"Mass downloading from unauthorised file sharing on the internet and the massive proliferation of CD burning continues to be a major cause of the fall in CD sales globally"

To Jay Berman,
There is absolutely no proof to account for file sharing as the source of the industry problems. If there is, it is certainly not among the collection of half-truths posted on your web page.

BEFORE the Napster hearings, all the labels reduced the number of releases. For the first two years (2000 and 2001), the decline was about half of the percentage of decrease in releases, which is exactly why the RIAA stopped posting new releases in 1999.

Digital piracy is a fabrication. The sales decline was engineered. Vivendi's 2001 Annual Report refers to the "anticipated lighter release schedule." BMG's blames fundamental business problems "long obscured by market successes."

You have no proof to substantiate this claim. You know it and I know it. John McCain knows it now, too. So does Orrin Hatch and the rest of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee and each and every member of the Senate Small Business Committee.

Because I've told each one of them.

This week, I spoke with Arizona State Attorney General Terry Goddard, FCC Chairman Michael Copps, and recently retired ABC news correspondent Hugh Downs. It was the Attorney General who urged me to speak to the FCC Commissioner, Mr. Downs and the rest of the panel gathered for the FCC hearing.

Next month, I'm going to talk to the U.S. Copyright Office at a DMCA hearing.

And don't think you can dust this off with a snappy, off-topic response.
I'm not some stupid college kid who "just wants to listen to music for free."

I hate the RIAA and the IFPI for a totally different reason. But you're going to have to figure that part out for yourself.

--
George Ziemann
MacWizards Music
1604 N Date Dr.
Tempe AZ 85281
wizard@azoz.com
http://www.azoz.com

Well said.

yeah boy. Good job George.

Right on the money, George

Question: How long can the RIAA keep repeating the same meaningless rhetoric before even the most uninformed politician begins to see it for the total bunk that it is?

Answer: Not nearly long enough for the RIAA to win in the end (but still too long for my liking.)

I am offended because I am a "stupid college kid." I don't just want music for free, but come on, that was a pretty harsh statement against a lot of people who are on the same side as him. What he said before that was very exhilirating though. How big a difference do you think this guy will make? And who is this guy anyway??

scottjw, I guess you are a "stupid college kid," He wasn't saying that all college kids are stupid, he was saying that a lot of people are ignorant about what RIAA's intentions/defences have been and that alot of people (mainly college kids) don't have an educated argument either, and that they just think they should be able to download music for free whenever they want. He was making it perfectly clear that this was NOT where is was coming from, and that he is not here just to bitch about having to pay for music.

Who is George, Go to his sight and find out. George is the ultimate underdog, taking a big bite out of the RIAA's self rightous ass. I had to say that because George is very cool in my book.

I imagine he is here to point out how ignorant the government has been when accepting RIAAs arguments/terms or agreements. I also think he is here to let the general public know as well that the folks at RIAA have a had an engineered plan thats been in effect for a few years now and has been working wonders for them. They are pointing fingers at everyone when there isnt even a problem to point finger at. They engineered falling sales and then bitched about it? Now a bunch of college kids share music and they want to collect the money that they purposely threw threw away. College kids don't have the cash to blow on a bunch of CDs anyway. Education prices keep going up and CD prices keep going up. Job requirements get crazier and crazier every year with employers looking for more and more bullshit requirements for nobrainer jobs. I think this has a little to do with people not running out to buy the latest top 40 CD that has no lyrics/beats worth a damn anyway.

My "stupid college kids" statement was more a reflection upon the RIAA's attitude toward college students than my own personal one.

I have a daughter who is attending Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She is not stupid. And neither are the many other who have written to me in recent weeks.

I don't think you're stupid, but they seem to.

That's what I meant and why I used that phrase. If I offended any college students, I'm sorry. This was clearly not my intent.

Besides, this was an actual e-mail I sent to Jay Berman. I merely cc'ed someone who thought it was worth posting.

I didn't ask for it to be published. But hey, that's the way this information age works. Information spreads. When you write something at put your name at the bottom, you should expect it to be copied and distributed further.

That's why I post mp3 files, too.

Alright, it's all good! I can't believe though that more people responded to what I said than the e-mail you sent. If you get a response, please post it, I think we all want to see how he deals with this threat.

In any case, don't worry about the college student thing, that is not the issue here, and aside from my statement I don't think anyone else on this planet (aside from Mr. Berman when he reads it and knows he can't get off easy) will actually care.

Hey, I'm a college student and I know that I'm not stupid... But I also know he said that to make a point, and a great one at that... Hope it makes a difference!

If you want to drive this point home to the media, CNN has Jay Berman's point of view, which was published on April 9.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/09/global.sales/index.html

On CNN's Contact Us page is located at http://www.cnn.com/feedback/

There is a link on that page to report errors on their website. I pasted the contents of the above letter into that form.

We need about 500 people to send the same message.

Are those links working for anyone? They keep giving me 404 errors.

Take out the "" tag and they should work. It's just a simple html command that somehow got stuck with the link. Go figure.

Silly me, I should have know that it would take the flag yet not really use it. Take out the <br>. It'll be fooking strange if this doesn't register correctly...

I sent my e-mail along with what you asked, and a little more.

Lol, did anyone else catch this typo? :

The London-based group said sales are expected to slump by a further five percent this year even as the industry intensifies its fight against privacy, and continues to cut costs and diversify its products.

They are fighting against privacy? I think eventually it will come to that... maybe this was a Freudian slip, eh?

Actually now that I have read throught the whole article, everytime they meant to say "piracy," they said "privacy." Kinda stupid I know, but also a bit coincidental perhaps?

scottjw -- That's an awesome observation that I missed.

Yeah, fight privacy!

...

Or maby its entierly intentional. It is afterall more acuratly characterized as a war on privacy, then a war on piracy when you look at the way the RIAA is going about it (hacking into ppls computers, asking buisnesses and colleges to monitor internet activity ect.).

scottjw -- Go to AzOz.com and write to me.

I'll send you a WhDBD (Wizard's Honorary Degree in Bullshit Detection).

And I might get a "Stupid College Kid Who Saved Music" t-shirt printed up for you. I didn't even really read the CNN version. I had read the press release at the IFPI site already.

CNN already changed the story. They did not acknowledge that they changed it and did not include any actual facts. Again.

Fortunately, thumbtack grabbed a pdf of it before that happened.

The kind of stereotyping engaged, and ugly lynch-mob mentality whipped up, by the RIAA against college students, I.M.H.O., is every bit as insidious, sinister, dangerous, destructive and corrosive as (in but one example) the assumption made among certain police departments in certain towns and cities within the United States that all young black males are rapists, drug dealers, murderers, etc. (actual or potential), and thus police are free to do whatever they want, i.e. stop and frisk at random, pull them over at road stops, et al. This kind of attitude (and the consequences emerging therefrom) led to the numerous "racial profiling" controversies that have swarmed around law enforcement in general over the last few years.

And again, how the double standard reeks: If the RIAA were to say anything similarly negative about blacks, Hispanics, or any other ethnic minority group, its "leaders" would be condemned as "racist" and forced out of their respective jobs faster than you could say "John Rocker" or "Trent Lott." Which shows the extent and degree to which consumers, computer users and college students are vilified, despised, loathed, reviled, hated, stepped on and spat on by the multinational entertainment-media complex.

And the RIAA represents the minority of artists.