RIAA Still Can't Understand That The Product Is More Important Than The Price
from the out-of-touch dept
Despite some universities refusing to act as the RIAA's henchmen in its campaign against their students, the group says the effort to bully students into paying "discounted settlements" is working to help stop file-sharing. Of course, it says that about everything it tries (even when it's not true), but you'd imagine if any of these attempts really were successful, it wouldn't need to keep coming up with new ones. Anyhow, just in case there was any doubt as to how out of touch the RIAA is with the market and its customers, its general counsel and EVP wonders why students would continue to download from file-sharing networks when they have access to discounted or free subscription services. Uh, maybe it's because students realize how lame those services are? When students choose to keep illegally downloading even though they have free legal alternatives available, it illustrates that this isn't just an issue of them wanting to not have to pay for music, as the RIAA would like you to believe. It's an issue of the RIAA and its member labels not being able to deliver an attractive product to consumers. But why bother to innovate and come up with something people would want to buy, when you can just sue all your customers instead?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Sue all your customers and soon
I don't sneak books out of the store under my coat because it is easier to buy them.
Bookstores don't sue me for browsing and even !gasp! reading some of the books in the store. They know that if the books are freely available for browsing that you are much more likely to buy.
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...that's the point of napster 4 schools
Ironically, I feel that if the RIAA STOPPED supporting restrictive DRM schemes, the interoperability of our appliances would increase (naturally), the music would never have to be replaced (as is needed when you lose a HD like I recently did), and the music can be enjoyed by you, your friend, your mother, your co-workers...as would be possible with any book.
I feel that, instead of providing us with GOOD music that we'd all want to buy (and support), they keep feeding us this crappy reprocessed junk and expect us to shell out cash because we're essentially forced to. This will not work, and they need to realize this before getting something that WILL work.
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Hmmm...
I suspect that this is what they are afraid of.
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RIAA Is A Four Letter Word
- #1 reason is teens that do not have credit cards or much money but have MP3 players and want to listen...
- 'Free' services offer very little for 'Free'
- You can't store their service in your iPOD
- Discounted services aren't cheap enough for how bad they suck...
- You might mention many people don't want to set up "subscriptions"
- Some people do not want to give their credit card information over the internet
- Some people do it as their way of screwing the system
- Some people are just cheap
- It is less hassle for many
- Don't forget the "Everyone Is Doing It" reason
Oh geez I bet I could go on and on... but that will have to wait until I finish downloading a couple of songs...
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Seriously, unless something different happens, can you guys just stop with this nonsense.
And while we're at it, the same goes for anything having to do with copyright law as well.
(Even if it means Mike will have nothing to pretend to be an expert on).
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Re: Garlo
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Re: Re: Garlo
Without the RIAA and Copyright lawsuits, Techdirt would be lost.
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Re: Re: Re: Garlo
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Garlo
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Re: Re: Re: Garlo
That's right! And TV News show new information every half hour. So do all news websites. They update all their stories to new ones just about every hour! Oh wait, I've drinking again, the news are still the same today as yesterday...
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That's just perfect, although you would make a lousy bank robber. Don't worry about committing a crime, just your convenience. Can you give your book away after purchasing it? Of course you can, but then you won't have the book. Think there is a difference when you share your music files?
What is so difficult about downloading from iTunes?
The big test will be DRM free music through iTunes. If it is not successful, that will prove that its not convenience, but rather people who just don't want to pay anything for the music. If that is the case, you will expect to see more and more restrictions, not less.
You will get what you deserve.
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Re:
Absolutely. When I said this to people some counter with, "well the iTunes stuff is crap so I won't pay for it anyway." Or "I will only pay for uncompressed music." If you are holding out for completely uncompressed DRM-free music, go buy a CD.
Let's take this one step at a time and first show the labels you really are willing to pay for DRM-free content more than just having it free.
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i download your products illegally about 10 times as much as i did prior to your escapades.
why? because i hate you and i do it to spite you.
*sticks tongue out*
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Play it and they will come.
So called musicians should use their released music to draw in a larger fan base to their shows to let the make money on a $30 T-shirt that costs $3 to make.
I don't know about you, but if someone tried to make DRM laden commericals (so I couldn't show all my friends the commerical-- we wouldn't want that!) and charge viewers (and potential customers) $0.99 each, then said told me they'd remove the DRM and instead charge me $1.29-- I'd laugh at them and stop buying their product at all.
Eat up, baby birds. Eat up.
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Ajax sneaking books...
Ajax, the reason most people don't sneak books out of the store under their coats is that if you're caught, you're pobably going to be arrested and go to jail. Or in other words, your actions could have immediate and severe consequences.
With downloading, howerver, the consequences are not immediate, and may never materialize at all. Hence there's little disincentive not to do it, and lots of immediate gratification involved when you do do it, e.g. free stuff.
So I'm not impressed when someone indicates that, while they'd download online, they'd never steal in the real world. They're simply playing the odds.
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Re: Ajax sneaking books...
Say it with me, "Downloading copyrighted material is not stealing". Let's chant that a few more times and see if we can't get it in your head somewhere.
Your comparing apples and orangutans. One is theft and the other is copyright infringement. In fact, it is still not really illegal to download songs for free... it is however a copyright violation to distribute music. Every time one of these RIAA articles get posted we seem to have someone start blabbering about stealing.
Please, READ the laws before you post. You may not agree with an action morally, but that does not make it illegal.
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Re: Re: Ajax sneaking books...
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Does that sound like something that is legal?
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Re: Peter
Let's say you committed theft, and were accused of murder instead - but theft is illegal, so you're just arguing semantics.
Uh......
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Purchased Music
I already own all the Bob Seger and Lynyrd Skynyrd I'm ever going to buy. So do ll of us old farts, but thats all thats played down here. That and shitty "sound alike" commercialized county American Idol crap. Duh.
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My Opinion...
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And if you could steal a book by making an exact copy and leave the original one on the shelf for someone else to buy, did you really take anything away? Doesn't that mean books should be cheaper?
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Maybe it's PARTLY that issue, but it's also party due to people who'd rather steal than pay. Get real.
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That's fine lawyer talk there. OK then, let's dispense with the word "stealing", moral or legal. When someone distributes music online without permission that's called copyright infrigement. When a person breaks into a home and takes property we'll just call that property infringement. They're both illegal for reasons obvious to everyone I've discuss the issue with. Some people actually think other peoples efforts are fair game. It's amazing.
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Which just means that whenever they try to do something, people laugh at them.
Because they're cock wizards.
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You could say that about the police too.
I'm not an infringer and I don't give a crap about the RIAA one way or another. But I can understand why infringers would. Seems like they're the only people who need to worry about the RIAA.
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Re:
The RIAA is everyone's problem.
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I am not advocating people be sent to jail, but at least you should know what the law actually is.
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