"MTV's stars will be getting a surprise in their goody bags at Thursday's 2003 MTV Video Music Awards - the trendiest new toy on the market," gushes a Newstream puff piece.

Huh?

Our Stop smoking in movies generated a lot of heated discussion which in turn led to comments on other forms of advertising to teenagers.

And with that in mind, the trendy toy is, "a hip set of music figures that lets kids become the DJ. DJ Skribble's Spinheads were presented to the best in the music biz by DJ Skribble himself at the MTV VMA Backstage Creation Celebrity Gift Retreat. Along with leather jackets, watches, new cell phones and video games, stars such as Jessica Simpson, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and best group video nominees, 'The Donnas' got to take the toy for a spin."

It continues: "Today's kids are more media savvy and inquisitive than ever - and the same old toys just don't cut the mustard anymore - especially among the more sophisticated 'tween' generation - kids between the ages of eight and twelve. They're the nation's fastest growing demographic with the most discretionary income - estimated by some at close to $80 a week. Recognizing their importance as consumers, the toy industry is developing new products that suit their culture."

If you don't find that truly, Honest-to-God frightening ...

And what do your sophisticated tweens get for $29.99 a pop of their 'discretionary income'? Adel, Mod, Moxy, Pogo, Dzak, Troi - and/or Rya: "Like all Spinheads, her head works just like a computer game joystick," says the website here. "Overlay your own mixes on top of an original looped rhythm! Rya has 4 ill lyricals: She says: 'Representin', 'Inna di lights', 'Ragga dis Bwoy' and "'I an Iree mon'."

And, "There are 2 scratch F/X that are activated when her head is twisted".

heh.

I make cool noises when you pull my finger.

"They're the nation's fastest growing demographic with the most discretionary income - estimated by some at close to $80 a week."

Are they saying that these kids each spend $80 a week? That what it sounds like to me. Who'd they poll? The top end of upper middle class? Geeze. I wish my parents gave me $80 a week to spend on toys.

Heck, I dont even know any kids period who gets that much weekly.

Of course they may have paper routs.

How about giving away little Madonna and Lars puppets with the strings attached to plastic cards with the initials RIAA on them?
Madonna already has recorded her little message that could play when you pull her string..you remember the "What the F*** Do You Think You're Doing?" one. And Lars' puppet could sing "Sue the World" when you pull his string.
"Like all good puppets, the move and dance as their masters tell them to".
or, how about a little Voodoo doll dressed just like Cary-Sue, with needles inlcluded that look like short, sharpened guitar strings..Big E through High E?

When you pull his strings, he says "Sue 'em all, I don't care"
BTW, if they do this, remember I copyrighted the idea first
~code

hell, I wish I HAD $80 bucks to spend friviously weekly. My kids will have to work for theirs

$80 a week ? I dont know about the rest of you but i dont know many FAMILIES that have $80 a week to blow let alone a 12 year old brat getting that much . I think this poll must have been taken by the makers of the toys to get rid of them.

Gee whiz, the marketing rolls on... and at such early ages too.
I wish these kids had the money to invest in their own real DJ gear, then they'd all crap in their pants when they realize DJing is hard to do and very expensive.

So I guess the question for this article is what would you have spent 80 bucks a week on when you were a kid?

When I was eight? Probably Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Action figures. I have a collection of that stuff sitting somewhere gathering dust.

I'd like to know where they got the article from. Half the time you can never tell from this place.

I have another cool idea. Why not distribute poker cards with the faces of the top RIAA and MPAA executives and their collaborators (ala Iraq most wanted cards).

It is a cheap, useful and educational present.

oh and by reading this article I relaized how old I am (and I'm only in my early 30s). But I definately would like a RIAA/MPAA deck of cards.

Kids should have to earn money, not just have it handed to them. Not money for "good grades" either, for REAL work, as in chores, and even then, they should not EXPECT to be paid. I will give my kids money, if they deserve it, if I have it, and if I want to. If I don't, oh well, they will live. They still get free everything in my home.

well at least you can remember that far back

Hey NCdude I want a deck of those cards also let me know if you find any.hahaha

Has this site been hacked??? I am now getting popup ads on this website.

Need to read this:

The sound and the fury
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/29/1062050661816.html

Musicians take different stands on downloading - some support it, some condemn it and some do the on-the-one-hand thing - but it's hard to find anyone who speaks up in favour of the conglomerates that run the music business. (Five companies control about 80 per cent.)

"Anything you can give to the industry people to stick it to them, I'm for it," declares veteran guitarist Jimmy Herring. Still, Herring won't allow his 14-year-old daughter to download music.

Tom Petty's recent album, The Last DJ, hammers the industry, with lyrics such as "hey mister business man, be sure to wash your hands".

Petty is a member of the Recording Artists' Coalition, a group that agitates for better contracts, claiming record company accounting is "intentionally fraudulent" and that labels routinely underpay royalties by 10 to 40 per cent. Other coalition members include Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Eric Clapton, the Dixie Chicks and Madonna.

surfside, that's probably due to spyware on you computer. I suggest going to www.download.com and looking for adaware or spybot search and destroy. Both are good programs and free.

Caption on MSN: Madonna STEALS the show!! ARGGGG SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

And just think, she's dripping from consumers money!

Madonna ain't dripping with my money. When are these ad and toy folks going to get real and tell their management and company customers the truth? That there isn't any hens teeth and that most kids don't have 80 bucks to blow when the family doesn't have it to spare for the necessities. Someone needs to get real here and it isn't Joe Q. Public...

Surfside - we don't use pop-ups or anything else on dmusic, p2pnet.net or boycott-riaa.

But I was getting the same thing and I ran SpyBot (http://www.security.kolla.de/) and it turned out that I was tainted by cookies from eZula and/or new.net (see below).

Also, kneo24: you say - "I'd like to know where they got the article from. Half the time you can never tell from this place."

I make a point of including a blank link to places I get info from. In this case, look in the text and you'll see "says the website here". The 'here' is a highlighted link.

Cheers! Jon

=========


Company: eZula, Inc.
Product: HotText/TopText iLookup
Threat: Adware
Company URL: http://www.ezula.com/
Company product URL: http://www.ezula.com/TopText/TopText.asp
Company privacy URL: http://www.ezula.com/TopText/Privacy.asp

Functionality
Search add-on for Internet Explorer

Privacy Statement
However, in order to provide the service, the eZula application collects information about its activity, such as the keywords that the application was activated on. When you react to the highlights then eZula will also collect a standard web log that may include more information about the action such as IP address, time etc.

=====

Company: New.net, Inc.
Product: New.net
Threat:

Company URL: http://www.new.net/
Company product URL: http://www.new.net/download/instructions_win_ie.tp
Company privacy URL: http://www.new.net/policies_software.tp

Functionality
New.net wants to give access to new non-official top-level-domains.

Description
Even though they state that millions of users use their system, I've never run about such a domain, so I would call it safe to remove it without any loss. Also, New.Nets TLDs are not officially approved.

> How about giving away little Madonna
> and Lars puppets with the strings
> attached to plastic cards with the
> initials RIAA on them?

I'd rather have voodoo dolls

PS - If you find new.net recurring, you'll need to delete the newdotnet folder from your Program Files directory.

if you make a deck of cards like the one stated above i would buy it

anyone want to make some?

OK, not really related to this article but interesting news nonetheless:
As opposed to "training" incoming freshman about how using p2p will cause a complete downfall of modern society, my university, St. Louis University, just this evening sent a campus wide email to every student, faculty, and administration member. It appears below:

Welcome!


We are all so very excited about and looking forward to the 2003-2004
academic year.

You may have noticed in your local news media, over the summer, that the
Recording Industry Association of America, referred to as the “RIAA”,
began issuing subpoenas to Universities across the country. The
subpoenas request the names and addresses of students who, they claim,
may have been illegally sharing copyrighted movies and music – through
services like Kaaza, Napster, etc. Our sister schools in Chicago
(Loyola) and Boston (Boston College) were among those that were served
this summer.

There can be no doubt, that the Recording Industry Association of
America is on the look out for illegal downloads of copyrighted music
and films, and university campuses nation-wide are key targets. It is
unlikely that Saint Louis University will escape their attention. If
you are caught in the act of illegally downloading music or films, the
fines and penalties will be assessed to YOU. The RIAA is targeting
individuals, not Universities or internet service providers, for legal
action.

Remember—as a member of the SLU community, you are responsible for
properly using the University Information Technology resources. Get
informed through the Appropriate Use Policy
(http://www.slu.edu/its/AUP.pdf) and the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (http://www.slu.edu/DMCA/). Don’t take the chance—it could happen
to you!

This issue will, no doubt, be the topic of significant discussion this
year. We know that our community will take this seriously and ‘do the
right thing’.

Again, welcome back, and have a terrific year.


Sincerely,

Kathy Humphrey, Vice President, Student Development
Ellen Watson, Vice President, Information Technology Services, and Chief
Information Officer
Nick Sarcone, Student Government President

Good lord. I'll see to it that boycott-riaa.com flyers will be going up all over campus this weekend.

So it does, Jon. I can't believe I missed that.

....sorry too busy downloading music...

Jon, I took a look at the site and it doesn't show the article anywhere. That's what I wanted in the first place, a link to it. Next time I'll be more specific.

wanna check out something kool?
fire up kazaa and in the search field,
type in RIAA and you'll laugh~

Fellaz, 2 quick questions.
1) Are Canadians 100% safe from the riaa when using kazaa?
2) If I have sharing off, am I 100% safe from riaa?

Fight the good fight!

The RIAA Mosted Wanted with Cary Sue as the Ace of Spades! And Lars as the Joker! I love it. Sign me up too.

Hell I Bet the TeRRorist RIAA would like to implant a DMCA chip in your head when we are born, then they could charge you for every copyrighted tune you ever hear. I bought more CD's after downloading than I will EVER buy again.
R

KazaaUsingKa...
The way I understand, if your file sharing is off you are ok?????, but you never know.If you are in Canada, there is no fear???? (Can some one help me out here??)you are not in the states. With the file sharing, the riaa is currently only after the "nodes" but the riaa also has not said what it considers to be mass distributers of copy rightd material.
So yor best bet is to, move your files out of your shared folder(if you have any), disable file sharing( if you are using this softwarwe????), get a fire wall and peer gaurdian. But most important do not buy or download any riaa material from this point forward.
I have as I am sure other boycotters at this site have feared the same thing. So remeber you are among freinds
and we stand together.
BOYCOTT RIAA
A MEN

Ninja Turtles? Holy crap. I loved those things...I had *all* the action figures...and the video games, and I even had the tighty-whities that were ninja-turtle prints...Ummm...kneo24?
Can I have your action figures?

$80 a week isn't their actual income, its their effective spending power:

Example:

"Mom, I want that toy"
"No"
"Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme Gimme "
"OK, Have the toy then!"

See, the tweens dont need to have the money to spend it. I have a little sister, just earlier this week she managed to get £20 out of mother for new shoes, which she then decided she didn't like, and than another £20 for new new shoes.

Sure, think about it. Many teenagers work (the hell with grades and learning stuff) with their parents' blessings. Whatever they make is gravy. They may have to pay for car insurance and gas, but there's still a lot of gravy left over.

A lot of kids are also pretty manipulative/controlling with their parents, so can probably get more. A bunch of them probably have their own credit cards which mom and dad pay off, or they just make minimum payments and are in heavy debt before they're 19. They just don't get it I suppose.

I don't think that discretionary income lasts too much longer than their 18th birthdays, cause the 'rents kick them out of the house.

Now they gotta pay for gas, insurance, rent, electricity, water, phone, etc., etc., etc.. Next thing you know 20-something depression!

Get the full story here:
Campuses fight internet piracy
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2222013,00.html

If they didn't fight the online surge happening at campuses nationwide, students breaking copyrights to download and share free music and movie files would swallow every gigabyte of the Christian university's computer network, said Kathee Robings, the school's lead computer systems administrator.

The university gets as many as 20 e-mail notices a day from movie studios and recording companies threatening action unless the piracy stops. Network engineers are using what Robings, wary of arming students with too much information, will characterize only as online tools to hunt down file-sharers and change their ways or boot them off the computer system.

Synapeskin, touch my turtles and you die

Goldenpi, even so, $80 a week maximum is extremely high for a person between eight and twelve. Then again,I can only speak for myself. Parents these day generally seem to give into their kids a lot more.

CodeWarrior This may be important:

Groups Want DHS to Publish Secret Draft Regs
http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3070431

The letter expresses concern that the procedures may cut public information out of the public domain, and that the procedures would subject millions inside and outside of government to nondisclosure agreements and criminal penalties for disclosing information improperly, and cut out the ability of journalists, community groups, and others to inform the public of activities of federal, state and local governments.

in rOdrOddy's post:
"the RIAA is targetting individuals, not universities or internet service providers, for legal action"

makes sense to me, most individuals don't have the means or resources to fight them on an equal basis. the RIAA couldn't get any university to settle out of court without a fight

spread the word, EDUCATE and BOYCOTT

Solved the popup problem. Thanks to everyone. Funny, Adaware did not pick it up, but spybot did.

gilbd- WOW, great post. I hadn't seen that. How DO you find all these links?
glad you do though!
everyone should check out the link that gilbd sent...
dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3070431
incredible!!!!!

surfside6 - Spybot S&D is the best! I was a longtime AdAware user, but switched few months ago. It's free but if you can contribute a donation, please do so. Our 'puters depend on guys like Patrick Kolla.

Also be sure to use the little add-on program SpywareBlaster. Helps keep out all those nasty ActiveX installations.

http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html

Thanks CodeWarrior I learned a long time ago to search different ways to get what I wanted. I used the same words but with different things on the end. Frist thing I do is go to news. Then I put in RIAA News - RIAA Members - RIAA Sue and so on. It works so maybe this will help. The only thing is be sure you go to News frist or it want work or at least I haven't gotten it to work for me.

Just found this: Used for my search RIAA other:

Morons in the News: RIAA Discovers MD5; Yet to Discover Critical Thinking
Posted by spatula on Aug. 30, 2003

http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=3875

CodeWarrior
This may be of some importants to you. I not sure it will be. So here's where it's at.

US CODE COLLECTION
Sec. 1030. - Fraud and related activity in connection with computers

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html

This is my last post:
Sorry I have made to many of these post. I want do it again. I hope for the best here. LOL to you all.

gilbd :
Your post at 648 didn't sound like you.
Are you ok>? We all really like the info you are sharing and it helps me for one! I don't know what's wrong, but I know that everyone thinks of you as one of our really hard working board members...
So, if you're out there....hurry back.
I was away from the house this afternoon, so I couldn't respond to your posts.
E-mail me if there is a problem...
codewarrior_wins@hotmail.com
~code

Ok, I'm entirely too sick of seeing the same lines in every article taken out of context. Let's go over the most annoying ones.

CD sales have dropped about 26 per cent in the United States since 1999 (the year Napster appeared), a loss of $US4.3 billion ($6.7 billion).

This may be the truth, but it's not the whole truth. CD sales are down from 1999, but they peaked in 2001, 2 years after the release of Napster. The drop in sales did not coincide with the advent of file sharing. What it did coincide with was a drop in the economy, which caused losses in all entertainment industries. Boohoo, we're unique because we have something we hate we can use as a scapegoat. The drop also coincided with the completion of most baby-boomers' CD collections, a rise in the price of CDs, and a drop in new releases.

Meanwhile, US sales of blank CDs have soared - 1.7 billion last year - far surpassing recorded CDs.

Microsoft, lower prices on CDR technology, and the influx of hundreds of (insert worst profanity you can think of) who can cut and paste worm code or use worm builders are mainly to blame for this. People have to clean their hard drives and end up with corrupted files much more aften than before, and with blank CDs cheaper than ever (haven't they ever heard of supply and demand), it's well worth it to back everything. Also, hard drive size has increased much more sharply than what can be stored on a blank CD, meaning that it takes more to make backups.

"The music industry has concluded the problem has gotten so big that it takes aggressive steps to deal with it," Sherman says. "Nobody likes the idea of bringing litigation, but the idea of standing by and watching your products being stolen is even worse, even at the risk of bad PR."

PR is your problem. The more you rear your ugly head and show your greed and stupidity, the less people are willing to provide you with funds. Your other problems include a stagnated state of the industry, bland, soulless music (if you can even call it music), and a general unwillingness to provide people with what they want. Not raising CD prices "because you can" is typically a good place to start, followed by the ability of the customer to mix his own CDs and preview songs before buying. File-sharing was never the problem. File-sharing has boosted the business more rapidly than any other marketing scheme ever. Your problem is twofold 1) A stagnate economy. STFU about how your income dropped from $123 million to $122 million when your typical customer is having trouble making house and car payments. 2) Your own stupidity. Give us something new and give us what we want and maybe we'll buy it. Free enterprise means that if I choose not to buy your second rate, recycled, soulless crap, I don't have to, and if you want to sue your own customers, I don't have to give you the money to do it.

While the recording industry views downloading as immoral, many people - from downloaders to the musicians whom downloading hurts - view the industry itself as venal and corrupt.

This is the one line I actually like in the articles. I'm getting sick and tired of the record and movie execs, who constantly cheat money out of their employees, their customers, and their associates, legally or illegally, trying to pluck at my moral heartstrings. Allow me to paraphrase the Bible for a second, "Get that big frickin' tree trunk outta your eye before you even begin to tell me how I can remove a tiny splinter from mine." Anybody as sinful as a record exec. will never persuade me in any moral area simply because they obviously have no sense of morality. Stealing is wrong, huh? Then give us back those hundreds of millions of dollars you stole from us, the artists, and pretty much everybody else by fraudulent accounting and price fixing before you even begin to lecture me on so-called "stealing."

The greedy ***holes see morality as a tool to get them money. A tool that can be thrown aside when it's convenient to do so. Well, I have one thing to say, "In order to use morality, you must first have morals."

Code..cool avitar! Newjon..I don't know much, but I got Spybot, too..it rocks!!
gildb..come back!!

Well, I don't know where kids are getting $80 a week to spend, either. I have three neices and they sure don't get $80 a week. Hell, I didn't get anything a week 10 years ago when I was 14 so they can't say kids are averaging $80 a week.

Unless, that is, they're talking about the kids out there that forgo eating lunch at school to save their lunch money for other things like drugs and cigarettes.

Ron77, you should read the book Battlefield Earth (which was vastly superior to the John Travolta movie) if you want to know about chips in the head. The antagonists, the Psyclos were so intent on keeping their technology secret that they put fuse like devices in the heads of their citizens that would blow and land the person in a coma if asked anything about their technology. Another device would cause the lower classes to just commit suicide.

Boy would the RIAA, the MPAA and a bunch of software companies love this. Buy a peice of music and try to rip it and you go into a coma. Or try to crack some software and you go crazy and kill yourself.

On another note about that, ron, and I guess saying this to all, I wrote a short story last year, one which has long since ended up in the trash, about a future society where everyone with a copyright can detect how much you pay for everytime you play, view or use something and change them at will. Well, the poor sap in my story was ok, until Micro$oft decided to up the per-use fee to $45 or something. Well, the guy snapped and destroyed his computer, which led to an immediate call to the Copyright Enforcement Agency and he ended up in a reeducation facility. And, in grand Twilight Zone fashion, he had to pay just to start the program, all in the name of copyright, of course.

To be truthful, that's where our world is heading. If we don't hurry up and stop the RIAA and their bretheren in five to ten years the only radio will be heavilly encrypted satellite radio and they'll know precisely how much to charge you to hear a single note of it.