Harsh

phil · June 9, 2003, 8:22am

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/TechTV/techtv_RIAAvsteen030609.html

A first year student has just been made to pay out $12,000 for writing a search engine for a university network.

Please excuse me while I go and move to a houseboat in the middle of an ocean…

Phil

GILD · June 9, 2003, 8:41am

Re: Harsh

follow the link in my sigline if u want to move to your houseboat REAL quick

the insanity is growing

john_childs · June 9, 2003, 9:11am

Thanks for the news link. I had heard about the lawsuits and the settlements, but the news article mentioned the guys web site ChewPlastic.com There is a PayPal donation button on his page where you can make a donation to help him pay off the settlement. I just made a donation to both Jesse Jordan and Daniel Peng.

The RIAA is out of line. The copy restrctions on CDs now and the lawsuits. fsck them. I’m never ever ever buying another major label CD again. I’m only going to buy stuff from indie labels and small labels that don’t copy protect their CDs and sue their customers.

hell-on-wheel · June 9, 2003, 9:25am

Weezer recently went back to their original indie label for this reason. I think some other bands are following suit.

rhysling · June 9, 2003, 10:35am

But, John -they don’t care about the buying habits of old dudes.

-C

john_childs · June 9, 2003, 12:28pm

Based on Harper’s CD collection I would have to agree that the record companies know that they can’t sell pop and rock to the old dudes.

U-Turn · June 9, 2003, 12:34pm

Is it obvious which record companies are affiliated with the RIAA? Is there a way to find out?

phil · June 9, 2003, 12:54pm

The list is large…

I would say the RIAA website is the best place to find out, but

<DRIPPING SARCASM> for some strange reason it appears to be not working at the moment. Gosh! It’s almost like lots of internetty people don’t like them…

Phil

john_childs · June 9, 2003, 1:06pm

The RIAA lists all of the member labels on their web page. But thier server seems to be dead right now (gee, I wonder why?) so I can’t verify the link. I think it’s http://www.riaa.org/About-Members-1.cfm When the server is back up you can find the list by going to their home page and clicking through a couple of levels.

It’s mostly the big 5 and their sub labels that are the “evil” ones. The big 5 are Sony, Time-Warner, Universal & Polygram, BMG, and EMI. There are a whole bunch of sub labels for each of them. Anything distribued by the big 5 is evil. There are some jazz and classical labels that are members of the RIAA and I have a hard time lumping them in with the big 5, but if I find out they are doing anything questionable they’ll be put on my evil list too.

While the RIAA web site is down you can entertain yourself by reading
boycott-riaa.com