Archive for the 'RIAA' Category

Why the RIAA Doesn’t Mind Losing Money on Lawsuits

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

A document has been making the rounds showing that the RIAA paid more than $16 million to its lawyers while recouping only a fraction of it through settlements. While some might grin at this seemingly unfavorable outcome for the music industry representatives, the RIAA told TorrentFreak that the overall result of their efforts in court are in their favor.

Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Another break happened today in the RIAA’s case against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum, as the $675k fine was reduced by 90%. The judge in the case criticised the RIAA and held that the jury’s damages were unconstitutional. Even the reduced fine is described as “severe, even harsh” by the District Judge.

RIAA Warns 1 Million Copyright Infringers a Year

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

In less than two years the RIAA has sent copyright infringement notices to 1.8 million Internet subscribers and 269,609 to colleges and universities. Despite this staggering average of more than a million infringement notices every year from the recording industry alone, the effect on file-sharing levels seems unnoticeable.

RIAA Wants Court To Shut Down Limewire

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

The RIAA has asked a New York District Court to shut down the world’s most installed file-sharing application, Limewire. The record labels argue that the Gnutella-based download client might have caused billions of dollars in lost revenue and that it’s therefore one of the largest threats to the music industry’s revenue.

Is Piracy Really Killing The Music Industry? No!

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

For more than a decade the music industry has claimed that digital piracy is the main cause for the gradual decline in revenues. However, looking at the sales data of the music industry itself shows that the disappointing income might be better explained by a third factor that is systematically ignored.

MPAA and RIAA Call for Copyright Police State

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Just days after the U.S Government acknowledged that the entertainment industries have misled the authorities with bogus piracy reports, the RIAA and MPAA are using those same statistics to convince the copyright czar to transform the Internet into a copyright police state.

RIAA Claims Music Pirates Hurt Haiti Fund Raising

Friday, March 5th, 2010

The RIAA has published a blog post where they accuse music pirates of stealing from Haitians. In a brilliant piece of propaganda they say that those illegally downloading “We Are The World” are undermining fund raising. However, they leave out the fact that the music industry itself profits big from such charity singles.

3 Strikes Coming To The United States Via The Back Door?

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

“3 Strikes” is a regime being introduced in various countries around the world to try to deal with illicit file-sharing. Already Taiwan, South Korea and France are putting their versions of the plan into action and other countries have similar proposals under discussion. In one form or another, could the same be coming to the United States?

RIAA Victim Files for New Trial, Damages Excessive

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Joel Tenenbaum, the Boston student hit with $650,000 in damages back in July 2009, has finally filed the next round in his case. In papers filed with the court, the amount of damages awarded are brought into question, as are the actions of the court. A new trial is requested.