Items tagged with 'RIAA'
Illegal Downloaders Spend More on Music: Study
Want to prosecute people who are downloading files illegally? Well, if you fine them, you might be taking money out of the hands of your best customers, a new survey shows. It's not the first such survey to come to this conclusion. However, it is the latest. The study, published on Sunday by U.K. think tank Demos, surveyed... Read More
Survey Finds That Teens Love To Pirate (And Buy) Music
You know what we haven't heard much about lately? Piracy. It used to be all the rage, but after iTunes (and pretty much every other online music store) went DRM-free, it seems those stormy waters have calmed. Or, on second thought, maybe no one was talking about it.New research from the University of Hertfordshire over... Read More
RIAA Says "DRM Is Dead" - But Does It Mean It?
DRM, or Digital Rights Management, never did go over well in the court of public opinion. To the music industry at large, DRM was a mostly futile attempt to lock music down to certain players or systems, thus making it something harder--in theory, anyway--to freely distribute. In reality, however, those who were circumventing... Read More
RIAA v. Jammie Thomas, Take Two
For the defendant, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, she had to be thinking that perhaps a retrial was not such a good idea after all, after hearing the verdict.The trial, which began Monday, concluded Thursday with Thomas-Rasset found guilty of willful copyright infringement. She must now pay the recording industry $1.92 million.The... Read More
Swedish File Sharing Law Decreases Internet Use
Well, what have we here? Just days after officials in Sweden passed a new law that sought to crack down on online piracy and copyright infringement, Internet traffic in the nation has suddenly fallen off a cliff. Now, some may argue that Torrent hosting site The Pirate Bay is actually located in Sweden, though purists will... Read More
ATT, Cox, Comcast Following New RIAA Procedures
Last December, the RIAA announced it was giving up on file-sharing lawsuits, and would be working with ISPs in a three-strikes policy program which would eventually result in broadband being cut off for repeat offenders of illegal file-sharing. At a digital music conference in Nashville this week, AT&T's Jim Cicconi... Read More
95% of Music Downloads are Illegal: IFPI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released its report on Digital Music 2009. According to the report (.PDF). It concludes that despite initiatives by the music industry, 95% of music downloads continue to be illegal. Yes, the IFPI, or as it's known, the global version of the RIAA, says... Read More
RIAA Gives Up on Piracy Lawsuits
According to a report today in the Wall Street Journal, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has decided to give up on its practice of mass lawsuits as a way to deter illegal file-sharing. Instead the industry is apparently going to use a "three strikes" policy, similar to that under consideration in the... Read More
Are OEMs Using RIAA-Based Sound Card Drivers?
An interesting new conspiracy theory has arisen today. It appears that several laptop OEMs have been having "issues" with their sound card drivers: specifically, the Stereo Mix option is missing from their drivers, which basically means you can't record audio (except from Mic In). Whoops! Is this a case of Dell and others... Read More
The RIAA Are Pikers Compared To ASCAP
The lawsuits that the RIAA bring against illegal downloaders garner most of the attention paid to online music royalties, but suing grandmas and college kids is never really about the money; it's about discouraging many by suing a few. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, better known as ASCAP, took... Read More
RIAA Website Wiped Clean by Hackers
It's a weekend, and a holiday weekend to boot, so the site might stay this way for some time. Someone apparently used SQL injection to wipe, and we do mean wipe, the RIAA's website clean of content.Apparently the RIAA is so busy suing consumers that they forgot to hire a decent programmer. With a simple SQL injection, all... Read More
RIAA Still Busting Students
Not deterred by bad press, it seems that the RIAA is content to continue their latest campaign against piracy.Their latest group of lawsuits has included numerous institutes of higher education:“The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on behalf of the major record companies, this week sent a new wave of 407... Read More
The RIAA Isn't Suing Over Ripping Purchased CDs
Let's all calm down, shall we? There are a lot of news reports about the RIAA suing Jeffery Howell for ripping copies of his legally purchased music CDs for his own use. But according to engadget, that's not the case at all; he's being sued for the plain old-fashioned crime of participating in illegal downloading.As... Read More
RIAA Goes After Fair Use
Ripping CDs that you own for your personal use should be OK, right? Not according to the RIAA.Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further:... Read More
No Appeal For RIAA Victory
The recent RIAA victory in Capitol v. Thomas garnered a lot of media attention, and HotHardware was certainly no exception. The end result of the case was that Jammie Thomas was ordered to pay $220,000 in damages. After announcing she wouldn't appeal the ruling, she promptly reconsidered and filed for an appeal... Read More
RIAA Threatening America's Economic Future
By now just about everyone has heard of the RIAA and their law suits against people who have allegedly pirated music over the Internet. The stories of the RIAA suing grandmothers, minors, and the deceased are common place, but it seems that the RIAA's latest step might have taken things too far: they're asking that... Read More
Not Satisfied with P2P, RIAA Targets Usenet
Long before P2P networks, Usenet was a popular way to share binary files, besides of course, conversations. What with the RIAA already targeting P2P networks, why should it forget the old standby?In a lawsuit filed on October 12, the RIAA says that Usenet newsgroups contain "millions of copyrighted sound recordings"... Read More
RIAA vs..Thomas: 2 Jurors Pushed For $3.6M Fine
We just can't get enough of the recent story about the RIAA's recent victory over Janie Thomas of Minnesota, and we know you can't either. It had everything from a defendant that told different and mutually exclusive stories while under oath (albeit she did so at seperate trials) to a rare-as-hen's-teeth guilty verdict... Read More
How Many P2P Users Are RIAA Agents?
For years there has been concern over just who has been using peer to peer networks that offer illicit copies of copyrighted material. Not all of those concerns come from copyright holders or their agents.In fact it seems that there is, and has been, a large concern from those using P2P networks. It might seem... Read More
$220,000 RIAA Victory To Be Appealed?
Minnesotan Jammie Thomas was recently found guilty of file-sharing and ordered to pay $220,000 in restitution, but has decided that she's going to appeal the verdict instead. This probably isn't surprising considering the amount of the fine compared to her stated annual salary of $36,000 and because like everything... Read More
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