Radiohead, the band that made millions of dollars by giving away their music for free, has very little to complain about when it comes to piracy. On the contrary, in a landmark file-sharing case, Radiohead has responded positively to a request to testify against the RIAA.
This week’s hot topic is the reported collaboration between the RIAA, MPAA and your ISP. The aim of the music and movie industries is to reduce and deter illicit file-sharing by sending out warnings to alleged infringers. The big questions is this: How would you react if you received one of these warnings?
This week several scary stories surfaced about how the MPAA and RIAA are negotiating with ISPs on how to deal with copyright infringers. Even though it was often presented as news, those who look deeper will realize that this is nothing new at all, just the same old threats dressed up in a new jacket.
It’s been a rough week for the RIAA as massive layoffs are about to cost many employees their job. On top of that, the anti-piracy outfit is being sued for abusing the legal system for its war on piracy, civil conspiracy, deceptive trade practices, trespassing and computer fraud.
Comcast doesn’t really have a good reputation in the BitTorrent community and it’s getting worse by the day. They now have plans to cooperate with the RIAA and disconnect alleged copyright infringers. A worrisome development, especially since they have a tendency to accuse innocent customers.
With the defense in the Tenenbaum case getting their request to broadcast the trial online, it seemed that some light of exposure was to be brought to the RIAA’s method of litigation. Yet the RIAA doesn’t want their court practices exposed for all to see, and have now appealed the judges decision.
Most people will never hear anything from the RIAA, unless the anti-piracy outfit demands money from them for allegedly downloading copyrighted music, of course. But even the RIAA has a warm and fuzzy side, but unfortunately it’s limited to music industry insiders.
The banking industry has received billions of dollars recently and the US auto industry had its share as well. Both have a history of bad decision making, with the auto industry in the US resisting advances in technology. The music and movie industries have also made bad decisions, and rejected technology, so it has to be asked – are they next in line with the begging bowl?
For years the RIAA has been filing lawsuits against thousands of individuals who allegedly shared copyrighted music. Following recent court setbacks, the lobby group has announced it will stop mass lawsuits. Instead, it will focus on cutting deals with ISPs to disconnect ‘IP-addresses’ that repeatedly share copyrighted music.
November 4, 2008, election day in the United States. As votes are cast right across America to determine who will become the 44th president, we take a look at where the sympathies of some of the key anti-piracy and filesharing figures lie, with a particular interest in RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol, who is a keen John McCain supporter.
The RIAA sends out pre-settlement letters and lawsuits to all manner of students accused of file-sharing across the US. Some schools, as we’ve covered in our Tackling College Piracy series, have capitulated. Others, like University of California Santa Cruz, have fought back.
