Feb 1

Yesterday, I ran the item below in p2pnet.net and I thought it might also interest  a2f2a readers who are artists and who may not be aware of the kind of things the Big 4 labels have been (and still are) getting up to on your behalf in pursuit of their copyright claims >>>

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) owned, to all intents and purposes, by Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian) has been terrorising American families since 2002 with the upfront and active support of US administrations, the latest being Obama’s.

For the second half of last year we didn’t hear much about this corporate music extortion unit. But it’s back in the limelight again with renewed attacks on Jammie Thomas-Rasset, an Ojibway mother.

It’s now trying to get her into court for the third time, having already dragged her through the mud twice before.

I mention that Jammie is a member of one of America’s first nations because most of the various tribes claim sovereign status and I know for a fact the Ojibways are among them.

That being so,  the RIAA’s attacks against her may raise interesting jurisdictional questions.

Meanwhile, the RIAA has been gradually phasing out since December, 2008, when it announced it’d stopped suing corporate music industry customers “as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy,” said the Wall Street Journal, going on »»»

The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider`s customers making music available online for others to take.

Depending on the agreement, the ISP will either forward the note to customers, or alert customers that they appear to be uploading music illegally, and ask them to stop. If the customers continue the file-sharing, they will get one or two more emails, perhaps accompanied by slower service from the provider. Finally, the ISP may cut off their access altogether.

This was pure, and typical, RIAA bullshit. But it did serve as the first mention of a concerted action on the part of the Big 4 labels and the Hollywood studios to commence what might be their last desperate attempt to do what they failed to do so far:

  • Gain complete control of the internet as their exclusive corporate sales, marketing and distribution vehicle; and,
  • Turn music lovers into corporate drones who under threat of courr proceedings, will buy, at exorbitant prices, whatever ‘product’ the labels care to dish out.

So, lest we forget, starting today, and continuing over the next few days, I’m re-publishing a number of p2pnet stories highlighting RIAA depredations against Big 4 customers.

And one thing to bear in mind is: it’s easy to see these crimes against ordinary people, including young children, as being perpetrated by faceless corporations.

However,  highly intelligent, highly educated men and women such as Jay Berman, Hilary Rosen, Mitch Bainwol, Cary Sherman, Amy Weiss, Jenny Engebretsen, Cara Duckworth and Jonathan Lamy, all of whom have been, or still are, dedicated RIAA troopers, have been knowingly and deliberately using the mainstream media to subject innocent people to public ridicule  and embarrassment accusing them, without a shred of hard evidence, of being “massive online distributors of copyrighted music”.

I believe some 40,000 people were accused in this way. Only two reached the US civil court system but the objective had been acheived:

Create a climate of terror under which to operate a bizarre marketing campaign.

Jon Newton – p2pnet / a2f2a

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

__________________

February, 2010

Posted in a2f2a | No Comments »

You must be logged in to comment.