Maybe the problem lies with the mainly inferior music that the musicians are releasing. In the vinyl days most albums were at worst 50-50 in good to filler ratio. Most had great songs that weren't played on the radio but became favorites after the purchase. There were some releases (Moody Blues, Yes) that didn't have breaks except for turning over the record. I now understand why 45s were so favored before the LP, you could just buy what you wanted for a buck. Ironic that $.99 downloads are making inroads 50 years later at the almost exact price. RIAA's problem is simply greed coupled with crappy music. I can't remember the last CD I purchased that I truly enjoyed, ergo I seldom buy them anymore. It seems to be happening globally and that's why they're running scared. It didn't matter much to RIAA when we dubbed music onto tape from albums borrowed from friends: the quality deteriorated at each dub. Digital changed the world and here we are at this impasse. Bring back the "Stones", oops they never left.

You want to get music and be legal? Ever hear of Allof MP3?How much does it cost to download music from AllOFMP3.com?
The price of the files that you download is determined by their quality that is by the file size and type.

The price of 1 Mb is 0.02 USD.

You will NOT be charged for either previewing tracks or for the encoding process.
This is legal.

I was on my notebook the other day at a friends condo and found 2 open wireless connections I was able to connect to and fileshare. I'm hoping IP address starts to mean less and less.

"Performance rights collections totalled $US493 million in 2004 - up 4.5% on 2003 and up 19% over the past five years. IFPI estimates that potential revenues from the sector could more than double its current value over the next five years."

that is a direct quote froma press release by the ifpi, they appear to be the riaa's big brother and claim to have the most accurate statistics about the industry. so by there own account the industry is up be amazing amounts they go on to credit that to the online licensing. theoretically cd says could be down but the overall says have been increasing thanks to say itunes or the others. so anyone taht took high school stat can tell the RIAA is just using data manipulation to make them look like the victim... poor RIAA your so poor and in need of help 493 million... guess its just not enough would you like my flesh off my bones or the blood from my viens too you sick greedy bastards. rot in hell

mkaseatgb & Rikoshay,

The RIAA is NOT government run agency. It's a TRADE GROUP. That's like a club, but it's members are not individuals. You have to be a corporation to join. Almost all of their income (so far) comes from dues.

I assume it's a non-profit organization. This doesn't mean it's a charity, it just means that the "shareholders" or members cannot divide-up the profits. Non-profits don't call extra money "profit"... It's called a "surplus", and it has to stay in the organization's accounts or be spent on salaries and expenses.

Interesting calculation, buga. I'll bet that they end-up paying their lawyers more than they actually collect. The lawyers always win! They are going to loose some of the cases, and they will drop others where the defendant doesn't have the means to pay the RIAA's legal expenses if they win.

I doubt that the RIAA expects to make money off this... The goal is to scare-off file sharers.

If you want a good variety of music check out live365. They always have different variety and good music, plus its free. I found by accident one day and was hearing music that radio stations will never play.

To dz50 or anybody else; the one album I feel that you can listen to through the whole thing without skipping any track is from Matisyahu in his albume "Shake Off the Dust... ARISE". It's the only album I've recently listened to more than once without skipping any track.

From DVDdoug

Quote:

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I assume it's a non-profit organization.

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Assumptions may more or less be wrong, but I'm in no position to tell you wrong, since I don't know myself, but this does make some sense. If they are just trying to enforce the laws, it's nothing that any other abiding citizen or person would ignore, but I still think that they are going after the wrong people. They should at least tell the record companies why they aren't making any money. It doesn't take a genius that people don't like hearing something that they have to hear every day from the car right next to them. Just give the people what they want, something that suits their interest individually and make it affordable.

but its so easy...

I understand everyone's concern about this, but the one thing that I'm concerned about is the invasion of privacy.

Taking information from your computer without a warrant should render any evidence inadmissable in any court.

The general user has an expectation of privacy that can't be ignored. Physical evidence seized from your home? The police must SHOW you the warrant before they can take such evidence.

I'm surprised that no one has ever mentioned that in court.

Torrent files-

Do people get sued for downloading these usually?

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I have never purchased a music CD in my entire life. Its just too expensive.

Yes people can still caught just as easily with BitTorrent. If you're scared of getting caught, get PG2 - PeerGuardian 2.

Or the best way is just not to use P2P..

-Mike

DVDdoug, You wrote that all the money from the lawsuits stays within the RIAA. However, are P2P users not sued for "damages"?? This implies that this money would be used to pay the artist (but mostly the record company)monies that would have otherwise been earnt through CD sales. If this is not the case, why should even those found "guilty" pay anything to the RIAA? [I think you have made a mistake about money staying inside the RIAA]

From whammo

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I understand everyone's concern about this, but the one thing that I'm concerned about is the invasion of privacy.

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I can totally agree with you on that.

@ Rikoshay

Ok ill bite how does the patriot act tie into the RIAA tracking down IP's of people uploading on p2p?

You know what, nevermind. I'm just going to edit this and just quit trying to debate this. I'm not in any position to say anything further.

okay, if your not going to buy it, don't blame it on artists making bad music. if it were bad you wouldn't download it. and until you go write something better, go buy yourself some classic rock and don't download the new "crap".

wow dude i would honestly love to see any reports news articles anything about that. the only thing the RIAA has to do to find out who is connected to what IP is a court order so they subpoena the ISP for the client info about IP address whatever. patriot act doesnt tie in to that in anyway. may assume terrorists are bootleging? wow im pretty sure the common assumption is the money is from drug money and the royal families that have more oil than god. There are known royal families to give the terrorists cells millions to do what they do. i doubt osama can get a wifi signal in his cave.

@ tmart

well said if it sucks why would you download it anyway. however i believe they were trying to say that 2 songs on a cd are amazing and then the other 12 sound like the artist is dropping logs on the mic. i wont pay 15 for 2 songs, and thats why itunes is making a killing.

rsims: agreed. i download music too, but i also buy just as many cds as before. and like you said, itunes and all the other places that sell by the song are you fix for one hit wonders. i'm just saying that those of you proclaiming your reason for downloading music to be that it sucks: that's just lame.

You'll find that most people who download music, are the people who actually buy most music!

-Mike

You're right. I bought an album just this Sunday. I also bought 2 albums earlier this year, and I bought them in good taste. It's just that a lot of things are not available to me, and I'd rather just download a song for free that I won't listen to after like one time.

This is what im thinking. Lets say you live next to a university or in a neighbiorhood. With a cantenna and wifi you can get signal from far distances. so imagine, i download on somebody's open connection and they dont know about it. they get sued because the actual ip downloading the information will relate back to their router. pretty simple to download stuff. i presume so....who gets in trouble????

has no one fought it out in a court of law yet??

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well thats 1 more week that has gone by and thats 1 more cd that i did not buy. mpaa are you getting what i'am saying. there not that smart really if you thank about it if you sell 1 cd at 20.00 thats 20.00 - the lawers fee for sueing a 12yr old. but if you sell 3 cds at say 8.00 thats 24.00 4.00 more and leave the 12yr old kid alone see no lawers fee you will make more money this way dumbasses and the 20.00 cd i did not it this week so thats 0.00 + the lawers fee so you lost again. whats your next job working for the state department buying hammers for say 1000.00 dollars a hammer.

^^

MPAA - Motion Picture Association Of America
RIAA - Recording Industry Association Of America

-Mike