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."
PCMag (Score:5, Interesting)
Let the market decide (Score:5, Interesting)
Countersuit: (Score:5, Interesting)
RIAA artists slyly encouraging ( underage sex | adultery | drive-by shooting | etc... )
You get the idea. Interesting how a certain media group displays a shocking ignorance of their own industry and the industries immediately adjacent to it.
PCMag has a history with me. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure that it introduced me to internet porn back around 1994/1995. My dad was a subscriber to the magazine, and while flipping through an issue I saw an article about recommended porn sites. Interestingly the one that caught my eye was actually amateur erotic fiction. Anyway, at the time it never occurred to me that it might be strange to see an endorsement for a porn site in a mainstream computer magazine. Thus, I can't find myself entirely surprised at an article about file-sharing networks.
Re:PCMag (Score:3, Interesting)
Dishonesty (Score:2, Interesting)
Oh how I hate dishonesty. I believe that the people behind this magazine published the article with the sole intention of pointing their readers to other sources of pirated material. Now when challenged, they play coy. Cowards. They should at least defend their action for what it was, rather than tucking their tails between their legs and pleading innocence. Journalists have died to defend the freedom of the press, and now these charlatans abuse that freedom by hiding their duplicitous actions behind the good name of journalism.
Who can you write to? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd like to provide my feedback to both parties in this. I found the email addresses of a couple people at PCMAG that I could write to an express my views. So far, I have found NO email addresses of ANY of the executives who wrote that letter to PCMAG (as seen on Billboard).
My conclusion is clear. PCMAG has at least some interest in what its readers, and the general public, think about this. But the music industry executives clearly have no interest in what people think. They have their heads in the sand. They have some idea of what product they want to deliver, and all they want is to push it so hard that people will just accept it.
I really just wanted to ask them ... personally ... and that means NOT some secretary answering ... I want to hear directly from these executives themselves since they think their names are so important ... just where I can BUY music that will work for me (beyond what Magnatune [magnatune.com] has). Do they even consider me to be part of their target market? I have some serious doubts. And I bet a lot of people do, now.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What is limewire? (Score:2, Interesting)
Longcat and Tacgnol at Tenagra.
Sometimes I wonder just how much of a conversation we could have, using nothing but memes. What was once the least-comprehensible (until the secret was revealed) ST:TNG episode of all time has now become reality.
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
When they go down, their assets will just be bought by another group.
I say we Blender EMI, buy their copyrights and then release them all to the public domain.
I'm in for $500, who's with me?
Re:Shouldn't they be happy? (Score:5, Interesting)
the problem is the music industry continually fails to cite any context for their lost sales, other than the idiotic claim that the pirates took all their music.
when was the last time you bought a CD?
when was the last time you bought a DVD?
consumers will typically not buy both. if you're buying a movie, you'll use your "entertainment budget" on that, and skip on the CD for next time.
CD sales have dropped consistently since the late 90s. guess what happened in 1998? DVDs hit the market.
let's compare and contrast with CD player sales. see how they correlate with CD sales? now let's pop DVD and DVD player sales on the same graph. i wonder whether as CDs dip, DVDs increase?
i'm not saying piracy doesn't exist, but i think there's a much bigger culprit for lost CD sales in the mix here.
Re:What is limewire? (Score:4, Interesting)
I personally would prefer we just stop using grammar. If the intention is clear then does it really matter?
But often the intention is not clear.
If you are trying to achieve a higher level of communication (way higher than "want eat") then being precise and accurate is important, because it then allows you to more easily talk about very diverse topics with less confusion and greater efficiency.
Slashdot used to at least be a site where people could talk about a very wide range of things, not just "beowulf cluster" jokes.
If spelling (including capitalization) and grammar is ignored, it just makes it harder to talk about uncommon stuff. People would have to assume the common case, even if a rare or fringe case was intended.
If you can only "bark once for yes, and bark twice for no", don't be surprised when people assume you aren't very smart, or a waste of time when discussing more complex topics.
Anyway, downloading is *not* necessarily illegal (Score:4, Interesting)
Who says downloading, or making copies for private use is illegal? It depends on where you are.
In many countries, people are forced to pay fees on blank CDs, on printers, on copy machines, even on the memory in MP3 players. Why? The justification for these fees is that people do, in fact, make copies of copyrighted media. Irritating: whatever happened to the presumption of innocence? More irritating: extraordinarily little of this money actually makes it to the artists.
A very few countries got it right: "if our consumers must pay these fees, because you assume they are copying, then they have paid for the right to copy, and this must then be legal". Two countries that I am aware of: Switzerland and Italy. As I understand the law in these two countries (IANAL), uploading is illegal, as is making copies for sale. However, making copies for private use is legal, and this includes both downloading and also making individual copies for friends. The claim that downloading is illegal is therefore disingenuous. The MAFIAA would like for it to be illegal, but it depends on your jurisdiction.
Does anyone know of other countries where downloading is legal? Or have more specific information on the situation in Switzerland and Italy?
Hitler/Stalin (Score:3, Interesting)
It's interesting how one of history's biggest monsters (Stalin) was on the good side of a war effort against one of history's other biggest monsters (Hitler)
Re:What about CD to .mp3 converters and so on? (Score:2, Interesting)
And about the original comment, troll? Wtf? I am sorry for the anonymous coward that I responded to, but someone who doesn't have a say in what he plays is just another gear in the Music Industry, and the expectation of potenial employers from me to do the same thing is the main reason I stopped DJing professionally.
Now if someone has to add something to that, please use arguments