UK song-swappers 'could be sued'

[james]

The British record industry may sue internet song-swappers as part of a new campaign against online piracy.

It's crazy, they complain that the industry is in turmoil when in actual fact.....

The move comes despite healthy album sales for the UK industry.

Album sales in the UK rose by 7.6% in 2003 to a record high, fuelled by falling CD prices.

But the singles market continues to fall - with a drop of 30% last year.

I believe the reason for drop in the singles market is because it is all badly mass-produced rubbish. No wonder nobody is buying it and yet they seem so surprised!

The growth of the internet and file-swapping has enabled people to look beyond the top 40 and discover 'good' music from independent artists and smaller record labels that otherwise would not be available in your high street store. Couple this with the more reasonable CD prices which are now being offered (and has also been an issue for years, there just wasn't any good alternative), I see good things for the whole record industry.

Full story ---> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 395161.stm

[Hénrí]

I Agree

[Kenny]

You think thats bad, check this out:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/07/news-sullivan.php

Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.

The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets.

Even as it suffers setbacks in the courtroom, the RIAA has over the last 18 months built up a national staff of ex-cops to crack down on people making and selling illegal CDs in the hood.

The RIAA acknowledges it all — except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they’re actual law enforcement, that’s a mistake.

"We want to be very clear who we are and what we’re doing," says John Langley, Western regional coordinator for the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit. "First and foremost, we’re professionals."

Ummm, really?

"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said. "Today he’s Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he’s Raul something or other, and tomorrow after that he’s something else. These people change their identity all the time. A picture’s worth a thousand words."

AAahahaahAHhaHAhaHAhahHAhahaaaaaaAHAHAHAHAA

In the future the RIAA war machine will have conquered the world, speakers will be outlawed as they allow more than one person to listen to music at once, and the only music is made by third generation robotic clones of Justin Timberlake and the Neptunes.

I can't wait.

[willy the piss]

ha ha ha, the best thing is that we all break so many laws every day that who the fandango cares if we listen to underground hip hop and stuff, i think as long as we dont make fake covers and try to sell them we´re fugging sorted