Few Takers For RIAA's "Clean Slate"

gbulmash writes "In the wake of the RIAA's highly-criticized "Clean Slate" program, a recent article about P2P United reveals that the RIAA has only had 838 takers for their file swapping amnesty offer. That's less than 1/1000th of one percent of the estimated number of P2P users worldwide."

Do the "takers" really count?

[Dancin_Santa]

37 Ben Dovers
22 I.P. Freelys
20 Hugh Jasses

C'mon people, they are trying to run a business here, not deal with cranks.

the poor blighted souls

[Alien54]

I am reminded of the far side cartoon: "bummer birthmark, man"

Did the RIAA at least send them a t-shirt with a nice target design on it? (your choice of in the back, or on the front)

[on the other hand, maybe the signees are lawyers setting up some sort of a legal honey pot.]

How Much for the List?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet I could interest them in 20% of some soon-to-be seized Nigerian oil money. Or maybe they'd just like to verify their Paypal or Citibank user name and password / PIN codes.

Failed to notice the word "percent"

[MarkusQ]

I think that one in a thousand is actually a pretty high rate.

Yes, but what they got was less than one percent of that.

In the metric system at least, 1% of "pretty high" is roughly equal to "quite low".

-- MarkusQ

Unfounded pessimism

[Waffle Iron]

That's less than 1/1000th of one percent of the estimated number of P2P users worldwide."

I think that this statement comes from the "glass is 99,999/100,000 empty" viewpoint. I'm more of an optimist, and I prefer to look at it as 1e-5 full.

Must be a lie

[Anonymous Coward]

I refuse to believe there are only 838 stupid people on the internet.

Re:Do the "takers" really count?

[pyrrhonist]

I applied for amnesty too.
--
Hugh G. Rekschon

More statistics...

[jemenake]

...and further investigation reveals that, of those signing up for amnesty, 94% of those individuals were unpopular high-schoolers who seem to have also recently:

• Subscribed to a whole bunch of lame magazines, asking to be billed later,
• Requested enlistment information from all four branches of the armed service, and
• Signed up for diaper delivery service.

Seriously... why doesn't the RIAA just make the amnesty form into a business-reply card and put them in all the kids magazines?

"Clean Slate" - hmm, I've heard that before...

[$beirdo]

Does the name of this program remind anyone else of a line from the original Matrix?

Agent Smith: "We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start and all that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice." ...to which the obvious answer is...

Neo: "Yeah. Wow, that sound like a really good deal. But I think I got a better one. How about I give you the finger... and you give me my FSCKING MP3s back?"

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Do the "takers" really count?

[bobobobo]

I.C. Wiener?

In other news...

[EvilSporkMan]

Studies have found that 99,999 out of 100,000 Americans think the 100,000th guy is a dumbass.

Re:I want to..

[wonkamaster]

Then I promptly smack them in the back of their head and wonder why.

You'll wonder why you smacked them?

Only 838 criminals

[anon*127.0.0.1]

I'm sure the RIAA will soon be issueing a press statement saying "Clearly, based on the small number of people who responded to our amnesty program, music piracy via P2P networks is not nearly as pervasive as we had initially thought. We now feel that there are, at most, only a few thousand people using P2P networks to obtain copyrighted works. It would also seem that P2P networks are not to blame for decreased music sales and lower profits that RIAA members have experienced over the past few years."

I mean.. that's what logically follows, right?

Re:the poor blighted souls

[jd_esguerra]

Did the RIAA at least send them a t-shirt with a nice target design on it? (your choice of in the back, or on the front)

This is the RIAA. They're shipping pants with a target design on each pair. In the back, of course.

Re:Nothing unexpected.

[macdaddy357]

If you signed up for the RIAA's amnesty program, here is some important information you need to know. [claancy.net]

838 takers ...

[DaneelGiskard]

... so, how many employees does the RIAA have again? ;-)

Re:Must be a lie

[Dogtanian]

nah, the other 5,999,999,162 only know how to spell well enough to type "eminem"

That's only because they misspelled it "enema" the first time and wanted to be damn sure they didn't make that mistake twice.