Song Trading Still Popular Despite Suits
2 hours, 16 minutes ago Add Technology - AP to My Yahoo!


By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA - Greg Kullberg first started downloading free music off the Internet as a college freshman in 1996. He stopped — mostly — after the recording industry started filing lawsuits against file-sharers last year.

Related Links
• Anti-Piracy Warning Initiative (FBI)



"Right away when I heard about it I actually went home and uninstalled my software," the 25-year-old Boston software consultant said. But like many users, he still downloads: "I'd say one song a week instead of before, it was maybe 20 a day."


The music industry, which filed suit against another 531 Internet users last week, says its tactics are slowing the tide of free downloads, citing cases like Kullberg's.


A study released in January that surveyed 1,358 Internet users in late fall found the number of Americans downloading music dropped by half from six months earlier, with 17 million fewer people doing it nationwide.


But some experts and users say that file sharers are only being more secretive, and that file swapping is actually increasing. At least two research firms say more than 150 million songs are being downloaded free every month.


The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) has sued 1,445 people since September, with the latest batch of 531 coming this month against people in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Orlando, Fla., and Trenton, N.J. Most of the earlier cases have been settled, for an average of $3,000 each.


"I think the RIAA's campaign is clearly and demonstrably having a tremendous effect, I'm just not sure to what end," said Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne, an online media tracking firm.


Graham Mudd, a researcher at comScore Networks, said the number of consumers visiting pay music sights like Apple's iTunes and Napster (news - web sites) pales in comparison to the file-sharing sights like Kazaa. But he says the lawsuits are decreasing free downloads.


"The faucet is still absolutely on," he said. "I just think the flow may have been slightly limited."


Mitch Bainwol, the chairman and chief executive of the RIAA, said the record 2 million songs legally sold last week, mostly on iTunes and Napster, prove the lawsuits are educating users.


"There will always be piracy — there is on the physical side, there will be on the online side — but most people won't do it when they understand the legal consequences," Bainwol said.


The January study from comScore and the Pew Internet & American Life project found that 52 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds downloaded music last spring, but only 28 percent did after the lawsuits were filed.


Like Kullberg, others say their habits have changed.


Marissa Sinclair, a 22-year-old Philadelphia school teacher, said she and a half dozen friends stopped downloading because of the lawsuits.


Jeremy Spurr, 26, a financial planner in Boston, said the suits, which were filed only against people who share music, have stopped his friends from sharing songs with each other, but not downloading it for themselves.


Kullberg and Spurr both say the suits have driven file sharers to private servers or anonymizing services that mask Internet users' identities.


"I think people realize that, hey, if we're going to do this, we have to be quiet," Kullberg said.





BigChampagne's Garland said he thinks the January study — which did not measure computer use but surveyed users only about their habits — shows the lawsuits' biggest effect was educational: People now know file sharing is illegal so they lie about doing it.

"They have effectively put music downloading in the same stigmatized category as teen smoking," Garland said. "People know when they should be shy about an issue."

Garland said that while Apple hopes to sell 100 million 99-cent songs in one 12-month period, "10 billion, or more than 100 times that, will be downloaded in MP3 form for free."

Industry numbers can be confusing. The NPD Group found the number of songs downloaded increased from September 2003 to November 2003, when it was 166 million. Nielsen/NetRatings, though, found the number of unique users on Kazaa dropped by half to 7.3 million users in December 2003 from a year earlier.

Still, many point out, that's 7.3 million users compared with 1,445 lawsuits.

"No matter what they do, it's not going to work," Spurr said. "To me the lawsuits are useless because the Internet is about sharing."

Yeah I'm nolonger sharing RIAA content, it's just a waist of bandwidth, and their files are not good enough to make it on my harddrives.

They will never stop all of file sharing, expecially when third generation p2p networks start poping up all over the place sometime this year.

I agree the lawsuits are useless.

"Right away when I heard about it I actually went home and uninstalled my software," the 25-year-old Boston software consultant said. But like many users, he still downloads: "I'd say one song a week instead of before, it was maybe 20 a day."

========

If he got rid of his software, how does he download?

And, since the Feeble Bureau of Investigation is mentioned, you will note that "music companies" now have authorization to use the FBI label.

That's me. So I've already sent a request to the FBI asking if we can use it with the international symbol for NO to indicate that our music was NOT protected by the FBI and you could do whatever the hell you want with it.

Plus it would make it easier for the FBI to determine those recordings authorized for sharing.

I'll let you know if I hear back, but as far as I can tell, we have permission to use the FBI seal.

Let's see...
""There will always be piracy — there is on the physical side, there will be on the online side — but most people won't do it when they understand the legal consequences," Bainwol said"

Yeah Bunghole,er...Bainwol, there will be piracy as long there are high seas and a Title 18,Chapter 81, Section 1652.

There are also legal consequences to being guilty of extortion, of contacting people and threatening to sue them if they don't pay you your extortion money, and there are legal consequences to this as well.

Running redlights and stopsigns is illegal, cheating on your taxes is illegal, accounting fraud is illegal, under the HIPAA, ordering any medically unnessary test, paid for by any insurance is illegal, price fixing is illegal,
and I believe, using lots of money to lobby politicians, if you are a 501 C 3 is illegal as well...

But, I think the RIAA , which I believe has a 501 (c) (6) status, as non-profit, may be violating the law through some of its, uh...liberal disbursement of financial resources to congress people and politicians.

but most people won't do it when they understand the legal consequences," Bainwol said.


yeah right. How many people claim the money they make on garage sales, selling their used cars etc, on their taxes. not doing it (when there's a certin amount involved) is illegal. Just because it's technically "illegal" doesn't necessarily make it wrong in many peoples eyes.

Please see this link:
http://p2pnet.net/story/821

This is the type of organized action that many on this site preach. We need more action like this so the people can take back their music.

whatever.. do you think that boycotting the Riaa crack-music might be having an impact here.. no mention of that.. I share and download, just NO riaa music. BOYCOTT 'EM!

BOYCOTT. EDUCATE. REGISTER. VOTE.

ARE YOU REGISTERED AND READY?

just because a few people leave kazaa for better ways of sharing doesnt make it go away. there are alot of other p2p/ftp sites going beter than ever, sure some of the less informed people might give it up but for the most past its stronger than ever and as far as the numbers on the pay sites goping up thats pure bullshit napster is crashing and itunes/pepsi gave away all those songs and if they subtract them they would probably be in the red

typo "for the most part " sorry bout that

"This is the type of organized action that many on this site preach."

Not if it involves the trading of RIAA music.

I agree with gdZiemann,...
97 sites are signed up to host that Grey Album nonsense...and you think that this is what we should do?

Look, you have 97 sites that may just get sued, as well as their host getting a takedown order...and maybe a request for the ISP to close their sites.

You don't do much "educatin'" if your site is shut down and you are spending your money and time in court.

Sorry, I don't agree surfside, respectfully.

Look, I have supported downhillbattle.org and stopriaalawsuits.com, and they do great work. But, I just think that the sites are just asking to be sued, and that this does NOTHING to hurt the RIAA. The RIAA spent 16.7 million dollars on lawyers in 2001. They have a big war chest, and you can bet, they jumped with delight to see a list of all the sites who say there are going to host the grey album. It just makes it easier for their lawyers to list defendants, and to know which ISPs to send a C&D / takedown order to.

from http://www.greytuesday.org/
SITES THAT WILL HOST THE GREY ALBUM ON FEB 24

90% Crud - george.hotelling.net/
113b.tk - 113b.tk
860design.com - 860design.com
Ai-em.net - ai-em.net
A Whole Nother Studio - awholenotherstudio.com
albumgeek.com - albumgeek.com
All In This Together - www.inthistogether.net
Allure Promotions - allurepromotions.tk
arellanes.com - arellanes.com
Aural Delight - auraldelight.net
BarfBarfMarina - cigarettesandwater.com/bbm
balderstone.ca - balderstone.ca
beatsareus.com - beatsareus.com
blueskin.bloguje.cz - blueskin.bloguje.cz
bluetack.co.uk - bluetack.co.uk
BobbyBurbank.com - BobbyBurbank.com
Bracha Goleshet - goleshet.com
burntchicken.com - burntchicken.com
crashingjets.nu - crashingjets.nu
cscott.net - cscott.net
dabeatz.com - dabeatz.com
Damn Your Ayes - dya.manxblogs.co.uk/
danwinckler.com - danwinckler.com
death-watch.com - death-watch.com/thegreyalbum
deepsea.force9.co.uk - deepsea.force9.co.uk
deliciousentertainmentmusic.com - deliciousentertainmentmusic.com
denyerec.co.uk - denyerec.co.uk
Discarnate - discarnate.org
desktopsareus.com - desktopsareus.com
Digispace Records - digispacerecords.com/
Downhill Battle - downhillbattle.org
druhkram.com - druhkram.com
edverb.com - edverb.com
Everichon - everichon.com
Ewawoowa - ewawoowa.com/ewawoowa/
f2sys.net - f2sys.net
Fatal Mistake - fatal-mistake.net
fatherstorm.com - fatherstorm.com
Filters Magazine - filtersmag.com
fourstones.net - fourstones.net
francisco.terawap.co.uk - francisco.terawap.co.uk/grey_album/
franklet.com - franklet.com
G.A.ME - kickgame.com
Gentle Jones - gentlejones.com
gether.org.uk - gether.org.uk
gomercentral.com - gomercentral.com
green-blue.org - green-blue.org
grey.servemp3.com - grey.servemp3.com/~grey
greytuesday.holotone.net - greytuesday.holotone.net
HipHopMag.com - HipHopMag.com
Horklog - horkulated.com/index.php
In My Room - inmyroom.omnihosts.net/blog
indexconcept.com - indexconcept.com
Industrial Something - industrialsomething.org
Ingenuitous - ingentious.com
jeweledplatypus.org - jeweledplatypus.org
joegrossberg.com - joegrossberg.com
Judolight - thejudomadonna.kicks-ass.org/phpBB2
j-san.net - j-san.net
keepitonthedownload.com - www.keepitonthedownload.com
Kunfuzed Mynds - kunfuzedmynds.com
laslo.co.uk - laslo.co.uk
littleeyeontheworld.com - littleeyeontheworld.com
losratones.com - losratones.com
lwray.mit.edu - lwray.mit.edu
Lyrical War - lyricalwar.com
(M) Productions - m-productions.org
m4hireentertainment.ipbhost.com - m4hireentertainment.ipbhost.com
Man, Myth, Morland - morland.theoretic.org
Mathcaddy.com - mathcaddy.com
maximumletdown.com - maximumletdown.com
members.lycos.nl/freedownload1500/music - members.lycos.nl/freedownload1500/music
Michael Herring Design - michaelherringdesign.com
mijnkopthee.nl - mijnkopthee.nl
mindnumbles.org - mindnumbles.org
mine.nu/ - greyalbum.mine.nu/
miscellaneology.net - miscellaneology.net
miserychick.net - miserychick.net
music2g.com - music2g.com
Musical Bear - musicalbear.com
musiccollection.nu - musiccollection.nu
My Analog Life - nofi.org
napsterization.org - napsterization.org
naraznik.vozovna.cz - naraznik.vozovna.cz
nerdysouth.com - nerdysouth.com
News Trolls - newstrolls.com
null-a.org - null-a.org
Numia - numia.org
OHM - saviorsofpop.net
Our Nation Of Thoutlessness - ournationofthoughtlessness.com
oracle.zenic.net - oracle.zenic.net
p2pnet - p2pnet.net
partiallyblind.com - partiallyblind.com
phallacy.net - phallacy.net
Philosophistry - philosophistry.com
pieceoplastic.com - pieceoplastic.com
plainfront.com - plainfront.com
porcelainrocks.com -porcelainrocks.com
radioaid.com - radioaid.com
raef.dyndns.org - raef.dyndns.org
rantings And Ravings 2.0 - rantings.shaghaghi.net
reddoktoba.com - reddoktoba.com
rednoise.org - rednoise.org
republicum.se - republicum.se
rhapsodic.org - rhapsodic.org
Riot Grrrl Fredericksburg - rgfb.8m.com
savedelete.com - savedelete.com
sixfoot6 - sixfoot6.com
skylab.ws - skylab.ws
slumdance.com - slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/000647.html
somethingentertainment.co.uk - somethingentertainment.co.uk
Sound Slam - soundslam.com
splinterdata.com - splinterdata.com
Stephen's Web - downes.ca
Stephan Lanial's Unspecified Bunker - (long link)
stoneorchids.net - stoneorchids.net
strangerecords.com - strangerecords.com
sugarbooty.com - sugarbooty.com
teamgoodguys.com - teamgoodguys.com
Team Shocker - teamshocker.com
tenser.ca - tenser.ca
thegreyalbum.blipsqueak.com - thegreyalbum.blipsqueaks.com
The MP3 Truth - themp3truth.com
theothersideofzero.net - theothersideofzero.net
The World Around Me - mancusomedia.org/blog
Thee Butterscotch Threshold - www.thebutterscotchthreshold.com
That's How It Happened - howithappened.com
tomservo.net - tomservo.net
trainque.com - trainque.com
trash.dork.cx - trash.dork.cx/grey_album
undergroundmusicshoppingchannel.com - undergroundmusicshoppingchannel.com
ukol.net - ukol.net
vlokfeest.net - vlokfeest.net
vurt.dsl.pipex.com - vurt.dsl.pipex.com
weightlessmusic.com - weightlessmusic.com
wheresthebeef.co.uk - wheresthebeef.co.uk
zerophase.net - zerophase.net



SITES THAT WILL TURN GREY ON FEB 24


agentshiphop.com - agentshiphop.com
AmpMinot.com - AmpMinot.com
angelfire.com/ks3/acidsuicide - angelfire.com/ks3/acidsuicide
bangsplatpresents.com - bangsplatpresents.com
bassnote.tk - bassnote.tk
Belita Adair Music Medium - belitamusicmedium.com
Belmont University Copyright Society - belmontcopyright.com
Blogcritics.org - Blogcritics.org
blogged.co.uk - blogged.co.uk
blogundanga.com - blogundanga.com
Culture Kitchen - culturekitchen.com
damien.nu - damien.nu
Dustyhouse.org - Dustyhouse.org
freon84.blogspot.com - freon84.blogspot.com
garrettguillotte.com - garrettguillotte.com
Grabbing Sand - grabbingsand.com
Gravatt - integrationresearch.org/gravatt
gisleson.com - gisleson.com/blog
grillo.tk - grillo.tk
jashter.com - jashter.com
livejournal.com/users/helloapollo - livejournal.com/users/helloapollo
livejournal.com/users/soyfeo408 - livejournal.com/users/soyfeo408
mediaandshopping.co.uk - mediaandshopping.co.uk
Miniscule Wombat - minisculewombat.com
Music For America - musicforamerica.org
netzoo.net - netzoo.net
One Man And His Blog - 20six.co.uk/bulentyusuf
potatoland.com - potatoland.com
Pixod - pixod.com
radiobots.tk - radiobots.tk
randypavelich.com - randypavelich.com
redvolume.com - redvolume.com
remoconscious.com - remoconscious.com
savehiphop.org - savehiphop.org
sjarvis.com - sjarvis.com
Slabathon - slabathon.cjb.net
Submit Response - submitresponse.co.uk/mt
Subterranean Notes - hine-digital-art.com/weblog/weblog.html
tenyearsof.us - tenyearsof.us
xanga.com/foreverboreded - xanga.com/foreverboreded

btw, one of the early adopters on hosting thus album, Andrew Baio, at waxy.org lists the contents of a nice little letter he got from his ISP..and I imagine a lot of these are already to mail..or email..

"Jeff Lowenberg
Vice President Operations/Designated Agent
Everyone's Internet
2600 Southwest Freeway, Suite 500
Houston, TX 77098

Re: Unauthorized Use of Sound Recordings Performed by the Beatles

Dear Mr. Lowenberg:

It has come to our attention that Andrew Baio is currently exploiting sound recordings that are owned and/or controlled by Capitol Records, Inc. ("Capitol"). In particular, it appears that Mr. Baio is using, without authorization, on his website, http://www.waxy.org/archive/2004/02/11/danger_m.shtml, (the "Website"), copies of sound recordings embodying performances of the Beatles, including but not limited to recordings of "Long, Long, Long," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Glass Onion," "Savoy Truffle," "Mother Nature's Son," "Helter Skelter," "Julia," "Happiness is Warm Gun," "Piggies," "Dear Prudence," "Rocky Raccoon," "Revolution 1," "Revolution 9," "I'm So Tired," and "Cry Baby Cry" (the "Capitol Recordings").

Andrew Baio's unauthorized exploitation of the Capitol Recordings constitutes copyright infringement, and renders Andrew Baio, and any other company engaged in the unauthorized exploitation of the Capitol Recordings with Andrew Baio, liable for all of the remedies provided by the relevant laws occasioned by Andrew Baio's unfair competition and dilution of our valuable property.

I am the agent authorized to act on behalf of Capitol, the complaining party. It is our understanding that Everyone's Internet, Inc. is the Internet Service Provider for Andrew Baio and the Website, and as such, you are the authorized agent for service of this notice in accord with The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C. ? 512 et seq. (the "DMCA Notice") for Everyone's Internet, Inc.

We request that following your investigation of this matter you provide us full remedy under the DMCA Notice requirement, including but not limited to, expeditiously removing or disabling access to our copyrighted material. Unless we receive full and immediate compliance with this demand within a reasonable amount of time, we will be forced to consider pursuing our other remedies at law and in equity.

This letter is written without prejudice to any of our rights or remedies, all of which are expressly reserved herein.

By placing my signature herein, I state under penalty of perjury that the information contained in this notification is accurate and that I am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right of the Copyright alleged to be infringed.


Sincerely,

/S/: Jonathan Campbell
This electronic signature is made and adopted with the intent to authenticate this written agreement.

Jonathan H. Campbell
Legal and Business Affairs
EMI Recorded Music, North America
150 Fifth Avenue
11th Floor
New York, NY 10011 "

meant "this" album, not "thus" album...
Soooorry

As for the RIAA since you represent foreign own corporations and are lobbying for them. Are you registered as a foreign agent?

Also, some sites like George.Hotelling.Net, that announced on GreyTuesday.org that they intend to participate, have already gotten nice little letters from EMI...check it out :
http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/digital_music/grey_tuesday.php#more

George is already backing out...
see his statement :

"So am I going to capitulate? Hell yes! It's one thing to do something right, it's another thing to do something right when you are told by one of the lawyers who would sue you that he will sue you. I have neither the time nor the money
to fight for what's right."

I checked out the next on the list...but it's in finnish I think...and it has a bunch of interesting pictures which look like someone trashed a toilet big time...confusing...

http://www.860design.com/ ...that site doesn't even have an entry point...

As I went down the list, there didn't seem to be as much indication that these sites would be hosting. One gave a link to http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

I found the link..
"DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM

01 Public Service Announcement
02 What More Can I Say
03 Encore
04 December 4th
05 99 Problems
06 Dirt Off Your Shoulder
07 Moment of Clarity
08 Change Clothes
09 Allure
10 Justify My Thug
11 Interlude
12 My 1st Song "

I listened to the tunes...and honestly, I thought they were HORRIBLE! The tunes may be "critically acclaime" by some folks, including Rolling Stone, but to me...these cuts were NOISE.

Take the 02WhatMoreCanISay.mp3, which ruins the underlying sampling of what is a beautiful tune by Harrison, While My Guitar Gently Weeps...

Look, I bought the White Album when it came out...and this "Danger Mouse" work is awful in my opinion. I'll probably get flamed for saying the emperor has no clothes, but this stuff is awful in my opinion, and I wouldn't host it if there were no penalties.

Just my opinion

I just hope that the RIAA keeps on a pissing people off.

One of these days they are gonna hit a nerve thats gonna cause riots much like the ones in L.A.

You can sue a televison pirate and get away with it but you start fucking with people and their music. You're asking for whatever ya get.

Its good tho..in sense maybe this kind of foolishness that they are doin will piss enough of the public of to start a mass public revolt and then they will surely have a mess on their hands.

People are already edgey enough these days and regardless if its right or wrong to share the music...somebody is eventually is gonna nutso and start opening up a can of whoopass on the RIAA.

You can't push people around forever....they or their children will get ya back for it.

On a more positive note tho..even in a small hick community like mine..there is a great independant scene goin and people seem to be enjoying local artist and such and buying their CD's. If that trend can happen here..i guarantee it must be happening on a largerscale elsewhere.

One way or the other the RIAA and their labels will regret the days they pissed off the public.

You guys gotta read this one

http://c0rk.blogs.com/gr0undzer0/2004/02/

This in a way reminds me of a funny time in America, a time I am sure Mr. Bainwol knows well since he was part of the Reagan Republicans. The war on drugs, now dont get me wrong, I think drugs are bad, in fact I'll risk getting flamed and go as far as saying drugs are terrible, but its the same mindless/head on approach that has brought nothing but tax payer expenditures for the last twenty years. I am an old man now, in my late twenties, four years closer to thirty, and in my last year of law school. Hence, I dont download anything cause a.) I dont like the RIAA and refuse to purchase any of their stuff, b.) I dont need a law suit from a legal organized crime group. The funny thing is, and in a sense this truly is comedy, suing people, err your customers can only bring you spite from them. Secondly, its a short term fix to the problem. I mean on the one hand you say you lost $200 million due to file sharing last year, so fine you avg 500 people or so a month at $3, 000 per settlement you end up with roughly $600, 000 back (most goes to your attorneys anyways), and a bunch of pissed off people that will look else where for their music. 600, 000/200, 000, 000 = * 100 =.3% Not to mention that you have to fight head on with the hackers and computer programmers, the guys that will make more sophisticated privacy runned programs to block RIAA related ip's and content, thus making the RIAA spend more money on more sophisticated equipment in order to combat this. Adding to that is the fact that they are only going after uploaders, so you can still find somebody in eastern europe, asia, africa, and south america with the music you want. I am against downloading and uploading RIAA crap, but this is a no brainer, even Bull Shannon from Night Court would have figured that out. See, it doesnt even make sense, its not like they really are doing anything positive for themseleves, now I know that this failure of an approach has been embbeded in some of these people during the Reagan years, but I really dont see how suing your customers will help you in any way. Just a thought, dont really care too much if they go bankrupt either =). Now then, as far as these sites go on Tuesday, cant say I agree with them, though I wish them well, cant say I support them either. You see its just adding more publicity to the RIAA, they should just promote indi music on Tuesday rather than play RIAA copyrighted work.

I wouldnt want their $14 a month, I never signed up for the suit, I 've spent thousands of dollars through the years on their price fixed CD's, $14 at this point means nothing to me.

I am sorry was watching the Simpsons, their $14 re-embursement, I would not want. Dont need it, they did me a bigger favor by getting me to listen to the independent labels.

busy writing private-networking system in java.

iH8RIAA...have you ever tried the program WASTE?

Code,
I have all the songs and tried to listen to them, but on most skipped them after 30 seconds or so. I have to agree the only thing going for this, is the HYPE. otherwise the album is terrible.
My opinion of course.
R

You know, I don't care if the album sucks. Most of the music in my collection today is either by artists that the Beatles said were their influences or by artists that the Beatles (either as a group or individually) played with, jammed with, backed up, produced, whatever. This has led to a very eclectic collection of a variety of music. The four Beatles have been in some very strange and interesting musical places.

So if kids today rediscover the original Beatles music of this album as a result of listening to this album, that's certainly fine by me. An interesting journey indeed.

Too bad the Beatles (or what's left of them) don't feel the same way.

The point I am trying to get across is that at least a number of sites are coming together. I am not a listener of this type of music nor do I think that this is a good idea but I like the fact that folks are coming together to fight something that they consider injust. If we are to push the riaa off its current perch it will take combined action of a number of people to achieve this goal. This goes back to singling out a small portion and boycotting it in a big way until the other side says uncle. One website may not say much but 100 websites all saying the same thing does.

Whoah, 97 Grey Album sites for Tuesday. If only the independants got this kind of support. Maybe Downhillbattle could start an "indie Tuesday" movement?

Let's see here...

Lawsuits filed...up
people proclaiming to be downloading ... down
records sales...down
average users on p2p applications (from personal observation)...static

Yep, seems like people are just learning to be quiet about it.
But really, the war against piracy is achieving goals, I promise.
In fact, two more years like this and your sales curve will have hit bankruptcy. But honest, we aren't downloading anymore. Nope.

I assure you we here at boycott-riaa are NOT participating in this foolish promotion of the Grey Album for the reason that it would be RIAA promotion to do so. I also assure you it is also not out of fear of reprisals. Many of the fine sites we have worked jointly with in the past and they are great freinds of ours whom have been led astray and tricked into promoting an RIAA product. And I DO fear for them. I sure would hate for downhillbattle.org (for example) to be shut down over all this.

There is some possiblity that this "stunt" originates higher up the RIAA hierarchy and was more than just a way for Dangermouse to get us anti-riaa friends to do his promotional dirtywork... it is just possible that the RIAA wanted a "legal" way to shut us down with the DMCA using this Grey Album business as the bait.

I wouldn't put it past the insidous RIAA to play such an evil trick.

I am SO GLAD we here at boycott-riaa did not fall for it.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

Off-topic a bit, but...

Johnny Rivers rocked Friday night! He's still got it...

scayf...Johnmy Rivers DOES rock...

back to Grey Album..
from downhill.org
Here's the letter they got from EMI mouthpieces...
http://downhillbattle.org/grey/emi_cd_letter.html

Downhill responded...
"Downhill Battle’s response to EMI


Mr. Jensen and EMI:

We have received your February 23 email concerning our plans to make the Grey Album available on our website.

Despite your letter, Downhill Battle will be posting the Grey Album on our website tomorrow. Your efforts to suppress this music stifle creativity and harm the public interest; we will not be intimidated into backing down. Downhill Battle has a fair-use right to post this music under current copyright law and the public has a fair-use right to hear it. Opposing EMI’s censorship campaign is precisely the purpose of Tuesday’s protest and we won’t waver from that goal.

The current legal environment allows the five major record labels to dictate to musicians what kind of music they may and may not create and allows them to prevent the public from hearing music that does not fall within their rules. For people to make an informed decision about whether the major record labels and existing copyright law serve the interests of musicians and the public, they need to be able to hear the music that is being suppressed. The Grey Tuesday protest is about ensuring that this music is widely available so that the public can make informed decisions. Copyright was created by Congress to “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Your actions violate that purpose. Any lawsuit against us will bring more attention to both the protest and the need for serious copyright reform, and we expect to win any case on fair-use grounds.

Our posting of the Grey Album on Downhill Battle is a political act with no commercial interest and fits well within fair use rights. Lawyers have advised us that we can ignore your demands number 2, 3, and 4 that are listed at the bottom of your letter. EMI has no legal right to make these demands and we will not comply with them. Furthermore, if EMI attempts to disrupt our protest by sending takedown letters to participating websites, ISPs of participating websites, or any upstream ISPs, we will file a counter-suit against you. We consider any attempts to stifle this protest to be an abuse under section 512F of the DMCA.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Reville
Holmes Wilson
Co-Founders
Downhill Battle (downhillbattle.org)"

While I personally do not agree with this specific hosting idea...I nonetheless am in solidarity with them on standing up to the EMI suits. Way to go Guys!

PS...Shmoo has some great points!