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EdwardKnoxII

41 more sued over music downloads

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/12/0...c.ap/index.html

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recording industry has filed 41 more lawsuits against computer users in at least 11 U.S. states it said were caught illegally distributing songs over the Internet, continuing its aggressive campaign against online music piracy.

 

The latest copyright suits this week bring to 382 filed since the Washington-based Recording Industry Association of America announced its legal campaign nearly six months ago.

 

The group's president, Cary Sherman, said the group has no plans to cut back, even as media coverage over the continuing lawsuits wanes.

 

"People who engage in illegal file-sharing should be aware, whether or not they hear about it this month, that doesn't mean the enforcement program has been reduced in any way," Sherman said. "If anything it will be increased."

 

The recording industry is monitoring popular Internet services where computer users can download song files, searching for people illegally distributing the largest music collections. Court-issued subpoenas compel Internet providers to identify their customers linked to the online accounts used to download songs.

 

Among the RIAA's recent targets is retiree Ernest Brenot, 79, of Ridgefield, Washington, who wrote in a handwritten note to a federal judge that he does not own a computer nor can he operate one.

 

Brenot was accused of illegally offering for download 774 songs by artists including Vanilla Ice, U2, Creed, Linkin Park and Guns N' Roses.

 

Brenot's wife, Dorothy, said she and her husband were stunned by the claims, offended at the suggestion they listened to such music. Brenot was targeted in the previous round of 80 suits the recording organization filed late in October.

 

Brenot and her husband said their son-in-law briefly added Internet service to their own cable television account while living with the couple because Comcast Cable Communications Inc. said it would add a surcharge to send separate bills to the same mailing address.

 

"There's a mistake in this case," Dorothy Brenot said. "We're innocent in all of this, but I don't know how we're going to prove it."

 

The 41 most recent suits were filed against Internet users in Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, Connecticut, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois and Washington.

 

The recording industry also said Wednesday that it has reached financial settlements against at least 220 computer users. Defense lawyers familiar with some of the cases have said penalties ranged from $2,500 to $7,500 each.

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Brenot was accused of illegally offering for download 774 songs by artists including Vanilla Ice, U2, Creed, Linkin Park and Guns N' Roses.

 

Brenot's wife, Dorothy, said she and her husband were stunned by the claims, offended at the suggestion they listened to such music.

I would be offended if I was publicly connected with listening to Linkin Park, too.

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"There's a mistake in this case," Dorothy Brenot said. "We're innocent in all of this, but I don't know how we're going to prove it."

Well, she doesn't own a computer, so I think that may help a bit...

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Guest Waldo
Brenot and her husband said their son-in-law briefly added Internet service to their own cable television account while living with the couple because Comcast Cable Communications Inc. said it would add a surcharge to send separate bills to the same mailing address.

 

My money says the son-in-law downloaded the music.

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Guest stardust

Thanks for posting this, simply because it helps save me time in doing even more research for the paper I have due tomorrow on the RIAA.

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Guest "Fruity" Frankie

Fuck the RIAA... it should be pretty easy for this women to prove her case though considering she doesnt own a computer..

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382 out of a population of what 300,000,000 in America? 0 out of a population of 60,000,000 in Britain, shit I'lll take those odds.

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Guest Mr. Brook River

I actually wrote an article about piracy for the school paper last month, and it was a real eye opener. I mean, sure the odds are very slim, but thats because most people don't have thousands of songs downloaded. The industry is targetting that minority right now, but will be making its way down the food chain evantually, as long as they have the resources and the attention. I stopped sharing when a friend of mine got sued.

 

On another note, Napster is back with its subscription service. As far as I'm concerned, $.99 a song is not bad at all. I would pay for that if its legal. But it unfortunetly doesn't support the artist much, considering its the record companies doing.

 

Also, Kazaa is filing a lawsuit stating that the RIAA used Kazaa servers and programs to find users with certain songs and excess amounts of them. Who knows how that will turn out.

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Guest stardust
On another note, Napster is back with its subscription service. As far as I'm concerned, $.99 a song is not bad at all. I would pay for that if its legal. But it unfortunetly doesn't support the artist much, considering its the record companies doing.

After writing a paper on this yesterday I probably know far too much about this subject (the RIAA in general) but the artist actually makes nothing off of the sales, and neither does Apple (and Napster probably won't, either). All of the money goes directly to the RIAA and the record labels. And why do I say the artist will get nothing from that? Because, say you have a new band who's given a $250,000 advance. Said band sells 250,000 copies of their first album. The record label makes $710,000 off of that first album, but after the band has to pay back recording costs, promotion costs, tour bus costs, catering and wardrobe, etc, the band is actually left $14,000 in the hole in royalties. So when the RIAA says that they're doing this to help the artist, I say bullshit (and so do a lot of music artists). Every single cent is going to the RIAA and the record label, and the artists don't see a dime until they've been around for many, many years.

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I just use Rhapsody now to be safe. It's not all that bad, for ten bucks I can listen to 30,000 albums as many times as I want, whenever I want to. I don't really miss having to wait around to download songs on Kazaa or Napster and I like knowing that the song will ALWAYS be cd quality and/or not a loop.

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Guest mesepher
I just use Rhapsody now to be safe. It's not all that bad, for ten bucks I can listen to 30,000 albums as many times as I want, whenever I want to. I don't really miss having to wait around to download songs on Kazaa or Napster and I like knowing that the song will ALWAYS be cd quality and/or not a loop.

what is the file size man? If its a lousy 3MB MP3 file, it's anything but CD quality. The MP3 compresses the audio so badly, it's disgusting

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I just use Rhapsody now to be safe. It's not all that bad, for ten bucks I can listen to 30,000 albums as many times as I want, whenever I want to. I don't really miss having to wait around to download songs on Kazaa or Napster and I like knowing that the song will ALWAYS be cd quality and/or not a loop.

what is the file size man? If its a lousy 3MB MP3 file, it's anything but CD quality. The MP3 compresses the audio so badly, it's disgusting

Rhapsody does not involve you downloading the actual song, it just gives you access to listen to it whenever your little heart might so desire.

 

And it's CD quality because I say it is. It means that when I listen to it, it sounds perfect, with no scratches, static, loops, or other quirks that come up in most mp3s on Kazaa.

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There should be a RAAA, or Recording Artists' Association of America. The RA3 would be about getting the ARTIST, not the company that fucks the artist over, their justly due money.

 

And somebody should really just point out to the RIAA that if they signed bands with staying power, piracy would be lower.

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There should be a RAAA, or Recording Artists' Association of America. The RA3 would be about getting the ARTIST, not the company that fucks the artist over, their justly due money.

 

And somebody should really just point out to the RIAA that if they signed bands with staying power, piracy would be lower.

No, it really wouldn't. People will get stuff for free, whatever it is.

 

Didn't they show that alternative music had a higher rate of downloads than pop, anyhow?

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