Without change, nothing happens.

Look at the music industry, if you doubt it.

But what music industry? The Big Five Dinosaurs are nothing but a part of Hollywood, the name for that feral group of movie makers and record labels, with a handful of associated hardware and software manufacturers lurking behind them, who want to maintain their iron grip on everything you see, hear and do.

But that was yesterday.

Now it's today. And for the first time in history, YOU call the shots while the Dinosaurs gnash their teeth, helpless to stop you.

You routinely download and trade music and movie files by the million, 24/7, on- and offline. In the business sector, companies (many of them owned or partnered by Hollywood) complain bitterly that you're locking up their IT systems with p2p activities.

They can't deal with it. So they use get-rich-quick cowboys with flawed 'technology' to try to beat you into submission.

And while they do that, Hollywood's congressional representatives such as Howard Berman, Howard Coble, Billy Tauzin, Fritz Hollings (the line forms on the right, babe) and their ilk generate one cynical bill after another aimed at turning you into a criminal.

It didn't need to be like that. But the Dinosaurs are frozen in the past.

They used to think they'd use the internet to re-gain control and who knows, they'd slyly wink at each other, perhaps even more power? But things aren't working out for them.

The Net gives you knowledge and the ability to communicate with people everywhere in an instant. Now, you know exactly what's happening and you can share with anyone, anywhere. any time.

That's why no one, least of all the Dinosaurs, can stop you.

Pre-Napster, 'consumers' on the World Wide Web were for the most part easily identifiable - ordinary people who bought software and voluntarily registered it because it was the thing to do or, as frequently happened, they were duped into it. Either way, millions of precious names, phone and credit card numbers, locations, and so on, ended up on central databases, ready to be exploited.

The Dark Side had its hackers, crackers, anarchists and phreaks who ignored all that. But who cared about them?

P2p changed that. Before Napster was taken offline by the labels, who wanted it for their own, it was used by 70 million music lovers around the world from moms and pops to the deepest, darkest hacker. And no-one knew who all these file-sharers or downloaders were - or anything else about them.

Hollywood bitches and whines that no-one's buying its members' product and that sales are plummeting, but it really means the movie houses, record labels and hardware and software companies are losing priceless data - the stuff they use to control buyers. That's you. Hence the nasty affairs with Berman & Co who work to get bills passed which will allow Hollywood to develop technology to plug straight into your home to literally remotely control what you're playing and/or viewing and gaining, in the process, hitherto private and confidential information from, and about, you and your habits.

And if you think they won't share these data with enforcement agencies, dream on.

Hollywood has screwed up from the off and now it's trying to use the RIAA to fix things.

It's a given that the people being viciously threatened, or actually dragged into the courts, have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles. But they appear to have been written off as potential customers. Maybe they labels are prepared to eat their losses now, hoping Palladium and similar radical developments in consumer control technology, will save them in the fairly near future.

But they're overlooking the sysops, security hackers, network managers, compilers, and so on - those extremely important people who maintain the computer systems which keep Hollywood's money rolling in, and the public and private sector, and federal and state, admin wheels turning.

They're already in place, or they're being hired straight from school.

At work, they're Jim Smith and Mary Jones. But in the chat rooms and on the file sharing nets, you know them as muzikfreek and fylshrr.

Between them and the collosal hornet's nest the RIAA has stirred up - Bye-Bye Hollywood.

nice

Hey there's a new Kazaa program out it's at www.kazaaplatinum.com. I didn't know there was a Kazaa Platinum.

Nver mind gotta pay to be a member.

Lets e paying close atten to what is going on away from these bills as well. They have done this before. they introduce outragous pieces of legislation that everyone attacks and defends against stanchly, meanwhile they slip a bit into some totally unrelated bill.

When Congress was working on the Patriot act shortly after Sept 11th 2001, the RIAA suggested the hacking provisions they have been trying to get ever since.
checkout http://www.politechbot.com/p-02656.html

They were being pushed by none other than Mitch Glazer, The RIAA's chief clown and lobbyist on capital hill. Mitch was the one who tried to give the recording industry a gift when he was a staff attorney to the house judiciary committee by adding four words to a satellite bill, that made all music "works for hire". Who are the theives? It took special hearings a a new law to remove that from the satelitte bill that congress had to approve and then President Clinton had to sign.

September 12th, 2001 The IFPI sttated they had reached licensing deals to represent the labels in a large number of countries. What they didn't tell you the agreements were with their member groups. The press release made it sound as if it was the governments of those countries.

These people have no heart or soul..watch them closely.

Are they really acting like they are trying to give consumers legal choices for downloading music? If people on Earth said ok, we give up, you win, so we'll let you have the keys to what we can have legally off the net, and then once they take that power they are going to decide what CANT BE DOWN LOADED off the net just like they decide what can’t be put on the radio. YOU HAVE TO BUY THE ALBUM IF YOU WANT IT AND IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE MONEY TOO BAD! It’s so obvious this is the plan, yet we have the record industry duping politicians and some judges into thinking all they want is to give consumers legal choices while paying artist - yea right! It’s still all about control and even if they do manage to kill the information in the information age, I have confidence the chronicles of human musical and cinematic creations, which reside within the concrete mounds of cities and between stone mountains in remote America, will find a way to live on. It is our mission to make sure what sounds touch the human ear will not be dictated by what wealth will let it hear. This is the promise of the information age. To free the human mind and spirit, every individual has to have a right to expand their knowledge and experience regardless of wealth and social standing. These fascist will not win because they never have. This battle is for the advancement of the human race.

"musical and cinematic creations...will find a way to live on"

Probably, but at what cost and to what limited audience? Over the years costs have risen and markets have become more limited. The artist's community had virtually lost radio, television, and even the public peformance venues to controls and added costs instigated by the giants. The internet arrived and opened the door to a vast audience for Indies and Outsiders. The potential for this market hasn't even been realized. But before that potential will be realized, RIAA and their ilk will have shut those doors and locked them tight. I was sick when we lost free internet radio. It galls me that I can't listen to KPIG for free over the net when if I were cross country i could listen to that station for free over the airwaves.
I find it frustrating that those in community (not referring to the poster I quoted)who have developed an "intellectual work" have the perception they are being robbed whenever someone uses their work w/o kicking them a buck. Those same artists support present copyright laws and future legislation that in fact probably costs them more than they'll ever earn in royalites, residuals, or lost sales. There has been no objective evidence IMO that even illegal file sharing has cost the industry money. Much of what's shared is material that the peers wouldn't buy in the 1st place. It's kind of like being sued by a supermarket for having given someone a dozen eggs with the supermarket's argument being that the person receiving those eggs would have bought that dozen if they hadn't been given to him. Music is downloaded and the downloader listens once or twice and erases the file. It's the novelty of downloading free music that grabs them. Music is being previewed and bought by discriminating buyers who continue to support the industry. The argument that Big industry is losing sales due to internet file sharing cannot be substantiated no matter who manipulates the poll. I for one cut back my buying when the price of cd's was univesally upped a 1$ a short while back. That $17 and $18 a cd started to bring home how much I was actually spending on cd's,where $15 and under still seemd reasonable to me.
I have also come to the conclusion that the idea of "intellectual property" for the most part is a vague concept at best. Much of music is borrowed (stolen?) from what has come before. I'll listen to a piece by a Beethoven or Vivaldi and wince as I can see a direct thread between those composers and a contemporary work I had thought was original. Then there are examples of downright stealing. You also will see much of music is a synthesis of music from different genres and cultures. I'd credit those that have brought us works based on the synthesis of two cultures, but I don't think you can fully define as original a work merging a Latin folk song with "Oh Susanna."
Then are are more direct thefts of music that should be or is in the public domain. "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes," "Great Speckled Bird," "The Wild Side Of Life'"
"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"---All the same melody. I doubt the giants would let an indie use that melody w/o a suit if by chance the indie started to get substantial commercial play from his/her adaptation. And what about copyrights for works that are already established in the public domain. A traditional song like "Old Joe Clark," has 75 various copyrights on performances or arrangements. As laws read now, an artist would be subject to having your personal information violated or suit if you are "suspected" of sharing an illegal file. I foresee that just having your version of Old Joe Clark on a Peer2Peer might prompt a lawsuit. The burden of proof that your file is legit rests with you.
The days of digital creation and digital distribution are upon us. Any 10 year old can create a decent song with Soundtrek's Jammer and Soundforge's "Acid." The market should be free and laws are being written and proposed that are taking that from us.

Very intelligent and thoughtful assessment digitalwarrior.
One thing that really irks me is that the DMCA, the RIAA,etc., puts stipulations on use and ownership that we would NEVER accept in any other medium or any other product. It I had the wherewithall to make a copy of my vehicle, and wanted to give the finished product to someone, no one would even think of this as being any violation of anything. If I were to take the dimensions of my bed , buy the lumber, and make a copy and give it to someone as a wedding present, do you think I would fear that the "bed police" would track me down from the hardware store receipt and come sue me for millions? Absurd, and would be dismissed out of hand by any right thinking person. But yet, congress people, during Clinton's reign, debated this topic and found the DMCA was appropriate to pass. LUNACY!
Our rights are being violated daily. We have to be proactive, not merely reactive, and push HARD for repeal of the Prohibition of the 21st century.

BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS! BAN THE BASTARDS!

Lets bash the Hillary/Bush combo. Bill was pretty worn down when he signed the DMCA.

Maybe we can salvage some small degree of internet privacy?

This is one thing the fat cats may not be counting on.

Who runs the systems for the big corps? Not the 50 and 60-something suits, that's for sure. I'd be willing to bet most of the 20-something programmers and sysops are file sharing just as much as anyone else.

Piss them off enough, and...................

Internet privacy. That's rich. Has anyone toyed around with the idea of raising a bunch of money, going to a music store, buying a whole whack of cds, then taking them outside and burning them in one big pile? Do a live webcast of it, too. The more videos, the better. I think it'd be a good idea, and i'd be more than happy chip in some greenbacks to see it.

Excellent thread, folks! Keep a-postin, keep the fires burning, keep the drumbeat!
Promise yourselves that in the next ninety days, you will find candidates that support getting our rights back, find ten friends to go with you to the polls, and take that and pull the voting lever. This is important to me, if we all vote all these lunatics out..we WILL get their attention. That,to me, is the only immediate, effective way to change it within six months. We can do it.

ARE YOU REGISTERED AND READY?

digitalwarrior, the only reason costs have gotten so high is because of the monopolies in the industry (clearchannel owning major arenas, etc.)... there are plenty (tens of thousnands) of places where one can see indie musicians... in addition to boycotting the major label acts, go out and support the musicians that will truly change the way you look at music

clear channel is evil...like antichrist evil, they are buying malls,radio stations,everything and everyone they can...

The other day I saw someone putting up a new BILLBOARD. And on the side of the truck and on the bottom of the board, clearchannel. Geez...

I just hope that none of this crap comes over to england... i have a huge music collection, i dread to think what they would do to me if they caught me
Thank god for the new kazaa lite ip blocking. Also, i think you should all know that if you use the gnutella network, you can not be caught anything like as easily as it dosent use a centralised server.

Jazzmary2u ---ME TOO! It was a blank billboard, so I assumed Clear Channel owned it!