territory a record company allegedly kept acting like they still had the rights to them (when they had actually lapsed). Their (alleged) response when called on it? “Take us to court then, even if you win it’ll cost more in fees than we owe you”. Scumbags, the lot of them.
All their propoganda and previous cases against pirates should be used as evidence against them.
There is another interesting article that debunks the myths[lies] the Canadian Racketeers Industry Association has been spreading about how much money is lost due to file sharing. A must read for all who share. Just go to the ‘class action lawsuit’ link posted above and click on publications at the top of the page and its the first link on the that page.
I tried to post the link, but TF won’t allow it for some reason!
riaa … you’re next
Funnily enough that’s exactly as I’ve been doing for years as I download content… I simply make a note of what I have downloaded so that if or when a compensation claim is made by the content owner I can dutifully fullfill the request.
6 billion isn’t enough. Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay 80,000 per track, merely for infringement. This is a whole other ballgame as the record labels were breaching copyright for massive financial gain – which is tantamount to counterfeiting, a genuine CRIMINAL offence rather than just civil.
that the best you got .reasonedmind/neostyles|sG1?
that the best you got ..reasonedmind\/neostyle|sG1?
Go musicians!
Also why is the Canadian RIAA named after a baby llama?
dear torrentfreak
please stop censoring comments that are not bad,thank you..
This will make no difference at all. These companies probably have the best lawers money can buy, plus as we have seen in the past – they also have the judges wrapped around their little fingers.
Artists will probably win since they have a good case but the double standard between “respectable music business” and “dirty pirate theif” will be lost on the court and they will probably award the artist some pathetically small amount.
The fines for piracy are not a reasonable cost, they are a deterrent so you can’t use the same scale to work out what the music industry owns (even though we rightfully should be able to).
I will bet the amount that the companies are fined will not even make a dent in their bank balances.
LOL !!!
though it’s not so lol for the artists…(being one myself i can tell you i don’t get the money from the sells…for REAL)
FUCK YEAH!
If I where to set up a site where I sold copies of other people’s copyrighted work from my own sources for profit, it’d be criminal for sure wouldn’t it?
What’s happened here is like that, except on a huge scale. They should therefore all be locked up.
even if all the torrent sites were shut down i wouldnt buy their music, i havent bought a song in like a year and a half or more and ive only downloaded what i have on tape or cd (which worked out great when i found a bunch in a box) We should stop buying music no matter what. however i though of a plan, we send money directly to the artists with a list of what songs its for. if enough people do this it will get in the mainstream news and show them that we arent downloadign cause were greedy, were downloading cause we hat the RIAA and all they stand for.
Oh god I should have spell checked that post/ used better grammar.
Now they will start sueing more pirates just to get their money back!
my message, again:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA
Warner, Sony BMG, EMI and Universal face up to $6 billion in damages for pirating a massive 300,000 tracks.
Click Here To Read Further story About this That Is hidden Not Show Here Twist:
http://www.mobilebenz.com/
Question – Is it possible to pirate pirated material?
The radio said “No, RIAA. You are the demons.”
And then RIAA was a pirate.
If they want to sue pirates, they should start with the biggest fish in the pond, like THEMSELVES. Can you sue yourself, bitches? :)
The system is rigged for greed and everyone wants their cut; the industry, the lawyers (often apparently playing both roles), judges, “industry arteests”, cops, the CIA/**AA, jail wardens…
Copyright is dead anyway.
Drop the damages against the industry and drop copyright altogether.
Free locked-up content (as if it’s not already free… Ok, legally free up content.)
These days, much of what industry (and not just media) belches out is next to snake oil.
“Live differently.”
Snake oil is rich in Omega complex, very good for the brain, skeletal joints etc.
Next to the contents of septic tanks is more like.
: )
Peace.
Guess who will pay that (up to) 6 billion fine in the end? They’ll hunt the private filesharers even harder to make up for the loss of money they suffered by pirating themselves.
All things considered though, this reminds me of that little brat from the Simpsons…. Ha-Ha!
KARMA is a bitch isn’t it?
AND…any of you who have ever pirated a track need to shut up. Because if it is OK for you, it is OK for the record companies. The artist is the one getting ripped off when someone steals their copyrighted work, whether by a “big evil” record company or some little jerk off like you. All of you “anti-copyright” assholes should actually be supporting the record companies in this- what do you THINK is going to happen if copyrights are done away with? Huge companies will grab stuff and make money off of it. Idiots.
Well truthman, if that’s how you feel, why are even posting on this site if your not a file sharer? Whats your interest in this? Maybe your just a troll hiding in his mommas basement looking for something to make him/her self feel like not so much of a loser!
It happened to Enron. It happened to Bear Stearns. It happened to the Auto industry. It happened to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. It happened to American International Group (A.I.G.). And now its time for it to happen to the four whoresman of the media industry!
“A bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.”
- Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
the problem is the appeal system will go on for years it will only take 1 corrupt judge to derail the whole thing money talks in the law system you have no money guilty. have money not guilty .
3 strikes and you’re out, so 300,000 infringements is 100,000 strikes which, run consecutively, should have the likes of Warner, EMI, Sony, Universal, banned from the Internets for a good 10,000 years or so. Happy days. :)
Fuck record labels. Mostly Major ones.
@Deltapan:
The other kind of snake oil. ;)
@ Dec 09, 2009 at 01:22, truthman wrote:
Different context, so not necessarily, but in any case, copyright is already being rejected en masse. Doesn’t seem to work anymore, if it ever did.
Hypothetical live music concert advert:
“Come for the concert, leave with the music.”
Fine print: “personal recording/uploading devices welcomed”
While I’ve previously suggested to the effect that pure art’s intent is not to make money, it is to make art; I’ll also add that, if you put bread on your table by fishing for cod in the Atlantic and the cod stocks become depleted, it seems time to change fish or career.
Well let’s have it happen and see what happens. Maybe we can run a sim.
But is that what they’re already doing under the so-called protection of copyright– grabbing stuff and sitting on it and raking in the cash cows brought forth through copyright (extensions)?
” ‘From a public policy view, we’d ideally like to eliminate patent and copyright laws altogether,’ says Levine, John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics. ‘There’s plenty of protection for inventors and plenty of protection and opportunities to make money for creators. It’s not that we see this as some sort of charitable act that people are going to invent and create things without earning money. Evidence shows very strongly there are lots of ways to make money without patents and copyright.’
Levine and Boldrin point to students being sued for ‘pirating’ music on the internet and AIDS patients in Africa dying because they cannot afford expensive drugs produced by patent holders as examples of the failure of the current system. Boldrin, the Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and Chair of the economics department says, ‘Intellectual property is in fact an intellectual monopoly that hinders rather than helps the competitive free market regime that has delivered wealth and innovation to our doorsteps.’
The authors argue that license fees, regulations and patents are now so misused that they drive up the cost of creation and slow down the rate of diffusion of new ideas.”
– Newswise
“Lessig argues that current copyright laws have suppressed creativity and resulted in a read-only Internet culture where one only consumes contents, despite advanced technology that has made creating and contributing to the culture easier. Lessig argues the embracing free culture can enhance the read/write culture development. He claims the arrival of Linux and other open source tools is the proof that such complex technologies can be produced not only under the copyright-tight, corporate control.”
– Wikipedia
@untruthman
You are absolutely correct when you say…
RIAA Claims Ownership of All Artist Royalties For Internet Radio
SoundExchange claims it has the right to collect royalties for any artist, no matter if they have signed with an RIAA label or not. ‘SoundExchange (the RIAA) considers any digital performance of a song as falling under their compulsory license. If any artist records a song, SoundExchange has the right to collect royalties for its performance on Internet radio. Artists can offer to download their music for free, but they cannot offer their songs to Internet radio for free … So how it works is that SoundExchange collects money through compulsory royalties from Webcasters and holds onto the money. If a label or artist wants their share of the money, they must become a member of SoundExchange and pay a fee to collect their royalties.
Slashdot.org
(Snarls, barks furiously and chases truthman as he runs away screaming like a little girl)
Where the hell can I donate to help support the legal battles of this case? I’d like to help make certain these record labels are fined the full 6 billion dollars.
@162 anon
e-mail Ernesto.
I’m sure he can happily point you to exactly where you need to go even if not linked on page.
Just click on his name below the items header.
Peace.
PDP
Checkmate.
starlingrock wrote:
> We should stop buying music no matter what. however i though of a plan, we send money directly to the artists with a list of what songs its for. if enough people do this it will get in the mainstream news and show them that we arent downloadign cause were greedy, were downloading cause we hat the RIAA and all they stand for.
The problem is, starlingrock, that most of the jerk-offs downloading music *are* doing it because they’re greedy. Saying you hate the RIAA is a convenient way to make yourselves feel justified when you’re ripping off stuff that other people have created.
Record labels are on the way out. Bands like Radiohead have already shown that a band doesn’t need a label to get their stuff out there.
In fact, there’s an indie artist that not only has great music (and a lot of it to boot), but he runs his own business off his website. Check him out here:
Lonely London Lad
http://www.lonelylondonlad.com
Make em pay through the nose!
they should not only pay for the songs they stole, but also have government fines levied on them for unfair business practices. Who cares about them? I dont, only reason i have pirated anything is because i cant afford it. they sure as hell can, bleed em dry.
I don’t think they will really be taken to court. Guess they’ll handle some money to the artists and all this story will just “disappear”.
@LordAzuzu
You better read the article again, because they have been taken to task for this and the case is still underway. The question is whether or not the courts are actually going to to be impartial, and make a judgment similar to the ones that was levied against Jammie Thomas.
as an artist who once got offered a deal by Universal, I’m glad those jerks are getting a stick in their ass for their rape that they due to clients they try to bring on the label.
Are we implying that a record label should pay for the very same songs, that without itself, the artist could not create, distribute, or promote? # 42
#42 you’re WRONG. Now with the internet and so much access to different recording equipment artists can exist and distrubute without the help of a major record label. the artist created their songs LONG before a record label even knew their name and as for promoting themselves, those same bands are some of the hardest workers at getting their name out there and promoting themselves Any band that tours tours tours and builds their following is out their promoting themselves many without a record label backing them and even some with a record label who just takes their music uses it as their own and lets them die out there with no help in promotion.
Anyone who’s read Steve Knopper’s http://www.amazon.com/Appetite-Self-Destruction-Spectacular-Industry-Digital/dp/B002BWQ4SC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260407567&sr=1-1 book knows exactly how badly artists have been getting ripped off for years before pirates every came along. I only wish more artists would take a stand and do their own thing.
a look at how some artists are still getting ripped off with digital downloads from the inside
http://gizmodo.com/5417318/my-6247-royalty-statement-how-major-labels-cook-the-books-with-digital-downloads
It’s looking like CRIA is going to lose this lawsuit large sum gonna be used to pay off artists.. Unfortunately it probs comes from other artists who they’ve not disclosed pending lists for.. This is when the second round is going to hit CRIA twice as hard with even higher demands and more money.. If CRIA ever did this to me id be asking for max damages because they have clearly violated the terms of my releases.. This is also why CRIA\RIAA\MPAA isn’t involved with me.. Waste of time.. Big waste of money to pay them for general jockey work..
One of the biggest problems is the dilution of the market that CRIA\RIAA\MPAA have caused themselves with such crappy crappy releases over the last 10-20 years.. They wonder why they lose money ..
@174 Perfect example of who should of gone all independent.. Obviously Warner doesn’t give one crap about digital media still……. So if you an artist signed under them get out while you can before the ship sinks beneath the waves.. This was also no different then lady gagas royalties I think.. Bottom line is any artists just needs to play it hardball.. If your a top 40 artist this should be EASY and WARNER WILL PAY WHAT YOU WANT!.. YOU MAKE THE CONTRACTS! YOU MAKE THE DEMANDS!.. More importantly YOU RETAIN THE RIGHTS TO YOUR MUSIC FIRST!.. WARNER CAN ACTUALLY DO THEIR JOB AND START REPORTING PROPER $$ for artists..
It stands to reason that if the labels are doing it in Canada, they are most likely doing it everywhere else as well.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! Suck s&%t you HYPOCRITICAL bastards!!!! Where are the troll/defenders now?????
HHHEEEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHehehehe!
Re my post @165.
That was referring to the preceding post by “anon” about donating to a legal fund, now post 164 not 162, my reply to the then 162 was held in moderation for some reason, then ended up referring to another post completely by “by The Power of the Magic Poodle” and obviously not relevent to 162 now.
Peace.
DeltaPan anytime you put either of th ‘E’ names in a post it automatically gets held for moderation and then the posts order gets screwed up. Very, very annoying. The mods need to leave at least a place holder when comments are held for moderation, that way posts like yours don’t get screwed up, and if its decided to be removed, leave the place holder.
Cheers 180 anon.
I had surmised that, as a counter to abuse from anti idiots.
[Pardon off topic guys.]
No worries mate!
fail
WAIT!
So you mean Neogay and Retarded Mind HAVEN’T been defending the morally superior side after all and just serving their paying masters?
OH NOES. Now there is a shocking revelation about an INDUSTRY that is geared solely towards it’s own interests, and it’s own interests alone, most of which rather directly equal “Make the most money possible at the smallest cost for US as possible, while not giving a damn just how many other people, lives, souls and livelyhoods get ruined by it”.
Sounds about right to me.
>PAYING TO PIRATE
The music/entertainment/drinking industry has been pretty much the most corrupt entity in America for the last century. Some would argue that we wouldn’t even HAVE pop, let alone rock, without it.
Why would anyone expect any different of them, and why would anyone expect the courts to side against them?
Trying to figure out what is the “right thing” for the existing media corporations to do is rather like trying to figure out what position and pillow arrangement would be the most comfortable for your seven-year-old daughter to pull a train of twenty-seven escaped convicts.
torrenting was good when it was new and hardly anybody used it….u ppl screwed it up for me!!!
the best solution is mrt
Yahoo! Demonoid is back bitches!
I think they should be fined more per track than the those like Thomas that download it. The reason being is that the record companies distributed the material on tangible media with intent to profit, not downloads off the Internet for free. They should at least need to pay back the same fine per track plus the profit made.
Unfortunately, the record companies have lobbyists/politicians on their side (at least on the US side), so I’m afraid they’ll be fined the minimum or some low amount they won’t blink twice over.
Nineteen year old Shawn Fanning dropped out of college in to create the computer program which now allows millions of users to download music directly from each other’s computers. This technology has come to be known as peer-to-peer or P2P software and is now being used internally in a variety of businesses to share various information more efficiently.
In March, 2000 the Recording Industry of America filed suit against Napster for facilitating tributary copyright infringement; meaning it assists its users in pirating, or stealing, legally protected property.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel granted an injunction to shut down Napster in July 2000 while the case was being tried. Soon after, the federal appeals judges issued a stay. In October 2000, the 9th circuit court of appeals heard testimony on the case but did not issue a decision.
Meanwhile, in September 2000 a federal judge in New York imposed the largest fine ever in a copyright case on MP3.com. Like the Napster case, this case is still under appeal.
How many students have made use of MP3 technology to download and trade music online? What are the benefits of sharing, storing and listening to music using this format? What are the drawbacks of sharing, storing and listening to music using this format?
Is using an online music site such as Napster trading music with friends or is it piracy – stealing copyrighted music?
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