music_news 91 posts

AllofMP3.com welcomes the decision of record labels to voluntarily dismiss their $1,65 trln lawsuit against the site.

On May 23 Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA and EMI Group Plc. decided to drop their copyright case filed in federal court in Manhattan (Bloomberg.com).

Some time ago the AllofMP3.com services had to be suspended due to litigation.

There’ll be more updates on the development of the situation.

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other record companies dismissed their copyright lawsuit against Russia-based Internet music store AllofMP3.com, which was accused of distributing millions of pirated song files.

Members of the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group, didn't say why they were voluntarily dropping the case in papers filed May 20 in federal court in Manhattan.

``The site is now defunct and out of business, the result of a successful anti-piracy initiative,'' Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the trade group, said today in an e-mail.

The complaint, filed in December 2006, called the site ``a notorious black market'' that made $30 million a year by directing Internet users to music files available for download, without giving any money to the record labels. The other record labels joining the suit with Sony were Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA and EMI Group Plc.

The Web site said in August it would reopen after it had been shut by Russia a... read more

According to the Associated Press report the RIAA spent $658,000 on lobbying efforts during the first half of 2007. The expenses were concerned with opinion-forming activities related to copyright protection (including sponsoring members of Congress), but not legal and administrative costs related to the great number of lawsuits initiated by the Association.

Read more:
RIAA Lobbying Expenses Cross $650,000 During First Half, Digital Music News

According to the Consumerist.com blog the RIAA has been voted the worst company in the USA.

It's been voted the worst by consumers and it is actually donating campaign money to US politicians. The site reveals a list of 50 congresspeople who had received such contributions from the RIAA.

Recent bills passed by the congress suggest that the congresspeople read more

The office of the US Trade Representative has issued a new report on the current situation with protection of US intellectual property by other countries. According to the document, 43 counties protect it inadequately and ineffectively. Among them 12 countries have qualified for a "priority watch list" of the worst offenders. China and Russia are on top of the shame list. The accusations and demands towards the countries guilty of neglecting US trade interests include:

China
China has “…severe market-access restrictions threaten the growth and vitality of exciting new [US] online and mobile delivery platforms for recorded music.”

Russia
Russia have failed to shut down AllofMP3.com and “if Russia fails to meet its obligations, the United States should respond accordingly and unilaterally impose sanctions on Russian exports to the United States.”

Canada
Canada did not qualify for the priority watch list this year but remains among the top... read more

UPDATE: the survey is closing this week, around 19 April.

Take part an online opinion survey on how the public perceives the RIAA and its actions.

It’s a true/false questionnaire determining whether people see the RIAA’s claims and actions as anything but biased cartel spin. Here are some true/false statements from the survey:
- The RIAA claims file sharing is "devastating" the music industry.
- Each sale by a pirate [or file shared] represents a lost legitimate sale, thereby depriving not only the record company of profits, but also the artist, producer, songwriter, publisher, retailer, … and the list goes on.
- Says the RIAA: On behalf of its member companies, the RIAA works to protect the value of music.

The author plans to make the survey results public in a couple... read more

At the beginning of March 23 US colleges and universities received 405 "prelitigation settlement letters" from the RIAA demanding to identify students whose IP addresses were spotted in file-sharing activities. Those students could then conveniently settle with the RIAA with a pre-court discount simply by going to a special web-site. Should the students remain unidentified, then the university could be taken to court instead.

"[Students] no longer buy music like they used to. We're trying to send the right message and encourage them to enjoy music legally," Jonathan Lamy, communications director for the RIAA commented on the problem. Another comment from the RIAA describes the efficient approach: “Our pre-litigation settlement letters are offered as a benefit to university students to allow them to settle claims early, at a substantially discounted sum and off the public record.”

The universities have taken different approach ranging from mockery to full compliance. Some universities asked the RIAA to reimburse the cost of processing those letters... read more

The RIAA’s new agenda is about the future of the nation – the students. According to Associated Press, US universities have recently received thousands of notices regarding student who share and\or download copyrighted content.

The group claims there are as many as 15 000 students in 25 universities who are engaged in such illegal activity. This figure represents a threefold increase compared to the previous year.
The RIAA is concerned with the current widespread illegal downloading on campuses, "We have to let people know that if they engage in this activity, they are not anonymous," RIAA President Cary Sherman said.

The universities’ approach to this varies. For example, at Michigan State University students who are caught twice are forced “to watch an eight-minute anti-piracy DVD produced by the RIAA. A third-time offender can be suspended for a semester.” (Associated Press) Purdue University (1068 copyright complaints from the RIAA) on the other hand rarely goes into trouble of tracking down the offenders. "In... read more

The RIAA tries to optimize its litigation practice. After a recent setback when a district court ruled that the RIAA is to pay the legal fees for the defendant in a dismissed case, the organization came up with a new idea.

According to Digital Music News the RIAA has recently offered ISPs an option for their subscribers. People can avoid costly litigation and even receive a pre-lawsuit discount. "An early notification will give your customer the opportunity to settle any claims before a suit is filed against them at a reduced rate (discounts of $1000 or more)," the letter states.

The ISPs willing to cooperate will have to keep user logs for 180 days. "This timeframe is necessary to allow sufficient time to pursue the Doe lawsuit and subpoena if settlement... read more

The music industry met the Apple’s proposal to abolish DRM with no enthusiasm.

Rather music executives pointed to Mr Jobs that interoperability is the issue and that Apple shouldn’t pretend its all labels’ fault when European consumer protection bodies outlaw iTunes for its proprietary DRM. IFPI commented that contrary to Apple’s CEO argument interoperability won’t be that disastrous to quality control and security. The Apple’s appeal to the labels that they are selling 90% of their music without DRM protection anyway was rejected with indignation.

The Norwegian Consumer Council which had recently declared the iTunes store illegal was not impressed either with Apple’s efforts to shift the blame on the labels.
... read more

The Santangelo kid sued by the RIAA for file-sharing is countersuing the recording industry for “violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats” (Associated Press).

This story has been going on for a few years now. Robert Santangelo, now 16 years old was 11 when the alleged piracy took place. He denies any wrongdoing and claims it’s impossible to prove anything anyway.

Robert is the son of Patti Santangelo, a mom of 5 sued by the RIAA in 2005. She refused to pay the settlement. The case drew a lot of public attention and the industry finally dropped the case against her. Instead 2 of the Santangelo children are being sued now – 16 year old Robert and his sister Michelle, now 20.

Robert defends himself by claiming that “he never sent copyrighted music to others, that the recording companies promoted file sharing before turning against it, that average computer users were never warned that it was illegal, that the statute of limitations has passed, and that all the music... read more

DJ Drama was arrested last week on charges of felony. Police worked in cooperation with RIAA which accuses the artist of violation of various copyright laws and selling unlicensed mixtapes of copyrighted music.

This action was met with some surprise by the public as the DJ “… is mostly regarded as a central and important figure in the promotion of new rap artists, particularly those in the South. Rappers like Young Jeezy, T.I., and Lil' Wayne have all been propelled by Drama, and the mixtape celebrity often works closely with artists to craft street releases”. (Digital Music News) Or as The New Your Times puts it - “In the world of hip-hop few music executives have more influence than DJ Drama”.

However, RIAA has no qualms about the issue. "Whether it's a mixtape or a compilation or whatever it's called, it doesn't really matter," said RIAA anti-piracy executive Brad Buckles in comments to MTV News. "If it's a product that's violating the law, it becomes a target."

Read... read more

While RIAA petitions for less royalties for the artists, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), an organization which defends “our freedoms in the networked world” is gathering signatures for a petition urging the Congress to put an end to RIAA’s practice of in suing ordinary Americans.

80 000 US citizens have already signed the document on the EFF website. The organization plans to deliver the petition to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Commitees after 100 000 signatures are gathered.

EFF believes that RIAA’s tactics not only harm general public but also do not benefit artists and also that new technology is not a threat but rather RIAA should come with “a rational, legal means by which … customers can take advantage of file... read more

Last week in USA RIAA petitioned a panel of federal government copyright judges to change royalty distribution ratio and lower statutory royalty rates so that songwriters would get less and labels would get more.

This road to more equality is paved with good intentions indeed. Last time labels and songwriters negotiated a ratio was 25 years ago. Since then technology and the market have changed considerably. Now labels are loosing money as CD sales decline while songwriter are actually getting more from ringtones and other innovative services.

According to The Hollywood Reporter RIAA's executive vp and general counsel Steven Marks commented that "Mechanical royalties currently are out of whack with historical and international rates…[RIAA] hope[s] the judges will restore the proper balance by reducing the rate and moving to a more flexible percentage rate structure so that record companies can continue to create the sound recordings that drive revenues for music publishers."

Is it that real... read more

As Christmas holiday season is the most important time for music sales RIAA along with MPAA have launched a Holiday Blitz campaign aimed at “protecting holiday shoppers from purchasing illegal copies of their favorite movies and music and defending movie studios and the recording industry against the loss of crucial holiday sales, especially those from newly released — or even not-yet released — titles”. (www.riaa.com/news)

Significant attention will be devoted to peering as RIAA has much experience in dealing with file-sharers.

At the same time in Europe, German government announced that the fine for illegal music downloads should be limited to maximum of 50 euros (provided the downloading was... read more

IFPI the body representing major labels like EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG and Virgin has filed some 8000 lawsuits against users in 17 countries. The organization claims that around 20 billion songs were downloaded illegally last year. (or roughly 3 songs per each person living on the planet).

IFPI sees suing users as the most efficient way to fight illegal peering. Eliminating the networks themselves has proved difficult despite recent settlements, such as the Kazaa case. The latter is now a legal peering service having paid the industry a settlement of $100 mln. However, there’s still plenty of peering networks. “The industry is targeting uploaders using all the major unauthorised P2P services, including BitTorrent, eDonkey, DirectConnect, Gnutella, Limewire, SoulSeek and WinMX.” (IFPI.org) The IFPI campaign is more about people using the illegal p2p networks, than such networks being illegal as some of them turn legal from time to time.

The organization tries to operate without scandals like RIAA’s when it tries to sue... read more