RIAA Extortion is Supported by the Bush Admin

On October 5th, the RIAA won their jury trial against a Minnesota woman. It is unfortunate to see the conclusion to this case. As it shows, contrary to what the Bush administration believes, that the legal system is not supporting the people more and more. Observing the outcome of this case only confirms the politicians' ignorance about grasping on to a dying business model.

"Cases such as this remind us strong enforcement is a significant part of the effort to eliminate piracy, and that we have an effective legal system in the U.S. that enables rights holders to protect their intellectual property," said Chris Israel.

They sued this poor woman $220,000 for downloading 24 songs. You know what other strong enforcement might keep pirates from downloading music? Chopping off their arms! But then again, they wouldn't be able to reach into their pocket books to feed the money thirsty bloodsuckers.

So this also makes me question Israel's quote. This woman seemed hardly a "media pirate", and viewing the results of this case I can assume would only fuel the hatred for the RIAA in the real media pirates. Reading this quote from Israel just depresses me. I am willing to bet he would state the opposite if someone would pay him to say otherwise. That's all what politics seems to be. Only supporting the interests of the public when they are up for re-election, or they will get a cutback. Don't they understand that they are suing their own costumers as most people that download music eventually buy the CD's if they like it.

If any of you haven't known, the RIAA has been mass emailing lawsuits against their customer base. These emails have mostly been targeted towards college students and other individuals who are not able to fight back with legal action. These emails briefly state that they have been caught downloading music, and that they will settle the dispute if they paid something like $3,000.

The RIAA also noted in these emails that if they didn't accept the settlement, the court costs would be much higher than the settlement fee. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds a lot like a bully saying, "If you don't give me your lunch money, I'll beat the shit out of you." In other words, legal extortion.

Politicians and other RIAA officials try to tell the public that the media industry is being significantly harmed from pirates, and that something must be done. Anyone who believes this is extremely gullible. After all, they never give statistics to back up these claims (however if they did, it would be hard for me to believe them).

Oh, and I feel I should mention that I will never believe these claims as long as I hear songs like Makin' It Rain on hoes, and other songs of this nature making up over half of today's top 40. When politicians tell me that these artists are suffering, I throw my Champaign bottle of Crystal at the TV, because everyone else in this world that is not famous and has regular jobs live like they do too. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to humble them a bit if it were true.

I just can't wait for the day when I am suffering in my job, like 50 Cent, and always laughing my way Straight to the Bank.

By: Douglas Brown
Published: 10/08/07

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8 Posted Comments:

To a certain extent

@ 6:38 am 10/09/07 by

Pirating affects the smaller artists more than the large ones like 50 Cent. When you make 200 million, and pirates take 5 million, it isn't that bad. But if you make 20 thousand, and pirates take 5 thousand it's a different story.

Good post none-the-less...

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Point taken... if it were true...

@ 8:07 am 10/09/07 by Douglas

The fact is that if an artist IS making 20 thousand a year from his/her music, the exposure from pirating and file sharing would significantly outweigh the loss from the people actually downloading the music.

Lets face it, how many people would want to drop 20 bucks on an artists CD that no one has ever even heard of anyway? I wouldn't. Giving people the chance to hear the music for free, provide a powerful method of advertising their talent.

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I Stand Corrected

@ 10:26 am 10/09/07 by

I guess it all depends how you look at it. I can see it coming from both sides. However it is true that the only ones you hear complaining about this are the ones who are already millionaires. Honestly, I don't care, and I think people bitch about it too much. But what do I know.

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haha

@ 10:29 am 10/09/07 by

I like the top picture

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Are they even needed?

@ 10:37 am 10/09/07 by Jake

The only source of revenue the RIAA has coming in now-a-days is from suing all of these innocent people. They are about as useless now as the labor unions are.

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Sensational!

@ 3:17 pm 11/05/07 by

What does this have to do with the Bush Administration? Suddenly 'Politicians' = The Bush Administration?

Sounds like a sensational headline.. I think that is all it is..

Real informative post.. If not for the fact that the headline has nothing to do with any of the content...

- Not sure anymore

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Your Right

@ 5:09 am 11/06/07 by Douglas

The content did get away from the title a bit, but the fact of the post was to state that Chris Israel, who is on the Bush Administration, supported the ridiculous charges that very closely resembles extortion. Thanks for your thoughts though.

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Resident Evil

@ 3:38 pm 04/25/08 by Harvey Mars

For those of you questioning what the link to Bush is, click on the green hyperlink at the beginning of the story, in which a Bush spokesman applauds the woman's conviction.

In addition, the Pirate Bay web site was allegedly raided following Bush administration pressure.

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/9149
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay

"Legal extortion" is legal, and not considered 'extortion' in the legal sense. That is, you are allowed to threaten someone with a lawsuit and its possible consequences. In fact, you are supposed to contact whomever first to spell it out before filing legal action.

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