Illegal Downloaders Be Aware New Piracy Laws Passed
by 
Metal Martyr on October 15th, 2008
George W. Bush has just signed and passed a new Anti-piracy bill supporting the RIAA. The new law creates the position of the United States President also as the Intellectual Properties Czar. The President will now be a part of a new government office, the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative. All known violations will be reported to this office and will go through the "Czar". I’m sorry, but that "Czar" word just makes me laugh. "All hail the CZAR of intellectual property!".
The position will not be held by the President until after George Bush has been retired from office as the U.S. President. Below are the key points that the new law contains:
- The law toughens criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting.
- The Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America backed the bill, as did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- It is called the PRO-IP Act
- The ‘czar’ position will not be filled before Bush leaves office.
- Preliminary punishments involve seizing of pirated copies and the device on which the copies are stored. Hefty fines may also follow.
One last thing I hate is when people say retarded things like: "just another elitist ploy to fuk over the people. pay $20 for something that didn’t cost more than a dollar to make." Sure the physical CD only costed a few bucks to make, but it’s property. If you wrote a book you wouldn’t want people making Zerox copies or retyping the entire story on the Internet for everyone to get for free. Everybody wants something for free…
Tags: anti-piracy, the riaa| 3.2 |
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POSTED IN: Editorials & Announcements
4 opinions for Illegal Downloaders Be Aware New Piracy Laws Passed
Oct 15, 2008 at 5:25 pm
sound like a bunch of communists to me
Oct 15, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I don’t see what the problem is. What is it so necessary to be able to copy a song? If you like the song so much, spend the few extra bucks to support the band who wrote the song. Chances are if you like a song, you probably have a friend who liked the song and owns the song, so copy it from them. Scott infers a concept here that I have often said- just because someone is rich doesn’t mean it is alright to steal from them. Just because Metallica has zillions of dollars I don’t have the right to take their music for free.
If you can’t afford 15 bucks for a cd, your problems are bigger then getting a copy of that song you so desperately nedd.
Oct 15, 2008 at 5:57 pm
my only issue with this is that it’s not the artists that see the money from record sales. artists get roughly 20 cents per album sold. bands make their money touring, from the shows themselves and merch. all this is doing is protecting the pocketbooks of the fatcats at Warner Bro, Atlantic, and all the other big labels.
Oct 15, 2008 at 9:07 pm
This is the way I see things, but I might be mistaken. With a lot of artists these days on some of the smaller independent labels, record sales make a difference in the kind of support the record label can provide the band when touring. For smaller bands starting out they need all the support from the label that they can get to include budgets for recording and whatnot. If the label is not making any money off of the band then how can they support the band and provide them with a good budget for studio time, promotional expenses etc..
I can understand someone liking a song and downloading it, but if they find themselves downloading more than a song or two and find that they really like the band then they should do as Izzy said and support the band in future efforts by buying the album, supporting the band as well as the label. If they get the right support from the fans and label it affords them the opportunity to move on to maybe bigger labels, more comfortable touring accommodations like a bus instead of a shitty bread-box of a van and crew to make their lives a bit easier on the road as they tour. Very few bands want to be in a stagnant state of touring without progression. It’s sort of like busting your ass and getting nowhere fast. Bands may make their money touring but they do get comps from the labels and as I said, no record sales, no comps.
If they can record, promote, fund, release and distribute CDs themselves and be self-sustaining, than more power too them, but they still need support. If they are on a tour with 4 other bands, touring small venues with tickets at 18 (just a rough number) a pop then they aren’t making all that much money touring after paying promoters, venues and whatever other expenses come in to play. I’m not an expert on this but a lot of it is common sense. People really don’t realize how much money goes in to recording, releasing and promoting an album.
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