Dont let this happen to you = RIAA WINS

[BlueWolf72]

This guy got caught. A federal jury on Friday concluded that a 25-year-old college student must pay $675,000 — or $22,500 for each of the 30 songs he was found liable of infringing.

Could you imagine this happening to you? Everyone who has gone to court has lost.

 

[Raziaar]

****ing ridiculous.

At least when I listen to music, I only listen to what I need to on youtube.

 

[Krynn72]

on Kazaa

Idiot. P2P programs are the easiest thing to get caught on. And they always catch people like this because they download hugely popular songs and they leave them in their downloads folder so that they're uploading them to thousands of other people.

Everyones going to hate me for saying this, but if you share your illegally downloaded files, you're several times more ask risk for getting caught than someone who just downloads them and stop sharing. That goes for anything. P2P programs are the most tracked sources too. Torrents aren't much safer though. Anything that keeps you on the grid for extended periods runs your risk up.

That said, its stupid how much they end up fining these people. This guy got off very lightly compared to others though. Not that it makes much of a difference when talking about these amounts.

 

[VirusType2]

Some good comments. It would be a lighter punishment had he stolen 100,000 CDs from a record shop. For a first offense, he'd probably get court fees (few hundred dollars) + 1 year in jail, with 6 months suspended on good behavior.

I can't wait until the next presidential elections so we have a chance at getting Wall Street out from running the US government.

 

[Viperidae]

I can't wait until the next presidential elections so we have a chance at getting Wall Street out from running the US government.

Wat.

 

[VirusType2]

Wat.

I shouldn't have labeled them as Wall Street. Let's put it this way - 8/10 of the people Obama appointed to his staff are members of The Bilderberg Group. The others are members of The Trilateral Commission and/or The Council On Foreign Relations, which says on their home page:

A research center dedicated to understanding the world by better comprehending global trends and contributing ideas to US foreign policy.

Every year since 1954, a small network of rich and powerful people have held a discussion meeting about the state of the trans-Atlantic alliance and the problems facing Europe and the US.

Organised by a steering committee of two people from each of about 18 countries, the Bilderberg Group (named after the Dutch hotel in which it held its first meeting) brings together about 120 leading business people and politicians.

At this year's meeting in Germany, the audience included the heads of the World Bank and European Central Bank, Chairmen or Chief Executives from Nokia, BP, Unilever, DaimlerChrysler and Pepsi - among other multi-national corporations, editors from five major newspapers, members of parliament, ministers, European commissioners, the crown prince of Belgium and the queen of the Netherlands.

"I don't think (we are) a global ruling class because I don't think a global ruling class exists. I simply think it's people who have influence interested to speak to other people who have influence," Viscount Davignon says.

Bilderberg meetings often feature future political leaders shortly before they become household names. Bill Clinton went in 1991 while still governor of Arkansas, Tony Blair was there two years later while still an opposition MP. All the recent presidents of the European Commission attended Bilderberg meetings before they were appointed.

Also Obama and Hilary Clinton

Basically, they are the richest elite and have massive influence in US and European policy.

-- A bunch of super wealthy people get together with the top political people from around the world and meet in secret behind closed doors, and up until a few years ago they denied the meetings even happened --

... nahh, nothing wrong with that. We can trust them. They're looking out for us little people. /s

The Obama Administration

National Security Advisor
Gen. James L. Jones
Bilderberg Group
Council on Foreign Relations
Trilateral Commission

Deputy National Security Advisor
Thomas Donilon
Council on Foreign Relations

Director of National Intelligence
Admiral Dennis C. Blair
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton
Bilderberg Group
Council on Foreign Relations
Married to Trilateral Commission member, Bill Clinton

Deputy Secretary of State
James Steinberg
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

State Department Special Envoy
Richard M. Haass
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
President, Council on Foreign Relations

State Department Special Envoy
Richard C. Holbrooke
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Secretary of Treasury
Timothy Geithner
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission

Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee
Paul Volcker
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Ambassador to the United Nations
Susan Rice
Trilateral Commission

State Department Special Envoy
Henry Kissinger
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Presidential Advisor
Alan Greenspan
Bilderberg Group
Trilateral Commission
Council on Foreign Relations

Electing a new president would mean a new administration.

The RIAA has way too much influence in US government.

Check this out: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=RIAA+obama+administration&cts=1249089955887&aq=o&oq=&aqi=

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I take the safe way and download the music video off Youtube and convert the audio to MP3. Like to see the RIAA get me now.

 

[dfc05]

That's ridiculous. They should make it the actual value of the song (e.g. $1) plus some reasonable fine (e.g. a few hundred dollars or so). Like Virus said, people doing actual physical crimes get off for less than that.

Anyways, just use the RIAA Radar. If the music you want is on a label associated with RIAA, realize that there is better music out there!

Alternatively, realize that if your music is popular/mainstream, the cd is probably available at your local library. For real. I bet there are people who go to the library solely for movies/cds/internet.

 

[Kamikazie]

I take the safe way and download the music video off Youtube and convert the audio to MP3. Like to see the RIAA get me now.

*Reports*

 

[15357]

Huh.


Over here, people settle out of court for a few hundred dollars or go to court and get fined a thousand.


I'm sure that the RIAA has a good reason to do this, as intellectual property does need to be respected, but whats with the enormous amount of money?

 

[VirusType2]

whats with the enormous amount of money?

A severe punishment is used to attempt to discourage the crime when a small punishment isn't doing the job. A severe fine is also used to enslave and make one person pay for all the others they can't catch.

EDIT: A fine so heavy it is used to deter others from committing the crime goes against the US constitution. However, they have a loop-hole in that the justice system has allowed the RIAA to set the price. The RIAA's claims of financial loss from filesharing are unchecked, and many argue that there is no loss at all, in fact they gain from it, though I won't go into that here. Surely an independent analyst should determine the worth of distributing a song in order for it to be fair.


This harsh copyright law means that copyright holders can sit back on their past works and get paid huge quantities of money and they don't even have to sell one album. For new material, they could just intentionally leak it and then bankrupt anyone caught downloading it.

 

[Warped]

you probably can also just go to your local library and rip the music to your HDD for free. you're paying for it one way or another.

 

[Krynn72]

Actually, a lot of the expense comes from Legal Fees which RIAA sues for in addition to the damages or whatever.

That chick who got fined 1.9 million for 24 songs for example, was originally ordered to pay ~220 thousand after the first trial. Then she appealed and got a second trial, and after that she had to pay 1.9 million i'm assuming the judge also raised how much she should pay for each song, as lawyer fees for the second trial wouldnt account for the entire increase of her fine though.

Also, when it says "In December, the record labels announced they were winding down their 5-year-old litigation campaign and instead began lobbying ISPs to disconnect music file sharers"

does that mean that if RIAA hasnt bitchslapped someone already, then they're pretty much safe from being sued up the asshole by them?

 

[Stigmata]

EDIT: A fine so heavy it is used to deter others from committing the crime goes against the US constitution. However, they have a loop-hole in that the justice system has allowed the RIAA to set the price. The RIAA's claims of financial loss from filesharing are unchecked, and many argue that there is no loss at all, in fact they gain from it, though I won't go into that here. Surely an independent analyst should determine the worth of distributing a song in order for it to be fair.

I think game theory could be applied to this. If I'm bored tomorrow I'll try my hand at it and see if I can come up with anything.

 

[Rizzo]

you can download videos of youtube?

 

[Krynn72]

you can download videos of youtube?

I'm sure you could, but why not just go to youtube yourself?



(joke)


But yes, you can download youtube videos with a firefox plugin.

 

[nurizeko]

I'm sure you could, but why not just go to youtube yourself?



(joke)


But yes, you can download youtube videos with a firefox plugin.

Don't listen to Krynn, he's delusional, a bit whacky, he was hit a few too many times upside the head as a puppy.

*gags Krynn and drags him away from the thread*

 

[Sanada]

Everytime you view a Flash based video/audio stream it downloads to your computer anyway. You just need to know where to look for it...

*cough* cache folder

 

[swan_song1973]

according to that id owe...$149,265,000

 

[Sledgehammer]

Youtube is shite quality.

 

[Stigmata]

I take the safe way and download the music video off Youtube and convert the audio to MP3. Like to see the RIAA get me now.

You're probably not as anal about this as I am, but I would never ever be able to settle with a music library taken from Youtube. The audio quality is something like 96 or 128kbps. For me it's 320 or bust.

 

[swan_song1973]

You're probably not as anal about this as I am, but I would never ever be able to settle with a music library taken from Youtube. The audio quality is something like 96 or 128kbps. For me it's 320 or bust.

128 is my breaking point, below that i wont listen to it, but 320/FLAC is just too large for me to store on my laptop or 80G ipod.

 

[Stigmata]

128 is my breaking point, below that i wont listen to it, but 320/FLAC is just too large for me to store on my laptop or 80G ipod.

192 is mine. Anything below that loses too much of the dynamics and texture, and it ends up sounding like it's out of second-gen iPod headphones.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

You're probably not as anal about this as I am, but I would never ever be able to settle with a music library taken from Youtube. The audio quality is something like 96 or 128kbps. For me it's 320 or bust.

I listen to my MP3's on my phone so having a high bit-rate doesn't really make much difference, plus i only have 2 gig of memory on it. If i do download off Youtube i do try to look for the HD quality versions, they are around 256kbps.

 

[Unfocused]

Virus said something similar already, but it's ridiculous how stealing ~4 CD's from a store (assuming they would contain around 30 songs) would be considered a minor theft and be punished lightly.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I still can't see how any court can justify that amount it's crazy.
These guy's made over 7 million in DVD piracy and only got 6 year's in jail.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8172694.stm

 

[jet_porkins]

Don't download.

 

[Krynn72]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wmepTVM3I

 

[VirusType2]

It sounds like the cymbals are distorted at anything less than 256k mp3. 192k mp3 is still pretty good though.

At first I always made rips using mp3 at 320k VBR, but then I was hearing things about artifacts (although I never noticed any) so then I always used CBR 320k mp3's.

Only recently I found out that AAC is better, so I'm thinking of ripping my CD's using 256k AAC for my files.

Let me know if you have advice.

 

[Krynn72]

If you dont notice any difference, what the ****s the point of converting all that shit?

 

[VirusType2]

I don't convert mp3's. That won't improve quality. I'm talking about ripping CD's.

 

[Krynn72]

Still, if you dont notice a difference between the formats, why give a shit?

 

[DEATHMASTER]

If you're not a krynndoggy, what's the point of eating dog food? To get full.

 

[VirusType2]

Still, if you dont notice a difference between the formats, why give a shit?

between mp3 and AAC?

Advanced Audio Coding [AAC] is the successor to mp3 and reportedly, it can get the same sound quality or better at lower bit rates which means a smaller file size. I haven't even really heard many AAC (mp4 or mp4a) so I don't know if I'd notice a difference or not...

I'd rather not install iTunes (supposedly the best AAC ripper), so I've never tried it.

I was just asking advice from someone who knows more than me about this. Not you!

 

[Krynn72]

At first I always made rips using mp3 at 320k VBR, but then I was hearing things about artifacts (although I never noticed any) so then I always used CBR 320k mp3's.

This is what I was refering to. You changed for really no reason other than "other people say its better"

 

[VirusType2]

Well, I didn't fully go into the details of why I switched.

1) The VBR doesn't play in all players.
2) my computer sucks (believe it or not listening to VBR sometimes makes my computer really slow)
3) After ripping about 100 of my CD's using a particular software (Creative), I realized that none of them displayed the correct time in players like Winamp. They all showed 0:00 for length of song.
4) Space saving wasn't that great
5) VBR causes artifacts

What I want is CD quality at the smallest file size, of course. I don't want to sacrifice quality at all, but I don't want to waste space. I'm thinking AAC 256kbps CBR will be my best bet.

I don't want to have to rip them again.

 

[nurizeko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wmepTVM3I

Video restricted due to copyright restrictions or some dumb shit like that (will people get it into their thick heads that breaching copyright requires profit being made, random music vids on Youtube is not people making money off your work!).

The irony...

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

I just wish that you'd use a semi-colon or something instead of that "="
JESUS

 

[Stigmata]

5) VBR causes artifacts

Early VBR algorithms occasionally introduced audible artifacts when encoding monotone or minimal tones (for example audiobooks and acoustic music). These artifacts often mimicked a "digital chirp" during the quiet portions of the song or when there was only speaking. As VBR encoding algorithms have improved, these problems have been resolved in subsequent generations of the VBR standard.

Unfortunately... [citation needed]. I still don't trust VBR.