Napster down, other to follow!

According to this story the RIAA is going to sue the dutch company Kazaa together with Morpheus and Grokster. This internal memo show the record label’s findings and strategy to battle P2P networks. There is also a letter from the RIAA president to the industry leaders about this matter.

This is not the only problem, the problem extends to even copyrighted CD’s, lawsuits and the lack of ability to spread your own productions on the public media because of the stress made on these companies.

Music for the rich?

It seems you need to be rich to have the freedom to listen the music you want these days. Not only rich though …

What’s my deal in this?

I am diskjockey myself and buy regularly CD’s and vinyl. As a DJ I need new music. I am very selective about my music I play. This is not only because I want the best-of-the-best but also because I do not have the cash to buy every new CD that comes on the market. I would need to be millionaire to afford one year of buying all new techno-cd’s that are new on the market!

P2P or MP3′s usefull?

Here is where these P2P (mp3) networks come in handy. I can relax in my own officechair on my own volume and hear whatever is (un)usable and (no)good. If I like a certain song, I will search it on CD or search a CD set with such numbers on them. Finally I always end up buying the CD.

It has happened too many times to me that I bougth a unusable record or CD (set) in a hurry because I liked one or two good numbers on the SET (which seemed to be on another CD I bought a short time later). That is for about 25 euro thrown away AND a unusable CD!

Not only are networks like Napster, Kazaa and others useful for this, but they are also useful to spread your own artistic productions! Whenever I make music I want people to be able to use and listen to my music. My world is partially based on music; Mr. RIAA and others cannot take that musical freedom and expression away!

Copyprotection on CD’s

It does not stay with this though. The RIAA is also protecting cd’s so they are unable to be played in a PC and DVD players! Hello?? Some people do USE their PC to play CD’s!

Whenever I am in my office I want to be able to listen to my own-bought CD’s ya know? Not only I want to listen to them but I also want to be able to backup the CD’s I like (and use, professionally and in my car!). These protections have been bypassed almost faster than they come out.

Next to that it would be easy for the mainstream “kiddies” to copy a CD to mp3 files by just running a cable from the CD to the (digital) input of their soundcard and put it online on the major P2P networks.

Fair use

What did happen to “fair use” of these media, so you can make (backup) copies for your own usage?

In the USA they also have the DMCA what makes it theoretically illegal to copy such CD, even for own use, because you are circumventing the copy protection and therefor breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

If I would not make backup cd’s then I would end up every year with atleast 5-10 CD’s with minimally two tracks failing because of scratches and (carefull) handling!

Final note

All these “protections” are to protect the record-industries more than to protect the authors of the music. It is still very expensive to buy a CD in Europe which makes it hard to “just buy what you see” unless you have hard cash.

There are also people listening (and using) music they buy! I buy all the music I like on vinyl and CD, though I do not want to buy music I dislike!

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Posted in Legal, Record Industry

Tags: RIAA