RIAA Now Blames Journalists For Its Piracy Trouble 367
adeelarshad82 writes "RIAA executives have written a letter to PCMag expressing 'deep disappointment' for publishing an article on Limewire Alternatives. While the article includes a disclaimer from PCMag that it does not condone the download of copyrighted or illegal material, RIAA executives believe that 'PCMag is slyly encouraging people to steal more music.' The letter goes on to ask PCMag to retract the article from their website. PCMag's Editor in Chief has responded to the letter by stating that music industry's charges remain groundless and that it reeks of desperation. He points out that PCMag covers all aspects of technology, which includes the products, services and activities that some groups and individuals might deem objectionable. He defends publishing the article by saying 'We covered these Limewire alternatives because we knew they would be of interest to our readers. We understand that some might use them to illegally download content. We cannot encourage that action, but also cannot stop it. Reporting on the existence of these services does neither.' PCMag has also refused to retract the article."
What's Next? (Score:5, Insightful)
What about CD to .mp3 converters and so on? (Score:5, Insightful)
Shouldn't the RIAA be going after them for reviewing CD burners that can burn copied files? Or for reviewing software that rips .mp3 files or .wav files from audio CDs? Shouldn't PC Mag and all other publications be restricted from writing about anything that could potentially assist in copying music?
Wrong channel (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about CD to .mp3 converters and so on? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. They should also be prohibited from reviewing Garage Band, CakeWalk, or any other music production software. After all, if a bunch of hippies can make "demo tapes" that rival professionally produced records in production quality, then bands might just start recording their own music, releasing it directly to fans via the internet, marking it themselves via social networks, and promoting their own concerts. Then what would all of the untalented people do to get their cut? What would the radio DJs do for money without their payola? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE PARASITES?!
Re:What is limewire? (Score:2, Insightful)
The RIAA is correct. (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of which, I am hereby putting everyone on notice who has ever mod'ed me down, that they have cause me emotional distress and based upon the mathematical formulas that the RIAA uses, I will be suing you for
One hundred billion dollars for each moderation. But, we can settle now for just $50,000.
Be Fair (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish Slashdot was a little more objective in reporting the news, instead of just spinning the story in a sensationalist way to confirm what people want to hear.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:5, Insightful)
It cost the RIAA $16 for every dollar they collected with the lawsuits
I've heard a lot of different takes on that. Some attorneys I've talked to about it the say quite the opposite, that given the way their scheme worked, the probably turned a profit. Regardless, you're absolutely correct: the music industry is going down because of their own inability to manage the business in the face of anything even resembling competition.
ORLY? (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess, by the same logic, that automobile magazines encourage drunk driving and gun magazines encourage murder.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:3, Insightful)
EMI is on the edge of defaulting on its CitiGroup loan and being foreclosed upon.
Can't happen fast enough!
Re:Be Fair (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, the summary doesn't claim that "RIAA Now Blames Journalists For Its Piracy Trouble".
When it comes to organizations like the RIAA, fighting fair with fair just gets you burned. In this case, PC Mag is helping matters, so far as the general public is concerned, by getting a few facts out. The simple fact that the RIAA disagrees with them is sufficient indication that PC Mag is doing the right thing here. Kinda like the old saw, "When the competition threatens a lawsuit, you must be doing something right."
Helping the RIAA, from any reasonable perspective, serves no legitimate purpose.
Re:What is limewire? (Score:5, Insightful)
I personally would prefer we just stop using grammar. If the intention is clear then does it really matter?
Yes, yes it does. Intent is not sufficient to assure good communication. The Devil is in the details.
Re:What is limewire? (Score:5, Insightful)
Grammar is like ECC.
Blaming everyone but themselves (Score:3, Insightful)
The RIAA is acting like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
Why not blame google for makeing it easy for peopl (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not blame Google for makeing it easy for people to find info on how to download music.
Re:Be Fair (Score:2, Insightful)
Kinda sounds like a variation on "Hitler was wrong about everything, therefore always do the opposite and you'll be right" fallacy. Did you know that Hitler was a vegetarian? That's a reason not to be a vegetarian, right?
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:5, Insightful)
EMI is on the edge of defaulting on its CitiGroup loan and being foreclosed upon.
Can't happen fast enough!
Actually, I would be sad to see them go down. Not because I feel sorry for a bunch of idiots who can't manage a business, but because I am sure that there is actually a good amount of music on EMI that IS worth listening to.
A much better alternative would be if EMI were actually able to market their products in a sustainable way. It is a shame that the music will suffer. I am not sorry that in this case a terrible company is going out of business, but that when they do go out of business, a certain amount of music will be lost to a degree.
Re:Be Fair (Score:5, Insightful)
"The simple fact that the RIAA disagrees with them is sufficient indication that PC Mag is doing the right thing here." Kinda sounds like a variation on "Hitler was wrong about everything, therefore always do the opposite and you'll be right" fallacy. Did you know that Hitler was a vegetarian? That's a reason not to be a vegetarian, right?
Yes, but the reason that Hitler is universally hated isn't because of his dietary choices, it's because was a warmongering, empire-building, genocidal maniac. Generalizing beyond that is, I agree, ridiculous.
Which I wasn't doing. Given the history and predictability of the RIAA on these issues, you can pretty much be sure that doing the opposite of anything they suggest is, if nothing else, probably ethical.
Re:PCMag (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll have to check out PCMag and see if it's worth subscribing to.
It's not.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Be Fair (Score:5, Insightful)
Bad example. If a magazine published an article on how to get a bomb past airport security they would improve security. Why? How?
Simple their exposure of an obvious "security gap" would force the airport security to be improved.
Not knowing about a security hole and not telling anyone about it is not security.
It's a kin to someone writing about a hole in the airport fence that's hidden behind a bush.
Security through obscurity is not true security.
Similarly PCMags discussion of lime wire alternatives is simply pointing at the airport and telling you there are other holes in the fence that would need to be fixed (or in this cant be fixed).
The truth is that for the past 50 years the technology to distribute music to a large audience was not financially accessible to musicians and artists except through record labels. The technology has changed and the artificial lock that record labels had on artists is gone forever.
It's called disruptive innovation. Any business that does not innovate or compete through innovation will eventually experience it from a competitor (eg. Death of the walkman, the end of photographic film, horse and carriage, steam engines etc...) and if they don't have another way to make money they will go out of business.
So sad too bad... one more middle man cut out of the equation.
Re:PCMag (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What is limewire? (Score:5, Insightful)
Obvious bad grammar is something that flags comments as potentially uninformative. If a person gets the "easy to fix" things wrong (e.g. you're, it's, could've), it negatively correlates with the care that person takes to make well-informed statements. If you want to keep using bad grammar, go ahead. Just realise that it will mean your posts are less likely to be read in depth by me.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What is limewire? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about CD to .mp3 converters and so on? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What about CD to .mp3 converters and so on? (Score:2, Insightful)
the bands are irrelevant... it's not like many pop stars get rich.
they do one album, all the costs come out of their cut of the sales, then they're never heard from again. the bands split up, maybe some of the members make it bigger with something else, but usually they just go back to normal jobs and doing pub gigs.
happened to a friend of mine. his band's tunes were all over the radio, TV, etc, he toured with some massive acts, yet all through it he was using his mate's phones because he couldn't afford phone credit. he's working as a kitchen hand in a pub now, doing music on the side, just like where he was when he started.
i wonder how nickelback will be doing in a couple of years? how are they doing now? i haven't heard much out of them in a while.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:3, Insightful)
If EMI goes under, their assets (including copyrights) will be divided by their credors and assigned for a sale supervised by the credors and a judge. That is how banckrupcy works.
Now, whoever buys the copyrights will probably be interested on some revenue, instead of making music scarce so they can sell their latest trash. That is probable because the buyer probably won't be a studio (all of them are underwater) who has any latest trash to sell. Consequently, whoever buys the copyrights will probably work hard to distribute the music (and yes, that includes lowering the price and putting them on the web) making the whole situation so much better than what we have now.
Re:What is limewire? (Score:1, Insightful)
This is bullshit. The OED still lists "realize" as the principal spelling with "-ise" as a variant. The Americans didn't change "-ise" to "-ize"; we (the British) switched from "-ize" to "-ise" in the early 20th century.
Re:What is limewire? (Score:3, Insightful)
What a brilliant sig you have.