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Music Pirate Walks Short Plank
  Last week in the US, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four was ordered to pay 1.92 million dollars for illegally downloading 24 songs. Equating to $80,000 per copyright infringement. The rights and wrongs of illegal music downloading is immaterial in this case, what will be remembered, especially by the single mother, is the amount she's been ordered to pay. That absolutely breathtaking, bank-account breaking amount- By Sean Maguire

  What separates a progressive democracy from stagnant authoritarianism is proportionality, we know that littering isn't equal in effect or damage to murder, so the punishment is proportioned to match that. We also know that in America all people should be equal before the law, with concrete evidence deciding a trial, in a situation where justice is blind from any outside influence that may affect a decision.

This case seems to break all three of these precepts, for one, the figure of $80,000 per song seems over-the-top for the crime. Two, it was openly admitted by the prosecutor Tim Reynolds that the above figure was chosen to make an example of Thomas-Rasset. And then to cap it off, the evidence of the crime seems based on very shaky waters. For one, the Record Industry Association of America (basically an affiliation between the biggest and most powerful record companies in the world) hired a company called MediaSentry to prove that the accused was guilty of copyright infringement. The company MediaSentry has been in hot water before; their tactics of attaining information can be described as dubious, at best.

Two years ago MediaSentry, again hired by the R.I.A.A, attempted to investigate students in various universities around the US. Their techniques of proving that students were guilty, involved MediaSentry visiting file-sharing sites, finding the posters of the material, then sending a ‘pre-litigation' letter to the University. These letters were not legally binding but were intended to be sent to the accused students, asking them to visit https://www.p2plawsuits.com/ where they could quickly pay $3500 for their infringement and settle their debts by credit card. Helpfully avoiding the pressures and openness of the legal system.

However, the University of Oregon fought back, refusing to send out the pre-litigation letters, and going further to allege that MediaSentry was ‘obtaining private, confidential information unrelated to copyright infringement'  . A scary precedent for a company that had no license for private investigation, a must for this kind of operation.

With Thomas-Rasset, MediaSentry did the same thing. They visited the file-sharing site Kazaa, posed as any other user and then downloaded 24 songs that the plaintiff had posted. That was the sum-total of the evidence the prosecutor relied on. As Steve Karnowski from Associated Press writes

‘Although the plaintiffs weren't able to prove that anyone but MediaSentry downloaded songs off her computer because Kazaa kept no such records, Reynolds told the jury it's only logical that many users had downloaded songs offered through her computer because that's what Kazaa was there for.'

Is that how we'd like our justice system to operate? Dishing out judgments and fines, based on assumption rather than evidence? This idea sets incredibly dangerous precedents for future trials of copyright infringement. It could easily result in a first time user to a file-sharing site, posting material that only one party downloads then being lumped in with much bigger and more established posters. Proportionality, it seems is disappearing into a very sticky Web.  

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RIP! A Remix Manifesto
1 jul  |  Filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

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Music Piracy in 1897 - From Lucas Jensen
24 apr  |  Think music piracy is a product of the internet era? The New York Times archives contain a story-dated June 13, 1897--with the title "Music Pirates in Canada" (warning: link leads to a .pdf). More than a century ago, America's supposedly friendly neighbors to the North were taking our sheet music, copying it, and selling fakes to consumers in the United States looking for a cheap deals on music. The original asking prices ranged from 20 to 40 cents per piece, while the copies were sold for two to five cents. In May of 1897, around 5,000,000 copies were made and sold. What's strange is that the publishers of these pirated works were Canadian newspapers, who used their PO boxes as covers! American music publishers decided to combat this by attacking through the post office, using the completely harsh treatment of sending back the pirated material. That'll show ‘em! And the consumer doesn't get their money back afterward.

Obviously, there are parallels here: the piracy located in another country, the cheap music deals, the stupid reaction of music's governing bodies, and the consumer caught in the middle. The takeaway here is this: Et tu, Canada? Just because you hadn't invented Triumph, Loverboy, and Rush yet doesn't mean you had the right to steal our music! For shame.

It should also be noted that on the same page as this article is another story about a park policeman named Dooladdy watching a snake fight a bird. The Newspaper of Record, indeed.

Music Pirates In Canada [NYT; HT: Lizzyville] Via Idolator

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Bob Dylan Sued Over Dignity For Plagiarism
14 jun  |  Few artists can lay claim to the controversy that has surrounded the career of songwriter James Damiano. Twenty-two years ago James Damiano began an odyssey that led him into a legal maelstrom with Bob Dylan that, to this day, fascinates the greatest of intellectual minds.

As the curtain rises on the stage of deceit we learn that CBS used songs and lyrics for international recording artist, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's name is credited to the songs. One of those songs is nominated for a Grammy as best rock song of the year. Ironically the title of that song is Dignity.

Since auditioning for the legendary CBS Record producer John Hammond, Sr., who influenced the careers of music industry icons Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, James has engaged in a multimillion dollar copyright infringement law suit with Bob Dylan.

It is judicially uncontested by Bob Dylan and or Bob Dylan's law firms Manatt, Phelps & Phillips , Parcher Hayes & Snyder, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Heck Brown and Sherry and Sony House Counsel that Bob Dylan and people in Bob Dylan's entourage have solicited James Damiano's songs and music for over ten years and eleven months, as per the law suit.

District Judge Jerome B. Simandle states in his decision "This court will accept as true Plaintiff's allegations that Sony represented to him that he would be credited and compensated for his work if Dylan used it. Judge Simandle also stated in his decision "Plaintiff has demonstrated a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants had access to his work.  . . read more

Mattel, Bratz and Creative Rights
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$105mil fine: A sour taste for LimeWire
14 may  |  $105mil fine: A sour taste for LimeWire . . read more
DRM is Dead
21 jul  | 

For years the RIAA has defended the use of DRM, much to the dislike of millions of honest customers who actually paid for their music. Now, in a shocking turnaround, the outfit seems to have come to the realization that DRM does more harm than good and has officially declared its death.

The digital music landscape is evolving continuously. Just two years ago RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol defended the use of DRM on digital music because customers would benefit from it.

“DRM serves all sorts of pro-consumer purposes,” he said at the time, without going into detail about the alleged benefits.

However, in the year that followed the numbers of consumers calling for DRM-free music increased and more labels and music services started to offer music without digital restrictions. Still, the RIAA was not convinced that there could be a future without it, and predicted a comeback for DRM last year.

Quite the opposite happened. Although DRM is still present in the majority of the legal music stores, most of the big players have decided to ditch it. Most importantly Apple announced in early 2009 that all music sold via the iTunes store would be free of DRM. This time even the RIAA doesn’t believe that it can be resurrected.

Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA declared DRM dead, when he was asked about the RIAA’s view on DRM for an upcoming SCMagazine article. “DRM is dead, isn’t it?” Lamy said, referring to the DRM-less iTunes store and other online outfits that now offer music without restrictions.

When the most vocal forefighters of DRM say so, it must be for real. Although this is the first time that the RIAA have actually said on record that DRM is dead, other players in the music industry have seen the light before them. Most notable IFPI, who said earlier this year that stripping DRM would “significantly boost download sales.”

In this we have to agree with them. All DRM has ever done is annoy consumers who actually paid for their music. No single piece of DRM has ever stopped anyone from pirating music, it’s quite the opposite as the music industry now realizes.

via TorrentFreak

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Music industry vs Technology
7 jul  |  Music industry vs Technology  . . read more
Spotify overtakes Apple's ITunes
10 aug  |  After a decade of falling sales of records, the Swedish music industry is once again headed for brighter times as more consumers turn to legal alternatives and revenues start to increase. by Johan Nylander
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Pirated Artist Orders Police Raid on Sony Music Office
8 sep  |  Pirated Artist Orders Police Raid on Sony Music Office . . read more
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"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan (1986)