phunktion wrote:
] In response to the recent lawsuits that the RIAA have filled
] against 261 US file sharers the EFF have placed a petition on
] their website that has drawn a large audience. It started off
] with a target of 10,000 signatures but the number is now more
] than 4 fold this. The petition will be sent to congress to
] help campaign for an end to the lawsuit madness of the US
] music industry.

Here's a novel idea: STOP DOWNLOADING AND SHARING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THAT YOU DID NOT PURCHASE

It has worked for me for quite some time now. I don't have any mp3s or software that I did not purchase. I don't feel sorry for the chumps getting sued. They are a bunch of spoiled babies crying because their toys are being taken away from them. Suck it up, buy your music, quit whining about it. If you didn't give the RIAA a reason to be litigious bastards, they wouldn't be litigious bastards.

Here's my commentary on this petition:

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is on a rampage, launching legal attacks against average Americans from coast to coast. Rather than working to create a rational, legal means by which its customers can take advantage of file-sharing technology and pay a fair price for the music they love, it has chosen to sue people like Brianna LaHara, a 12 year-old girl living in New York City public housing.

Spare me the Sally Struthers routine about the children. The RIAA is not launching attacks on average Americans. They are going after people who are stealing their product. If the RIAA does not want to create a means by which its customers can share files, that's their choice. Everybody shed a tear for Brianna living in the projects with internet access. Brianna, here's a clue: Use your computer to sharpen your intellect, use the public education system to get a scholarship, and get out of your situation. Downloading mp3s is a waste of your time as a developing youth compared to other ways you could be growing.

Brianna, and hundreds of other music fans like her, are being forced to pay thousands of dollars they do not have to settle RIAA-member lawsuits -- supporting a business model that is anything but rational. This crusade is generating thousands of subpoenas and hundreds of lawsuits, but not a single penny for the artists that the RIAA claims to protect.

No they aren't, they brought it upon themselves. Again, who cares about whether the RIAA's business model is rational? If you don't like it, don't buy the music. If you steal the music, the RIAA does have recourse. People bought the music for decades with the copyright warnings. Now that there is technology in place to actually put some teeth into the enforcement, people start bitching. Deal with it. Oh and the artists, they know what they are getting into when the sign. Spare me the sob story for the poor artist.

Responsibility for your own actions, it's like nobody wants to have it.

We are the customers and former customers of the member labels of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We love music and will gladly pay a fair price for it, but we are outraged by the RIAA's tactics in suing ordinary Americans for filesharing.

It should read "We are the thieves." They obviously do not believe in paying for music, otherwise why would they steal it? "Fair" as the qualifier is too subjective. Judge people by their actions, not their words. If they really believed in paying a fair price for music, they would realize there are plenty of services available right now to download music for a nominal fee. So who is left to defend here? What's the rationale? What's the POINT? The point is, they don't want the RIAA to have any recourse for stolen property.

We oppose the recording industry's decision to attack the public, bankrupt its customers and offer false amnesty to those who would impugn themselves. We call instead for a real amnesty: the development of a legal alternative that preserves file-sharing technology while ensuring that artists are fairly compensated.

So you want to legislate the RIAA, you really want the government to step into the recording enterprise medium. You want that? You REALLY want the government to effect this change? Be careful what you ask for. You might get it. And if you do, do you really think the enforcement engine for this will just magically disappear? Think again.

RE: Take a Stand Against the Madness; EFF Stop the RIAA Petition