Parents of Music Swappers in Trouble

[jamesglewisf]

http://newsobserver.com/24hour/technology/story/951281p-6654843c.htmlWASHINGTON (AP) - Move over, college kids. Grandparents and roommates may be the first ones to pay in time and money for downloading songs on the Internet.
The music industry's earliest subpoenas are aimed at a surprisingly eclectic group, including a grandfather, an unsuspecting dad and an apartment roommate.

"Within five minutes, if I can get hold of her, this will come to an end," said Gordon Pate of Dana Point, Calif., when told by The Associated Press that a federal subpoena had been issued over his daughter's music downloads.

The legal papers required an Internet provider, Comcast Cable Communications Inc., to hand over Pate's name and address. They were among nearly 1,000 subpoenas issued as part of the recording industry's high-stakes campaign to cripple online piracy by suing some of music's biggest fans.What do you think of this? How would you like to get busted for this one?

[theyeti]

That's insane. Makes me want to move to Mars or something.

Of course, it's really pretty easy to download music "illegaly" without getting caught. More than pretty easy. I don't do it but I know a lot of people who do.

[Grimey]

I guess if the parent owns the computer, then they probably will be held responsible. Of course, if your kid takes your kitchen knife and goes downt the street and stabs someone, you are not held responsible. Unless the law says that whoever owns the computer is responsible for illegal downloads, maybe the parent should not be held responsible.

[jamesglewisf]

Not many opinions on music swapping. I thought this topic would be hotter.

[Stormwind]

I think it is a possibility that they will lose more money than they will gain by going after people who download and share music.

Most of the folks I know (young and older ones), download a few songs from a new release and then buy the CD if it seems mostly good songs. If it isn't they don't want to spend their money.

I know that short song clips are offered by the various music clubs for various CD's and sometimes one can tell if a new release is worth the price, but not always. I certainly won't spend my money on a new artist or one with a short track record, without hearing more than one song or only a few seconds of several.

From the way the different news articles read, it looked like they were going after those who were both sharing and downloading large amounts of material, not the ones only downloading... but that doesn't mean they couldn't at any time.

And Theyeti, if they are getting the names from the ISP how do you consider it still easy to do without getting caught? Seems like a whole lot of things would have to be blocked in order to prevent them from getting a whisper of an IP number, and even then I am not sure that it could be done.

[jamesglewisf]

Has anyone seen the commerical where the guy is a set painter. He is talking about how piracy probably doesn't hurt movie producers too much, but it sure does hurt the little guy like himself who is just trying to get by working on 5-10 movies a year?

The website allows you to see the commercials:

http://www.respectcopyrights.org/

What do you think?

[Stormwind]

Well I do think that downloading music without paying is stealing...

To me it is the equivalent of shoplifting- always wrong.. but the grey area is the one I mentioned. Is "borrowing" and returning later to pay, stealing?

Maybe the record industry will offer a way to download some songs that stop working - like some shareware -after a few plays. That would satisfy the folks that use downloads as a way to preview in full, the cuts on a new release.

As to movies- I can't watch video clips on my machine without a lot of hassles so I will pass on watching the commercial. But I think it does hurt their profits. I doubt it hurts the set painter who has already been paid for his work. I didn't realize they got any cut of profits or future showings. It hurts all of those who are working on a percentage-which does probably include a few of the smaller folks.

[theyeti]

Up in ND my little cousin (she's 11) was on the computer about half the time we were at their house, and she was downloading song after song after song. No one seemed to care, and she or her parents obviously didn't think there was anything wrong with it.

[Radu]

In one way, I am opposed to people downloading music rather than actually buying the CD. I don't think there's anything wrong with sampling music, or for backing up music that you already own. There are some people, however, that will download an entire album, and then burn it to a blank-CD, even go so far as printing out the CD label and complete dublicating an album. That's just wrong no matter how you justify it.

In another way, I think this is just another cycle in arts. People have been writing and perfroming music for centuries, without pay. It just so happens that they've been able to make millions off of it for the past few decades. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with making a living off of your passion, but there's no reason why manufactured artists are living in mansions. You'd have more than enough income to make a living with concert tickets and the few albums and merchendice you do sell. In fact, I believe that's how most real musicians do it.

Ladies and Gentleman: Radu the conspiracy theorist.

[jamesglewisf]

Radu, I enjoy reading your posts, even if you are a conspiracy theorist.

[jamesglewisf]

But PLEASE, please tell me how I am supposed to pronounce your user name?

[Radu]

lol. sorry. It's pronounced "Rad-oo", but you can do say it "Ray-doo" if you want. It makes no difference on the internet. ;)

[theyeti]

It makes me think of Ragu, the spaghetti sauce :-P

[jamesglewisf]

Nothing to be sorry about. I just like to pronounce things correctly, even if it is just when I'm reading it to myself on the computer.

[Radu]

Originally posted by theyeti
It makes me think of Ragu, the spaghetti sauce :-P I don't know where you would possibly get that from. ;)

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/32636/ragu2.jpg

See how much nicer it is with image codes enabled?{cool} ;)

[theyeti]

That'd be a question for Jim, not I.

We'll just have to start calling you "Parmesan and Romano!" :D

[Grimey]

We want images. We want images. {smash}

[Grimey]

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5061868.htmlA Massachusetts court has blocked several recording industry subpoenas that are aimed at college song swappers, saying the universities involved are not immediately required to divulge the alleged file traders' identities.
The decision comes after officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College challenged subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), saying the trade group's requests for information had not been legally filed.

[jamesglewisf]

It seems like every other week they're suing more people.

[theyeti]

Is there anywhere you can safely get music for free these days? (online, I mean) ... I've never really been into the downloading thing before, even when it was easier to do so.

[Alec]

Only the places where you pay for it.

[Stormwind]

Not any always free places that I know, although some artists do provide samples of their songs (or complete ones to gain an audience) and I think some of the music services (like music match perhaps?) will give annual dues paying members certain songs at different times of the month or so many a month or something like that. The new dollar a song singles interest me and there seems to be more talk about those kind of places lately.

There are lots of times that I only want one song from an album and don't want to pay an annual fee. Has anyone tried any of those sites? If so, how about some links and opinions.

[Stormwind]

As a start in answering my own question I found this when browsing at zdnet for something else:
http://www.mp3.com/?tag=dir
and cnet.com has a music site too: http://music.download.com/ these might be free songs to download from unknown artists, or new artists.

[CuriousG]

It's kind of nice with the options of buying individual songs for like a dollar or less instead of having to pay for a whole cd which only has a song or two you want on it. If you're wanting to get the music legitimately at least.