Critisism of RIAA Mounts in US Senate .. Investigation Possible

[LauraK]

.. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Thursday that criticized its recent spate of subpoenas and asked for detailed information on how the process is working. Coleman said the RIAA may be going too far.

"The industry has legitimate concerns about copyright infringement," Coleman said in a statement. "Yet, the industry seems to have adopted a 'shotgun' approach that could potentially cause injury and harm to innocent people who may have simply been victims of circumstance, or possessing a lack of knowledge of the rules related to digital sharing of files."

More here (Source: CNet

[bluestateguy]

1. This is what I have been talking about

The Democrats' ties to the entertainment industry makes it unlikely that our party will take on the RIAA. We need their money more than the Goopers do; there will always be plenty of wealthy interests to support Republicans. If Republicans are the only ones criticizing the RIAA, younger voters may take notice.

[otohara]

3. But, They Give More Money To GOP

at least in 2000 they did, which floored me. As a former worker of the music industry.

[short bus president]

2. Eh? Coleman?

Did someone flip the switch on his back to the "good" setting for a brief moment? Because I could've sworn he was damn near the slimiest piece of subhuman filth ever.

[zekeson]

7. Yep, you got the right guy

this is going nowhere fast. Norm will bluster about a bit, not uncover a damn thing, and like the good tool that he is, let it all drop - then he'll campaign on this "investigation" in 2008. Corporate interests all secure.
:puke:

[Trek234]

4. The feds should sue the RIAA

If they are using the United States court system for anything other than legitament legal activities.

I.e. if they get X hundred subpoenas they damn well better have done so for some reason other than to "scare" people.

The court they used was practically shut down over the subpoenas, and other government employees doing other jobs had to be reassigned because the clerks could not handle the load.

[madrchsod]

5. interesting

yes they want anyone and everyone..your kid downloads,well mom show up in court and gramma and gramps watch those grandkids ,here`s your subpoenas..these fuckers want eveyone involved..300 or more subpoenas a week. that`s going to tie up the court system for years.

[Aaron]

6. Well, I'm not a Coleman fan but it sounds like he's doing right

this time. Dems might consider this as a way to get more involved in youth issues.

[truthisfreedom]

9. i have my suspicions.

just like bush promising saudi arabia secretly that he'd never release the 28 pages, and asking them to "beg" us to release the pages to let him off the hook... norm could have let the RIAA know that he's never going to succeed in stopping their subpoenas, and that he'll assist them in "vetting" their activities to the enraged public.

[Aaron]

10. Good points. It seems I need to become more skeptical (n/t)

[rocktivity]

8. The RIAA has adopted a shotgun approach?

Wonder who they got that idea from...

But as long as they're going to investigate, they can start with the price gouging of the fans and they way their contracts rip off their artists.


rocknation

[Voltaire99]

11. RIAA forgets Golden Rule: middle class whites are innocent!

Welcome to one of those moments when justice peeks out from behind her blindfold.

Here's the RIAA--essentially, a protection racket for the monopolist price-fixing recording industry--wishing to cash in its chips. After all, its member organizations bribed Congress into passing abusive, irrational extensions of the copyright law in the 1990s. Now faced with a downtick in sales for overpriced CDs, the companies merely wants what's coming to them: the right to shake down well-heeled white kids in suburbia and at swank colleges swapping mp3 files.

Whoa! Not so fast, say Coleman and other politicians (surely, they've started fielding calls from constituents in the better neighborhoods). You can't unfairly burden these fine, decent young people who have the rest of their lives ahead of them!

Funny. You will never hear politicians like Coleman speak of "innocent people who may have simply been victims of circumstance" when talking about Drug War felons. But of course not: they're mostly black and brown kids from the projects. For them, it's the Puritan rod--lock 'em up and take away the franchise, etc. etc. Funny how being white and economically advantaged makes a difference!

[Democat]

12. Democrats lose some youth votes to the GOP over this

As long as Democrats allow the GOP to lead on issues like this, kids are going to think that Republicans are the "cool" party.

[qb]

13. Coleman's son probably has several gigabytes of illegal MP3s. nt

[zekeson]

14. This Morning on Future Tense

a program available in Minnesota on MPR Coleman was interviewed. Among his usual blather he admitted to having downloaded songs himself when Napster first came out. Didn't give it (copyright) much thought. What songs? Oh, probably a Bob Dylan song.

http://news.mpr.org/programs/futuretense/
Two-thirds of music swappers don't care about copyrights, according to a new survey.

Also today: Senator Norm Coleman (R, Minn.) says the recording industry's lawsuits against music consumers may be "abusive."

He will soon "awake" to how horrid this problem is for the industry and be the little pitbull his masters with the money want him to be.

[dflprincess]

15. Normie Coleman defender of our rights!

Don't make me :puke:. The Bush twins are probably downloading way too much music and daddy wants something done before they get caught.

From today's Star Tribune:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4019159.html

<snip>
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., launched a Senate investigation Thursday into the recording industry's tactics in cracking down on Internet file-swapping of copyrighted music.

Coleman, chairman of the Senate's Permanent Investigations Subcommittee, asked the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for details of 900 subpoenas it has obtained in federal courts. In a letter, he expressed concern that innocent people's rights may be violated in the industry's attempt to rein in what it contends is rampant on-line piracy costing recording companies billions of dollars.

While acknowledging the industry's legitimate concerns about copyright infringement, Coleman wrote: "As a former prosecutor, I know firsthand the power of a subpoena, and I am concerned about the potential for abuse in the current system."
<end snip>

Thanks Norm, and when you’re done saving us from the recording industry could we talk about the Patriot Act and maybe your committee could give some thought into a real investigation of 9/11?

<snip>
"The RIAA subpoenas have snared unsuspecting grandparents whose grandchildren have used their personal computers individuals whose roommates have shared their computers . . ., " Coleman wrote. "This barrage of RIAA subpoenas is creating such a backlog at the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia that the court has been forced to reassign clerks to process the paperwork.
<end snip>

Again Norm, thanks. Now, let’s discuss the innocent parents, grandparents and roommates that have been the victims of our draconian drug laws.

Now let’s take a look at what else the weasel is up to up to

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/4020919.html

<snip>
Sen. Mark Dayton vowed Friday to block every President Bush nominee and object to every piece of legislation in September unless a controversial restriction on airport noise-abatement funds was removed.

A Federal Aviation Administration bill includes proposed restrictions on federal funds that could limit additional jet-noise insulation in houses near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The bill is heading to a House-Senate negotiating committee.

Minnesota's other senator, Republican Norm Coleman, criticized Northwest's tactics Thursday but said the airline is being asked to help pay the costs of the nation's most ambitious noise-insulation effort.

``I can tell you that they firmly believe that by (toughening) those standards, it places a huge economic burden on them without any scientific basis,'' Coleman said after speaking with a Northwest official.
<end snip>

Most the homes that would benefit from this insulation program were built long before the noise from the airport was a big problem. And most of them are in neighborhoods where you would not expect to find a lot of Coleman voters.

[LifeDuringWartime]

16. just dont use kazaa or morpheus

if you saw the list of those subpoenaed, they were 99% kazaa users, maybe 1% morpheus. fasttrack (kazaa/morpheus) and gnutella are the ones theyre going after...theyre the most common. there are other ways of discovering new music.

www.furthernet.com <--great tool for finding legal live performances

[Nambe]

17. RIAA will take 2191.78 years to sue everyone

The Inquirer

READER MICHAELA STEPHENS says that if the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is right and that 60 million US folk are file sharing, it's going to take the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a mighty long time to get round to them all.

She said: "I pulled out my calculator to see just how long it would take the RIAA to sue all 60 million P2P music file traders at a rate of 75 a day. 60,000,000/75 = 800,000 days to subpoena each person or 800,000 days/365 days in a year = 2191.78 years to subpoena each person".

Michaela points out that it's unrealistic to suppose that the RIAA will have any money left in 2191 years, and she even wonders whether the trade association will exist then.

Plus, she points out, given the rate of tech advancement, it's likely that we'll have moved on to many different types of music media in even a hundred years.

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. Well, if PNAC has 200 years to search Iraq for non existent WMD's......

...then why should the RIAA taking 2191.78 years be surprising.