Dear Record Companies

From West Indian block parties to underground ciphers, piracy has always been around...

via The Register:

The music industry is sticking to a self-valuation that has been rejected by various courts and has now been described as “absurd” by a New York judge.

Judge Kimba Wood has handed down an opinion in the LimeWire damages case that challenges the industry’s belief it could be owed more than the entire global GDP for one year.

After LimeWire lost the case last year, the trial moved into the damages phase, with hearings starting next May. In an opinion (pdf) [1] published ahead of the damages hearings, Judge Kimba Wood revealed that the record companies, seeking statutory damages against the music-sharing service, are seeking damages predicated on the “number of direct infringers per work” – leading to a damages claim of as much as $75 trillion dollars (according to Wikipedia, total global GDP is around $69 trillion)".

You know an industry is in the middle of a flux when it grossly overvalues itself and insists that the rest of humanity respect its inflated self-image. It just so happens that this overvaluation is a constant staple of the music industry, where fickle fans, new technology and constantly changing winds make an accurate understanding damn near impossible. The music industry continued that trend over the past two weeks when a gang of you record companies decided to hold Limewire accountable for $75 trillion over its enabling of file-sharing. I almost gagged when I saw that figure. $75 TRILLION?!?!?! Since when has the music industry been worth more than the entire world's GDP? Seriously... I like music, and I'm sure the rest of the world does too, but not that much.

And to boot, you're suing Limewire of all companies. If you guys really had your hand on the pulse of the music industry, you'd know Limewire was played out after my 9th grade year (2002, if you must know). Additionally, if you were really paying attention, you would've been up on the online music grind from jump, so that you could've had a stake in it. Torrents, sharing websites and iTunes beat you to the punch and now you're on the outside looking in, trying to bust the windows. Now that you're behind the curve, it's like you're trying to put a four-alarm fire out with a water gun. Hell, now the blogs are running the game, giving away your artists' music (at least in hip-hop; can't speak for every genre) and all you guys can do is shut down onSMASH for a couple of weeks.

If your preposterous claim against Limewire is a sign of anything, it's that the little man always has a one-up on the corporation because the corporation is too focused on the profit rather than the product. That you guys are finally getting your day in court is too little, too late, and the judge handling your case proved that when he called your claim 'absurd'. As a matter of fact, that's just the first in a long list of words I have for your general greed and lack of insight into your own business. Either way, I and the rest of the bajillion Generation-Y music fans will somehow find a way to download music around your egregious blocks to fair distribution of music. Are you going to threaten legal action against all of us? Probably. God save the poor sap who gets nabbed with that law suit. Will it work? Probably not. Maybe you should take notes on the new wave instead of trying to cram your way in after the lights have come down.

Dear RIAA (re: Piracy)

5 years ago, I would've laughed.. Now I shudder, because it really could get this bad

via Information Liberation:

While they may never be able to truly defeat piracy and drive it from the lurking depths of the internet, copyright protection attack-dog organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have long dreamed of the day when they would no longer have to pay for their own copyright enforcement. Now that dream is on the verge of coming true, thanks to the Obama administration. After countless lobbyist dollars from the music and film industry and a brief "public review", the administration rolled out its vision to fight piracy yesterday afternoon. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden -- whose blunt speech has sometime left him in trouble -- did not mince words.

He states, "This is theft, clear and simple. It's smash and grab, no different than a guy walking down Fifth Avenue and smashing the window at Tiffany's and reaching in and grabbing what's in the window." The sound-byte comparing downloads to stealing jewels from New York City's finest jeweler quickly lit up the web. Bob Pisano, interim chief executive officer at the Motion Picture Association of America praised the VP, "It is especially critical that the United States has an effective framework for protecting creative content online and enforcing intellectual property rights in the digital environment."

According to the Obama administration, the RIAA, and MPAA, the world economy is pretty much doomed if we don't start prosecuting pirates at home and abroad. Without such a crackdown, businesses will go bankrupt the coalition argues. Biden states, "Piracy hurts, it hurts our economy."

The White House press release was full of buzz phrases, but short on details. It did however indicate that the U.S. government may increasingly monitor filesharing networks and BitTorrent sites and assist media groups in their prosecution/threat letter efforts. It speaks of improved "law enforcement efforts at the Federal, state and local level." The biggest effort, though, will be devoted to cracking down on piracy websites in the U.S. and overseas. The administration was short on details of how exactly it would convince piracy-loving nations like China to change their ways, but it did say it would try to do so by "being as public as we possibly can" about infringement.

This is a hard letter to write... As an avid music fan, I find myself always finding new music. The problem is when I want to own it for myself, and don't feel like dropping $14.79 (it's never on a round number, is it?). I remember in elementary school, we used to record over tapes, in middle school, we burned CD's, and in high school we used Kazaa & Limewire to download loosies. Now, I get my music through other means, that shall not be revealed at this time. Regardless, those three eras in my life were pervaded by something that is finally coming for its day in court: music piracy. You, the RIAA, have been waiting forever for the government to back you up on this whole copyright thing. To me, though, this has failure to adapt written ALL OVER IT.

RIAA, you never were down with the digital revolution, and now you're paying the price. When Napster first came out, and every person under 16, without a job and the subsequent funds to purchase music suddenly had said music at their fingertips, that should've been a sign for you. You should have seen it coming. The internet was young, and full of little loopholes and ways to impress your idea on a small population of users. Instead of innovating around this new technology, you tried to stifle it. You called every aging rock star who needed a booster check you could find, and made sure they spoke out about Napster and illegal downloading. When filesharing sites became the norm, rather than encourage music labels to embrace the new norm and try their hand at it, you had Congress fine teenagers millions of dollars for downloading a couple hundred songs. RIAA, you're the worst type of managing entity, because you only take action when you see your bottom line dropping. And it's sad, because the music industry is always going to be in a state of flux if you don't solidify it with fair and balanced rules on filesharing. Honestly, I think that you guys are lying about how much money you're losing. For all of the talk about how much piracy is messing with your wallets, I don't see you guys rushing to drop any figures or for your participating companies to drop any artists.

By all accounts, aside from yours, the music industry is alive and well. There is a vibrant and ever-expanding online presence from the music industry, with blogs, online publications and Twitter making big moves for artists and labels. Yet and still, you seem to focus more on what you're losing through music piracy rather than what you could gain through the new technology at your fingertips. There have to be at least two halves of an idiot in your entire organization who can find a way to placate the artists and labels being pirated, without discouraging fans or even making the problem worse. It's not that hard... If guys like Curren$y can be thriving in the industry without labels and your backing to keep their music private, why can you find a compromise or common ground that we can all agree on. No, I'm not going to say that illegal downloading and music piracy is right. However, of all the things to nitpick about and waste your time over, this should be at the bottom of the list. The fact that the government has to help you clean the mess up is even more indicative of your organization's inefficacy. To say that you're behind the curve is an understatement at this point. Then again, Obama does seem pretty serious about this new initiative. Guess I'll keep re-finding torrents until his boys come knocking on my door...