Court rules against RIAA

Urban Ranger · August 13, 2003, 04:06

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A Massachusetts court has sided with two universities, ruling that the RIAA cannot run a centralized subpoena sweatshop from Washington D.C. and expect to attack all 50 states. The court has called on the RIAA to file subpoenas against file-traders in their respective jurisdictions.

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"Today's ruling requires the recording industry to file subpoenas where it alleges that copyright infringement occurs, rather than blanketing the country from one court in D.C.," said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer, in a statement. "The court ruling confirms that due process applies to Internet user privacy nationwide."

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Excellent news.

geeslaka · August 13, 2003, 04:18

I don't know the number of districts but that should drain those bastards of manpower like nothing else.

H Tower · August 13, 2003, 05:05

There are ~90 Court districts plus assorted territorial districts.

All this ruling really means is that the lawyers will be getting a lot of airplane time as they fly from one court district to the next. It may slow them down some, but they've got the bucks to get the manpower needed to do this. A minor setback for the RIAA only

Skanky Burns · August 13, 2003, 05:22

The way we win this is by draining the RIAA cash reserves. This is a very good thing.

Dr. A. Cula · August 13, 2003, 06:58

You're wrong. They'll just increase the CD prices and blame it on recession or something and for some reason people will buy that.

Skanky Burns · August 13, 2003, 07:14

Some will, more will not.

SpencerH · August 13, 2003, 08:03

The RIAA are fighting a losing battle. They're just too stupid to understand the point. When companies like the baby-bells start suing them in order to protect their interests you know its all over but the crying (although that may still take some time to finish).

Urban Ranger · August 13, 2003, 09:57

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Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula
You're wrong. They'll just increase the CD prices and blame it on recession or something and for some reason people will buy that.

Fewer and fewer people will buy the crap, ending up in a downward spiral.

Urban Ranger · August 13, 2003, 10:03

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Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula
You're wrong. They'll just increase the CD prices and blame it on recession or something and for some reason people will buy that.

Fewer and fewer people will buy the crap, ending up in a downward spiral.

Lefty Scaevola · August 13, 2003, 10:32

It is an igsignificant ruling, other than the embaressment to the attornies. Their large multistate law firms with have attornies admitted to practice in most of the federal jusidictions, and they willl just mail or fax the applications.

mrmitchell · August 13, 2003, 12:09

Well...every ruling counts, even the smallest ones.

Unfortunately, however, with the massive markup already on CDs, this should not hurt their earnings for a while.

Oerdin · August 13, 2003, 12:12

They'll just refile in the new district and instead of having one lawyer file they'll just farm it out to a different lawyer in each district. They'll still have one lawyer per case and they're costs probably won't go up very much.

chequita guevara · August 13, 2003, 12:20

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Originally posted by SpencerH
The RIAA are fighting a losing battle. They're just too stupid to understand the point.

Actually, they are legally required to fight in order to protect their copyrights. They have, however, gone about this very stupidly. They should have responded by lowering prices, diversifying their offerings, and embracing the technology in a way like iTunes.

Prices now are as expensive as DVDs. Forget it.

KrazyHorse · August 13, 2003, 13:18

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Originally posted by Dr. A. Cula
You're wrong. They'll just increase the CD prices and blame it on recession or something and for some reason people will buy that.

Since CDs of new recordings are a State-supported monopoly business they are already as high as the market will bear. Increasing prices will directly lead to decreasing sales, and decreasing profit. Especially when an alternative exists (the alternative that they're trying to shut down).

The fact is that the recording industry is getting poorer, plain and simple. Eventually they will start to run out of money. This is a step in the right direction.

SlowwHand · August 13, 2003, 13:19

:) Smiley · August 13, 2003, 13:25

It will be a great day when the recording industry gets run out of this country and moves to India, like most service industries are going these days. Stuff will start sounding better. Manufacturing to China, Services to India. Oil from the Middle East, Labor from Latin America. I'm not sure what people in the US will do when that day comes but I'm sure they'll figguh out something.

H Tower · August 13, 2003, 13:28

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Originally posted by Skanky Burns
The way we win this is by draining the RIAA cash reserves. This is a very good thing.

And then J.Lo will donate the trifiling sum (to her anyways) of 2 million dollars to help keep the battle going, as will all the other artists who don't want their music being pirated. They aren't going anywhere.

KrazyHorse · August 13, 2003, 13:30

They'll be running out of money too. That's the point. Overall sales are declining, legal costs are climbing, etc.

And some groups will figure out that the RIAA is actually ****ing them over, so they'll go it on their own.

H Tower · August 13, 2003, 13:33

wishful thinking IMO

Imran Siddiqui · August 13, 2003, 13:34

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And some groups will figure out that the RIAA is actually ****ing them over, so they'll go it on their own.

Not many. They'll see the successes of bands not with the RIAA vs. those that are with them and make the smart choice and join up. Most bands aren't going anywhere (hey, they saw how bad 'Pearl Jam' got beaten up when they tried to take on Ticketmaster).

Oerdin · August 13, 2003, 13:36

Don't hold your breath about them running out of money any time soon. You'll have died of old age before that time ever comes.

KrazyHorse · August 13, 2003, 13:44

If current trends continue they have a very limited horizon for useful actions. And more of the same-old, same-old is just digging them deeper.

They've got to figure out how to sell intellectual property in an age where intellectual property laws are easily and casually violated by the bulk of their major markets (i.e. teens and 20-somethings). Otherwise they lose money, and thus lose the capacity for serious legal manoeuvering. The answer will not be found in entrenching themselve to defend a losing business model.

Their current strategy is a frigging joke. So what if they shut down file-traders or file-trading networks once a year? They'll disrupt the flow for at best a couple of weeks....

mrmitchell · August 13, 2003, 15:24

Their lobbyists have a stranglehold on the government. If they got close to going bankrupt, they'd probably even be able to wrangle "subsidies" out. The whole music industry right now, honestly, is just a big flaming pile of bullshit.

chequita guevara · August 13, 2003, 15:26

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Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Since CDs of new recordings are a State-supported monopoly business they are already as high as the market will bear.

I would argue that they are higher than the market will bear, hence the 26% drop in sales over the past three years.

KrazyHorse · August 13, 2003, 15:27

They've already wrangled some out of the Canadian government. Companies, artists, etc. get money from each blank CD sold there.

*****. Somebody should tell them that people use more blank CDs to put games on, since a CD full of MP3s will generally contain 10-12 albums.

KrazyHorse · August 13, 2003, 15:29

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Originally posted by chegitz guevara

I would argue that they are higher than the market will bear, hence the 26% drop in sales over the past three years.

I agree, but the market has recently been hit with competition of a sort. I'm not sure how much of their drop in sales is due to pirating and how much is due to people simply not listening to music at the prices they charge.

mrmitchell · August 13, 2003, 15:50

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I agree, but the market has recently been hit with competition of a sort. I'm not sure how much of their drop in sales is due to pirating and how much is due to people simply not listening to music at the prices they charge.

It's not piracy. IIRC they also released something like 30% less albums over the same period as the profits drop happened.

Besides, though, CDs ARE ridiculously expensive, and for a lot of people I know, that's the main issue.

You can go to Wal-Mart and get a crappy radio for five dollars, and listen to all the free music you want. Alternatively, you can download a bunch of mp3s, buy a crappy mp3 player for a hundred dollars, and listen to all the free music on demand that you want. Both of the solutions are better than stacking up tons of CDs that cost two or three times out of what they really should cost.

chequita guevara · August 13, 2003, 15:54

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Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I agree, but the market has recently been hit with competition of a sort. I'm not sure how much of their drop in sales is due to pirating and how much is due to people simply not listening to music at the prices they charge.

It's not unrelated. Given the current prices, people tend to overcome their reluctence to steal. Were prices at a more reasonable level, people would be more willing to forgo stealing music, however, because they've so alienated many consumers and created a market for file-sharing for so long, I expect it's unlikely they will ever recapture that market. Why should kids who've grown up on stealing music ever start purchasing it?

:) Smiley · August 13, 2003, 17:43

I only purchase from local bands because I like to support local industries and I know that all of the $15 I'm paying them goes straight back to them and their ability to make more good music.

For me the RIAA and its products symbolize all that is wrong and evil with the imperialistic Yanqui consumer-industrial complex. It is rare that individuals have a chance to fight the power like they can and have against the RIAA.

Lord Merciless · August 13, 2003, 20:33

I will begin to buy CDs once their prices drop below $4.