RIAA

The RIAA Is “Feeling Pretty Good”

May 26, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Over the past couple of years the RIAA has experienced more than its share of missteps while waging its War On Piracy ™. The organization’s ‘sue first, ask questions later’ strategy has produced some undesirable results. Like the time they sued a family that didn’t own a computer, or the time they suggested that an MIT student drop out of school in order to pay some arbitrary fine for piracy, or the time they sued a dead person for illegal file sharing.

You might expect that the heads of the RIAA would show some remorse over the fact that they’ve ruined people’s lives (well, except for the dead person). Not so. The following is from News.com’s surreal interview with RIAA President, Carry Sherman, and RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol:

Hillary Rosen vs. the RIAA

May 17, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

According to today’s LA Times the RIAA is suing XM over it’s new device which allows subscribers to record up to 50 hours of XM broadcast on a portable player. It’s sort of like TiVo for radio, but it’s also the digital equivalent of what many of us did as kids back in the pre-digital era.

You’d think that the battle against taping music off of the radio would have been settled long ago but, as we all know, content is so much more valuable once it’s been digitized. Apparently all pre-existing licensing and copyright law must be abandoned in an effort to save content from ~~pirates~~ consumers who simply want to time-shift and consume content on their own schedule.

Apple Calls the iTune

May 4, 2006 by Jim Connelly

We love our iPods and iTunes here at Medialoper, so here’s some team coverage on one of the bigger stories of the week. As you probably know by now, Apple won its latest round with the music industry by refusing to move from their flat-rate pricing model to a more tiered model where new releases are significantly more expensive than long tail catalog product.

And while yesterday Kirk had a real nice insight as to why the record companies backed down, I have a slightly different take.

RIAA Attempts To Outlaw Shared Folders

April 19, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

Just when you think the RIAA’s war on common sense can’t possibly get any more absurd they somehow manage to top themselves. The trade organization’s latest battle with the 21st century comes in the case of Elektra vs. Barker where the RIAA’s attorneys have been arguing that the defendant violated copyright laws by storing music files in a shared folder on her computer.

According to the RIAA, it doesn’t matter if the digital music files were obtained legally, the fact that they were stored in a shared folder that might allow others to access them constitutes “distribution” and is therefore in violation of copyright laws.

Since the RIAA seems to be waging a war on shared folders shouldn’t they really be suing Microsoft for making shared folders possible?

Piracy, Perks, and DRM

March 31, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

The RIAA tells us that piracy hurts artists, so we all try to be good little consumers who acquire music legally whenever possible. Who wants to hurt an artist? It’s like hurting a kitten.

Fortunately, in the 21st century there are quite a few ways to acquire music legally. Thanks to iTunes it’s possible to build your music collection while draining your bank account in 99 cent increments.

If you’re “of a certain age”, you probably still buy quite a few CD’s to round out your music collection. And, if you are a serious music collector, you probably buy a fair number of used CD’s. Serious music collectors have to buy used CD’s because new CD’s are priced for people who like to acquire music in small doses.

Now I’m going to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear: Buying used CD’s hurts artists.

Radio Killed The Radio Star, Part Two

March 22, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Part Two: The Role of The Curator, Or Why Disk Jockeys Could Be More Relevant Than Ever

Continuing analysis of the SXSW panel called “The Future of Radio”. Panelists included moderator Kevin Smokler, Celia Hirschman of Downtown Marketing and KCRW, Roman Mars of WBEZ, Elise Nordling from SomaFM, and Tim Westergren of Pandora, bringing together lifelong radio listeners, public radio professionals, Internet radio stars, and purveyors of social networking applications. Part One is here.

New services (like, oh, Medialoper) are designed to help consumers sift through the mass of media being thrown their way. In the past, disk jockeys served as curators of music. In today’s world, the increased level of programming makes the curator process even more important. This means aligning consumers with trusted sources of information. A trust relationship develops between the two parties — without that trust — in taste, quality, integrity — the consumer goes away.

RIAA: Stop Taping Songs Off of the Radio!

March 11, 2006 by Jim Connelly

When I was a kid, I used to place a handheld Panasonic cassette tape recorder (with a condensor mic!) next to a transistor radio to tape songs off of KYNO-AM. Not yet having the the money to go out and buy every single song I liked; these recordings were key to how I connected deeply to pop music, on which I’ve since spent a huge amount of my disposable (and not so disposable) income.
Little did I know, that in the eyes of the RIAA, my 10-year-old self was a thief, and they were itching for a way to keep me from stealing their songs. And now, with the advent of digital radio, they may have found a way.