Despite Riaa Warnings, File Trading Increases

[iMartin]

The Recording Industry Association of America's announcement on June 25 that it will start tracking down and suing users of file-sharing programs has yet to spook people, say developers of these applications.

"Forget about it, dude -- even genocidal litigation can't stop file sharers," said Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster, one of several systems that allow users to upload and download files -- many of which are unauthorized MP3 copies of songs published by the RIAA's member companies. Rosso said file-trading activity among Grokster users has increased by 10 percent in the past few days. Morpheus, another file-trading program, has seen similar growth.

Maybe MP3 downloaders are interpreting the recording industry's threat -- an escalation from its earlier strategy of targeting file-sharing developers -- as a sort of "last call" announcement. Starting June 26, RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a news conference, the group would collect evidence against consumers illegally trading files of copyrighted music, with lawsuits to follow in a couple of months.

Or maybe consumers figure the odds of getting busted by the RIAA's legal team are low: A recent report by research firm Yankee Group estimates that 56 million people use file-swapping software in the United States.

Either way, the number of users seems to have grown last week.

"Anytime you get media attention, you get people interested to try it out," said Michael Weiss, chief executive of Streamcast Networks Inc., which developed Morpheus.

Weiss said he's also seen a surge of postings on Morpheus message boards from users who are ticked off at being in the RIAA's cross hairs. "People are just outraged at the actions of the recording industry," he said. "I've got people saying they want to organize groups to boycott buying CDs now."

Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access as a way to recoup losses incurred from file sharing, an idea that Grokster's Rosso also supports. Rosso was in Washington recently to talk to lobbyists about forming a coalition of file-sharing firms.

The RIAA has not expressed interest in that idea. As for any recent increase in file-sharing traffic, RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss said the organization would not discuss it.

But she said, "We're not looking for overnight miracles here."

[clocker]

Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access as a way to recoup losses incurred from file sharing, an idea that Grokster's Rosso also supports. Rosso was in Washington recently to talk to lobbyists about forming a coalition of file-sharing firms.

Before those bloated leeches deserve a special tax on anything they should be required to prove what if any impact that filesharing has had on their profits.
Right now their main battle cry seems to be that "pirates" are ruining the industry, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Simply maintaining a deathgrip on a outmoded business model hardly qualifies them for a free ride via taxes.

[Switeck]

Originally posted by clocker@6 July 2003 - 17:52

Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access as a way to recoup losses incurred from file sharing, an idea that Grokster's Rosso also supports.

Before those bloated leeches deserve a special tax on anything they should be required to prove what if any impact that filesharing has had on their profits.
Right now their main battle cry seems to be that "pirates" are ruining the industry, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Simply maintaining a deathgrip on a outmoded business model hardly qualifies them for a free ride via taxes.

The fact they're not ALREADY destroyed by the massive p2p music trading that's occuring daily is proof enough to me that file sharing will not destroy them.

They'll do themselves in.

[sparsely]

[-Chrono-], could you tell us where that article was originally posted?

[DarkBlizzard]

I heard on Fox News about 2 days after the RIAA made that speech Kazaa's users dropped by 17%. I think we need to make a excellent program thats like 500 times better than Peer Guardian. But Peer Guardian is good cuz it already blocked the RIAA twice today from me and the FBI once. Lucky me. Im gonna get some my friends and think of some good idea's and try to design something that does alot of shit to them when they scan our comps and stuff.

[theprisoner]

I question the peerguardians effectiveness. I have used it for awhile and i really dont think that many of these "p2p enemies" are scanning most ppl(everyone seems to be attacked many times). Anyway why would the p2p enemies use that ip range, already found on the peerguardian list, are they really that dumb?Anyway, why would fbi scaning u?

[DarkBlizzard]

they have to have time to change there IP's dude.....it IP range for the RIAA is like 500 IP's i think or something like that probably more. And i dont know...just cuz the FBI is dumb fucks ....beats me.

[AquaBlaze]

"But Peer Guardian is good cuz it already blocked the RIAA twice today from me and the FBI once."

Small question, but doesn't a firewall/router block those attacks anywho? Why bother with resource-mulchin' software, when you can have external hardware do it for you?

[DarkBlizzard]

its still worth having Peer Guardian even if u have a firewall...its extra protection.