Germany's Bertelsmann AG - one of the Big Five record companies and the former owner of Napster - wants a federal court to dismiss lawsuits worth $17 billion filed by 'colleague' labels, among others, which claim Bertelsmann's financing of the returned-from-the-dead p2p app led to music piracy.

Bertelsmann knew Napster was operating illegally but nonetheless allowed it to keep going while they tried to develop a 'legal' version, say the plaintiffs.

"Lined up against Bertelsmann are music rivals Universal, EMI and a group of copyright owners, chiefly publishers," says Drew Cullen in a The Register story, going on:

"They say that Napster would have collapsed earlier without Bertelsmann's money. Consequently, the plaintiffs lost vast sums to piracy, as Napster members carried on swapping music illegally.

"OK, but $17 billion?

"This equates to approximately half the turnover of the world music industry - in a year before file trading took wing."

Now Bertelsmann and its US units, Bertelsmann Inc and BeMusic Inc, have filed against 'vicarious' claims by EMI Group PLC and Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group saying they're 'contributory' copyright infringers, and also arguing that US copyright law doesn't make it liable just because it tried to bail Napster out.

In fact, Bertelsmann argued its investment in the file-sharing network, "was aimed at helping the record industry through the creation of a 'fully licensed file-sharing service in which all the major record labels and music publishers were invited to participate', Ryan Naraine says in an internetnews.com item.

"The plaintiffs' failure to state viable claims against Bertelsmann is especially ironic since the undisputed purpose of its loan, to convert Napster to a fully-licensed subscription service, was recognized by record industry representatives as a productive step in the right direction, and one plaintiff is actually pursuing a similar vision with the Napster brand," Naraine quotes the company as saying, "pointing to the pending relaunch of Napster as a legitimate music service."

CHECK THIS OUT!!!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92351,00.html

READ THE ARTICLE ABOVE, NO AOL USERS WERE INVOLVED!!! THIS MAKES ME WANT TO CALL THE RIAA AND SAY WHAT THEY HECK IS WRONG, YOUR TOO AFRAID TO SUE YOURSELF!

LOOKS LIKE THE WAR HAS STARTED! SOMEBODY GET AN ARTICLE POSTED HERE ASAP!

What country are these all from I wonder.

$750 to $150,000 for each song offered illegally on a person's computer.

How they plan to get away with this is beyond me? For 1000 songs you could be charged anywhere from 750,000 $'s to 1,500,000,000 $'s haha. Bring it on RIAA- taking somebody and messing up their life to this degree might bring on some oldschool justice from the dark ages.

What do you think of this message I'm thinking about sending to the RIAA?

You have no right to sue everyone for file-sharing including the companies like Verision but not suing AOL Time Warner just because they are a member of the RIAA. That is not f**king justice and what your doing tying up the court's proabably isn't legal. So why don't you stop suing people for file-sharing because you will not have anymore customer's to buy from you them you will definetly be f**cked and out of business.

How about a new MTV program Major Label Celebrity Deathmatch. That ought to draw the program out a little longer. Watching clamation celebritys from the 2 labels duke it out...Now that's entertainment.

wegikrmw4aeuf, I don't think they'll listen to ANY messages we send them, regardless of if we word it like you did, or word it in a professional manner. But if you insist on sending it, Verision is actually spelled Verizon.

The RIAA is not interested in what ANYONE has to say except their attorneys and politicians. PERIOD. They only way you can speak to them, the way MILLIONS have been speaking to them the last few years, is VERY simple. Don't buy anything from them. No shirts, posters, CD's, movies, NOTHING. They only understand one thing, and that is thier corporate bottom line.

As for Napster: By hindsight, and in terms of what has transpired since those days, it appears that Napster ended up being to the recording industry what the state of Israel, as some would see it, has been to the Arab world for the past 55 years . . . sample choice words include a "cancer," an "eyesore," an "abomination" . . . a "poisonous weed" . . . take your pick on a comparable description.

Writing to the RIAA is a waste of time. They do not reply. The offer made by Matt Oppenheim on PBS was pure bullshit.

They are liars and thieves.

I'm glad to see them taking on each other. It's a sign that true desperation is setting in. They taking shots at anything because they see their plundered coffers beginning to dry up.
And sales continue to drop at an accelerated pace.

" For 1000 songs you could be charged anywhere from 750,000 $'s to 1,500,000,000 $'s ". Who could actually pay that ??? Can you declare Bankruptcy on that and totally screw them out of getting your money ??

By the way..who says these songs are worth this much? Seems to me that if you get to court, you should demand an independant audit of accounting practices of the RIAA's labels..oops! Did I hear anyone say ENRON??

I reckon it's easier to sue some kid's folks out of his tuition than it is to shut down a bootleg CD mill in Bumfuck, Egypt.

Fuque the RIAA.

Me$$age to the RIAA. The gravy train has been derailed. The spigot of money is NOW being turned off at the pump. The consumers have their collective hang (a big hand it is) and are turning the hand clockwise, and the money flow is now dripping to its last drip. The fancy cars and houses are going to go back to the bank. Things are going to start shutting down. Better say a piece of cardboard for a sign $herman! I can't wait for your shyster lawyers to sue YOU for non-payment of their services.
Hear that low, powerful rumbling?
It's the consumers headed for you, and it's getting louder. And these consumers are of voting age Mr. Hatch, Mr. Berman, and Mr. Conyers. Don't be surprised when the votes are counted!
BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS! BAN THE BASTARDS!

Actually I have emailed the RIAA several times. Once I recieved an unhelpful response to a query about an old story in their site archives from someone very low in the organisation. All my other emails have been completly ignored.

When the receptionist at my congresspersons local desk started saying "HI (hermit)" to me instead of "Welcome to Congressman McItyre's office", I started feeling a little disgruntled that I did not have to wait in line to get in.

If you want to cause some heart warming confusion, call someone about an additional hard drive for your system. Go through all the steps of finding out how much hard drive your system can use, and if it will be compatible or not. Find out how much the hard drive will cost with shipping. Then ask the sells repersentative "IF THE RIAA IS GOING TO GET $2.00 FROM A TAX ON BLANK MEDIA"? And simply tell them you CAN'T buy the hard drive because you are boycotting the RIAA. You will likely get passed on to a consumer support agent, and have to go through the entire thing again. This is the only thing that brought a shit eatting grin to my face in months!!

I'd like to see this other wheel, (computer manufactuers and retailers), start squeaking!

I appologize for posting anything to this forum from a "Road Runner/Time Warner/AOL" ISP. MY SERVICE PROVIDER IS GOING TO CHANGE AT THE END OF THE MONTH, and I'm going to save me A BUTTLOAD of money without their cable service to boot!!!

HIT HARD!!! I hope I'm not the only boycotter here.

the record companies are going after the reincarnate of napster because it can deal out a massive blow to thier sales if it takes off. almost everyone in the world who has internet access has heard of napster. also i believe that the major record industries are no longer able to squeeze as much cash as they could out of new bands as they used to since smaller independant record labels have shown up so how do they cope? sue em all
big record labels are in a slump and in the effort they are building they own gallows and preparing the noose for thier necks

i forgot to mention. i havent purchased anything by or endorsed by the RIAA ever!

all my music is made by small independant bands were 100% of sales goes to support them

The AHRA only requires a payment to the RIAA for audio recording media. As far as I know that does not include hard drives.