RIAA targets 784 more file-sharers
Found on The Register on Wednesday, 29 June 2005
Self-interest group the Recording Industry Association of America has filed a fresh round of legal complaints against 784 flie-sharers, alleging violation of copyright.
In an apparent mis-interpretation of the Supreme Court decision against Grokster, RIAA chairman and chief executive Mitch Bainwol said: "If there was any doubt left, there should now be none -- individuals who download music without permission are breaking the law."
We also note that in its statement in praise of the Supreme Court ruling, the RIAA says: "With this unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has addressed a significant threat to the U.S. economy and moved to protect the livelihoods of the more than 11 million Americans employed by the copyright industries."
Sorry, but I still have my doubts; more than before even. Their last statement is the biggest bla-bla I've read in quite some time. No independent (as in not funded by the music industry) study has proven that filesharing creates the losses the RIAA keeps talking about. In fact, the industry lies as always. If you take a look at the global music retail sales, then you'll notice that 2004 was the best of the past 5 years, top 10 albums sales globally rose by 14%, digital sales rose exponentially (more than tenfold), CD volume growth of 2.8% and 4.5% in the US and UK and music DVD sales rose 23% and have doubled their share. Let's also not forget the recent raid of a DVD processing plant, where the RIAA exaggerated the losses by more than 2,000% (plus the fact that the plant was legal and the numbers were all fictional, based on losses that could have been possible). And yesterday, Sanctuary, the world's biggest indie record company, officially blamed the management for its losses; something that might very well be a reason at other record companies too. Not to mention all the other dirty details...