Kicking off June with another batch of lawsuits...

Contributed by Shindo. Posted by Adam on Monday, June 11, 2001 at 6:55 PM (EDT)

Once again, everyone's favorite party guests the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a batch of lawsuits attacking internet music firms. Everyone's aware of last year's very public Napster case. While the MP3 debate had some real idological arguments involved, the following does not: In May the RIAA sued Launch.Com and Aimster and now to kick off the month of June the association has filed copyright-infringement against the MTVi Group, MusicMatch, and XACT Radio. Internet radio is being attacked for offering interactive options so people can customize the selection of music played. I can do that too, it's called changing the station... if the RIAA has it's way, you wont be allowed to do that either. We'll have one station that only plays what they're trying to sell us...

Source: Billboard.com

In related news: I am being sued by the RIAA for trying to play the Rancid song "Journey To The End Of East Bay" on my bass, therefore letting my mom hear the music without going through RIAA approved distribution methods... :)

Rants! (18 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Someone (June 11, 2001)

What a bunch of dicks. All these people being sued promote music and want people to hear it. Holy Greed

Brendan (June 11, 2001)

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! That's the funniest comment i've ever heard! So I guess cover bands are gonna be the next target. Better nix those Ricky Marten covers from the setlist of my next show

Someone (June 11, 2001)

is it still legal to hum songs. goddammit

Brendan (June 12, 2001)

No, and for thinking, you're going to be thrown in jail.

Someone (June 11, 2001)

This is fucking bullshit and it's beggining to get out of hand. Something will have to be done soon to stop this nonsense before they decide what we have to listen to. Is everyone blind? Are we the only ones who can see what is happening?

Anarchy_Adam (June 11, 2001)

You know, at first, I gave the RIAA the benifit of the doubt... When that was crushed, I Tried comparing it to a donair place. When nobody knew what donairs were, I tried explaining.... My point? There is none. I just think that the RIAA has lost the vision of what they were originally trying to do.

Someone (June 12, 2001)

never bring up donairs again. ;p

Someone (June 12, 2001)

Their vision from the start was to control what is heard so they make more and more money. It's exactly like every other corporate entity in this world. You give them a fucking foot they try to take the fucking world. It's sickening and scary to even begin to think of what is happening these days. Go look into the MPAA, they've basically done the samething but with your right to view a DVD. There's nothing wrong with major labels, right?

Someone (June 12, 2001)

its sad that bands get ripped off by people who only download music but its coming to the point that the music industry needs to realize that the money will be in shows and touring and not in cd sales anymore. theres just no way around getting music on the internet anymore.

Someone (June 12, 2001)

Hey, that's a great song to play on the bass. Not too hard, but easy enough to have fun playing. Just add another note to the bass line. Vannila Ice did that for Ice Ice Baby and won the lawsuit against him. This RIAA thing also reminded me of Ice-T when he was being fucked around by cops.

Someone (February 22, 2006)

The blog is very useful.

Someone (June 12, 2001)

All I have to say is "GNUTELLA!"

ncg1 (June 12, 2001)

shhh! don't tell them. it's all we have left!

Someone (June 12, 2001)

Actually there are tons of programs now similar to gnutella and many good ones. So like RATM said: "No Matter how hard they try, they can't stop us now." or something similar to that

Someone (June 12, 2001)

i think we should attack the headquarters of the RIAA. Super secret, covert operation. midnight, meet at the closest gas station to the building. from there, we'll disperse into all corners of the complex. after successfully getting past security(i haven't worked that out yet) we'll make our way into the vault where they keep all their untouchable music. then, we'll load up our duffle bags with as much of it as possible, set the building on fire, and be out like the Flash. then, we'll go on a giving spree, handing out free music to everyone we see.aaaahhhhahhhahhahhahahhaha I'm mad enough to do it I say, MAD!!!!- agent fathead

sickboi (chris) (June 12, 2001)

And you know what we could do with the pirated music????? We could take all the new Blink 182 cd's (each of the 4 with a different bonus track) and make 1 new Blink 182 cd with all bonus tracks on it.....It will cause mass hysteria....muh-hah ha...

Someone (June 12, 2001)

i think the RIAA needs a "bath of least resistance" geez, what the fuck is wrong with internet radio? are they gonna fight FatFreeRadio.net too? because its actually playing music that doesnt make too much of money? why did they kill launch.com? is it just me or are they just trying to do what microsoft is trying to do with fucking windows now? but what if bands willingly want their music on internet radio and why are they sueing only "internet" radio what about all those ones on regular radio arnt we given too much of a choice already? why dont they sue them? and why are they taking the only way of watching really cool videos for some of us? (sorry RIAA fucking mtv doesnt count for "videos" maybe if they stopped with all the fucking rap hour and a halfs and trl and all the fucking lame incarnations of real world) sorry this message is kinda vulgar but it kinda needs i

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Someone (June 13, 2001)

i can think of about 10,000 better things to do with the stolen music, but we could do the blink thing also, just to piss of the corperations a little more.- fathead