RIAA Strikes Again

Written by Nick on April 13, 2008

copyright.jpgIn the never ending bummers that have plagued the move to promote and protect digital rights, the RIAA has struck again, now against a whole family that doesn’t even own a computer. The RIAA filed charges against a man who says he doesn’t own a computer and indeed did but was over a year ago (then how the hell was he supposed to have violated any copyright laws?) and that was only for two months or so. This again brings into sights of the public the ever present fight by groups to either have free access to music or give access to those who pay for it. it might sound crazy but people do have the desire to get the real stuff and one of the most inhibiting factors would be cost. not everybody can shell out the half dollar or so that is needed for one to get perfectly legal software you could use at your own leisure. Even the record labels have recognized the futility of having to invest in costly copyright protection software which is quite ineffective for people still get their hands of the tracks they want from illegal sources. In my home country, there are select malls which cater to such needs where you can find whole compilations of the latest CSI Season 5 for a meager $23.00 or better yet a collection of the whole Bond Films at the same price which sells for $60.00, some of these pirated stuff are indeed bad but some which are mastered from originals are same as the original. The lure of cheaper and more value (by getting more movies crammed into one DVD say the whole Disney collection of cartoon classics) is the main factor why people still patronize these illegal stuff.
Their motives may be for the protection of the rights of those who indeed work hard to produce music but they should be more precise in their moves for the public to treat them more seriously (most treat them as a joke). Imagine saying you’re accusing someone of hacking who’s in prep school, or an individual who has hacked the FBI who lives in a far away town up in the mountains of Papua New Guinea, be reasonable guys and go for those who really do the promotion of such activities like issuing warnings and labels to sites which promote them. If you can’t shut down these sites, why not target the community who supports them by offering cheaper alternatives to the standard issue 9like value packs which have less tracks that they can get only the ones they select burned onto audio CD’s at retail stores), now that would be acceptable as a solution. People who are getting stuff for free won’t just quit cold turkey and shift to store bought stuff overnight without a fight. Focus on the sources and promoters and there might be validity in your cause.

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Categories: Music

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The legalities of YouTube

Written by Nick on November 10, 2007

YouTube is considered to be one of the best sites for sharing stuff on the web such as video, Music video and video logs or simply blogs in video format. From humble beginnings in 2005, when the company was conceptualized by three former employees of Pay Pal it is now considered to be the best way to share video on the world theater. The final deal came when Google purchased the rights for the company to the tune of more than 1.5Billion US dollars worth of Google Inc’s stocks.

Media as a whole loved the free spirited approach of YouTube without the hassles of multi-million dollar advertising deals and many other legal stuff that comes with it. Though many treat it as a place where they can say or show anything, well think again. YouTube follows the rulings and provisions of the United States Copyright law and do take out materials that are categorized to have broken these said laws. Nudity and vulgar content is also un-allowed and they are removed from the site accordingly.

The control and freedom have to be balanced and the site has to ensure that the rights of all are protected whatever side they may be on. They are always open to new stuff that can be shared to the worlds billions upon billions of users who visit and upload stuff they deem necessary. The legal side of YouTube is that many people who are directly affected by the said site, celebrities remain very much divided on the said site and how it works. Marketing people love the site for they use it in a form or another to promote stuff they normally spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars in ad fees and many other costs associated with it. The Legal advisors on the other hand hate it due to the proliferation of pirated stuff on the site which cannot be taken out of circulation on time. Recently, the company allowed Media companies to ban their stuff and pull them from the gallery without prior approval from the owners or the company.

So what do we expect for the future of YouTube, well like all things that start out to be free and un-regulated it will mature into a site that satisfies most of the parties involved. So future moves by the site might mean more strict controls and other measures to filter out stuff automatically but there will always be detractors as with any other issue.

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Categories: Downloading Legally, Freeware, Photo Images, Podcasts, Providers, Site News, Videos

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