No, I am never in favor of people being assholes. I am merely pointing out that it is their right to do what you are describing. It is a free country, after-all. So stop complaining that others have rights, its dis-ingenuous.

[Edited on July 24, 2007 at 1:08 PM. Reason : .,.]

7/24/2007 1:07:49 PM

huh? your argument is disingenuous. i'm complaining about the blanket power a group of private citizens (as you put it) has been given to collect money from everyone who streams ANY music (whether they are represented this group or not).

7/24/2007 1:23:39 PM

Then you are mistaken. The RIAA has not been granted that right, to the best of my knowledge. The money for streaming is paid to the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel, a government agency, which then tries to distribute the royalties to the various copyright holders, such as the RIAA.

And if they ever want to stop paying the royalties then all they need to do is sign a licensing agreement circumventing the CARP.

[Edited on July 24, 2007 at 3:19 PM. Reason : .,.]

7/24/2007 3:18:16 PM

read about soundexchange then get back to me.

7/24/2007 3:34:15 PM

^^

If I had a radio station that played a loop every day of an mp3 of me saying "blah blah blah" I would still have to pay the RIAA on a per station basis.

7/24/2007 4:24:54 PM

^^ My mistake, you pay soundexchange which then pays the RIAA for its copyrights held.

^ Absolutely not. Presumably YOU are the copyright holder of you saying "blah blah blah" and therefore you presumptively license yourself to play your own MP3s, therefore legally bypassing soundexchange.

From my understanding, what paying royalties to soundexchange enables you to do is play MP3s of people you do not know saying "blah blah blah" without first asking them for permission to do so.

[Edited on July 24, 2007 at 4:40 PM. Reason : .,.]

7/24/2007 4:39:36 PM

and soundexchange then holds onto the money that isn't claimed. but it's alright, you can claim your money if you pay soundexchange.

7/24/2007 4:43:49 PM

Quote :

"We have the right to sue each other, therefore it is not extortion to threaten a lawsuit"

If all they did was threaten a lawsuit, that'd be one thing. But, these guys are threatening MILLIONS of dollars in damages, no to mention lawyers fees. And a reasonable citizen would assume that he has no chance of winning against the RIAA, whether he is guilty or not.

And then the RIAA comes along and says, "But, if you pay us 5000, we'll drop the whole thing." Sorry, but that is almost a textbook case of extortion. Come up to someone, threaten them in some way, and then say "hey, pay me 5 bux and I'll leave you alone."

7/24/2007 7:14:22 PM

^ Right, our legal system has many flaws, that being one of them. Assholes use it all the time, threatening usually innocent people with lawsuits under the American's with Disabilities Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and finally yours, the Copyright Act.

Well, cry me a river. Might instead of complaining about a single form of legal extortion, why not come up with a way to bring an end to all forms of legal extortion? Maybe the time has come to reform the legal system in this country?

^^ Soundexchange is not the RIAA. It is obviously a victim of regulatory capture through the RIAA, but it is not the only government institution suffering that fate. Maybe the time has come to reconsider what passed for regulation in this country?

[Edited on July 24, 2007 at 8:18 PM. Reason : .,.]

7/24/2007 8:17:06 PM

ummm, soundexchange is an unincorporated division of the RIAA. Sorry, buddy, but SE is the RIAA

7/24/2007 8:28:00 PM

^ Right, that is an example of what we call regulatory capture. The regulated become the regulators; it's the same way in most Federal Regulatory Agencies.

The obvious exception being, of course, as I've said a dozen times, soundexchange is VOLUNTARY. If you don't want to pay the fees, then either don't play the music or get off your ass and get licensing rights to the friggin' audio!

7/25/2007 7:27:06 AM

you're being willfully simplistic/naive about this.

7/25/2007 10:18:04 AM