Political Bloviation

via Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim “$100M+” RIAA “stole” – Ars Technica.
Not content simply to defend Jammie Thomas-Rasset in her high-profile retrial next week in Minnesota, lawyer Kiwi Camara is joining forces with Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson to file a class-action lawsuit against the recording industry later this summer.
The goal is nothing less than [...]

Maybe they can spend time to develop a working business model instead of defending an obsolete model?
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits – WSJ.com
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to [...]

Jeff Price: The Democratization of the Music Industry – Entertainment on The Huffington Post
The advent and general adoption of the Internet, digital media and hardware took control of the global music industry away from the record labels and media outlets and handed it to the masses. For the first time in history, through sites like [...]

 Often the case is made that violating a copyright is just like stealing. It’s not the same in the sense that downloading a copy of song doesn’t deprive someone else the use of it in the same way that taking a car would deprive the owner of it’s use.  The related argument that allowing copyright [...]

Wow, it’s like evil vs evil:
When the RIAA loses its mind – The Carpetbagger Report
Matt Yglesias noted that, given this RIAA position, Hillary Clinton might be vulnerable to an expensive lawsuit, but I’d set my sights a little higher:

In the video linked below, we see that President Bush’s iPod contains songs [...]

It was just a matter of time:
Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use – washingtonpost.com
Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step [...]

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Madonna Dumps Record Industry
The only real question now is how fast will the music industry model come tumbling down. When Radiohead led the way in offering their music directly to fans many predicted that the move was the beginning of the end; Madonna may well be the tipping point [...]

Check out this little gem from Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG. Somebody stop them please…
Sony BMG’s chief anti-piracy lawyer: “Copying” music you own is “stealing”
Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, “When an individual makes [...]

And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of blood sucking parasites:
Victorious RIAA defendant gets attorneys’ fees, turns to class-action plans
In his order awarding Andersen attorneys’ fees, US Magistrate Judge Donald C. Ashmanskas noted that he had to make a decision on this case “without ever addressing the merits of the claims or [...]

Barrier-bustin’ Internet may lead to a music industry “middle class”
Talk of  world where artists and fans get long without record labels and RIAA. No wonder their clinging so tightly to the rapidly disintegrating business model of the past. It’s all that stands between them and being forced to make an honest living. Take look I [...]

Recording Industry vs The People
The RIAA seems to be unable to pay the attorney’s fees ordered after they unsuccessfully  hounded yet another consumer for file sharing.
Hahahahahahaha!!!

More important than the wild claim that eliminating piracy would somehow put money into farmer’s packets are the unintended consequences of putting the FCC in charge of policing the internet:
NBC: Peer-to-peer costs corn farmers money
But the bigger issue here is that NBC wants the FCC to require ISPs to filter content. How this would work, [...]

A defendant in one of the many copyright infringement lawsuits by record companies as a rather interesting discover request:
Slashdot | RIAA Wants Agreements to Stay Secret
‘The plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and [...]

CE-Oh no he didn’t! Part XX – Warner Music CEO “fairly certain” his kids pirate music – Engadget
Oh the irony of the the CEO of Warner Music admitting he’s “fairly certain” his kids prirated music. I wonder what kind of consequences they got?

Someone Has to Pay for TV. But Who? And How? – New York Times
THEY will take my remote control away only when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
This thought followed my first reading of a patent application for a new kind of television set and digital video recorder recently filed by a unit [...]

Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
It’s not often when I find myself in complete agreement with the Cato Institute, but this is one of them. They present a clear and cogent critique of the unfortunate consequences of the ill-considered DMCA. I almost wrote “unintended consequences” in the last sentence, but [...]

Copy Protection Coming to (Digital) Radio?
This is horrible policy that attempts to enshrine in law the concept of “customary use.”
In essence, instead of allowing “fair use,” which is a forward-looking concept that enables a user to reasonably access a certain amount of content under certain conditions, “customary use” would make any new technological feature [...]

Update:
Apprently I wasn’t the only one to think that getting more senators an iPod was a good idea.
IPac – Your Senator Needs an iPod

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use
The RIAA maintains that making back-up copies or ripping a CD to listen to on an MP3 player is an infringing use, but they allow it ’cause they’re such nice pople…

Broadcast Flag hearings turn on iPod use – Engadget
Stop the presses! There was something that might pass for intelligent debate on the broadcast flag in a Senate committee. Instead of listening like a cocker spaniel (you know where they have their head cocked and clearly hearing you, but don’t understand a word) to arguments about [...]