RIAA/MPAA vs. xMule Author, EarthStation 5

Two bits of news in the ongoing battle between the RIAA/MPAA and the rest of the internet: One P2P company, apparently based in Palestine, has thrown down the gauntlet to the movie industry. Meanwhile, a developer of another P2P tool who unwisely chose to live in the USA has been shut down (mirror) by the RIAA.

Re:Anti Semitism?

Palestinians, being semites themselves, can hardly be anti-semitics...

Sure they could...they could be filled with self loathing. ;)

Re:Anti Semitism?

Oh great, we'll just let special interest groups manipulate language to further their own twisted ends, won't we?

I'm sick of all of this anti-semantism! Enough already!

Nope..

Their company page (http://www.es5.com/company.html [es5.com]) says:

"Our group is made up of many people, Jordanians, Palestinians, Indians, Americans, Russians and Israelis. Some of us are Jewish, some Christians, some Hindus and other of us are Muslim.

Believe it or not, we all love and respect each other.

We all work and play together. Our families on many occasions eat at the same dinner table. We trust each other and are very close friends with each other. As a group, the most important thing in our life is our children, our families and love ones and of course our friends. "

Re:Nope..

As a group, the most important thing in our life is our children, our families and love ones and of course our friends.

Bunch o' freaks! The most important things to me are my computer, my iPod, and my broadband connection.

Those crazy palestinians ;- )

Not that it needs to be said, but

this is getting fucking ridiculous.

It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials and thus shut down by the RIAA/MPAA. It's really amazing to see what lengths these bastards will go to to protect their industry after a major, earth-shattering shift in their profit model.

I urge everyone reading this to be very diligent in your boycott of buying new music or going to see movies. I haven't bought a CD in 22 months and haven't seen a movie since (believe it or not) 1999. You can't cheat and plead, just one movie! It's the Matrix! I have to see it. Nothing but the bottom line is going to get through to these people. If these folks don't get the message and soon, you may find yourself asking for permission to write anything on your machine that moves bits around.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

The problem is that the entertainment industry is using dropping revenue as proof that they need to implement tighter controls to prevent file sharing. So any boycott may be backfiring!

Re:WRONG!! Boycotting WILL EVENTUALLY WORK!

I'm sorry to break it to you, but your sarcasm detector seems to be malfunctioning.

Re:WRONG!! Boycotting WILL EVENTUALLY WORK!

Why blame the President, It is Congress that makes the laws. The DMCA passed the Senate unanimously, and faced little opposition in the house. Even if the President had vetoed the bill, the Congress would have easily overridden the veto. Blame the Congressmen who are taking bribes from the corporate lobbyists.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

I've been boycotting the music industry since 1996, not because of the RIAA, but because I don't care about music enough to buy it. Nor do I care enough about music to go through the hassle of downloading it, I'll stick to just listening to brainless pop or classical on the way home if I happen to get tired of NPR and the BBC.

"The problem is that the entertainment industry is using dropping revenue as proof that they need to implement tighter controls to prevent file sharing. So any boycott may be backfiring!"

They can use it as proof, but that does not make it proof. It is very easy to show that with the increased popularity of Napster that Music sales went up, but when Napster was shut down music sales went down. I don't think that is proof that file sharing increases sales of music, but it certainly shows that their proof is garbage.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

I've been boycotting the music industry since 1996, not because of the RIAA, but because I don't care about music enough to buy it

That's not a boycott. That is just you making a choice. It is the same as me, a non-smoker, saying I have boycotted the tobacco industry. If you're not in the market and you don't buy then it is not really a boycott is it.

We can argue all day that the music industry sucks and the bands all suck but when the bands sell out concert venues in 30 minutes then someone must like them. But why aren't their CD's selling? In 1983 I'd pay full price for a Billy Squire tape for a couple good songs. In 2003 I don't have to. Is P2P to blame? Hell yes. It might be hard to prove using sales figures. You can't look at a pile of receipts and figure out why there are more or less but when you look around at the popularity of P2P, the volume of files online, and the volume of comments HERE and other places as to why people trade there is your proof that P2P is hurting the industry.

This post will probably be modded as troll or flamebait but it is pretty close to the truth.

Ah..but in 1983 you would have paid a fair price!

See, in 1983, before CD's came out, LP albums cost about $6.98, and tapes about the same. Then CD's came out, costing TEN DOLLARS MORE! The industry's excuse was that CD's cost more to make, "better sound forever", and other rubbish. Now we know these all were lies. CD's now cost about 1/10th as much to press as records cost at their cheapest (and I'm speaking 2003 dollars here which are worth about half of 1983 ones). CD's STILL cost almost 20 bucks apiece. The record companies' excuse is that inflation has finally caught up, which is more bullshit. In essence, they TRIPLED the price of CD's over LP's, got rid of LP's (to remove choice), got rid of singles (to make sure that you HAD to pay $17.98 to get the ONE song you liked), raped the consumer for over 20 years, formed cartels (which would have been illegal in 1983!) and now when the consumer finally has the ability to fight back they respond by bribing our lawmakers to maintain the status quo by passing the DMCA, throwing the Constitution out the window in the process. Yep..sure sounds like an upstanding business model and a fair deal for the consumer, huh?

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

Exactly! The obvious solution is to start text messaging everybody [slashdot.org] instead of going to see a movie or buy a CD.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

The whole second-hand thing could be a good option. If you buy a used CD/DVD, that doesn't send anything to the RIAA/MPAA, right?

Back in college, I had good success buying used CD's. If I recall correctly, only once did I have a problem with skips, and the store gave me a refund right away.

Yup

Used CDs:

a) Are cheaper
b) Don't send money to the RIAA

I haven't bought a new CD in many years. I have bought used though.

half.com rocks.

Re:Precedent against this sort of suit

Exactly. More students die each year in football accidents than they do in school fights, but we don't see 'zero tolerance' foolishness implemented on the field.

Re:Precedent against this sort of suit

Sure, we should make guns illegal to ensure that only criminals have them.

Re:Precedent against this sort of suit

Also, you do realise that violent crime in your country has dropped year on year in the last 10 years? So why exactly do you need all this weaponry?

I could care less about having a gun for my personal civil protection. The chances of me getting to a firearm before a criminal shot me are next to nothing. But the fact of the matter is, we don't trust our Government. That's why America was founded with so many checks and balances; one of which being the people shrugging off a tyrannical government. I believe it was either Jefferson or Washington who said that it was essential for a people to revolt every so often so as to keep the government clean and honest. I don't know that I necessarily agree with that, but the truth is, we want to have the ability to protect our rights (if it ever came down to it.)

That is why I believe in the 2nd amendment. I don't care that it's a sport, I don't care that it "protects" people from criminals (which I don't believe justifies the many more deaths as a result of illegal gun violence each year). I just want to make sure that, if it ever came down to it, I, or my children, or my children's children would have the means to do what they need to do if the situation were to call for it. I don't mind gun control. I'll lock my guns up in 3 safes and bury them if I have to. But I want to have access to a firearm if it were needed.

Paranoid? Probably. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. Like someone else stated: I value my liberty over security. The Patriot Act, gun banning, etc, etc, while potentially keeping me safer draw perilously close to trading my freedoms for a little more "safety".

I'd rather be free and fighting (or dead) than safe and a slave.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

I just got about 52 GB of music from a friend of mine, and you know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. A lot of this shit either underground bands or uncommon stuff, and even the popular stuff I don't care if I didn't buy it. To pull an axiom from The Matrix:

The RIAA is a system, AC. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around and what do you see? Guitarists, Drummers, Mixers, Singers...the very minds of the people we're trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so innerred, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will that they will fight to protect it. Are you listening to me, AC? Or were you looking at the free lesbian porn?

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

Now I understand the mindset of Arab Muslim terrorists, who think it's okay to kill innocent people because they're part of the evil Zionist system.

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

That's what happens when 2 groups of people argue over imaginary friends.

Jaysyn

Re:Not that it needs to be said, but

52GB equates as 'big fish' the RIAA says they'll go after. That equates to 5 kilos, man. You're not just a recreational user now, you're a dealer! Federal penitentiary for you!

ROFL...

I can see it now, mandatory sentencing for copyright violations just like drug convictions. Here's a glimpse into our near future (ripped from a current drug bust article):

MP3 busts yield 17 GBs, 6 suspects
Police were watching local hotels known to have WiFi

By Sarah Huntley, Rocky Mountain News
August 20, 2003

Denver vice detectives dealt a major blow to local MP3 distributors this week, seizing a total of 17 GBs of ripped tunes.

The MP3s, recovered during four separate busts, are worth at least $306,000 and would likely have traded for significantly more if bundled in smaller amounts, police said.

Three of the busts targeted local hotels identified as WiFi hotspots along a popular route for "leeching," or people who download MP3s. The MP3's were being hosted from Texas, said Lt. Kris Kroncke of the Denver Police Department's Vice and Copyright Squad.

Kroncke said detectives have not determined who were supposed to receive the MP3s, but investigators believe Kazaa was the final destination.

"(With copyright investigations,) it's feast or famine, but this was an unusually good week for us, to recover that much in intellectual property," Kroncke said.