Aw Shucks: Idiotic Jury Awards RIAA $222,000 for 24 Pirated Songs – Gizmodo
in the case we recently told you about, Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas, the jury found in favor of the RIAA, awarding $222,000 worth of damages.
(Via Gizmodo)
Click on above link and check out the comments. You will find a lot of funny, sad and utterly moronic statements. Yes, the amount is crazy, but so was paying $600,000 to somebody who scalded themselves with hot coffee. What is shocking is that both sides are so unreasonable, the RIAA and some of the public.
Here is one comment I want to respond to, because I think a lot of people do not know this:
I completely agree… If actually owned the music, then you should be able to give it away.. (sic)
It’s actually the same in the artworld. If you buy a painting you do not aquire the right to sell prints or photos of that painting, and you don’t aquire the right to license the image for a TV commercial or a movie. The artist retains that right. Same with photography. You can’t buy a print and then make copies of it and sell them on eBay. You buy only the painting or image, but you don’t own the copyright to it. Well, the same is true for music. You can’t buy a CD and then turn around and license the music to a movie. You can’t have a few thousand CDs pressed and sell them on eBay… oh wait, people do that all the time – but anyway they shouldn’t.
I personally think the RIAA would have done a lot better with a campaign to educate people. Instead they have been so over the top in pursuing file-sharing that they have made a lot of enemies.
Hm, why do you think concert ticket prices have steadily climbed upwards over the last few years?
A lot of those artists have had 50-60% of their income from record sales and that’s gone – so that’s a huge thing.
That’s what Peter Gabriel said in this BBC interview. So, instead of concerts promoting CDs, which was the general idea in the nineties, concerts now have to provide a living for the artist.
Anyway, there is a lot more to say, but I gotta go to the studio now and play…
I have a difficult time believing that the RIAA is pursuing litigation on behalf of the artists.
I think that the recordings should be promoting the concerts!
Look what the pay per view industry is doing with plain old TV.
But wait! Soon we will have 3D+ video and 3D++ audio. I would pay decent money for a limited attendance to an internet live concert in a virtual reality venue, where the ARTIST chooses the physical venue, as well as the art to be performed. I do not know how to solve the problem of people recording the concerts, but I think I could find a way to “watermark” them. Anybody distributing copies other than the performer owning the copyright would simply have to pay the performer the appropriate royalties. Now we can have have the “indie” recording artist producers/distributors! (IRIAA or IRIAPA).
The present RIAA needs to “reinvent” itself to define a newer standard of what a “recording” really means, if it wants to survive. I posted on sursound (forum for studio engineers, mostly) that they should make binaural mixes for demonstrating in a remote location what their studio mix really sounds like, as well as for promotional recording. The comment I got back was “do you realise how much hassle it is to make a binaural mix?” Does one of the A’s in RIAA really mean Artists’s. And who is Associated, the Artists or the Producers?
Also Gordon Hempton (a talented binaural recording specialist) says he tried to promote this idea to studios but got little response. Maybe we have to wait for the 3D video…..
I would love more binaural-head-miked-with-video promotional recordings to link to and turn people on to the “binaural” medium, as well as introducing artists. It’s more up close and personal. A “personal” Imax is not that far away into the future… And a video does improve the perceived quality/realism of a binaural recording.
And I love Ottmar Lieberts rich sounding body-enfolding stereo mixes, too. The stereo studio mixes are a performing venue unique unto themselves. They deserve a very high end stereo rig. You will get your royalty from me for any CDs or videos you make, and that I can find.
And a Binaural head on top of the mixing console might be really cool too. What is the sound really like in the Studio??? How about some extras and artist’s comments about how the final mix was achieved?
Maybe if people better respected the efforts of the artists, they would not pirate..
Hi Steve,
Yes, it’s me! I think the 3D video/binaural immersive experience is where a lot of digital entertainment is going, from gaming to music to movies, …, maybe even data visualization. I think the way forward is to provide enabling technologies for the creation, distribution and consumer immersion into the content. This technology will teleport you right into the venue with Ottmar. Maybe recorded media is sold/priced one way and the live performances that come at a premium. (??)
Thanks!
P.S.: I did enable the ability to listen to data streams in some of our software and Keri loved it. I thought it was quite “spooky” (unsettling) and somewhat annoying myself, but it’s interesting to sense the cycles and patterns.